Which ones?

Seriously, I always have several going on at any given time.

Hey Neilo!  Hey qrtxian!     

You have a good one going there Neilo.  You're doing a lot more nuance customization than I am.  It looks like an immersive game.

For those who don't know me, I'm an old scoremonger converted to the actual gaming experience too.  The scoring part was fun while it lasted, but the soul of the game gets sucked out when you get too far into it.

I have a vanilla Torian game going now.  Dark Avatar, Suicidal, 9 AI, 8 Minors, Gigantic Map, Abundant everything, Very Fast Tech.

The strategy is "all labs", which is a misnomer.  There's at least one lab on every planet and no factories.  The rest of the buildings are financial, farms and the occasional galactic wonder/super project/trade goods.  My sliders are set to 100% Research, 0% Social and 0% Shipbuilding.  Focus is set to Social.

I've imposed the following limits on myself:

I can't trade my ships for anything.  (I can take ships in trade from the AI, but can't offer any back to them).

I can't trade peace for anything. 

I can't build the Spin Control Center and if I get one from conquest, I can't park any ships under it.

Any warship taken in trade from the AI must be converted to a non-warship or scrapped.  (This is a recent limit that I set when my military standing got too high and the AI was treating me too nicely).

I can only have two warships of my own except for unarmed troop transports and lightly armed survey ships.  I'm looking at disarming the survey ships, since weapons aren't coming into play for them anyway.

My closest enemy was the Drengin at the start.  The Thalans expanded quickly and became the closest before long.  I built up my economy and traded techs for cash, planets and ships as well as I could.  The Torians aren't as well equipped as the Terrans are in Diplo, but I was able to get a few goodies to help me along.

I found 3 Minor races early on and that helped a lot.  My economy was falling below the -500 mark on occasion and the Minors helped me get out of the rut.  The Major AIs weren't dealing as well at the beginning and I was just squeaking by.

My research was going very well with me being ahead in most of the techs and the AI only being ahead in extreme colonization and a few weapons techs.  They also got invasion tech long before me, but they don't get in any hurry to use it.

I took the evil option whenever it presented itself.  That got me some research bonuses and a couple of small planet quality boosts.  There weren't many options coming up, so they weren't a lot of help.

After I got Xeno Ethics, I was so far in debt that I could go evil without having to pay for it.  It showed up as costing 10k, but my economy didn't reflect it.  At least there was a silver lining to the dark cloud of deficit spending.

Once my economy recovered, I decided to build my two warships.  I wanted them to be huge hulls from the start, so I focused my research there.  They were basic ships with Psionic Beams and stuffed full of Ion Drives.  I figured I could upgrade them later.  I then realized that I should have built them using the building that gives +1 speed to any ship built on that planet.  Oops.  I built the building on Toria and "upgraded" my warships to fast, but unarmed Survey Ships.

My plan was to declare war on the weakest AI, the Iconians.  That plan was scrapped when the Thalans flipped 2 of my planets with their influence.  I built my ships and killed one of their colony ships, automatically declaring war at the same time. 

The Thalans were relentless in their invasion attempts, but they weren't real successful.  They only took 1 planet out of maybe 20-30 attempts.  In the meantime, they were depleting themselves of population and money.  I took a planet at a time and kept building my ship experience for my 2 fighters.  It took a while, but the Thalans fell.  

The Arceans decided that they wanted some and declared war on me.  They were much weaker than the Thalans and didn't put up much of a fight.  My planet count was soaring and my economy went into overdrive.  I was researching techs at  an increasing rate too.

By this time, I had all research and economy treaties from the remaining AIs and all Minors.  I had sent freighters to everyone, but it was getting way too peaceful.

The Drengin and Drath showed up as "Hostile" on the relationship charts, but they weren't going to war with me.  I decided to try to goad the Drath into declaring war.

I removed my trading route from them, but they had one with me as well.  I switched on the Trade Embargo with them to kill that and started spamming influence starbases in their territory.  Still, they wouldn't declare war.  My military level was the weakest on the charts, but something was keeping them from coming at me.  I went as far as to get them to make peace with everyone else and went to the stronger AIs and bribed them to make peace with the Drath.  Still, no war.

I finally attacked their flagship and went to war.  The Altarians immediately declared war on me, so I guess they were friends with the Drath.

As it stands now, the Drath and Altarians think they're winning.  I've taken roughly half of the Drath planets and haven't gotten to the Altarians yet.  I only have the two fighters, so it takes some time to get from planet to planet.  

My warships are now nicely equipped with doom rays and 300+ armor and their experience is up to level 5 and 7.  The AI are still trying to hit me with bullets, which I traded to them.  I didn't trade any shield tech and they're using heavy armor and medium missile defense.  Almost nothing to defend against my beam weapons.  

I've been using the old upgrade to the same type of ship ploy to repair after being damaged.  This is where you have 2 identical designs and upgrade from one to the other when you need to repair.

I made another little mistake that I didn't catch for a while.  This one had to do with the economic penalty when you have too much cash.  I forgot that it happened at 20k and was spending down to 25k to try to avoid it.  It was several months before I checked my economy and saw my mistake.  Oops again.

I started paying off my leases to get my cash down quickly.  I'm now running low on leases and the remaining ones are much cheaper to pay off than they were at the beginning.  Buying buildings on my planets is getting tedious, so I might just have to take the penalty.

It's the middle of year 2 and counting.

Ditto.  Autohotkey was nice when we were running 32bit XP and going full screen on the game.  Going windowed makes it limited in its usefulness and I haven't even downloaded it to my current gaming machine.  I wouldn't  care to reprogram it if I downloaded it either.

I'm using social focus with 100% research, so building out Stock Markets takes some time.  I had to buy them at first, just to get my economy going.  Now, I don't really need them.

The Drengin are the strongest on paper and they outgun me at least 100 to 1 on the charts.  Probably more.  It'll take some time to chop them up.  Of course, with only 2 ships, I appear weaker than any remaining AI.  Even the Drath look stronger than me and they're just months away from falling.  The Altarians might not have much going for them either.  They haven't sent a single ship to challenge me since declaring war.

Did I mention that I took all of the Minors out?  Once I got into war mode, it was easy to roll over them.  PQ19 planets with room for 16b colonists each?  Not bad.  One of them had a second planet too.  I don't remember which one it was.  It's rare to see a minor colonize.

I'm already thinking of my next game, even though this one isn't close to over.  It might have the two capital ships with some expendable escorts in a fleet.  That would be more realistic than having two monsters running around alone.  Maybe I should limit my next game to two fleets instead of two ships.  

Or maybe I should finish this game before thinking about my next one.   

It probably was them.  They must have gotten a ship in trade form an AI.  The 2nd planet was already there when I met them.  Kind of makes me want to gift several fleets of colony ships to them and see how strong they can get, just for grins.

Yeah, I think I saw a post about something along those lines recently too.  It might be an interesting ride.

My Torian game is progressing slowly.  The Drath are spread around a bit and it's taking a while to clean up.  I split my two fighters to let them divide and conquer on opposite sides of the galaxy.  It's year 3 and the Drath will be around for a while.

I finally got a hit from the Altarians.  A single transport wasted itself on a remote planet.  Nothing of note there, but my fighter on that side of the galaxy took out a couple of their errant fleets traveling through Drath space.  The Altarians seem to be in it with the Yor and are in the process of wiping them out.  It sucks to be Yor.

The Korx have seen fit to declare war with me now too.  They're stronger than the Drath and Altarians were combined when the current scuffle started.  They're not as strong as the Krynn or Drengin, but they're far from weak.  Things might be getting a little more interesting soon.  

Neilo, Motti... just reading how much fun the two of you are having has got me all juiced to start a new game!

Here's my set-up:

ToA (2.03) (Metaverse)

Immense galaxy

stars - scattered

planets - abundant

extreme worlds - rare

events - occasional

Opponents - 6, minors (8?)

tech stealing (disabled), tech brokering (disabled)

research - slow

Playing as the Terrans with Federalists as the political party of choice.

I've also decided rightly or wrongly to try the next level up from "tough" (my comfort zone), which I believe is "painful".

My plan is to go evil, get the MCC as early as possible and get all of the influence, diplo techs and see how that plays out.

Should be interesting to say the least! I'll try to keep you posted, but being that it's an "Immense" map, these kind of games take me quite a while to complete.

Actually I'm having more fun reading the play by play of your games... I think mine will be quite dull by comparison.

See what the two of you have started!! 

Maybe more will rejoin the fun also, if for no other reason than for a taste of nostalgia.

As for my actual games, as I said earlier, I tend to have a few going on at any given moment. Currently, I've got three games I'm focusing on: the Terran one I'm writing an AAR for, and two others. One, as the Torians, is a thirteen-year-long monster that's still a good way from being over. I'll probably write this one up as a full-scale AAR when it's over and I finish my current one, though I expect it will take a long, long time to fully write up.

The other is as the Krynn. I'm playing on an Immense galaxy against 9 Tough AIs - the Terrans, Drengin, Altarians, Arceans, Torians, Yor, Thalan, Iconians, and Korath - and 6 minors, one of which was a "minor" version of the Korx inspired by the campaigns which was modded to colonize. The others were also modded to colonize, but otherwise left "dumb", while the Korx were "smart". Most of my other mods so far were also incorporated.

I started out in a cluster in the central "south" of the galaxy. The Altarians were directly above me, and the Korath were in the cluster to my left, while the cluster to my right was a border region with the Drengin farther "east". The minor-Korx also occupied my region, and I made early contact with the Terrans and Scottlingas (left of the Korath) when one of my survey ships was sent to their territory by a wormhole.

The early distinguishing point of the game was when the Drengin declared war in 2228, before the colony rush was even over, after I refused them tribute. Our low-tech ships did a bunch of skirmishing in the border cluster - it was mostly inconclusive and peace was declared before either of us got invasion technology, but it set the tone for my policy towards them throughout the game.

After this was over, I went back to developing my planets and colonizing more, making contact with the Torians (in a large cluster to the "north"), Arceans (below the Drengin), and Jessuins (between me and the Torians - they never got off their homeworld). The Terrans, Drengin, and Torians emerged as the leading AIs (the Thalan were also doing well, but I had yet to meet them), while the Arceans were clearly also-rans and fell under immediate attack by the Drengin. The Terrans started attacking the Korx and Scottlingas, eventually wiping out the latter, and the Torians conquered the Akilians before I ever met them. The Korath and Altarians also declared war on the Korx, but were not very successful. I ignored the minor races in favor of the Drengin, who I eventually went to war with again when they attacked the Altarians, who I had allied with by this point.

The war was pretty difficult at first: although the Drengin were at one point simultaneously at war with the Terrans, Altarians, Arceans, Torians, Iconians (though they proved to be at the extreme "north" and were a non-factor) and myself, as well as the Korath supporting us by giving ships, they were actually able to fight us all off. Part of the problem was that they were using two types of weapons: the galaxy had effectively split on weapons research, with the evil races and Thalan using beams while everyone else went with mass drivers. But thanks to TOA tech inflation, at this point the Drengin Super Dominator corvettes were still able to play an effective role, especially against the other AIs, which unfailingly had only one type of defense. I built specialized Corvette Killer ships and used them to whack the corvette fleets, breaking the siege of my border worlds and starting an invasion of Drengin territory. Things went south again when they got Psionic Beams and the Arceans surrendered, but this really hurt their economy and I was able to start conquering their planets in earnest (though they were too large to take out quickly). They also briefly tried to ascend, but their starbases were both destroyed by the Torians. Eventually, they offered peace after I failed to take Drengi. Since the Thalan (who I'd met by now) and Korath were starting to make hostile noises, and the Drengin soldiering was superior to mine, I agreed and decided to conquer them culturally instead.

The next year and a half were largely peaceful, except for combating a few pirates created when the Arceans died. I allied with the Terrans, got all the remaining extreme colonization techs, and met the last unknown major race, the Yor. They'd been weak to begin with, and thanks to sporadic conflicts with the Iconians and Torians had by now been reduced to just five planets, though they were at peace at the moment. The Drengin continued to skirmish with the Terrans and Torians, and the Terrans and Altarians also kept rolling up the Korx. My hopes for an alliance with the Torians were sunk when a random event turned them evil - though I was neutral, I was friendly enough with the other good races that this meant I was very likely to be dragged into a war with them eventually. The Altarians declared war on the Korath after they launched a senseless attack on the Iconians, with inconclusive results. I had improved relations with the Korath by now, and creating a series of trade starbases running through their territory to the Terrans. I also began flipping Drengin planets, though their ex-Arcean worlds were harder to get. The Yor became the recipients of the Precursor Artifact Mega Event, which eventually turned their two best worlds into some of the most powerful factory worlds in the game (though smarter building strategy would have made them even stronger). The Torians began trying to ascend, but were dealt a setback by the arrival of Fundamentalists that also took over Arcea and two Korath worlds (curiously, these were the only ones ever reconquered, though the Torians eventually destroyed the small navy built by the Fundamentalists in their area).

Eventually, I allied with everyone but the Torians, Korath, and Drengin. I conquered the Jessuins for their class 18 planet and was considering a strike against the remainder of the Drengin (already skirmishing inconclusively with the Thalan) when the Terrans invaded the Korath, who collapsed within weeks. This created a swarm of pirates that went after my freighters and economy starbases. I eventually destroyed them all with some help from my allies, without losing a ship - the one pirate fleet that hit one of my starbases before I could intercept it was destroyed by the defenses. By the time the pirates had been eradicated, however, the Torians had declared war on the Iconians. I took them on, and they proved a tough opponent - although both of us had Huge ships by this point, their weapons were vastly inferior towards mine, but they had a lot more ships. My manufacturing and economy is much better, though, so while the war is not over yet, I'm guaranteed to win in the long run. They're far away enough that conquering their planets has proven a nuisance, though.

As for the rest of the galaxy, the Drengin have been destroying fleet after fleet of Thalan, but they're basically broken. I can easily fight them and the Torians simultaneously, but it'd be inconvenient and I'm hoping the culture-flipping will do the trick. The Yor have finally woken up and begun an all-out blitzkrieg invasion of the Iconians and Lentzlandians, conquering five planets on the first week of the war. The Lentzlandians are doomed, but I don't care about them, while the Iconians have stalled further advance for the moment - since they're both my allies, I don't really care about how that ends either. The Korx are finally gone, with the Altarians having conquered their homeworld and I having bought their last planet. Everyone else is my ally and either at peace or fighting the Torians along with me.

Yeah, I guess if they're just going to sit there and drool, I might as well use them up for their economy and take their planets when I'm done with them.

That would be great!  The more, the merrier.    

It looks like you have a long haul game in front of you, particlewave.  I'm looking forward to the details.   

You must do well with multitasking.  I suck at it.  It's a good thing my job needs focus as opposed to flexibility or I'd be getting pretty hungry by now.  

Your game, like particlewave's, looks to be a TA one.  I'm not real familiar with TA, having only played one game a long time ago.  The separate tech trees must be a challenge.

It's starting to make a difference now.  I'm still at it with the Drath.  I thought I'd have had them under the carpet by now, but having only 2 ships slows things down.  

I also ran into some pretty hefty Altarian fleets.  The last one I checked had guns at 800+ with shields at 190+.  My armor is 300+ and hit points on the ship in that area are about 180.  I don't remember my beam strength, but I think it was somewhere around 130.  If I tried to go toe to toe just once, I'd lose 50% of my military.  I'll need to reduce speed and change to missiles while I'm in that area.

This is going to take some finesse.    I might need to revisit the Altarians after I take on someone else with a hyperion shrinker.

It's Jan Year 4 now and the brakes are on.

Not sure about DA, but if you go into the shipyard there is an option to "obsolete" a class of ships.  If you do that, it will ask you if you want to decommission all remaining ships of that class.

I'd join the fun, but the only game I've been playing over the past year has been the Kushana Initiative game. I'm going to start a game with my mod as soon as I release v2.1.

You won't have to destroy them in the end?  I'm asking because in my DA Terran game, I allied with the Drengin and killed everyone else.  I thought the game would end, but it kept going.  I wound up ending the alliance and killing the Drengin.  Are DA and TA different in that sense?  Or maybe I had a setting wrong?

In my Torian game, I paid off all of my leases, so progress slowed down per turn.  It's still early Year 4.  I've killed the Drath off that were in range of my ships and sent the one that was far from Altarian space toward the last few Drath planets.  It just arrived and will begin cleanup shortly.  My other ship is now in Altarian space and I've taken a few of their planets.  (Not all of them had the orbital manager.)  That ship is gaining experience quickly and its hit points are over 190 now.  I've been able to take a couple more Altarian fleets down, but the ship gets damaged quite frequently.  I have to run out of their range and do an inflight repair each turn.

I remembered what to do about the money after wasting a lot of time buying upgrades for my planets and gifting about 100k to the Yor.  In the old days, I just bought huge hulled ships with nothing but engines on board.  The ships cost over 30k each and I was able to dump my excess cash quickly.  I then destroyed the ships and got back around 600 credits each.  With my economy netting 120k+ each turn, I can build and kill a few of these to keep the money situation clean.  Since they're not armed, I'm not compromising my limitations.

I'm thinking that I should probably just take the penalty and save some effort though.

Oh, i took ascend to mean tech victory, i completely forgot there was another victory condition in TA....shows how little i have played it.