The Clean Death of Us All - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.52

[Buster's Uncle]

 

[bvanevery]

Details possible key to the game

possible key to the game

MY 2344.  With the completion of the Cloning Vats, I don't have to worry about politics in order to grow my population like crazy.  It'll just grow.  I could have done that with either Theocratic or Eudaimonic and a lot of happiness budget to trigger Golden Ages.  I certainly have the happiness infrastructure to do it.  But it just wasn't in Lal's mettle.  I'm not sure what his decisions are going to be now, as we're soon coming to a moment of reckoning on how to do Planet.

Details vote to oblivion

vote to oblivion

Clinical Immortality will double my votes yet again, so it's getting the new top project priority.

Details they can try

they can try

I've actually got competition for the Manifold Harmonics now.  At the rate I'm going, maybe it won't be as important to me as I thought.  Cloudbase Academy and a bunch of satellites should pretty much win me the game.

Well, except for that Aliens have to be wiped out for a Diplomatic Victory.  That's a problem.

The irony is, if I used genetic plagues on the Aliens, nobody would care.  And I've long since had that capability.  But if I nuked 'em, everyone else would freak out!  Now how could I make a role playing excuse for that?

Details keep the chips in

keep the chips in

Truth is, Power and Thought Control don't actually do anything for me that I need.  If I actually wanted to make troops, nobody could touch me anyways.  I'm not at much risk of having my bases subverted, as my screen of 3-Pulse probe teams is well underway.  I'm not out on campaign so my POLICE rating doesn't matter, and I'm sure I could trash everyone with 1 unit per city anyways.  Not that I really have to stick to that, as pretty soon I'll have lotsa extra Empaths in various cities.  Plus I could also make Brood Pits.  That again was supposed to be a late game wonder facility that nobody would actually use, and I'm surprised I'm playing a game where I might consider doing it.  I could home all my nukes to 1 city that doesn't get unhappy about them, for instance.

[bvanevery]

Details blasted

blasted

MY 2346.  Well it's only been occasional, and maybe the Usurpers have been building one for a very long time.  But this is proof that Photon Wall won't stand up to a Conventional Missile, even with a Flechette Defense.  I'll need some heavier armor with AAA.

Details betcha can't bomb this

betcha can't bomb this

For now, I put my best AAA Trance Neutronium unit on the job, since the Usurpers are fixated on this one base.  I'll need more of them.  These units are expensive.  I don't really quite have a level of productivity, commensurate with my tech.  It's adequate and will get all my jobs done, and it keeps Planet from getting flooded more, but I think population is gonna happen before bigger factories.

The problem with the "nuke 'em all" plan, is it would take a lot of productivity.  Soooo much cheaper to poison the Aliens.  I have existing ships that could do it.  It's just... not very Lal.

[bvanevery]

Details I am all these votes

I am all these votes

MY 2347.  Cha Dawn had the temerity to call an election he couldn't possibly win.  I haven't even completed Clinical Immortality yet!  Yes Cha you've got twice as many citizens as I do, but it just doesn't matter.  We're far more equal than you.

Hmm.  He does have more votes than everyone else though...

Details is it like burning paper

is it like burning paper

I learned the Quantum reactor.  It seriously changed the price of my prototype Tectonic Missile, so I switched production in my Skunkworks to another nuke.  A big one!

[bvanevery]

Details sincerely

sincerely

MY 2348.  The Usurpers just landed some wimpy unit on my coast, and I've met them at sea with my very powerful new R-Bolt ship.  I suppose I  can take them up on this.  There is no strict requirement that I be sincere.  I could always send probe teams to wreak havoc and start any war I actually want.

Details how thoughtless of you

how thoughtless of you

This particular conqueror believes strongly in Thought Control.  To bad he's not part of the U.N. fracas.  I could add him to the list of factions I mutually cannot please.  Well except by refusing any advanced society, but that's not gonna happen.  Hmm... but what if that got Cha Dawn to vote with me?  Nah.  Humans are too fractious, they'll never buy it.

While I'm at it, I get him to knock off his wars with the University and the Cyborgs.  He's still at it with Morgan, his next door neighbor.  That's fine with me.

Details can I zing it

can I zing it

The Cyborgs have all but taken Bird: Cry!  Can I get an amphibious unit in there before they complete the conquest?  Unfortunately I never built a rail to the edge of this city, because I didn't expect it to be the 1st one I'd conquer.  Rails are far too expensive for me to instantly lay one this turn, with the relatively few former units I have.

Details tool of toolery

tool of toolery

What I need is a ship that can zip over to the other side of my awkward land mass.  Drop pods are allowed on ships in my mod.  They can be really useful for moving infantry around.  I think larger reactors add additional movement to the unit, as I need to go 6 spaces, not 5.

Details vicious exploit

vicious exploit

I only have 1 of these old foils from the old days.  If I upgrade the entire ship design, not just the individual ship, then all such upgrades occur instantly.  I instantly have a drop ship to use this turn!

Details the limit of my reach

the limit of my reach

Unfortunately my plan has 2 flaws.  One is my reactor doesn't actually make my ship go faster.  Even if it could get to target, it doesn't have enough movement for the walk-in.  That problem could be solved by upgrading one of my cruisers.

The other is usually at this point in the game, I've had the Space Elevator and been capable of orbital insertion.  I haven't learned Graviton Theory yet, so I'm only capable of limited cross land hops!  My ship is simply not in range to get to the other side of the land mass.  Note the parachute icon near U.N. Headquarters.  That's the limit of my range.  I can be "cute" and make it all the way to U.N. Sea Habitat in 1 turn, but that's it.

Details there is a way

there is a way

I do have a cruiser transport that if upgraded, could jump to Vision: Sound.  If I loaded it with a Marine, it could move 7 squares to Bird: Cry, and then the Marine could walk into the base.

Details let's have at it

let's have at it

I design an appropriate transport and perform the upgrade.  160 credits later, I'm in flight!

Details oh no

oh no

I forgot about the "non-combat air drop" rule.  Movement stops.

Details would be candidate

would be candidate

A warship is a combat unit, so it could keep moving.  It moves 8, so it has enough range from Vision: Sound.  Problem is, it's nowhere near Vision: Sound.  Back to the drawing board.

Details this better work

this better work

I don't think I can upgrade a Unity Rover.  But I can upgrade a plain old Scout Rover that I designed myself.  I have one such unit left from the beginning of the game, which has been on mindworm killing duty for a very long time.  I used to have some Elite Clean Synth units as well, but I think that's from when I had chosen Power.  Yeah, they're only Commando nowadays.  This Scout Rover will have to do.

Details behold the anti Isle

behold the anti Isle

Another 180 credits down the drain, and I've finally got a unit that can take the base!

Details chiseled

chiseled

For good measure I also bring in an amphibious rover probe team to cover it from any attempts at mind control.  I wish I had a way of capturing those sea colonists as it's a quick way to avoid having to make them yourself, but my navy long since abandoned these waters.

Details secret mission what plan

secret mission what plan

I don't trust that Cyborg probe team heading for my city.  Since they're allies, they could just be heading towards somewhere else along my rail.  But I bet Aki's trying to steal.  I move all the land probe teams I have, to cities closer to her territory.  Since she's an ally, she can ride up my rail to any vulnerable city if she really wants to, but I'm doubting the AI has the brains to do that.  I bet it strikes at something closer, or is deterred.

[bvanevery]

Details you pest

you pest

MY 2349.  I don't trust that Usurper creep sitting next to my city.  It's one of the few bases I haven't put some serious new armor in.  I've moved my mindworm from its holding fungal patch to the rail, in case the Usurper is a jerk.  I don't think it can penetrate Silksteel backed by a Sensor Array and a Perimeter Defense, but maybe it can.

[bvanevery]

Details huh

huh

MY 2350.  Wonder how they got that done.  Serious supply crawler work?  I didn't think the AI had it in it, as that's a 1000 mineral project.  Credit to my mod I guess.  Seriously, how did they do it?

Details that's how

that's how

Must have been supply crawlers.  Pretty sure the stock binary knows how to do that, but doesn't know how to save up a big wad of cash.  Well, at least now I won't have to worry about changing my politics around.  Not relevant.

[bvanevery]

Details something else to build

something else to build

MY 2351.  Now I won't be worrying about how far away my drop ships are from anything.  Only whether they've got a coastal base to land at.  Actually they can land inland, they just can't go anywhere.  One game I felt like I was going through this "Scottish locks" system to get to the other side of things.

I guess I already have the votes to win this thing, so building up lots of food ala Sky Hydroponics Labs, doesn't seem so important anymore.  The only thing stopping me is the pesky Aliens.  And here I am plodding along, trying to make the perfect Conventional Missile proof garrison.  And the perfect probe team proof garrison.  And it's a drag.  I don't think it's wrong to make every SP you can, but it's not turning out to be an exciting play style.

Details finally it's in

finally it's in

It takes a lot of energy to make people vote the way you want.

[bvanevery]

Details fast improvement

fast improvement

MY 2352.  Now what's the blast radius on these things?  If it's 3, then just northwest of that fungal tower would be an excellent spot to detonate.  It would turn a lot of that deep ocean around Sealurk City into coastal shelf.  Then I can rapidly terraform it.  Now if for some reason I'm wrong about the radius, I'm saving my game.

Details prepare to boom!

prepare to boom!

This is how you set off one of these things.  Futzy, but eh, what can you say?  It was expansion pack content.

Details worked well

worked well

I've read this is supposed to be just as eco-damaging as setting a nuke off.  I've always had a hard time believing that.  I will wait until my SPs are finished before doing any more of these.  At least nobody else has caused any flooding in awhile.  Maybe they built some Centauri Preserves.

[bvanevery]

Details oh you capitalist weenies

oh you capitalist weenies

MY 2352.  You're all so selfish!  Has it been long enough to increase the solar shade?

Details militarization of space

militarization of space

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  We're good allies... but you start wondering if you're "not the USA" anymore.  A real risk: what if I got framed for something?  Zhakarov did try to pull that before.

Details one less Caretaker to worry about

one less Caretaker to worry about

I never did look into the cost of just buying these bases.  In fairness my money was spoken for.  But between money and minerals to be spent, which is cheaper?  Well, a walk-in precipitated by the Consciousness, was awfully cheap.  Except for all the money I spent on upgrades to take advantage of the situation, that didn't work.  I must remember that I'm a global power now.  I can take Secret Projects away from, for instance, the Cult.

Details small holes

small holes

How do you usefully terraform a lake?  Why not with a flying ship.  I seem to be having an awful lot of trouble getting around to sailing my former fleet to the other side of my continent, and they've got plenty to do on their side of things for the time being anyways.

Details starvation tactic

starvation tactic

I've begun shelling the last Caretaker annoyance city.  Unfortunately I'm doubting I can starve them out, due to the 3 food in the city square proper.  However if I reduce it to size 1, can I wipe it out when I conquer it?  That would be a good result, as I definitely don't need another city in this crowded water.  I'll bring the transport around to block that last water square.

Details ultimate terraform

ultimate terraform

This is how capitalists do it.  Abuse the planet, then just put a big shell around it to cool it off!  Actually it only works to a point.  Fortunately our level of industrialization, still fits within these parameters.  I can only undertake this action every 20 years.  We will be dropping 333 meters, which actually can have its own annoyances here and there.  However I expect Aki will just heat it up again.

Details going to space

going to space

I can now get in on the space race too, if I want to.  However my diplomatic priority would be eliminating the Usurpers.

[bvanevery]

Details gates mean nothing to us now

gates mean nothing to us now

MY 2354.  We exist out of time and place, and can walk through walls.

Details unbelievable

unbelievable

But we can't kill a single !#@$#!$$ Isle with our ridiculously @#$!##! expensive R-Bolt Battleship!  Do you have any idea how long it took to produce that thing??!?  Nevermind sailing it to your little hellhole??

Details the mark II

the mark II

In true capitalist fashion, we drag in some empath consultants to make this thing work properly.  We throw the anti-air guns on the scrap heap, as no air force has ever challenged us.  It's best to design for your actual enemy.

Details mark III after more consultants

mark III after more consultants

Our war planners are pretty unhappy with the usual transit times around our continent.  They point out that this is an assault ship, not a sustained voyager or pleasure cruiser.  We could do without any scans of our waters, long as we attack quick enough.

Details modernization

modernization

We upgrade our existing pork barrel project in progress, as well as a floating older ship that's seen no action.

Details note the paradrop icon at Vision Sound

note the paradrop icon at Vision Sound

Orbital insertion makes any jump distance trivial.

Details preparing for rematch

preparing for rematch

We cautiously start shelling the base afterwards, not wanting to take a post-insertion attack penalty.

Details ancient tragedy

ancient tragedy

We haven't seen a fungal pop in quite some time.  Must be our burgeoning population.  Or maybe that tectonic missile we set off?  We lost our venerable Unity Rover fighting the good cause.  We bring our single captured mindworm forward to the defense.  We need more anti-mindworm planning, as we just don't have the Elite Synth garrisons running around like we used to.

Details right sizing the reactor

right sizing the reactor

Enter the Empath Recon Tank, a fairly simple weapon we could have engineered awhile ago.  We simply had no need.

Details being cheap

being cheap

Since we have minerals to spare and this is for home defense, we design a clean version of it.  However in the 1 city we can produce it, it will take 2 turns to build instead of 1.  Most of the 2nd year's minerals would be wasted, so we just build the gas guzzler version.  We could send it on a mission to pick up that supply pod to the west of our empire.

[bvanevery]

Details this has to die now

this has to die now

MY 2355.  I cannot conceive of this attack failing.  I can conceive of it doing our ship a lot of damage.  And having to go back to port, and heal, and it taking a long time to liquidate the defenders.  But let's just see how it goes.  40% damage.  This won't be over soon.  If we had completed the Dream Twister, it would be easier, but it's an expensive project.

[bvanevery]

Details the creaking wheel of democracy

the creaking wheel of democracy

MY 2356.  I have seen many changes in my democratic rule of Planet.  Yes, my rule.  I am immortal, in the sense that nothing natural will kill me.  I am also ubiquitous, in the sense of many copies of myself surrounding me.  Yet I am still who I am, and the people vote for me.  I have so many ways of manipulating their votes, that their freedom is almost a ruse.  Almost, because everyone else is still subject to displacement.  But not me.

Details orbital strategy

orbital strategy

We have finally garrisoned ourselves against any probe incursion by our trustworthy allies, the Cyborgs.  Holding the most advanced technology on Planet, is a great responsibility.  It must be used wisely and judiciously.  Over the decades we have declined a number of technological avenues, because they would bring us ultimately to darkness.  I am proudest that our Planet Busters have merely functioned as mild symbolic deterrents.  We have built no arsenal.  We also refrained from liquidating the Aliens with horrible genetic plagues, when it was well within our power to do so.

Details a sample of their greatest power

a sample of their greatest power

At a policy meeting of the war cabinet, the final fate of the Usurpers has been decided.  They are, frankly, backwards.  A simple police enforcement action, should be sufficient to end their diplomatic disruption and finally unite Planet.  It is not even necessary that we conquer their bases.  Only that their bases are conquered.  By someone.  Anyone.  Any human, that is.  We need merely depopulate their centers, and hopefully one of many actors, will simply walk right in.

Details the unit to end all wars

the unit to end all wars

We plan nothing fancy for them.  Nothing too expensive.  We just don't want any surprises from the occasional indigenous life form anymore.  The Usurpers are our neighbor, and transit times to the front, should be well within war tolerance.  We need no special factories, no additional facilities.  Just an endless rotation of police enforcement vessels, will do this final job.

Details command performance

command performance

We don't expect much from these weapons.  They may be good for killing 2 of the accursed Isles.  We know that the Usurpers do not favor a relationship with Planet, as their antagonist countrymen did.

Details the Cult cannot prevail

the Cult cannot prevail

Our mastery of the... hollowness of the human mind, assures that no disruption to our agenda is reasonably possible.

[bvanevery]

Details amazing country bumpkins

amazing country bumpkins

MY 2358.  All that time sniffing and snorting about the fungus, has allowed our one human adversary, the one malcontent, to master a technology that we have not.  An organic orbital minerals mining process, no less!  How did they do it.  I suppose the dilemma of a sycophantic foreign policy is you can't be all things, let alone all people.

Details tremendous growing weath

tremendous growing weath

We scarcely need the massive number of credits we're pulling in.  And this, without a single orbital facility, only one model Hybrid Forest in our capitol, and barely a single Soil Enricher completed.  Not to speak of the horrid thermal boreholes!  Capitalist though we may be, we are a model of sustainability.

Details bread and circuses

bread and circuses

Consequently, the dividend shall go to the people.  We enter our truest golden age.

[bvanevery]

Details co conspirator

co conspirator

MY 2359.  We meet our tree-chopping ally Morgan at sea, on our way to stealing valuable Cultish intelligence.  He points out the flaw in our enforcement plan.  We are not actually at war with the Usurpers.  Well why the hell not?  We acquiesce to his perfectly reasonable demand, feigning all manner of slight resistance to the principle.  Wouldn't do having him think too hard, about our final bid for power.

Details begone nuisance!

begone nuisance!

They built no goodwill over the years, refusing to leave.  The odds using our mindworm are deceptive.  We crush them easily.

Details cooked goose

cooked goose

Morgan's imploration timely coincides with the release of our 1st enforcement gravship.  It has tremendous range.  It can wipe an undefended base in seconds.  When the ocean spray settles, we listen to their fearless leader.  Whether he has in any way, contemplated unconditional surrender.

Details babbling about thought control

babbling about thought control

Really this obsession is unbecoming.  Perhaps you should have considered people control or voting booth control.  I don't think we'll need to speak again.  We can always give these Aliens one last chance before final reckoning.

Details double play

double play

And this is with just 1 craft.  So many more to come.

Details pork BBQ

pork BBQ

We simply have nothing reasonable to spend money on anymore.  Even our favorite ineffective boondoggle gets the completion.

Details it's tough

it's tough

Our war planners clamor for a much faster, cheaper, garrison only ship, to hold or starve any Usurpers we care to.  It's cheap by our standards.  It'll certainly hold up to any conventional attack, and we don't think the Cult can field many Isles this far from their home waters.  Even if they do, we will have quite an umbrella of R-Bolts to wipe them out.

Details lead weight

lead weight

This armor needs prototyping.  It is surprisingly heavy and expensive to put into a land unit.  We're not exactly sure why.  It is so bad, that we will never prototype such a design.

[I'm not sure I have any modding variables at my disposal that will remedy this.  Ship armor is steeply discounted, perhaps improbably so, and I think the formula is baked into the game binary.]

Details conservation

conservation

We already had a unit in progress at our Skunkworks.  We design something more expensive that will not waste our committed minerals.

Details dancing in the streets

dancing in the streets

We still make far more money than we need, so once again, we pay the people.  We've always been afraid that if we don't get rid of our cash, we'll just lose it in a market meltdown.  Our bean counters have never been sure just how reasonable that fear is.