Iconian Refuge AAR

Postscript: Morale is missing the +20% bonus purchased at 3 ability points. Also I suspect the +20% bonus social production is not added to the 24mp in the SUMMARY since that would have resulted in 9iu (24mp*1.2=28.8mp;28.8mp*.33=9.504mp or 9iu). Does any one else experience this?

Continuing on 1 JAN 2226:


FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT:

Income: Expenses:

Taxes: 32bc Research: 5bc
Tourism: 4bc Colony Maintenance: 1bc
Total: 36bc Total: 6bc


NOTES:

Currently Research is 6 weeks for my 1st project. This is unsatisfactory at my current game setting. Looks like I will have to tweak my sliders to maximize my bonuses and minimize my numerous disadvantages. First, I adjust spending to 100% production capacity. My income remains unchanged, however, I notice my expenses have increased as follows:

Research: 8bc
Colony Maintenance: 1bc
Total: 27bc

This leaves me with a Net Income of 27bc starting the GAME! I certainly can't complain when most of my games I start my first turn losing money. Unfortunately the AI has me beat in leaps and bounds. looking at my reasearch I now see 4 weeks. Good but I need better. I adjust my tax rate to just barely maintain 100% approval and observe that my limit is 39% - not bad but I'm wondering about my missing morale. My planetary details screen only shows a +25% morale bonus that my civ capital generates. That means I have lost my 3 points I invested in morale and to make matters worse I see an ugly purple swatch on the minimap probably meaning the AI opponent is the Yor. I am outmatched in the rush phase point for point. My only advantage is strategic placement - I have the majority of worlds closest to me. I can not afford all factories or all labs specialization in this situation. I will have to balance my sliders to achieve the best of both, as well as use a few unconventional strategic decisions. I adjust my spending sliders as follows:

military rate: 0%
social rate: 54%
research rate: 46%

I also rush buy my manufacturing capital on my single bonus (100% manufacturing bonus) tile inorder to get the additional production bonus a capital improvement produces. I also que up a Basic Research Lab, which shows a disappointing 8 weeks to completion. Looking at my new planet SUMMARY I observe the following:

Maintenance: 1bc (unchanged)
Food: 12mt/wk (unchanged)
Economic Bonus: +10% (due to manufacturing capital)
Industry: 49mp (due to the 24mp generated
by my manu capital on the
bonus tile)
Industry Bonus: +25% (due to manufacturing capital)
Influence Bonus: +30% (unchanged)
Research: 24tp (unchanged)
Morale Bonus: +25% (unchanged)

My FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT is now the following:

Income: Expenses:
Taxes: 42bc Social: 16bc
Tourism: 4bc Research: 11bc
Total: 46bc Colony Maintenance: 1bc
Bonus Production/Research: 1bc*
Total: 29bc

My Net Income: 17bc
Xeno Research changed from 4 to 3 weeks
Basic Lab changed from 8 to 4 weeks

Looking at my minimap I observe 2 additional star systems located with in my sector: Paulos and Gladstone

Gladstone I is a class 18 world so I select it as my destination for my colony ship. I now observe an undocumented +1 speed resulting in a projected arrival of 3.5 weeks. I set my survey vessel to auto survey and my mining vessel to automate and forget about them while I plan my rush strategy.

*Analysis:
I have discovered my +20 social production bonus as well as an exploit involving bonus production. My colony Management Screen displays:

Military: 0 Income: 42bc
Social: 19 Spending: 28bc
Research: 11 Maintenance: 1bc

I have discovered that my manufacturing capital military bonus is being added to my social production. My social bonus is also present, presumably because it must be high enough to generate 1 charged bonus production in my financial management screen. My social production should be 16*1.2=18mp(1mp free+1mp charged bonus). But looking at my social que I observe 19 vs 18mps ergo, +1mp bonus military production from my tech capital. Looking at the SUMMARY screen shows a difference of 18 mps between placing a capital on my bonus tile vs placing a factory. At this point that difference is mute. However, when I later produce a power supply and put it on a tile, my base production will be significantly higher (3x) with a capital on the bonus tile, resulting in much more production later than if I used the bonus for a factory improvement. (Those 2 improvements together will allow me the LUXURY of focusing future improvement construction on labs, as well as significantly reduce my rush expenses. This is now critically important, since my +20% economic bonus for being a Federalist government appears to be missing.) I will need to focus military production on rush building and development of my economy resource. My Xeno Research project will complete 1 week prior to establishing my colony at Gladstone I. Currently my Basic Lab will complete the same time my colony is established. I can project 12bc maintenance for the new colony, leaving me a surplus 5bc per turn while I construct another colony ship ferry population to Gladstone I. I would need to research New Propulsion Techniques and Ion Drive to reduce the commute to 2 weeks. However, my Civ Management Screen shows me my home world is capable of being developed a maximum of 10 tiles with Terraforming to PQ24. Because of the colony rush I will need to decide an appropriate research path AFTER colonizing Gladstone I. In general I do not research techs over 5 weeks during rush phase unless they have a ROI (Return On Investment) that justifies the expense. Researching Xeno Research will increase basic lab production to 8tp at an expense of +1bc for a total cost in maintenance of 2bc. That means my total industry will be 79 points leaving research at 38% (30tp) of total industry and military/social at the remaining 62%. After the new colony is established this adds +12mp and +12tp to total industry, increasing total industry to 103 points with the new ratio of 41% research vs 59% military/social. This will increase my expenses with a Basic Lab and the new colony to a projected 19bc ( a basic lab increases production by 6tp and maintenance by 1 tp resulting in 30tp research for New Iconia which translates into 13.8tp, at a 46% research rate, or +2tp in my planetary research que for Iconia (1+2=3bc charges). The new colonies will typically add ~12bc expenses until the population grows to a sufficient level to support itself. New colony production is projected at +2mp social/military and +2tp research adding an additional 4bc expenses at my current slider configuration. At that point I will have to readjust my sliders and re-evaluate my situation. Hopefully anomolies will contribute some additional cash, but that remains to be seen. I will need to verify my projected expenses vs actual expenses after establishing my colony to correct any deviations and/or account for unexpected differences, (like will my +20 economic Federalist government bonus ever kick in or am I just screwed) ... Currently my Civ Management Screen indicates planetary net income at 14bc while my Financial Management screen indicates 13bc net +4bc Tourism for a total of 17bc. Hopefully this will mean my planetary federalist bonus is currently insufficient to be used. However, I confess that this is quite a stretch. Realisticly, I expect that my current +60% economic bonus is not utilized fully and that I'm actually not even using its full potential as of yet. Only time will tell...but I already feel the screw turning and I haven't even finished turn 1! At some point in the future I expect to research Intersteller Republic where my Federalist bonus is expected to actually begin showing up. I had expected my +20%morale bonus to compensate for the delay however it is missing in action requiring me to change my plans. I wish I had know this in advance so I could have invested in a research bonus instead. Wasting 32% of my ability points was not on my adgenda trust me.


THUS ENDS TURN 1

I think you went into WAYYYYYYYY too much detail. @_@

This AAR is for those who crunch numbers or want to. It is not necessary to play the game this way. The're many other strategies. I simply thought that after reading Wyndstar's Altarian AAR that some players may benefit from such indepth analysis - a carry over from playing USCF Chess I guess ...  besides I have played suicidal with the Iconians and won before, so I wanted to show how I did it. I don't have internet at home so I can't post Megaverse games ... this detail proves what I can't do any other way - which is play a game with factories and labs and still get sufficient use of both facilities - not say all labs or all factories isn't good or useful but rather that some races like the Iconians require a flexible strategy to win ... i.e. maximize your advantages and minimize your losses.

8 January 2226

After 1 turn of movement my survey vessel investigates a meteorite in the outskirts of the Gladstone System revealing the entire system. I now see all 5 planets, 3 asteroids, and 2 wormholes. I now know the following:

Gladstone I (class 18)
Gladstone II (class 0)
Gladstone III (class 12)
Gladstone IV (class 0)
Gladstone V (class 8 radioactive)

The 3 asteroids are near Gladstone III on the far side. I decide to deactivate autosurvey since I do not need to investigate the worm holes. I set a new course for a meteorite in the Paulos System. I can now see 3 of the 5 planets:

Paulos I (class 0)
Paulos III (class 0)
Paulos IV (class 19 minor civ capital)

Investigating the Gladstone meteorite increased my economy by +1%, however, I immediately saw a +1bc tax increase suggesting some interesting possibilities ...

Previously my population was 8B with a tax rate of 39%, garnishing 42bc per turn in taxes. My racial economic bonus is +60% and my industrial economic bonus is +10% resulting in a total +70% increase in my taxable income. This means that 42bc/1.7=24.70bc per 8B; and 8B/24.70=1bc per ~324M population at a tax rate of 39%. Thus my maximum income at 100% tax rate would theoretically be ~39.75bc for my home world New Iconia with a population of 8B. To see an increase of +1bc with only +150M population and +1% economy bonus is not possible. 150M population is only a ~54% increase in the required ~324M pop (i.e. ~.003bc per 1 pop). Instead of a ~.45bc increase I see instead 1 bc meaning each pop is paying about 121% more than expected or +61% economic bonus +20% Federalist bonus + 40% morale bonus - which I strongly suspect.
I have designed several new ships for small and cargo hulls. When Ion drive is researched I will build a colony transport vessel capable of moving 1B population to Gladstone I. In my current position I can discover Xeno Research next turn if I move my sliders to 100% research or build my Basic Lab next turn if I move my sliders to 100% social. Since I already planned to build the lab I will move my sliders to 100% social, allowing me to discover Xeno Research the following turn on schedule as well as leave enough military production to que a small colony ship with a 6 turn build. My initial colony will only have 100M colonists and therefore will require supplementation for the population inorder to make it cost effective. I will need to upgrade my Basic Lab the following turn and will retain my previous prior ship production, as long as it remains in the que, while upgrading my lab. At this point things are looking better than expected.

slabster,

I like the hard analysis, which is missing from my AARs. This helps me understand and de-black-boxify the game. I have to admit I’ve been a bit lazy in ferreting out the mechanics of the game so your work is appreciated. It’s like deconstructing GalCiv2!

My only suggestion is to use more paragraphs, spaces, and bullets to break up the text a bit and divide the major subsections/topics. This might be especially helpful when you dive into the nitty gritty of the production, which I've really enjoyed so far. Perhaps it would be useful to segregate the math calcs as breakout bullets?

Also, the Iconians have gotten a bad reputation, so taking them on will be illuminating!

Hydro

I'm really enjoying this too - thank you for going into so much detail! I loved Wyndstar's Altarian AAR, and the strategies detailed are extremely effective, but I look forward to reading about how to succeed without going all labs or all factories so I can learn how to be more flexible!

Thanks guys ... I was beginning to think I was wasting my time doing this analysis. It takes me about a week to do a move this way. I had thought of doing a second write up on this game after its done ... a fantasy write up for the kids to enjoy  

Hi!

Are you sure you're crunching the numbers in the right way?

Can you confirm your manufacturing capital generates additional bonus to production from 100% production bonus tile it is built on? I can't and it never did.
Can you confirm the military production is added to social without using focus? I can't.
How do you know the +20% "undocumented" bonus (that you get from two starting techs BTW) for social production is not given, when you produce nothing social?
On what you base your statement "Morale is missing the +20% bonus purchased at 3 ability points.", when you don't know how the planetary approval is calcualted?

I'm sorry but "crunching the numbers" is not for posting rows and rows of data used for crunching, but for posting MODELS behind the numbers. Models, that other players can use to better understand game mechanics and improve their playing style.

FYI quite a lot of internal game working has already been explained. You may find usefull the following topics: Production explained - how various bonuses apply, NLC's and Industrial Sectors broke my economy, where approval and morale working are fully explained, and DA - producing money - a testbed results.

And BTW AAR stands for After Action Report, not for the "two-page analysis of turn 1" report.

BR, Iztok

Dear Iztok,

Thank you very much for your indepth and informative response. I appreciate the very useful links you have included, which I read along with the wiki   I keep a journal of my game satistics so I can compare previous games. As I mentioned above in my quote, I am uncertain about certain discrepancies (between prior games) which I have observed. Many of my games are having questionable performance issues which I am trying to identify. For example, this current game I was playing is now known to be corrupt. I have had to reload my game and start from scratch because I was using my windows key to switch between the game and my usb drive where I record my wordpad statistics. This has made my game unstable for reasons I can not explain, for example, my world targeted for colonization was swapped with the AI's resulting in me colonizing the AI's world across the galaxy while it colonized mine   Also the base moral for Iconians is +20 not +40 etc...



No I can not verify my results until I have eliminated or otherwise identified all my issues, after which point I am reduced to stastical analysis with a sample size of "9" civs. This means I must "create" 21 different custom civs and begin 30 different games simultaneously inorder to acheive a sample size for Z=30. Then I can record my individual data sets and calculate the mean result for each statistic I investigate. After that, results which are derived within 4 standard deviations are considered to be the "norm" although I must also account for sample biasis, alpha and beta errors.





Yes I whole heartedly agree, however, the relevent data used in pattern recognition are necessarily included for peer review to allow others to check the results as well as point out any other patterns which the author may have "missed".




I agree that my AAR is more indepth than many others, however, the level and scope of detail doesn't necessarily subtract from its usefulness. Especially in focusing attention on certain areas which are ordinarily ignored.

For example:



This has been in existence in every DA game I've started so far. I can not account for its source, however, I have observed this additional free bonus production. Not to complain at all, but I find your comments much more useful when you say "I could/couldn't reproduce that ..." rather than the general this is not what you should be doing ... we all have our own individual reasons as to what and why we play. I find the game mechanics much more interesting to research