Update 4: 2215 - 2220
About a half year into the new time period, two techs completed at once, into Physics and Social. As you can see, Engineering was not far behind, but we'll get to that later. I was sorely tempred to go after Synchonized Defenses, but with still no further alien contacts, improved sensors for the increased Survey Speed was far more important. The quicker we get the galaxy mapped out, the sooner we find the elves, wherever they are hiding. Volcanoes are a plague on nearly every planet I inhabit or plan to inhabit in the near future, so their removal was also a higher priority than the other Social options presented. I suspect increasing the naval limit will come further in the future.
We encountered Void Clouds not too far out in the Merga System, but they seem to be on their own, and no neighboring Clouds were identified after further scouting. Science vessels are working with no down time and their efforts will be key in developing the future of the Viking people. In Alpha Hydri, my construction ship constructed the first observation post, and considering how many primitives we have found, we're going to prioritize aggressive observation, though some will be slated for conquest and conscription into the anti-elven crusade. The construction ship will be further prioritized towards developing energy sources first, science second, and minerals third. Speaking of lesser species one of our science ships found the system below. With a 24-slot Alpine world and two less habitable worlds, including one that clearly has a lesser race, this system will be slated for short-term colonization.
You may wonder why I said that orbital mines are receiving the lowest priority for the construction ship. Well, reason one is because I'm preferring to dedicating energy consumption to research facilities and infrastructure on the core worlds before I start getting more orbital mining stations than my current economy can afford. The second reason is because the new field of technology we are working on will be dedicated towards increasing our mining production and retention, as several of the newly discovered worlds could soon be turned towards mineral specialization.
Now, the third reason of minerals receiving the lower priority in favor of energy is because I have begun to at last build up a respectable standing fleet of corvettes. I am hoping to start some pirate hunting in the near future, and need a fleet of at least 1,000 power to do so. The development of Coilguns is the step I needed to perfect a new design of Sumbandr-class vessels. For those interested in the technical details, this has resulted in a reduction of armor as armor and reactor slots had to be shifted around to allow for the dramatic increase of power consumption by the new armaments.
Now, you remember the world named Kortal's Station in the above screen shot of the Siabaulia System? Well, our science ships completed their survey and found it to be inhabited by an atomic age pre-FTL civilization. This species is unlikely to be anything beyond a major barrier towards colonization and development of the Viking Empire. They are weak, and in terms of racial attributes, their only advantage is that they are charismatic and could provide a happiness bonus. The negatives are more severe, their mineral collection use is reduced, and their individualistic attitudes mean that conquering them would add a race of abolitionists to my empire, which we definitely don't want. There are two strategies that I have used in past games to deal with this sort of situation with the Vun Okon:
1. Standard conquest and destruction, preceded with a prolonged orbital bombardment directed at killing as many as possible. Downside is that this means purging and perhaps even inconvenient tile blockers. Plus side is that this is a quick and certain approach, and relatively cheap.
2. Observation post and infiltration. The species can still be enslaved and/or purged afterward, but that's not the goal. Instead, the goal will be to trigger the event chain that leads to a crisis between two nuclear powers. Rather than fixing the situation between the two powers, it will be allowed to escalate and turn the world into a Tomb World. This eliminates the race from contention, without having to worry about the political or other side effects of purge or enslavement. The downside of course is the expense of infiltration, and the loss of a world, but this is mitigated by the fact that this world is not optimal for Viking settlement anyways.
Moving on from total atomic annihilation, the Viking people have established their second colony, the world of Noregr! Located in the scenic and total pronounceable Higashik-Ata System, Noregr is a large and fertile alpine world, well suited for our people. It's not exactly as resource flush as Valhalla or other worlds we have seen, but it has a good diversity of resources and good food production. This world is likely to grow fast, and will likely be turned towards scientific development.
Unfortunately, the tranquility of the world was not to last. Our suspicions of dwarves have been confirmed! Tunneling was heard under our new colony, and it seemed likely that subterranean life exists beneath the surface. Local scientists and colonists have become very concerned about an alleged "Lever of Doom" that could flood the colony with magma, so the Viking people have only one course before them. Two new defensive armies were put into production, and measures were taken to launch a preemptive strike on the subterranean dwellers.
Our science ships have remained active, and another primitive civilization was found, belonging to a race calling themselves the Vetirisius. They are in an industrial age and a good ways away from us, so their world of "Fading Dreams" is likely to be ignored by Viking observers for the foreseeable future until we are in range to establish an observation post. They are known to be strong and have Collective ideals, which would make them good slaves, but their xenophobia would likely cancel at least some of that out. In the meantime, they can continue their existence uninterrupted.
The observant will have noticed in the past couple of screenshots that the new colony of Danmark has been developing. The two colony ships that we funded with the resources from the pirate stronghold have been paying out in the form of new homes for our people. This world has Betharian Stone, much like Jotunheim itself. It has good inherent food production, and this will help turn the world into another major energy producer, along with providing a good deal of science. As you can see the primitive world of "Bloom" rests within this system. This belongs to the Raxycodium, a Steam Age primitive civilization. Their best function will be to provide us with social research through aggressive observation and the construction ship is already en route.
The dwarves, or whatever they were, were decisively wiped out with a poison gas attack through their tunnels. We are no longer at risk of magma flooding.
The fifth colony to be established, and the last for a decent period, was in the Siabaulia System. The distance from the rest of the Viking Moot, will make this system the capital system of a future sector after it has been further developed. The world itself is going to be a mining focused world, though I expect its greatest use will be fueling the expansion of a new sector's worlds. Svitjod will also be the staging point for the destruction of Kortol's Station, one way or another.
With two observation posts on aggressive observation, and our focus no longer on rare technologies, Social research is beginning to catch up with Physics and Engineering. This means it's time to finally take care of Biodiversity Studies. I usually have this tech researched much earlier, but what happens, happens. Galactic Ambitions was tempting, but at this time, with no rivals in sight, it's a lower priority. The completion of Mineral processing came shortly after, and the obvious choice was to go for improved spaceports. The benefits from the two new resources were minimal at best, and this way we can begin working our way towards destroyers, and hopefully one day building a fleet that can bring down that Fortress of Doom.
For those interested, anomalies have finally reached a fairly average rate of revealing themselves. For the most part, my scientists succeed at whatever task they are assigned, and we have frequently received energy, minerals, and influence from these events. This has proved useful as establishing these colonies has been expensive in terms of influence. One of them has revealed that there may have been a race of creatures that predate even the elves, or perhaps created the elves. The more we learn about this supposed "First League," the more we may learn about our ancient enemies.
However, our science ships made an even more interesting discovery in the Yrogglia System. We have been noticing an increasing amount of ancient mining drones the closer towards the galactic core we explore. We found what appeared to be a mineral processing hub, which could be a great bastion of future minerals. I'm very excited at this discovery, and have continued diverting more and more resources towards the corvette fleet so that we may take the offensive at last. Unfortunately, I'm regretting the decision not to do more research into increasing Naval Capacity, as I will not reach the goal of a fleet of 1,000 power with the current naval limitations.
One last technology completed research, just in time to conclude this update. I went with Field Modulation, to once again continue the increase in resource production and infrastructure. Physics is by far my weakest field of research and development, so the priority is to make sure that my foundation is secure for further development of the fleet, rather than the short-term solution of improving the fleet.
State of the Moot 2220
Elves Killed: None
Not Dead?: Yep!
Energy: Production stable and constantly increasing.
Minerals: Mineral production has remained stable, as other resources have been prioritized. This has been mostly cancelled out by a solid amount of minerals being collected from anomalies.
Influence: The colonization of three planets in the past five years has devoured influence as previously predicted. Now it's time to bank up as the colonies develop and the leaders continue to age.
Science: The creation of two observation posts now accounts for over 50% of my Social research. Physics needs development, but Physics resources are not nearly as plentiful as the other two types. This is unlikely to change soon, as none of the colonies are developed enough yet to accommodate physics labs.
Foreign Affairs: All focus is now being directed to determining a solution for Kortol's Station. They are in the Atomic Age and could develop space faring means in a fairly short time frame if we are unlikely. The Vun-Okon NEED to be dealt with within the next ten years, ideally sooner. Still no sign of other spacefarers, but with pirates and drones all about, we're hardly secure. When the fleet is up and running, it'll be time for some "diplomacy."
