Galactic Pacification for Dummies
Lecture the Tenth: 2290-2300
Welcome Class,
I am well aware that on a hot summer day like this it can be stifling to be stuck indoors following the lectures of a boring old professor, long past his prime, which is why I have retracted the roof and opened the doors so you can enjoy the sunlight and, perhaps, a gentle breeze.
On an unrelated note, given the importance of this lecture regarding splitting off vassals and ascending, the ejector seats have been primed. Anybody caught sleeping will be launched into orbit.
Gateways, Trade, and Protection
Before engaging in the major topic of this lecture, let me make some notes about how I use the Gateway network once I start expanding it.
- Anywhere that has shipyard must have a gateway for easy gathering of ships
- The capital – which also serves as the center for the trade network – must either have a gateway or must be connected through a string of adjacent systems with starbases to a system that has a starbase and a gateway; This ensures that all trade gathered by any starbase with a gateway will reach the trade capital without any risk of piracy
- If it is deemed necessary to extend the reach of any starbase for the purpose of collecting a significant amount of trade, upgrade ONE starbase with a gateway to have full trade hub modules and a hyperlane registrar for +7 collection range. Combined with the range of 2 from the starbase itself, this will then extend your collection range to 9 from that one starbase and range 8 from any other starbase
- Alternatively, if only minor amounts of trade are generated by starbases without a gateway, you might want to make one starbase with a gateway into a bastion with 6 hangar bay modules and let local collection continue. A Citadel thus equipped projects 92 trade protection to anywhere within range 5 of any Gateway
- As you continue expanding the Gateway network and concentrating populations on superworlds that probably have a starbase and Gateway of their own you may find that you don't need either a trade or hangar starbase anymore
For the Alarians I have made a virtue out of necessity and turned the starbase in Aspharelle, the old capital of the Chosen on the edge of the Galaxy and home to two Gaia worlds currently under transformation to ecumenopolises into a hangar bastion. If I need to use a bastion at all, the edge of the galaxy is a good a place as any and better than most, due to the theoretical possibility of incursions from beyond leading to a crisis.
I still keep up the old trade-route corvette patrol, partially because of the XP granted from patrolling, but mostly because I forgot to end it and disband the corvettes.
2290: Planning Splitting off Vassals
This is the current situation:
471 districts
259 systems
80 colonies
1533 POPs
1200 empire size
8 vassals
-2.1 monthly loyaly from Dar-Hesh Administration currently being integrated
-0.9 monthly loyalty from the newly subjugated United Huvidu-Zaan Committee with low trust
+2.8 monthly loyalty or better from the older vassals
Given the number of vassals it would be ill advised to create many new areas, but a natural split suggests itself, since I have three large regions planned for splitting off:
- The old Felnoll and Rak-Rak areas in the galactic south. Since the Rak-Rak used to be Librarians until fairly recently, I'll release this area as a Scholarium again with a significant population to take advantage of existing research facilities and provide a strong enough basic and advanced resource base that it can focus on research. With 15 planets and lots and lots of systems providing basic resources, around 200 POPs should do it, mostly Rak-Rak and Fellnoll, of course
- The old Moij-Huxxgan area in the galactic central-south-west, with that lovely size 30 basic resource producing planet, Mistake After All, will become a Prospectorium. At 17 this region has even more planets than the Rak-Rak/Fellnoll region, but it has a lot fewer systems. 100 POPs are needed on Mistake After All, and I have ensured few research labs and plenty of basic resource jobs across the region, so something in the range of 200-250 POPs. That will require adding a few POPs, but most are already in position: Alarians who were born there after I colonized the worlds
- The old Velutarian remnant area in the galactic east have few planets and doesn't amount to much; Most of the population has already been moved to the core worlds for reeducation ; I considered making it part of the Felnoll/Rak-Rak region to save a vassal slot, but that would be detrimental to map aesthetics. So instead I am making it a Bulwark populated mainly by Alarians guarding the eastern Flank, and in a decade or so providing me with the occasional high-level psychic Alarian bulwark commander. The Bulwark Retaliator and Sentinel traits are worth 3 repeatables each, and the Watcher is worth little, but not nothing, as I focus on battleships. Furthermore they only work in friendly systems. So it is not a big edge – but it is an edge. The other bonuses the Bulwark provides are worth little to the Alarain super-stable empire, but again, not nothing.
I know what you are thinking. With one Bulwark amongst 10+ vassals, the external commander recruitment pool will usually contain non-Bulwark commander candidates, and you are right. But you can trade for their own Bulwark-traited commanders, and they will then replace them from their own internal pool. This is a lot more expensive, of course, but it is one way to get an edge. Strictly speaking you just need a 1-system 1-planet Bulwark to provide this, and the simulation will happily support this if you choose to do so, but in real life splitting off non-viable vassals like that tends to cause problems.
Making them into a vassal each will take me to 11 vassals (-9 Divided Patronage penalty), one of which will finish integration in about 48 months, but I intend to split off Dar-Hesh as a new vassal after assimilation and re-education, so that does not change the long-term tally.
The minor Czymian Partnership is up for integration next, and it should easily be possible to maintain loyalty for all except Darh-Hesh (doesn't matter) and United Huvidu-Zaan (can tolerate their disloyalty and give them better terms to start building loyalty later).
I would also love to subjugate the remaining empires within the next decade, the Zelvan Polity, and the Zakly Star Bloc with its two vassals, the Kilik Cooperative and the Velutarian Associated Holdings. The latter two should then be integrated and joined to a greater whole, but one way or the other that is 4 extra vassals during the peak, and two after – or perhaps further consolidation.
For now, however, so long as I give the new vassals good enough terms that they start out with positive loyalty so I can buy a Pledge of Loyalty as well as loyalty to top them up, this should work out well enough.
2290.01.02: Great Recruit
Before starting the split, I welcome Nome up Khnu from the Beldroan Free Confederacy. He lacks the critical unification skills to serve on an ecclesiastical arcology, but he'll do well enough leading researchers on a research ring world, and I'll have some of those soon enough.
2290: Nome up Khnu “the Adequate”
2290: The Split
This is it!
2290: The Rak-Rak Librarians
2290: The Moij-Huxxgan Miners
2290: The Guardians of the Luminary
That worked well enough, but looking at the resulting loyalty numbers I decide to swap Vas the Gilded back on the council to increase maximum loyalty for the next few years.
2290: Calling Vas the Gilded
2290: Vassal Expansion Plans
Now to the fun part of gifting them all the systems in their areas
except a few I reserve for myself:
- Any system with a pre-FTL civilization
- Any system with exceptionally high zro or dark matter deposits
- Neddum, home of the Strategic Coordination Center
- Omnicodex, home of the Omnicodex relic the Fellnoll gave me upon integration and home of a size 25 relic world currently being restored as an ecumenopolis
This takes place as a sequence of trade deals handing over bordering systems, carefully making sure not to hand over any of the exceptions above and, if the vassal controls a wormhole to another part of my domain or a gateway, making damn sure I don't accidentally hand over the wormhole connection or one of the other gateway connections (unless it happens to lie within the the region that is destined to be theirs, in which case it can significantly speed up handing over all required systems).
This I do, and nine month later the split is accomplished. As can be seen the unity and science outputs have taken significant hits, but the empire size reduction definitely makes it worthwhile.
2290: Swiss Chess Approach
2290: Planetary Ascension
The economy has taken a hit from the split, but that is about to change
268 < 471 districts
104 < 259 systems
43 < 80 colonies
1060 < 1533 POPs
708 < 1200 empire size
Now, in an
ideal wide-empire highly ascensionist approach, each planet that is not a fully ascended highly populated worlds should have exactly one POP working a job that is difficult to concentrate on a few worlds, such as a gas, mote, or crystal gatherer, but I am not going that far – or rather, I am not going that far
yet.
In the capital sector I will retain 2 archivists on each planet, and if it has a PSI corps, 2 telepaths as well. They are a major source of engineering science until I get ring worlds up and running.
More generally, I will leave more people working the strategic resource jobs on the planets for now until I start concentrating such jobs on ascended planets with most building slots used for strategic resource production – or switch to buying large amounts of strategic resources with monthly buy orders.
That still leaves at least some 300 POPs to move to the ecumenopolises, which will also allow me to destroy a large number of city districts (and others) currently in use, further reducing empire size.
So let's get cracking. I have two planets ascended to 5 already, Home After all and the Rubricator, and of the two the Rubricator can employ the largest population due to a much larger size and, if I switch its designation to Ecclesiastical, another 25% on top of that for extra priest jobs. So the simple solution is to start by migrating
everybody I intend to end up on an ascended world that isn't on a world I plan to ascend already to Rubricator.
2290: Rubricator, pre-migration: 708 ES: 5>6: 29.7k unity
2290: Rubricator, post-migration: 622 ES: 5>6: 26.1k unity
The 516 POPs on Rubricator are ready to ascend and at a 12.1% discount due to the existing 5 ascensions having reduced the POP empire size of the 315 POPs moved to Rubricator. So that is what I do, and when I have done that, I advance the time by one day such that the cost of ascending from 6 to 7 is based on the new empire size adjusted for 6 planetary ascensions. (This is a limitation of the simulation. In real life, just ascend!)
2290: Rubricator, tier 6: 597 ES: 6>7: 27.2k unity
So I continue doing that, and the 17th of the month Rubricator is fully ascended, and looking at the crime I decide I might as well launch and anti-crime campaign while I remember it.
This is always a good idea in large empires, my students. If high crime ever allows you to launch an anti-crime campaign, do so. The increased upkeep of enforcers is negligible and it reduces the amount of micromanagement needed to deal with crime from then on.
2290: Rubricator, tier 10: 497 ES: Anti-Crime Campaign
Time to ascend the rest of my ecumenopolises as well as those planets currently under conversion to ecumenopolises. Let me start with Midnight Wine, which will eventually become the greatest unity-producer in the empire.
2290: Midnight Wine, tier 0: 497 ES: 0>1: 29.8k unity
Since Midnight Wine has a significant pre-existing population of 104 POPs, if I wanted to minimize the unity cost I should do this one stop at a time, advancing one day to adjust cost, just like on Rubricator. But frankly, I can't be arsed. I probably saved 15-20k unity on the 5 Rubricator ascensions by doing so, but Midnight Wine only has 1/5th of the population.
Next I ascend Efoll Forest.
2290: Efoll Forest, tier 10: 445 ES
Which is when I notice that the Ring World research project, that at the start of the year had an expected 2292.02 or 2292.03 end date, has just been completed, the greatly reduced empire size having cut off 14 or 15 months of the 25 month estimate.
Long story short, I continue ascending the ecumenopolises, moving POPs from Rubricator once they reach tier 10, and this is the result of this wave of planetary ascension.
2290: Ascended Alarians: 293 ES
I have fully ascended the ecumenopolises:
Home After All, Rubricator, Midnight Wine, Efoll Forest, Fen Habbanis Prime, Scion and the planets under conversion to ecumenopolises:
AR24_Sidor_Prime, AR25_New_Light, AR25_Fellnoll's Loss. A total of 90 planetary ascensions, the next one would at this time cost 96.7k unity, so a bit more than 1 million unity for the 10th world to fully ascend if it was done at this empire size.
I certainly won't need further ascensions anytime soon to increase space for POPs on fully ascended worlds, as I have comfortable room for somewhere between an additional 1000 and 1500 POPs on my existing fully ascended worlds, depending on which buildings I choose to build on them and assuming I use the Ecclesiastical designation. The next wave will commence once I have ring worlds for engineering research, and can get afford to get rid of all the unascended POPs working archivist jobs.
2290: Science and Unity Implications
230 < 268 < 471 districts
104 < 104 < 259 systems
43 < 43 < 80 colonies
1060 < 1060 < 1533 POPs
293 < 708 < 1200 empire size
The planetary ascensions have significantly increased the strength of the economy. Not only do I have a greatly reduced tech penalty through lower empire size, I now have much higher science and unity output. But how much is from splitting off vassals and how much is from ascension? Let me take a closer look at the outputs and the research ratios, as always these days calculated without research agreements for normalization purposes.
Start of year:
Unity output: 18834
Science output: 7583/5892/1938
Ratio_field_manipulation = 7583*(1+214%)/(1+165%) = 8985
Ratio_psionics = 5892*(1+194%)/(1+165%) = 6536
Ratio_voidcraft = 1938*(1+196%)/(1+165%) = 2164
The Split:
Unity output: 15393
Science output: 6489/4657/1532
Ratio_field_manipulation = 6489*(1+214%)/(1+103%) = 10037
Ratio_archaeostudies = 4657*(1+194%)/(1+103%) = 6744 // really 294% due to the building, but I have normalized for comparison
Ratio_voidcraft = 1532*(1+196%)/(1+103%) = 2234
Post-Ascension:
Unity output: 20538
Science output: 8124/5758/1302
Ratio_field_manipulation = 8124*(1+214%)/(1+32%) = 19325
Ratio_biology = 5758*(1+194%)/(1+32%) = 12825
Ratio_voidcraft = 1302*(1+196%)/(1+32%) = 2920
As the numbers make clear, while the split by itself helped increase the research ratio by a bit due to the reduced empire size and vassal contributions making up for the loss of priests and researchers to the tune of 3-12% increased research ratio, that is as nothing compared to the increase through ascension that the lower empire size made possible at an affordable cost.
Unity output is up by 12% despite the large number of shed priest and politician jobs in the split, so that's nice too, and consumer goods consumption took a significant hit.
But perhaps the thing that most clearly shows just how powerful planetary ascension is, that here and now, 2291,
it takes only 8 months to research Shield repeatable 5.
WHOOOOOSH! AAAARRRRRrrrrrg...
Somebody must have been sleeping. Have a nice trip.
2291.04.01
The Science Nexus Hub finished construction, and rather than continuing to upgrade the hub, I begin constructing the frame for a Ring World in Impal Tov. Construction of the Mega Shipyard and the Alarian Strategic Coordination Center continues apace.
2291: Put a ring on it!
2292.01.01: Space Storm Thaloth
Due to my reliance on shields, I must carefully map which systems are affected by Thaloth when I am at war, but it can be ignored otherwise.
2292: Unprecedented, you say?
2292-2294: Extradimensional Shenanigans
Remeber that strange crystal sphere that arrived in the capital system, which the Alarians have been busy stuying ever since?
2292: A Rift Creation Device? Who'd have thunk it
Fortunately I have The Neon Bellevue, astral rift explorer extraordinaire with skill 15 and +35% astral rift exploration speed, so it takes a mere 13 months to fully explore the rift.
2293: A Wormhole to Somewhere Else? How nice
This seems potentially ominous, so I dispatch two full battleship fleets to investigate, one under the command of the First Descendant, Unstoppable After All
2293: An Ambush?
Fortunately it turns out to be safe enough. The wormhole leads to the galactic centre, where a weak fleet of 131k extradimensional invaders are attacking some other extradimensional invaders in some kind of space station. Upon detecting the arrival of my fleets they break out the attack to attack me.. Whichever of the two forces made contact with the empire using the sphere is irrelevant: The ones attacking me must be destroyed and then I will deal with the others.
2293: No sooner said, than done
The space station defenders ask us to defend them while they seek to close the gigantic crystal rift. I have no reason to trust them or defend them, but if they are really closing that rift through which extradimensional invaders arrived and attacked me I am certainly willing to let them give it a go. I would be stationing fleets in the systems to stop another incursion regardless due to the wormhole leading directly to my capital, so if they consider this to be protecting them, I am not going to disabuse them of the notion. Also, I want to know more about them and their technology. And the Alarians are bleeding-heart do-gooders, so simulated though they may be, I am sure they are all in favour.
2293: They Invade on Schedule?
2294: Second incurson defeated in a few days
I am shooting fish in a barrel, here. Though this incursion was stronger than the one I met upon the first arrival, it stood no chance at all. They rely solely on shields for their defense and against my battleships that is of no use at all. So I will skip the repeats of this and only return to the extradimensional loonies situation once it turns interesting.
2294: Dar-Hesh Intregrated, Next!
Empire Size jumped again with the integration of the Dar-Hesh Administration, and it is time to send off the POPs for assimilation and re-education on fully ascended worlds. Next up is the Czyrnian Partnership, the tiny empire created by the rogue scientist on Briscoll III.
2294: Integrate This!
2295.09.23: New Deal for Huvidu-Zaan
The empire I vassalized at the end of last lecture, the United Huvidu-Zaan Committee, hate me. Xenophobic to a fault, they accepted only grudgingly and started out with a slight dislike, that soon grew major after I created another three vassals and had to divide my attention. They weren't anywhere as near in my regard as they thought. Well, it is time to remedy that by showering them with subsidies until they are loyal, then agreeing on a Pledge of Loyalty, and, once they are fully committed, scale back on the subsidies to something more reasonable.
2295: Take my Advanced Resources!
2295-2298: They've Fallen and They Can't Get Up
After the integration of the Dar-Hesh administration I expanded into Tiyun Ort and sent an archaeological expedition to investigate the Tiyanki graveyard. This might annoy the Lozavatan Vestige, a fanatically xenophobic remnant of a once mighty empire with an annoying habit of looking down on lesser beings, i.e. everybody, and killing them. So I sent a few fleets to protect the archaeologists as a preventive measure.
2295: Protect the archaeologists!
2295: They were even angrier than usual
2295: Deluded Remnants of a Galactic Empire
Undaunted After All refused to back down, and sorrowfully accepted the conclusion that these ancient equal-opportunity-haters would never see reason, never accept the Alarians as equals, and, as a consequence, would never bow down gracefully to the only throne the mattered: HERS.
This, then, called for a different solution than the diplomatic, and further fleets were directed to begin the transit to Tiyun Ort, while for the first time since the Unification Wars armies began assembling, PSI troopers and Warplings.
By the end of 2296 sufficient naval force had been assembled to launch an invasion, though the ground component available in theatre was still meagre, but many more armies were on their way. It was time to civilize the fallen.
2296: Final Claims
2296: Fallen Response
The first target was the border fortress of Sapir, which was untouched by the Thaloth storm.
2296: Forces in Theatre
Sapir fell swiftly, while the enemy fleet disappeared from scanners – presumably it had returned to the capital in Zipir, currently in the fierce embrace of Thaloth. So I sent my fleet through Simtinasca to Siabaulia, while the newly summoned Dimensional Fleet of mercenaries reached Sapir.
A direct attack on the heavily fortified Zipir system while the Fallen fleet defended it being an incredibly bad idea as everybody would be fighting effectively naked, which would be bad enough against the Fallen fleet alone, but fighting the fleet backed by the strong fortifications with strong hulls and powerful long range hull destroying energy weapons seemed likely to lead to a pyrrhic victory, at best.
So I did something else. Thaloth was both a challenge and an opportunity, and with the Simtinasca system being affected by the storm, an opportunity for trapping the enemy presented itself.
2296: Setting a Trap
Seeing a chance to engage and defeat their enemy in detail, or perhaps overconfident and disdainful of traps based on past success, the Fallen reacted as expected.
2296: The Fallen Response
2296: Trap Sprung!
Caught in the crossfire, they stood no chance, though they inflicted a beating of their own on the Dimensional mercenaries. But that's okay. Mercenary meatshields is an old, old, tradition. A hazard of their profession. While only 10 escorts were destroyed in the battle and no battlecruisers, it is to be hoped that more ships were lost in the emergency FTL escape since many were heavily damaged.
Now it was time to strike the decisive blow of the war by seizing the Zipir system before the Fallen fleet return. Even without fleet support the fixed defenses were formidable, and there was no getting around the Thaloth storm nullifying shields, but how bad could it get?
Only one way to find out. The fleets sent out for Zipir, the Dimensional Fleet leading the advance to be the first into the grinder.
2297: Pretty Bad, Could Have Been Worse
When the Fallen Fleet reappeared, it became clear that it had suffered
very heavy losses of battlecruisers during the emergency FTL jump. They reappeared with 25 escorts and 6 battlecruisers in Sapir, ten fewer battlecruisers than were thought to have survived the battle of Simtinasca.
Setting course for Sapir with every ship in theatre, I fell upon their damaged fleet, and the few Fallen survivors of this battle that attempted emergency FTL were never seen again, presumed destroyed.
2298: Their Final Battle
All that was left was to invade the remaining planets, and in particular the two planets in the capital system were very heavily defended, but the armies were finally arriving in significant numbers, so it was only a question of time before I could launch an attack on them.
2298.01.20: Balance in the Middle
Despite some vassals grumbling that the Divine Undaunted had gone too far this time, the empire's population were enthused when the Galactic Community passed a resolution that everybody, no matter where they lived, no matter who they were, even aliens, had inalienable rights, and that one of those rights was the right to social welfare.
2298: United After All Leads the Way!
2298.06.05: The Formless
Having defeated the final incursion of the extradimensional aliens and the crystal rift having been closed, it was time for answers.
The department of literature have provided the department of computer science with names for the extradimensionals that fall somewhat short of poetry. Since they didn't have body or fixed form, the defenders were called Formless, and since they were (allegedly, as told by themselves) the originals and the invaders degraded scions of theirs who had kicked their arse up and down the dimensions until only these few Formless remained, the invaders were known as the Aberrant.
2298: Formless Negotiations
Thanks for the exposition, and it is time to make a decision. Do I:
- Accept them as equals and enlist the help of Zadigal, a legendary paragon
- Threaten them with war if they don't hand over their most valuable relic, their throne
- Tell them that in THIS dimension, THIS galaxy, there is only one throne that matters, that of the Divine Undaunted, and order them to bend knee like everybody else.
You ask a silly question, you get a silly answer.
2298: One of us, one of us!
The Luminarium subject type is quite unique, as befits the extradimensional busibodies. They are locked into prohibited integration, limited diplomacy, and prohibited expansion, so they will always and at all times have only their single system in the centre of the galaxy.
They are guaranteed to join all overlord conflicts and must be supported in all subject conflicts, which is business as usual in Joyful Union after All, and I am forbidden holdings and must provide unified sensors.
Taxes or subsidies can be set as desired, but given that they start with a tiny population of 10 and extremely slow breeders (-35%) neither taxes nor subsidies will ever amount to anything.
And their homeworld is a size 40 gaia planet, and I get their throne anyway since, as their overlord, it is only right and proper that Undaunted is seated on their overpowered relic.
Given this, the inquisitive student might ask whether it wouldn't be better simple to demand their throne, crush them in war to get it, and then claim their planet for your own.
It might have, were it not for one small thing. The final benefit of having a Luminarium subject.
2298: A 50% Discount on Physics?
This bonus is additive with the tech penalty, a straight forward reduction to physics tech costs. If the empire size penalty is, say, +140% so you would normally pay 240% of the base cost, then it will become +90% and you pay 190% of the base cost. If the penalty it is less than 50%, say +32% so you would pay 132%, you end up paying 82% of the base cost instead. Given the strong focus on physics in this build, I predict good times are ahead.
2298: Fear and Loathing in Joyful Union After All
The people sing hymns of praise to the Divine Undaunted for defending the galaxy from an extradimensional incursion, but the praise is tempered, perhaps for the first time, by fear.
The Formless have provided such evidence of their vast dimensional empire before the fall into warlordism as is possible, and it is clear that the incursion could have been much, much, larger. That what we defeated were merely small battle groups from one of the factions in their civil war, detached from the fronts of their ongoing power struggle to snuff out the Formless once and for all.
They have also broached the topic of their degraded scions final solution to the issue of sentient embodied species, or as they prefer thinking of them,
prey.
And surely they must have sent back reports on our fleets, which means they now know that there is a population ripe for the harvesting.
It is time to build a stronger navy to counter the hypothetical threats of tomorrow.
2298.07.12: Proposing a Galactic Defense Force
2298: Ring World Frame in Impal Tov
Good news! Not only has the construction of the Ring World Frame completed on time and on budget, the space storm Thaloth has spent its fury and dissipates.
2296: Commence construction of the first section
2296: Commence construction of the second section
2299.07.26: Artifact Activations
Time to activate two artifacts again. Let me start out with my new toy, the:
2299: Eternal Throne
That's enough astral thread income that I can easily afford to run the Astral Binding edict granting another +10% output from all jobs to stack with the many, many, other bonuses, with enough left over to run the Astral Shielding edict when needed while also building up a surplus allowing me to run most Astral Actions when needed.
The passive effect granting all my leaders immortality is irrelevant at at this point. My oldest leader is 142 years old, with a life expectancy of 290 before the immortality rendered it moot, so without the throne I would only need to start researching repeatable lifespan techs by the 2440s.
2299: Continuum
The most valuable part of the Continuum's active output is the strategic resources since I trade those with Scholariums and Protectorates for Pledges of Loyalty and anything else I need from them, as well as occasionally selling excess to the few empires not yet subjugated as well as the Fallen Xenophile empire and the Ancient Caretakers.
2299: Missing Scientist on Briscoll IV
After the incident with the missing scientist on Briscoll III, that led to the farce with the Czyrmian Protectorate, now finally ended by their integration, ANOTHER scientist has gone missing from the observation post in the system, presumed missing while visiting pre-FTL natives on Briscoll IV?
2299: Missing Scientist? What could possibly go wrong
There could be any number of reasons, but in this simulation only one occurs. Briscoll IV is going down the same road as Briscoll III, led by an identical twin.
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.
I need stress relief. Any student that doesn't want to be immediately ejected, raise an appendage of your choice.
3.2.1... MASS EJECTION!
WHOOOOOOSH!
As I suspected. Less than half of you buggers were paying attention.
Year 2300, the Fruits of Diplomacy
The boost from ascension is really showing itself. The significantly increased empire size bloat compared to the start of the decade after ascension is caused by the redevelopment efforts in the old Dar-Hesh region, that has a considerable amount of POPs still living on unascended planets.
2300: The vassal economy has reached new heights
2300: Four empires left to subjugate
2300: Around 2 million fleet power, and 69 months to level 5
As usual, no problems.
Year 2300, Planetary Development
I now have 9 ecumenopolises, Home After All(21), Rubricator(25), Efoll Forest(22), Midnight Wine(30), Fen Habbanis Prime(30), Scion(30), Improved Light(25), Atomic Banana(24), and Fellnoll's Loss(25), with another three planets currently undergoing conversion, AR23_Nodro Prime(23), AR22_Nodro Secundus(22), and AR21_Romaccus Prime(21), old ratling tomb worlds in the capital sector. I am also busy building industry districts on Gift of the Habinte(25), the Sol X planet gift, for later conversion.
It is time to look at some POP efficiency, starting out with Home After All. It currently has the default Empire Capital designation providing a base 10% output increase to all jobs, that with 10 ascensions and going fully ascensionist becomes a 52.5% output increase to all jobs. It has an orbital ring boosting unity and consumer goods, and districts for consumer goods, alloys, and unity.
2300: Home After All
The capital provides about 90% of all consumer goods needs in the empire with a mere 8 districts of artisans, which is why I am not running it as a factory designation – I simply don't need more consumer goods, so better use a designation affecting all POPs than a bit less than a third.
If you look at the buildings, you can see the general setup I have been aiming for across the ascended ecumenopolises, leaving the old buildings mostly in place together with a PSI Corps until most or all districts are built, and then following a simple plan:
- PSI Corps (on pure eccelesiastical ecumenopolises that only need unity support from the orbital ring, the PSI Corps gets moved to the ring when it reaches tier 3)
- Ancient Refinery
- Astral Nexus
- Hypercomm Forum
- Alloy and/or Consumer Goods building if relevant
- Ministry of Production if relevant
- Fortresses or Strategic Resource Refineries in the remaining slots
With the exception that the capital also houses the Grand Embassy Complex. Currently all politician and culture worker jobs are enabled on the ecumenopolises, since it made sense to divert from my “no inefficient jobs” policy earlier this decade when trying to cram in as many as possible on ascended worlds, but frankly it is an inefficiency now. I have jobs to spare on my fully ascended ecumenopolises, so there really is no excuse for still having either politicians or culture worker jobs enable. Disabling these jobs is a project for the next decade on this and all other fully ascended planets.
The CG/alloy/unity district split is an efficiency that made sense while I were building up the earliest ecumenopolises, but now that I have plenty of them the three-split makes little sense since the orbital ring can only enhance two, currently the consumer goods and unity production. Looking at per POP output efficiency we get.
2300: Priest output: 11.21 physics, 9.25 social, 32.45 unity, 2 amenities, 12 edict funds
2300: Artisan output: 40.45 consumer goods
2300: Metallurgist output: 26.37 alloys
I really should revamp it to full CG/alloy districts with minimal ecclesiastical districts needed to maintain full stability and change the orbital ring to CG/alloys too. Next, take a look at Rubricator.
2300: Rubricator
Districts are split alloy/unity and the designation is ecclesiastical, which allows even more priests jobs on the planet.
As strange as it may seem, running alloy ecumenpolises as eccelesiastical rather than a foundry designation simply to squeeze in more priests on fully ascended planets often makes excellent sense due to the cost of ascending planets making 25% extra jobs on a planet highly valuable, at least so long as the mineral needs of industrial jobs are still being met. Same goes for factory ecumenopolises.
HOWEVER, I am now in a situation where I have plenty of available priest jobs on other ecumenopolises, so it might make sense to switch Rubricator to a forge arcology saving on input minerals and perhaps change some of the ecclesiastical arcologies on it to foundries, while moving the now unemployed priests to another ascended ecumenopolis. The Ministry of Culture needs to be moved to my best unity world, Midnight Wine, and perhaps I will move the Sanctum of the Composer there as well, as it will affect more POPs once Midnight Wine is completely full, and the extra crime-fighting ability could come in handy on the larger planet too.
2300: Midnight Wine
Just another 5 ecclesiastical arcologies to go and it'll be time for building fortresses and strategic resource production buildings.
Year 2300, Megastructures
2300: Ring World Engineers
Year 2300, War against Lozavatan Vestige
Defeated in space their planets are open to invasion, but they fight hard. Very hard. I took their colony world of Sapir first, then proceeded to their colony world in Tierg, before proceeding to the capital system where I launched a major assault on the second and lesser defended world, the Boundary. “Lesser” being very much a relative term. The Boundary's defenses were formidable.
2300: The Boundary Will Fall
Meanwhile, a smaller force of assault troopers have invaded the colony world of Achernar, and that world is but days from falling. Their next target is the last remaining colony world in the adjacent Raskamir system, which is but lightly defended.
2300: Achernar Lost
Recently enough warplings arrived to provide a credible threat to the Lozavatan capital which has been under sustained heavy, but selective, bombardment for years, and I have launched an invasion. They should be enough considering the continuing bombardment, but, if not, the veterans of the Boundary campaign can join them once it concludes.
2300: Things Fall Apart, the Core Cannot Hold
I predict the end of the Lozavatan Vestige within the year followed by a very intensive reeducation and assimilation program as they struggle to understand their ending or, to put it in brighter terms, their new beginning as productive members of galactic civilization. They will
Year 2300, State of the Empire
2300: Divine Undaunted and Empire
2300: Traditions and Ascendancy Perks are Unchanged
2300: Technological progress is rapid
2300: Last Researched Technologies
Due to the sorting of repeatable techs in the list being neatly grouped by type rather than research order, I will instead be listing only the state of repeatable techs from the next lecture onwards.
2300 Edicts are Active
Enhanced Surveillance and Extended Shifts are disabled due to the Alarian empire being a pleasant place to live, where such authoritarian exploitation of workers is but a distant memory.
Mining Subsidies are on due to boosting strategic resource mining, Capacity Subsidies are on due to occasionally having electricians, while rebuilding integrated alien empires. Farming Subsidies should be on for the same reason, but aren't, which I'll fix. Crystalline Sensors are off due to not needing extra sensor range, and finally Nanite Actuators are off because I prefer only enabling them while at lower empire size, at least until I get a nanite income.
Which reminds me that I should pay the L-Cluster a visit one of these days. I have carefully NOT researched L-Cluster activation yet as I am unsure whether subjects I create will inherit that tech, and I want to open it with fleets prepositioned at L-Gates in case I rolled the Grey Tempest. I'll get around to it one of these days.
2300: Council is Strong and Stable
The Research Ratio
Ratio_field_manipulation = 10391*(1+230%)/(1+55%-50%) = 32657
Ratio_statecraft = 8217*(1+220%)/(1+55%) = 16964
Ratio_voidcraft = 2259*(1+212%)/(1+55%) = 4547
Compared to the 2290 ratios of 8985, 6536, and 2164, physics progress has increased by a truly awe-inspiring 263.4%, society by a whopping 159.5%, and even engineering is edging in on barely acceptable numbers after increasing by 110%.
The 2300 Save File
Can be downloaded from
this Dropbox link for those who want to look at the situation or play around from this point.
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Author's note
I feel a bit like an idiot constructing my first ring worlds before snatching those easily available from Wholesome Redemption or the Beldroan Free Confederary, both of which are Shattered Ring origins which, due to the idiocy of the AI, will never colonize their additional ring segments, or, for that matter, conquering the Ancient Caretakers and just using and repairing their several ring worlds. But I want my own in my capital sector, so there.
For optimal play I would have integrated a Shattered Ring vassal earlier and repaired their Ring for my own use.
With my fairly high physics research ratio, it is definitely time to start discussing endgame fleet composition, so that will be one major topic for the next chapter.
