The Giant Pirate Kingdom - 256x128 map

[bvanevery]

Yeah, coffee, just like I said.  Das becaaause uu doon't uuuse, neuuue eeimproooved, Forrrgers cuoeffe.  Mauntan groen ze fleevor zone....  Fleevor thaat keips uue cooming baak, cuop aftur cuop.

Details raised land

raised land

The F7 "Nautilus Security Nexus" screen says I own 56 Formers.  I've only lost 4 the whole game, despite all manner of mindworms, Marr, and Deirdre pests.  38 of these have been sent to raise land in the big bay southwest of my capitol.  Soon, 4 of my bases including my capitol will have nothing but shallow ocean water, no more deep ocean.  It's a lot cheaper and faster than raising ocean floors with Sea Formers, as that's typically 32 or 64 credits per square, and takes 12 turns to raise only 1 square.  I can spend perhaps 12 credits and raise several deep ocean squares at once, at the cost of creating gratuitous land.  I will of course settle it all eventually.  Working the coast in this way, tends to create new sea resource specials along the coast, which then becomes an obstacle I have to work around.  'Cuz, I really hate messing up sea resources.  I am pleased that so far, I have created no new resources.  The best result would be if I created them right as I'm raising oceans within base radii.  However whether they appear or not is random, so I just have to hope for the best and work with what I'm given.

[Buster's Uncle]

As I'm sure you know, you raise a sea resource to land, and it becomes a unity pod, which seems to never reveal a resource.  -I raise 'em anyway, 'cause IMO, a sea resource is unlikely to make a sea square worth as much as a developed land square, even if you're Svensgaard - plus, a chance at other pod goodies.

[bvanevery]

Actually I did not know that.  I've observed the phenomenon of suddenly having a land pod, but I never figured out the cause and effect.  Oh no, you're saying I can actually create pods, essentially by prospecting for them?  What a dangerous micromanagement invitation.  I wonder if it still works in a No Unity Scattering game like I'm playing.  If it does, umm, I might have Evil uses for all these Formers.  I would do it with some land that doesn't matter, on the way to Deirdre or some such.  To be honest this kinda borders on a cheat, and maybe I shouldn't.  But if I don't come up with some other direction or purpose for this game, maybe I will consider a "massive pod raising demonstration".

Details monsoon jungle

monsoon jungle

Another vexing question is what will I ever do with the Monsoon Jungle?  It's been substantially north of me, on my continent, since forever.  It's too far away to make a good settlement, it would be grossly Inefficient.  Well, maybe someday I'll be Cybernetic or something and can handle cities fairly far away from me.  By that point in the game I am unlikely to care though.  Let's face it, I'm already Governor.  I can't win Diplomatic Victory until I slaughter Marr, so I don't know what use that jungle will be, long term.  I'd hate to drown it in a global catastrophe, though.  It would be like I'm the USA and wiping out Yellowstone National Park.  My heritage!  Oh wait I'm a Pirate, aaaargh.  Sink the landlubbers!  Oh that's me, aarrgh... I'm feeling very confused about my identity.

Details free naval yard

free naval yard

I research Doctrine:Initiative on my own and gain free Naval Yards in all my bases.  Even with that market crash a few turns ago, I still have over 1100 credits now.  I switch The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm to The Maritime Control Center and spend 800 credits to rush it.  I doubt anyone has anything to say about that!  Some people feel that switching Secret Projects like this is a bit of a crutch, or even a cheat, but it's a standard game rule and all the AIs do it.  I'm pretty sure you can set an option so that nobody can switch Secret Projects, and you're just shafted if you lose, but I don't think that's particularly fun.

Details sinking river valley around Grand Mesa

sinking river valley around Grand Mesa

This is weird.  There's a river valley running almost entirely around the Grand Mesa.  It is 10 meters above sea level and it's all in danger of sinking.  Sailor's Delight, a size 14 inland city, is in danger of sinking.  First I've ever noticed something like this, in any game I've ever played.  It would be fascinating to let that valley actually sink, as I'd gain a mighty inland canal.  However "Progress" dictates that I will continue building my Hybrid Forests, which might stop all the Global Warming and maybe nothing will sink.  Still, I'm going to have to put a Pressure Dome on that base now.  The Tree Farm it's building is about to complete next turn anyways, so I've put a Dome work order in the queue.  I'd like it to be stronger than cellophane, and I want a milkshake with that.

[bvanevery]

Details Alpha Prime HSA

Alpha Prime HSA

Uh, oh.  By completing The Maritime Control Center I knocked everyone else out of the Secret Project races, but Aki Zeta5 had actually studied up Pre-Sentient Algorithms in the meantime.  Much as I griefed everyone by switching to The Maritime Control Center, now she's switched to The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm and is threatening to grief me.  She's about 2/3rds of the way through production and needs 9 turns to complete.  She has 471 credits, which might even be enough to rush the project, but fortunately the AI is very stupid about doing that.  She knows Industrial Automation but has only 3 cities on her home island, and none of them are producing Supply Crawlers.  So I'd say she can't beat me right this second, but I do have to step on this and get it done quick.

Details supply crawler reserves

supply crawler reserves

I'm calling up the reserves.  I've got piles of Supply Crawlers in the region which could bang out a Secret Project pretty quick.  Unfortunately the base that's ready to build something new, Crossbone Way, is a bit to the north of my main body of Crawlers.  So we will all start moving north.  That base has a lot of productivity anyways, due to the 3 minerals deposits its working.  It's a small base but I already banged out The Ascetic Virtues up there.  I've also got 763 credits on this turn alone, so I'm probably being overly paranoid about this, but I cannot possibly accept the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm slipping away from me for any reason.  Not when I'm this close to having it!  So northwards we go.

I'm starting to wonder if by pursuing Wealth, I'm letting other factions get too far ahead on technology.  On the other hand, I've got a Secret Project to complete, so now is not the time to change my tune.  I have switched my research focus to Discover though, as I don't need anything from the Explore tech tree anymore.  I'm way too far away from everyone else to make use of Needlejets, and I can steal Doctrine:Air Power eventually.  In fact, with faster ships now, I should have that next turn.

Oh !@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$#!!!! I can't believe I just hit Turn Complete while trying to move the camera in position to take a screenshot of my Skimship Probe Team upon approach.  None of those Supply Crawlers were moved an inch.  <GROAN>  Writing AARs is a "special hazard" to gameplay.  Well maybe I'll just buy the damn thing.  I do make a lot of money every turn, and that's a high yield base that shouldn't take long to make the 20% minimum for completing Secret Projects.   Otherwise there's a huge rush penalty that usually one can't afford to pay.

[Buster's Uncle]

Actually I did not know that.  I've observed the phenomenon of suddenly having a land pod, but I never figured out the cause and effect.  Oh no, you're saying I can actually create pods, essentially by prospecting for them?  What a dangerous micromanagement invitation.  I wonder if it still works in a No Unity Scattering game like I'm playing.  If it does, umm, I might have Evil uses for all these Formers.  I would do it with some land that doesn't matter, on the way to Deirdre or some such.  To be honest this kinda borders on a cheat, and maybe I shouldn't.  But if I don't come up with some other direction or purpose for this game, maybe I will consider a "massive pod raising demonstration".
...

"Progress" dictates that I will continue building my Hybrid Forests, which might stop all the Global Warming and maybe nothing will sink.  Still, I'm going to have to put a Pressure Dome on that base now.  The Tree Farm it's building is about to complete next turn anyways

In my opinion as the expert on exploits, sea resources>land pods>random pod pop is an intended game mechanic w/o the faintest whiff of exploit/cheating.

On the other hand, did you know that building that tree farm, on top of the extra eco-protection for that base, permanently lowers all ecodamage for your faction by one -and get this- you can sell it and rebuild it, getting the -1 for all bases again, over and over and over.  The base it's in loses some protection of having the tree farm, but it's cheaper to do that than build the hybrid forest, centauri preserve, and temple of Planet.  It only has that effect after the first fungal pop - but then you don't really need it much until that and the first pop yields no worms.  Very well-known exploit in the community.

[bvanevery]

Yeah I knew about the rebuilding Tree Farms exploit, but I've never done it, nor needed to do it.  My economies are so massive, such as by this point in the game, that I'm often rushing Hybrid Forests.  They are as expensive as early Secret Projects, so that's saying a lot.  Generally speaking I know how to keep my eco-damage under control.  It's mostly a mixture of allowing enough fungal pops, which each decrease the problem a little, fighting off some mindworms, and building the needed facilities.  For instance in this game, for extra caution and just extra money, I'm building Hybrid Forests everywhere.  Even in sea bases that don't have trees.  I figure, I don't usually run Free Markets, and I've got a lot of extra eco-damage I need to contend with.  Also I know not to go too crazy on minerals per base, as it just isn't needed to stomp the AI.  20-ish minerals per base will do fine.

Details butterfingers probe team

butterfingers probe team

Here is the Skimship Probe Team that caused me grief last year.  Mission accomplished, I stole Doctrine:Air Power, but I lost the team.  I still need to steal Centauri Meditation from her, and I wouldn't mind her world map while I'm at it.

To add insult to my butterfingers injury, I hate the in-between turns period.  You get peppered with dozens of modal dialog boxes in a row that you can't escape from.  If someone in your family is calling you to dinner, you can't even save the game then.  All you can do is let your computer sit like some ancient MS-DOS nonsense and hope for the best when you get back.  Thankfully, game UI in general has become a lot more sane since the time SMAC was made.  I would not make "inter-turn" tasks part of the game design at all.  Pestering players endlessly at the beginning of their turn, in ways they can't ignore or deal with later, is not good UI design.

Marr bothered me in between turns.  He wanted to talk but I blew him off.  He's standing on one of my Mines on a minerals deposit right next to my base, about to strike and that's annoying.  I pulled all my Formers off that front before I could get Sensor Arrays completed.  The land was too rainy to put Forests on things, and that makes it a lot less natural to put Sensor Arrays up.  Also, to be honest, leaving Formers out that way was running the risk of getting them killed, due to these occasional interlopers.  Well he'll probably pillage my good Mine, but life will go on and it's merely annoying.  Does anyone ever nuke the whole planet just because someone's being annoying?

I've now got 1186 cash, but the insufficient completion penalty makes it 2040 credits to complete The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.  If I had moved my crawlers last turn, I would have been able to add 3 crawlers to the build this turn, and I'd probably have it done next turn.  As it is, I will just move those 3 closest crawlers now, for insurance next turn.  Aki Zeta5 isn't showing any sign of rushing, but who knows what my stupid fingers are capable of next??  I think I'm getting physically tired and need to do something else for awhile now.

[bvanevery]

With my 3 extra Supply Crawlers, it only cost 636 credits to rush The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.  Aki Zeta5 still has 6 turns to go, to my 0 turns, so I suppose I worried over nothing.  As I'm hardly hurting for cash, I rushed my Pressure Dome at the inland Sailor's Delight as well.  I should probably spend more money or the game might decide to take it away from me again.  I have no more Secret Projects I need to complete, but I do get a new tech next turn, so I think I'll wait to see what the cat drags in.

Details raising nutrients

raising nutrients

My land raising finally created some coastal resources.  I'm happy with the mineral and energy resources, those are useful.  I'm realizing that a nutrient resource at a sea base that has enormous access to kelp, is not useful.  Such bases have an overabundance of food anyways.  Also, one of these nutrients is in the way of me turning 9 deep ocean squares into shallow water.  Surely, 9 squares producing ordinary food from kelp, is worth more than 1 square with a nutrient bonus.

So, I'm going to try BUncle's suggestion of raising it to turn it into a supply pod.  I still think it's a bit of a cheat, because it makes no basic simulation sense, that a resource should turn into a pod.  Kelp becomes hard metal, how does that work?  On the other hand, it could have been intended as a game mechanical "compensation" for the loss of the nutrient when raising land.  Or it could be an artifact of the assignment of bit layers on the map.

For now, I will treat it as something legitimate I can do in the game.  After all, it's not like every pod turns into an Artifact.  I could pull up dozens and dozens of pods, via all sorts of land raising work, before ever getting a technology out of it.  So even if it's nonsensical, it may not be overpowered.  Since I've never deliberately tried to prospect such things en masse before, I think it's legitimate to determine in the course of this game, whether it is overpowered or not.  By trying to make it overpowered.   

I'm wondering the pod making process works in reverse?  If I lower coastal land with a Sea Former, will a coastal land resource turn into a supply pod floating in the water?  That would give me a substantial justification for undermining a continent.  Although, it might cost more money than I'm willing to spend.

[bvanevery]

Details no supply pod

no supply pod

Well that didn't turn into a supply pod.  Maybe the "No Unity Scattering" setting prevents it from happening.  It did turn a useless sea nutrient resource into a useful land energy resource though, so this technique isn't completely without value.  I also finally stirred up a mindworm while trying to remove fungus.  I happened to have brought down a rover to pop the pod I didn't get, so I'm ready to avenge the death of a Former next turn.

[bvanevery]

Details river valley rerouted

river valley rerouted

I got a message that sea levels had risen "rapidly".  I have my doubts about it being all that rapid, because I've built a lot of anti-eco-damage facilities and am not doing any anymore.  I probably have lots more "safe" industrial capacity than I'm currently tapping.  Pretty much I think I've averted any natural disaster for Humanity.

The river valley encircling Grand Mesa did finally "sink" though.  It didn't turn into ocean tile like I thought it might.  Instead, the western half of the river valley dried up, and this portion actually raised in altitude to ~100 meters.  The eastern half did not, and actually rasied to 40 meters.  So the perceived threat of inland flooding was overblown, the map algorithm doesn't actually work that way.  Rivers have some kind of altitude factor that changes when they dry up.  All I really need to do is move in with Formers and rework the land.

I've got Fusion Power now and other factions do not.  I've built Hybrid Forests in all of my bases, and Fusion Labs in nearly all of my bases.  Just a few more turns and I will in essence be "done" building improvements to bases.  Then I have the problem of what to do, what to build?  In the interim, I'm building Fusion Speeder Supply Crawlers everywhere.  I've reallocated the vast majority of my Formers to mundane terraforming duties, as I don't really need to raise land in my "bay" particularly fast.  Cities that have gone to size 16, are producing Settlers to colonize the stuff I've already raised and prepared.  I may decide to make more Formers at some point, but the contingent I've got already is pretty large and it may be unnecessary.

We had sunspots for awhile but they're over now.  My allies, particularly Roze, have out-researched me to some degree.  She got Orbital Spaceflight before I did, although I've just researched it myself now.  I could have bought it from her, but I still consider buying my own Fusion Labs a higher priority than buying expensive techs from others.  Soon I think I will shift from Wealth to Knowledge, because I think I'm allowing people to get too far ahead technologically and that poses a long term problem.  I cannot have an AI dictate the technological pace of the game.  The endgame for that is, the AI decides it's going to Transcend now, and you are forced to stop playing the game at that point.  Sure you "win" by utterly stomping them in the race to Transcend, but they still forced you to stop playing.  And if you're going to conquer them at that point, might as well have conquered them far earlier in the game.

Details sail around

sail around

I've been trying to work my Cruiser Probe Teams over to Deirdre to steal from her, but the trip is very long, and fraught with her Missile Skimships nowadays.  I do not wish to waste money buying those off.  Under a Free Market, owning a warship in international waters just creates unhappy citizens, it's not an advantage.  So mostly I've just been outrunning her, as my ships are awfully fast.  I've lost 1 team so far, not that big a deal, but I do have to divert around her threatening ships.  It slows down my progress towards her.  In short, I might actually end up researching her techs before I actually get close enough to steal them.

I'm continuing with a Discover research focus because I definitely want to have the Supercollider and not let anyone else have it.  I'm 1 tech behind for getting that though.  I need Advanced Subatomic Theory, which I could be stealing from Deirdre, or buying from one of my allies.

Deirdre and Marr continue to provide minor hassles on my continent, the occasional unit landed that has to be dispatched.  It doesn't rise to the level of needing to build an air force, or even new Fusion garrison units.  I'm fine.  I do wonder if I will build a navy to destroy Marr utterly.  It would be a lot of unit pushing, but not impossible as my ships are fast.  Now is a good time to do it since I have the Fusion Power advantage.

If I don't do that, the question is what the heck else would I do?  I'm certainly not going to obsess about making more colonies for its own sake, I've done plenty of that in this game already.  My "perfect circle" from my capitol will be completed in due course eventually anyways, and there's no basic need to extend that perimeter indefinitely.  Rather, the civilization should be used for something.

[bvanevery]

Details vanishing on the river

vanishing on the river

I swear there is something buggy about rivers affected by global floods.  Notice the diamond of 4 squares in the center of the image, that are not within the radius of any base.  1 of the squares has a Supply Crawler on it.  That's a non-river square.  I swear last turn, I had Supply Crawlers on the 2 river squares that are clear of fungus.  Now they are gone, like Bermuda Triangle gone.  In other games I've seen this happen with Formers as well.  I'll send them to the same river square over and over again, that was affected by a flood somehow.  I'll start to work the square, then I'll notice a few turns later that there's nobody there and the square has never changed.  I think somehow the flood has created a bug that eats units.

Perhaps I will test this condition methodically at some point.  For now, I'm going to stop sending units there.  The eastern half of the river valley was damaged by the flood though, notice that no terraform improvements exist upon it anymore.  Could that river now be permanently deadly?  I suppose I have to investigate that possibility.  I will try putting a Former on it somewhere, and taking a screenshot at the end of my turn, to make sure I'm being accurate about what happens.

FOLLOWUP: I forgot to take a screenshot, too busy mouseclicking and being distracted shifting back and forth writing this AAR up.  But I had a Fusion Speeder Supply that actually ended its movement on The River of Death, that I couldn't move any farther because I ordered it there and it didn't have enough moves remaining.  It's gone now.  So the only real question is whether it's every square of the river or not.

I'm realizing this river has a further consequence.  It cuts my empire in half!  I can't build a road over it.  The only point of crossing is the city Sailor's Delight, that I built a Pressure Dome on.  Well I guess that's going to be fantastic for the local economy, huh.  Nothing like a bottleneck to rake in the dough, just ask Constantinople.

[Buster's Uncle]

I've never been able to make a lot of sense of how rivers interact with altitude, either.  A new or diverted one will, for sure, make changes.

On AI trying to transcend - I believe you'll find that if you can get the lowest-level of scouts to the base building it, one suicide attack that does no damage -and I couldn't swear you don't have to at least chip 10% off one of the units inside- and it changes production to something self-defensive, no matter that it's throwing away hundreds of accumulated minerals accrued.  -So there's that, given a vendetta or releasing a mindworm or two into the wild adjacent, if you can...

[bvanevery]

Details manifold nexus

manifold nexus

I rushed an Aerospace Complex and then a Sky Hydroponics Lab, revealing the entire map.  I had the luck of starting next to the largest land mass in the game, and the skill of settling upon it.  The 2nd largest land mass, that I and probably everyone else was completely unaware of, is directly north of my continent and my empire.  It is as though I'm in a world where North and South America exist, are not touching, no other continents exist, I got South America all to myself, and nobody settled North America.  It really wasn't the "helping hand for the AI" game that I intended, it's pretty much the dead opposite.  Well at least some factions have gotten to the point of being able to compete technologically with me, even if that's about to end.

The Manifold Nexus is at the extreme north of the map, north of me.  Note the minimap and the small white rectangle indicating the enlarged display area.  It would be onerous but not impossible to colonize this.  I'd have to sail a Transport up that way for a very long time, without getting killed en route.  For mysterious reasons, both Domai and Aki Zeta5 have declared war on me, making the western route around the intervening continents dangerous.  Less mysteriously, Marr creates danger on the eastern route.  I'm not sure I'm motivated to do any of this, just to be a little more Planet friendly.  It's not like I'm an Alien faction, where controlling the Nexus would get me +1 Research as well.  And Marr will never colonize it, he's too far away and doesn't even know where it is yet.

Nobody knows except me, although if I keep my allies, they'll know soon enough.  And then my enemies will know, because we have some bizarre Pact relationships.  Perhaps I should insist that some people go to war with each other.  I guess the only weak link is Lal, who is in a Pact with both Domai and Aki Zeta5.  Problem is, if I talk to him, that information could get passed on before I can make him break his Pacts!  Grr.  I guess I can't count on this remaining a secret forever.

I finally stole Centauri Meditation from Deirdre.  She's got nothing I need anymore.  I bought Advanced Subatomic Theory from Roze because I was getting impatient about wanting all my techs.  She still has Silksteel Alloys and at last count, wanted an outrageous 775 credits for it!  "What are you trying to pull?"  I think I'm too wealthy and need to ask her when I'm poor.  Problem is, I have nothing to spend my money on anymore.

Details team en route

team en route

This makes me consider an alternate warfare idea.  Rather than trying to conquer Deirdre militarily, I could try to buy her out.  Buying a base on her mainland, like say the one with The Command Nexus in it, could be prohibitively expensive but also within my economic reach.  I do have a Cruiser Probe Team on approach, which has nothing better to do, but it also needs to reach the far side of her island without getting killed.  I guess I will try.  She's currently Democratic Simple Power, so hopefully the cost of buying her isn't too awful.  My approaching team is not special, it's merely Veteran.  It's the last such team I've got, as an older Skimship Probe Team is about to be killed by one of her Cruisers.

In anticipation of The Supercollider, I've started moving old fission Supply Crawlers towards my capitol.  Most were not doing anything truly useful, just parked on Rocky terrain and harvesting only 1 mineral.  I haven't had enough Formers to deal with anything outside my base radii.  I'm starting to make a wave of Fusion Fungicidal Formers so that I can complete my "bay sculpting" project and other "perfect circle" cities.

My budget was 30-40-30, a leftover from when I was struggling with happiness and needed to build Research Hospitals to keep people in line.  That's long since past, and arguably I might be wasting money or research making people too happy.  I will make good on my gambit against Deirdre and try to pile up a lot of money to buy her city with The Command Nexus.  Consequently I have now changed my budget to 40-30-30, and I will stay Democratic Free Market Wealth.  I now make 906 credits/turn.  It is about 5 turns to target, so the question is whether I can buy her city for ~5000 credits.  It is size 6 and only 5 squares from her capitol, so I really don't know what the math on this is.  If I do buy it, then can I reinforce it with money alone and hold it somehow?  We'll see.  It would be a pity if I flub the whole thing and The Command Nexus gets destroyed in successive waves of liberation.

Hmm.  Maybe I should go for a secondary target city if I can't secure the primary.  And I should probably be getting more Cruiser Probe Teams in the water to follow up on my good work.  Gonna finally build a Covert Ops Center, in a (now!) coastal sea base that has a lot of minerals.  I've rarely done that in any game.  I honestly can't say I've ever used a Covert Ops Center effectively, as I've often just gone Fundamentalist or something and how much more Elite than Elite does one really need?

[bvanevery]

Details big money

big money

Boy I sure am glad I got one of these excellent positive random events and put that big money in my pocket.  If I can do that 20 more times it'll make up for the 1 negative event I got.  I hope that the addition of a Tree Farm, Hybrid Forest, and Fusion Lab to every city, will make me a little more immune to market crashes than The Planetary Energy Grid alone did.   

You know, I'm realizing I only have 6 sea bases.  That's a little weird for a pirate.  Only 2 land coastal bases.  12 inland bases.  I'm not a pirate, I'm a farmer!  Or a miner.  Or a forester.  "OH I'M A LUMBERJACK AND I'M OK...."

[bvanevery]

Details safe roads

safe roads

I accidentally moved a Fusion Speeder Former onto The River of Death.  In the picture it has a "G" for going to the next square north.  The square it's on, does have a road and other terrain improvements.  Maybe those indicate a safe square and not a "deadly" river.  Next turn will tell.  Well it didn't die, so I'm calling that provisionally safe.

[bvanevery]

Details buyout

buyout

Ok the moment of truth.  It took me longer to get here than I thought it would, so I actually saved the 5K+ that I wasn't managing to.  How much money does a Democratic Simple Power want for a now size 7 city with a drone riot?

Details secret project bargain basement

secret project bargain basement

OMG that is so cheap!  The Command Nexus alone would cost 800 credits to build from scratch.  1067 credits, yes Sir I've got that kind of money.  Coming right up!

Details slow conquest

slow conquest

Get this.  The AI is sad.  It doesn't do a good job of water invasions in the best of circumstances, and I seem to have handed it the worst.  In all this time, none of the AI players have conquered each other.  A whole lot of sitting around.  Oh well!  I think I owe it to this game to find a way to win relatively quickly.  It is not a good game, in the sense that it totally misses the "AI strengthening" objective I set out for it.  This is also a most un-pirate-like way to play the Pirates, but at least I did benefit from a lot of sea minerals.  It would be better to put the energy into a new game that gives the AI more of a chance.

Deirdre's captured peons are really unhappy.  I disband a Transport to make it cheap to rush a Recreation Commons, although truthfully, I have more money than God and could probably take the hit.  Still I won't.  I suppose this might be the appropriate circumstance for a Punishment Sphere as well, but I just don't have it in me.  I am a Democracy, after all, and plan to stay mildly in character.