Thinking about Pirates

[bvanevery]

Details magnanimous cheat

magnanimous cheat

MY 2147.  This guy's got a lot of nerve.  Especially while standing next to my mindworm!

Details very strange diplomacy

very strange diplomacy

Aside from that really tempting offer you made me before, I'm seriously trying to cut down on the sugar daddy thing.  I'm really trying to remember to kick your ass, m'kay?

Details suitable to your droning on

suitable to your droning on

He coughs up the Drones.

Domai signs a Treaty.  He's got Ethical Calculus but won't trade it.

[bvanevery]

Details oops

oops

MY 2149.  I knew there was something basically wrong with my empire development, but I wasn't sure what.  I've made too many facilities, without the usual slew of Sea Formers to back it up with money.  Not noticeable when you've got tons of cash from exploration.  But I managed to spend it all on various things recently, and now I'm paying the price.  Something will have to be stockpiled, and I may have to sell something.

Details I guess

I guess

I make some changes.  The income readout doesn't seem to automatically adjust from this, so I'll just have to wait until next turn and see if I messed up.

[bvanevery]

Details hi Roze

hi Roze

MY 2152.  Got a neighbor to the southwest.  She signs a Treaty.  I sell her comm to other factions.  I trade some techs with Deirdre in the process.  Nothing I'd call sugar daddy, but now I can go Democratic.  Hmm, my SUPPORT situation is not good right now, and I still need to settle more bases.  So I'll refrain for the moment.

[bvanevery]

Details more neighbors

more neighbors

MY 2168.  Now I know everybody.  I make some money selling comm frequencies.  Amusingly, Lal won't talk to me.  He's the one who actually needs to know everybody!  I doubt anyone else is going to call an election.

I have 4 near-neighbors: the Data Angels, the Peacekeepers, the Morganites, and the University.  That's 4 factions I can readily interfere with.  Somehow, if I can decide how.  Unlike the previous game, I have a well established military presence on the mainland.  2 Command Centers, and now with plenty of minerals to back them up.  As I fear encroachment, I find myself expanding more on coastal land.  The sea, probably I have more time to settle that.

Details future congress

future congress

I have my off-center capitol, Safe Haven, working on the sea colony pods.  At some point I need to move my capital to wherever I think my middle is.  Could be Point Blood.

My neck is hurting a bit, so I'm calling it a night.  Need to get away from the laptop screen.

[bvanevery]

Details occasional shopping

occasional shopping

MY 2179.  Morgan pestered me for war with Lal, but I declined.  I'm buying a tech while he's at it.  I'm low on cash and have almost no income, so this is hardly a shopping spree.

Details southern border

southern border

I am pushing the limit of settlement on -1 EFFIC.  Many cities are getting hostile if they go above 3 pop.  I had intended to settle 1 more city farther down the coast, but Roze's encroachment makes it more logical to just let her have the spot.  I'd have to crowd inland for it, and I don't like that.

Details central border

central border

Instead I will put my last land city in the middle, trying to secure the minerals deposits.  I want to leave enough of a corridor for Lal and Morgan to go to war with each other, without forcing them to tromp over my territory.

Details empirical roundness

empirical roundness

I've been careful to settle my sea bases so that there are no gaps in my territorial claims.  I don't want some cheeky AI deciding to settle in the middle of my empire.  This big gap, I want filled in before I go Democratic.  Might take 3 cities.

Details who is potent

who is potent

After that, I don't really have a plan for how to interfere with Thinker's supply crawler condenser borehole thing.  The Gaians have already completed the Weather Paradigm and so presumably have that jump started.  I've done ok at collecting money, but poorly at collecting Artifacts.  I did capture an Isle at one point, but it didn't survive a fight with another Isle.  This was not going to be a game where I'd bang out the Weather Paradigm.  Not unless I made it an absolute priority like I did my 1st game, and I question whether that's even important.  Although it could slow down 1 AI factions from going quite so crazy quite so early, everyone gets around to boreholes in the timeframe it takes me to establish an empire.

Much of the world is unexplored, by me at least.  My refusal to make allies has given me less visibility than usual.  Since I have not physically seen Gaian cities, I suspect they are very, very far away from me, and beyond my interference.  I don't even know what I'll do with my 4 neighbors.  Fight all of them?  Doesn't that just let the Gaians get gigantic?

I don't feel like I've done anything very specifically wrong this game, but my empire development seems rather slow. 

[bvanevery]

Details finally got probes

finally got probes

MY 2188.  Someone recently completed the Virtual World.  I researched Polymorphic Software myself, which is annoyingly on the way to Adaptive Doctrine.  So after this trade, I should not need Discover focus anymore.  Only recently did I realize the annoyance of needing to research Industrial Automation, a Build tech, to get to Doctrine: Initiative.  I'm used to my own modding work, where the research foci are stringently separated as to effects, rather than being a bunch of sprinkled and changing barriers.

Details I'm a great explorer

I'm a great explorer

I don't think this counts as sugar daddying.  I do know more about the world than other factions, and it is typical for factions to trade techs for maps in the early game.

Details stay focused

stay focused

Either the Planetary Transit System will be completed and I'll just buy Industrial Automation, or I'll steal it.  I won't research it.

[bvanevery]

Details time to trade

time to trade

MY 2191.  Now, who will do it?

Details the hole

the hole

In the course of settling my bases, I needed  Rec Commons immediately, so that I could better deploy my already made garrisons later.  I already have mild SUPPORT problems and they're gonna get worse when I go Democratic.  It's not time to make new units.  This left me without enough cash to explicitly buy Industrial Automation, and possibly is the basis for a few factions refusing me.  I haven't tried to trade with everyone yet though.

My last sea base for awhile will go in this hole.  I'm not happy about there being no resources here, but it's what's needed to complete the "small circle" of my empire.

Details such a giver

such a giver

This isn't what I want, but it does get me closer to Advanced Military Algorithms.  I wonder if I'll ever get chemical warfare legalized.  I've consistently failed to do it in previous games.  It's not like the stock binary where factions are sometimes just randomly into it.

Lal won't talk to me.  Roze wouldn't trade anything.  Deirdre is the last port of call.

Details well hell yeah!

well hell yeah!

I thought I'd have to figure this out myself, but if you want to make it easy for me, I'm all over that!  Is it sugar daddying if a distant faction is too easy with the trades?  Well, Deidre probably doesn't consider this tech very important, and it's not like there's a SP attached to it.  It's way more important to me than anyone else.  Something the AI probably doesn't consider.

She actually does insist on me giving her Optical Computers.  So far, I'm not sugar daddying so much as traditional "trade to everybody" research acceleration.  Given the rate at which Thinker AI factions grow, I'm not too worried about that.  Gotta stay in the game somehow.

Details well she's awfully flush

well she's awfully flush

I suppose she is the long distance world hegemon.   I do need to get to Advanced Ecological Engineering somehow.  Actually, she didn't go for my generous offer and insisted on the more equitable trade.  Then she cut me off.

A flurry of a turn!  Didn't get what I wanted.  But hey, 1 faction research goal completed.  I went back to Morgan and Domai just to see if any of my trades had value to them, but they didn't.

[bvanevery]

Details filled the hole

filled the hole

MY 2193.  I finally have the "small perfect circle" around my capitol.  I put a garrison in it immediately so I wouldn't have to rush a Rec Commons like last time.

Details the transition

the transition

Now I go Democratic.  In this game, it doesn't tick anyone off.  In fact it pleases 2 factions.  My cash flow is a bit steadier now, so I can afford to try to buy Industrial Automation from someone.

Details darned low level techs

darned low level techs

Morgan's got something else in the way of my trading.  And I forgot that paying for Democratic, would put me under 100 credits.

Details funny trading

funny trading

I figure I might as well check on what Domai's selling.  He's willing to part with Environmental Economics, but I have to cough up the dough.  I thought this is what bestowed the Ascetic Virtues, but that's Planetary Economics.

Details before checking workers

before checking workers

So, how much of a benefit is going from -1 EFFIC to +1 EFFIC ?

Details after worker assignment

after worker assignment

A reasonable benefit.  3 of my size 4 bases became happier.  The one in the Garland Crater, maybe they'd be happy if I completed a solar collector on the 4th mineral.  On the other hand, that base is a little bit far from my capitol.  On second thought, no it isn't.  I don't have a distance problem, anywhere.  Must be that +1 EFFIC only does so much against Bureaucracy.  Don't think I'm ready to commit to Green yet though.

What will I do about anybody?  Especially Deidre, the world hegemon.  Free Market is not exactly a policy of intervention.  I'm also remembering she's Governor.  With the Weather Paradigm, she could really be building up into quite a monster!

[Induktio]

So what is your exact Windows version?

Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H2, OS Build 19044.1415.  14 year old laptop with Intel integrated graphics.

It would be more likely if the launcher either worked or failed, it just doesn't make much sense that it would operate "randomly" in that fashion.

Seemingly semi-random, as it will finally work within 5 tries at the most.  Although, the 1st failure is not random at all.  It always fails.  The random part, is whether it takes usually 2 or 3 tries to get going.

Did you check the task manager if there's additional terranx.exe processes opened in the background?

I didn't happen to check.  Currently as I play today, there's only terranx.exe.  I will wait until the next time I kill the game and try to remember to notice.  I think the behavior, is almost like it's required to have a stray copy, to get working.

Also it is weird to need to run it as admin, as I don't recall ever making any kind of setting to have that happen with WTP.  If I don't run as admin, it won't work at all.  I get an error dialog box about it not being able to start up.

Which error message do you get when trying to start it as non-admin? Again, it should not fail without admin privileges because the launcher is explicitly set to not require any UAC elevation at startup. It should not perform any function that requires admin privileges, at least on my Windows version. It does patch the terranx.exe binary in memory before starting it, but it seems unlikely this would cause the issue. Usually Windows APIs are supposed to be consistent across versions, but it seems it's clearly not the case here. Unless somebody can share some insight into Windows internals here, it might be necessary to install that Windows version to try to replicate the issue. The newest mod version did not change anything regarding the launcher, so it's still an open issue.

[bvanevery]

Details starting without running as administrator

starting without running as administrator

Does the game have some kind of debug output when it runs into a well-controlled circumstance like this?

[Induktio]

Okay, that dialog tells that the error happened in thinker.exe in one of the 6 different calls related to terranx.exe process creation. So most likely the process did not start at all. The title bar in dialog box is "Thinker Mod" without any version suffix if it's displayed by thinker.exe instead of terranx.exe. Alas, there is not any additional debug reporting in thinker.exe. Only the game engine uses debug.txt when the actual game process happens to crash. That crash handler is a feature provided by thinker.dll.

[bvanevery]

I would note that Will To Power mod uses terranx_mod.exe to start up, has no issues, and requires no elevation.  So, something has diverged as to what you 2 are doing.  Or, my specific system has accumulated some kind of information about terranx_mod.exe, that has not been accumulated about thinker.exe.

I could try installing both, fresh, on a completely different machine.  Not necessarily a different Windows version though.

[bvanevery]

Choosing Run As Administrator, I just got a brand new error after having some Windows update stuff run on my laptop.  It may be that Windows is now making the nature of the error more explicit.

Details new error after some Windows updating

new error after some Windows updating

My system is reported as Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H2, OS build 19044.1466.  The OS build number has increased.

Running more times, this dialog box does not always come up.

My laptop has 4 GB RAM.  How much RAM does your computer have?  Do you allocate a lot of RAM for something?

[Induktio]

> Choosing Run As Administrator, I just got a brand new error after having some Windows update stuff run on my laptop.  It may be that Windows is now making the nature of the error more explicit.

That is a very strange error and it's displayed by vanilla game engine, not any Thinker related code. It's caused by some code in Win::update_back_to_window function. It's probably not related to memory allocation per se, rather accessing some invalid memory pointer causing a segmentation fault. I don't remember anyone ever reporting a similar error before. Thinker's memory footprint is extremely small for modern computers, maybe ~20 MB.

Many other people already reported the launcher working for them, including when using Wine. Otherwise I wouldn't have made it the default. IMO it's better because all build artifacts are reproducible from the same source plus then there's the copyright reasons. So far it's still possible to use old terranx_mod.exe to also launch new Thinker versions but this may not necessarily be true for future versions.

[bvanevery]

Details the trade barrier

the trade barrier

MY 2195.  I went shopping with Roze.  After paying her 100 credits for Environmental Economics, she offered me the tech I really wanted.  It's a pity that she's not infiltrating other factions competently.  She shouldn't actually have to bow and scrape to get this stuff.  This is why in my mod and WTP, we changed the faction so that it automatically receives techs known by 3 others.  Infiltration not required.

Details the cruiser combo

the cruiser combo

This should get me to Doctrine: Initiative faster.