Cybernetic Conquest - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.42

[bvanevery]

Details ethical calculus

ethical calculus

MY 2322.  Should I legalize atrocities and wipe out the Cult of Planet?  Not ready to commit to that.

Details trucebreaker

trucebreaker

MY 2323.  Or the Pirates?  It would be a lot of work.  I can probably make him beg off by taking a few more cities.

[bvanevery]

Details debacle in the water

debacle in the water

MY 2324.  I took a base, but at enormous cost.  Svensgaard's current boats hold up rather well in Psi combat.  He may kill my wounded Isles and take over these bases.  Losing them wouldn't be so bad, as the point was to wipe out Roze.  But I'm really annoyed that he has prevented me from doing that.

[bvanevery]

Details unpersuasive

unpersuasive

MY 2325.  I took another base but he's still fighting.  I don't have the garrison units needed to fend off all these planes.  I'm really rather surprised at the number of planes in this game.  Did I "fix" something?  Have I overestimated how well I was doing earlier?

[bvanevery]

Details changing realities

changing realities

MY 2330.  Cha Dawn recently killed my last Demon Boil tromping around his continent.  He had enough units milling about here and there, just random places, that every once in awhile he'd get the element of surprise and kill me.  Meanwhile, my Isles simply don't work on offense against Svensgaard.  So I'm giving up on the Psi combat approach to all of this.  I need to make money to finish my Secret Projects.  This more than doubles my income.  I've got a fair number of Hybrid Forests built, and I've refrained from building Genejack Factories in my core empire, so I'm not likely to do much eco-damage.

It's 4:40 AM and I've had enough for the night.

[bvanevery]

Details reconsider

reconsider

Why can't I just discover some more Discover stuff?  And I'm not so sure I'm thrilled about this being a prereq for C6 Organic Superlubricant.  I remember in a previous game, it took forever to get hovertanks.  I kjnow I decided on this for narrative reasons, but I'm not sure that the gameplay reasons are sound.  A hovertank is a tool of Conquest; should that be beholden to someone fixating on mindworms?

Well, I'll see how it goes.  It's too early for a strong opinion on it, because I don't have a land enemy that needs hovertanks thrown at it.  Santiago is still honoring the Treaty for now.

Details Discover is a thin tree

Discover is a thin tree

What I learned is kinda sorta a distant prereq to something actually in Discover.  And it seems I designed it that way.  A Nanohospital is an advanced facility that I didn't intend anyone to have easily.  I'm just feeling weirded out by having Corporate Labs available so early.  Sort of a fluke, I don't think a pure Discover researcher would get them so fast.  Instead I was assisted by other research economies in the game.

I've got a growing number of AAA ECM Silksteel garrison units.  I can't reinforce those distant sea bases, but my core empire and conquests up north, I feel much safer.  I start making Missile Interceptors to deal with all the Pirate planes buzzing around me.

[bvanevery]

Details I hold this

I hold this

MY 2333.  I have AAA ECM Silksteel garrisons nearly everywhere now.  I feel confident that nobody can take the Citizens' Defense Force from me now.  I was pretty close to having the money to rush the Network Backbone, and this will ensure it.  I start making Missile Marines to take nearby Pirate bases with.

Details no one can complain

no one can complain

I just realized, my slave cities can't get uppity about my military units.  They can serve a useful, if evil function in my empire.  Can you say Abu Gharib boys and girls?  I knew you could.  Extraordinary rendition.  I used to do this all the time in Freeciv, using the Shakespeare's Theater, but I've never really thought about it in SMAC.  Gonna spam the Pirates with slave ships.

Details no more Isle

no more Isle

If the AI had any brains, it would take this base.  It might not!  I'm scrapping the Covert Ops Center I inherited from the Data Angels.  If the base does get left alone, I won't need it, and no sense letting the enemy have it.  Drat, couldn't scrap it, because of all the Perimeter Defenses scrapped earlier.

Details a pretty penny

a pretty penny

Sure I've got supply crawlers now, but this is more convenient.

Details tough ops

tough ops

I am reminded that Cha Dawn is working on the Empath Guild.  I should steal the tech.  I didn't previously have the money to think about it too hard.  It would be better to build this at a Covert Ops Center, but I only have so many of those, taken from the Data Angels.  This at least has a Naval Yard taken from the Pirates.  Hope it holds up long enough to get to target!  The Cultists actually have very few sea ports or sea bases.

[bvanevery]

Details AI not completely dumb

AI not completely dumb

MY 2334.  I don't care about the base.  The point was to destroy Roze.  The Pirates are the only ones who can turn this deep water into something of economic value anyways.  I'm just afraid that, with Svensgaard taking one of my bases, he'll now think he's entitled to money.  Which he's never gonna get!  I don't care if I'm rich, I never pay anyone a dime.  I might do it to buy votes at the very end of the game, but I've never actually had it work out that way.

Details blowoff

blowoff

I mean, that's a Hybrid Forest!  I'm building those for me, not you.

Details land rights

land rights

I built a new city on the tip of this peninsula, to claim land so that the captured Meergard sea base will actually have some squares to work.

Details the allocation before land

the allocation before land

Newly claimed land is on the eastern side of the base.

Details squares to improve

squares to improve

This will make a good industrial slave port, once I turn those Rocky squares into Mines.  I have to admit, slavery design is not something I've done much of before.  Usually by the time I'm dropping Punishment Spheres on cities, I'm overrunning everybody.  Not this game.  The Pirates and the Cultists are both viable competition still.  I think the Spartans are toast though, even if they look strong on paper.  They're in land contact with me, and nobody's gonna beat my industry on land.

[bvanevery]

Details more push for Psi

more push for Psi

MY 2335.  In my mod, I've made the Xenoempathy Dome and the Neural Amplifier come later and be more expensive.  My playtesting has shown that they're quite powerful, in the hands of a human player at least.  This tech isn't exactly easy to get.  But I guess I really am the research powerhouse of the game.  It has the downside of making me feel like I need to build all these Secret Projects, instead of other things I could be doing.  I suppose that's a balancing act and I'm doing fine, despite the fact that the Pirates are annoying me.

[bvanevery]

Details closeness of empire

closeness of empire

MY 2336.  Svensgaard has been a busy beaver.  He's learned B6 Eudaimonia and C6 Orbital Spaceflight.  I don't have to sail all the way to the Cultists, I can steal right from my front door.  Now I can get the Empath Guild started.  Heck, it's better than the Nano Factory, so I switch my production.  I don't have enough money to rush it, but if I disbanded all these Plasma Garrisons sitting around, I bet I'd have it.

Details stop buzzing me

stop buzzing me

It's time to end these Pirate air incursions.

Details air superiority is superior

air superiority is superior

Is this a little overpowered?  I know it's supposed to model the difference between a fighter and a bomber, but c'mon.

Details plasma power

plasma power

Not sure this is gonna get me elected though.  I think Cha Dawn votes for Svensgaard.  Santiago might vote for me, or just might not vote.

[bvanevery]

Details talk all you want

talk all you want

MY 2337.  Roze decides to talk to me, thinking she's going to run an op.  Why doesn't the AI check that I have the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm?  I don't really mind watching all their goons die, but it feels like a bit of an exploit.  Anyways she doesn't surrender.  Actually she was passing by me.

Details rocketman

rocketman

I knock off a Pirate base at the north pole, clearing them from that part of the map.  They still want to keep fighting.

Details western continental arm

western continental arm

I notice that what used to be a spindly island, is now attached to the Spartan land mass.  And that Penzance contains an Artifact.  I wouldn't mind taking it from them.  A few Marines and a Unity Rover riding in an Isle ought to do it.

Details chemical weapons

chemical weapons

I just noticed I've got the bug where many units have Fungicidal Tanks.  Even ones that shouldn't.  I wonder what causes that?  Every so often when playing, I get flashed a message that now that you've discovered such-and-such tech, you all get Fungicidal Tanks!  It might have happened this game, or the last game I played, I'm not sure.  Not sure if the bug sets in after that either.

[bvanevery]

Details I made a choice

I made a choice

MY 2338.  If the AIs manage to get cranking like they have in this game, then it's not easy to finish every Secret Project.  I preferred the Empath Guild.  That reminds me that I forgot to think about being Governor last year.  I'm tired and think this will be my last turn for the night.

Details Spartans got it

Spartans got it

Well I don't feel too bad about that Artifact slipping away.  I only just noticed it and started planning the operation.  I'll do something else.

[bvanevery]

Details lotsa supply crawlers

lotsa supply crawlers

MY 2339.  This has been worked on mostly with supply crawlers.  I've stopped production of those now, as nobody's going to be able to compete with me for the Neural Amplifier.  I'm making some more garrison units in anticipation of a few more colonies and local conquests.

Details getting the vote

getting the vote

I anticipate that Hab Domes are not far into my future.  I can win this game by Diplomatic Victory, as I'm so far ahead on tech, that rivals will never catch up.

Details a fungus among us

a fungus among us

I also anticipate completion of the Manifold Harmonics.  This would make control of the Manifold Nexus valuable to me.  With that and Green Knowledge, I'd have +3 PLANET.  That gives the max resource bonus with the Harmonics.

Details dropping on your head

dropping on your head

Whether by the Space Elevator or by Graviton Theory, soon I'll be orbital insertion capable.  That will make it pretty easy to take over the Manifold Nexus if I haven't already.  I don't have to go through heroics to get there.

Details I mostly won the races

I mostly won the races

None of my enemies have built Secret Projects that matter.  My ally built 2 useful ones, but I like Miriam just fine as is.

Details you work for me now

you work for me now

I easily took over a nearby Pirate sea base with my Missile Marines.  Svensgaard has no answer for it.  He still wants to fight.  Fighting the Pirates is not actually important.  He's shown that he can't harm me.  Even my mere Fission Impact Artillery is holding all of his ships at bay, that come to shell my cities.  I guess the Perimeter Defenses and Sensor Arrays are sufficient defense.  I could upgrade them to better stuff, but so far there's been no need.  By the time there is any need, he'll have to be traveling farther and farther to reach my shores, and I will have cleared him out in a greater and greater radius from my capitol.  I don't need to spend much on fighting him.  In fact, to the degree that I leave him alone for now, his cities in deep ocean get worked by his Formers, a capability only he has.  So they become more worth taking over, the longer I wait on them.

Details Christmas present

Christmas present

Nukes are the only thing that can threaten me.  Absent my intervention, they will complete this and launch.  The Spartans are Aggressive like that!  However we have a Treaty, and they have the Pirates, the Cultists, and the Data Angels as enemies.  I predict they'll hit the Pirates.  All I really have to do is maintain our Treaty.  If they get uppity, there's 1 surrounded city I can take easily from them.  After that if it came to a land war, I would surely win.  They only have 1 nuke and the AI is probably not bright enough to target one of my best cities, despite having the range to do so.

Details calendar cult

calendar cult

The Cultists are also working on a nuke, and they are Aggressive, so they could hurl it at me.  However they are unlikely to complete it, and this base would be easy to disrupt.  I also think they hate the Caretakers far more than they hate me.  They've had lots of fighting with them, almost none with me, and they actually keep battling over some bases.

[bvanevery]

Details energy advantage

energy advantage

MY 2340.  Who can stop me now?  Some people think Capitalist and Wealth in my mod are anemic, not providing enough juicy benefits for players who want to feel the glory or something.  But a +1 ECONOMY bonus is extremely powerful in my opinion.  Get 2 of them, and IMO it's a license to print money.  Especially since in my mod you don't get to have supply crawlers for half the game, you need money.
 

[bvanevery]

COVID-19 has all kinds of people staying home using the internet.  This causes it to periodically go on the fritz.  I type this up offline, waiting for the internet's glorious return.  It ends up taking 24 hours.  You will see a whole lot of posts in a row with very close post times.  I'm not really doing a speed run!

Details armor of exceeding betterness

armor of exceeding betterness

MY 2343.  I take another Pirate base.  He's still fighting.  I've started making sea colony pods to pad out my home territorial waters.  They are close enough to my capitol to be economically useful, and they should grow quickly with some kelp planted.

[bvanevery]

Details need the Nexus

need the Nexus

MY 2345.  I've started settling unoccupied fungus land near my capitol, in anticipation of great resource benefits from fungus.  But I am not orbital insertion capable yet.  In an effort to overcome this, I cash my 2 Artifacts.  This does get me C7 Advanced Spaceflight, so I will start making an Orbital Defense Pod screen shortly.