Thinker mod military capability, attempt 3

[bvanevery]

Details the overwhelming eco damage advantage

the overwhelming eco damage advantage

MY 2246.  You know, I'm Green.  I'm +2 PLANET, as high as a normal faction can be in my mod without the Manifold Nexus.  I have a Tree Farm in this city.  I have not made a single Borehole or Condenser.  I've planted abundant forests.  I've only got 3 Mines on resource specials in my entire empire.  Yet, my city is doing 51 eco-damage for 41 minerals output.  And this is true of another city as well.  I've got some more cities that are doing 24, 16, 16, and 8 eco-damage.

At this point in the game, I don't have time to prepare for this sort of thing anymore.  Lal has paid next to nothing in eco-damage costs by comparison. This game really is testing something after all: how totally lopsided the eco-damage advantage is. If I had Lal's empire, heck maybe even Domai's empire, we'd all be literally underwater.  The disparity has given Lal super resources, and it may not be possible to catch him.  Every turn I try to think of the moves that would improve my cause, and all I end up seeing, is spam spam spam spam spam.

Lal is such a dick!  He sells me C7 Probability Mechanics and cuts me off again.  The Data Angels have started on the Network Backbone, so I can't wait any longer.  Crap, I'm realizing in all this time, I may not have even built enough Network Nodes to cash much of anything.  Good grief, only 2 available.  Well, let's see what I get.

Details the ancients knew how to live

the ancients knew how to live

Clinical Immortality.  I'll take it.  Gives me a little insurance against Diplomatic Victory.  Luckily my city with the copy of the Pholus Mutagen isn't sinking anymore.  Even with the big head start, it would take 25 turns to complete if left alone, because it is a 540 mineral project.  Time to cash in the supply crawlers.  Using every crawler I've got brings me to 3 turns from completion.  Another 100 credits finishes the job.

I have 6 Artifacts remaining and only 1 Network node.  No point cashing any more right now.  Even if I got a Secret Project, I wouldn't be able to complete it.

[bvanevery]

Details no confidence

no confidence

MY 2247.  Lal attempts to leverage his 4X voting advantage to win the game.  He's not even close.  It's a little disturbing seeing how few votes I have in the scheme of things, although Clinical Immortality hasn't gone into effect yet.

Details still heading for water world

still heading for water world

Water world only slowed things down a little bit.  We're all gonna drown.

I have lost the Fusion Power advantage I had over Domai.  He's using Missile Hovertanks as well.  They could probably punch through my cities if he had any brains.

I made money killing mindworms.  Figuring I might get more money that way, I switch from Wealth to Power.  Now I have a +3 PROBE rating, so my cities and units cannot be subverted.  That will help if I ever get an offensive going.

Lal declines to speak with me.  That might be the end of the tech gravy train.

MY 2248.  I actually make slightly more money under a Socialist government.  Must be the difference between -2 and -1 JUSTICE.  Whereas, there's not really any difference between -1 and 0 ECONOMY.  Now my GROWTH is 0 instead of -3.

[bvanevery]

MY 2249.  Lal sells me C6 Self-Aware Machines.  He already built the Nethack Terminus.  As usual, he cuts me off after selling 1 tech.

Details is it legit

is it legit

MY 2250.  My allies the Cyborgs steal a tech from me.  They came limping in from the east, where my cities aren't defended against probes.  I ended our Pact.  Guess I need to make some more defensive probe teams.  It's all just getting to be a drag.  There's always something that I haven't produced, because everyone else has overwhelming production advantages.

Lal hasn't quit selling me tech yet, but it's boring.  I definitely wouldn't repeat this kind of gameplay in another game.  I might be interested to know what happens if I don't have an awful start, and don't make any early game mistakes that punish me the whole game.  But if I got to this kind of situation again regardless, I'd just say eh, been there done that.  I'd quit.  Right now I'm merely determined to see whether Lal's victory is inevitable or not.  I feel like I'm being ground away to nothing.

Details more flooding

more flooding

MY 2251.  I think I lost 3 Formers in this most recent round of flooding.  I think the rivers redrew 5 times between turns.  It's just a big region of death.  My cities out there are doing very poorly, they used to be much bigger.  They also seem to lose population during these flooding events without actually telling me about it.

You know, I've hit my limit.  I can't stand this any more.  This sucks, it's completely boring.  I've been at this game a long time.  I've hardly been able to do anything proactive the whole game.  So I quit.

I will see if a more reasonable start, without any mistakes in how to handle it, results in a satisfactory game.

If it's boring like this game was, then I'll conclude that that's just how Thinker mod is. Being forced to react to flooding to repair your empire is not fun.  I had the same problem with Fusion Armor mod, when I tested that.  The AI gets a free ride on all this eco-damage and it makes a huge difference how the game goes.  I want the AI to suffer the consequences of its actions, same as I do.  That might actually make an interesting simulation.  This is a boring simulation because we're not playing the same game.