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Those setup were the ones that are good to go, and while playing around a bit with the one I wanted to start with, I discovered some most unwelcome news.
Not sure what the heck is going on here, but before I had the top two rows of building slots available for immediate use, but now they are pop-locked. Also, in addition to the pop-locked, the base is now 5, rather than the base 4 it used to be.
I tried a few things, to figure out why suddenly my planets building slots got locked, and changed from base 4 to base 5. I had thought that perhaps the problem was that I was using the 25% option for fast tech and traditions, but that had no effect, and then I bit the bullet and changed the game file (which means that, every single game and everything I did so far, is now a moot point, and I'll have to go back and redo everything, AGAIN!!!), and I got this:
In my past games, my building slots were always a base 4, so a starting homeworld would have had a 24 population, and that would have had three of the second row ready for immediate use, which is what I'm used to. I just did a test, and it seems that altering the base file from 5 to 2, works as designed, and so, my conclusion is that, my old games were all played using my old modified file, and I now suspect that that file had the base changed from 5 to 4, rather than any of the new changes I have made or game settings having an undesired effect.
Unfortunately, this means that, since I cannot see playing using the base 5 and not being able to build anything on my Home World for years, I'm going to have to change the file, and that means that all the games I created with the base 5 will have to goto the trash can.
I'm going to take a day or two, and go over everything, and make sure I get all things settled, so I don't have to do this again.
Health and grumpiness take their toll, but did manage to get some playing time in today, but of course I went and messed up. Health permitting, will have some thing to post soon, maybe even before the weekend. Got two colds, got over them both, then went and got caught in the rain around midnight last night, so getting the shakes again.
I did get to set up some more games, and this is my current thinking on how to do the initial game map/screenshot.
So, I like to put the empire flag in the empty center, so I can track which game is for which custom race/save game.
Using the {Intel} command, I get to take a quick sneak peak at the starting positions/choke points. This helps will making sure I have good supply of planets nearby, as in, if I get a starting setup with just 2 potential planets, I just rinse and repeat the game creation process, until I get something more to my liking.
For this initial playthough, I set the goal to isolate (if possible) the guys just to my NW, and this is haw that turned out...
So, I got the containment that I wanted, but can see that it is also possible to do more than this, so next playthrough, I'll try something a bit different.
So, after playing the first time through a bit, I decided to isolate the fellows up to the north west of me, and then just kept on and on and on.
I thought I'd try my hand with building upgraded starbases, because I ended up with three (later discovered, four) systems could have the nebula refinery buildings, giving me 60 minerals each, each month! I got three up and running, but then noticed something I had not seen recently, called Empire Sprawl:
I'm not sure, but I think that my old file from at least a few years ago/previous computer, must have had that value modified (probably to like 300 instead of 30), as I didn't have anything like this trouble before I changed back to the vanilla "Defines" file. My solution, which needs to be a quick and easy fix, will be to go back into the file (again) and change that value into something that is more palatable to my playing time and playstyle, which I will document in thread, and then once again restart the entire game creations process all over again.
Lesson learned. I at least learned how great the nebula refineries are, so that's something.
I hear ya.
Still plugging away, and here is the next starting position,
The start looks promising, and the four potential choke points have their paths outlined as shown. The top two are probably too far away to be practical.
I'm going to lie down and take a nap, but after the badly needed rest, I'm going to start an actual AAR.
I'm working on the first story segments, detailing who and what my in-game custom race is and are all about, their history and such, as well as just how detailed I should get for their home system?
Although I got a good role on the galaxy, my homeworld has no moon. Not only that, but only one of the 9 worlds in orbit around the 3 stars in the system has a moon, although it does have 2 of them. The race's story is going to be broken into several story lines, the main one will be the current, high tech civilization that is already a space faring one, and is now on the verge of transitioning into a star faring one. At the same time, I'm wanting to have glimpses into both older days, and the current non-electrified populations, that choose to live without technological infrastructure in their daily lives.
This is a critical element in the story of my games race, of how (and why) this came to pass, and what it means for their contact & interactions with other civilizations, both technologic, and non-technologic, as the game progresses. Some key items I want to know how to portray properly are:
1) The WarMongerian's are first and foremost, a race of warriors, so start off thinking 'Sparta' and/or 'Samurai' with more than a dash of, 'Native American' warrior cultural influence, but, unlike the first two cultures, they don't want populations living in perpetual slavery/peasant conditions, nor do they view life is cheap. Like the native American cultures, they revere nature, and for reasons to be revealed later, abhor uncontrolled expansion of technological infrastructural sprawl all over their world, and much prefer containing such to discrete locations, where mega cities have walls, within which there are huge skyscrapers, massive residential complexes right alongside commercial/industrial zones, and the whole existing within multi-story parks and greenhouses, while outside the walls lie forests and undeveloped, fertile fields, where wildlife is free and swarming.
Right now, I have several ideas, one of which is to have some of the characters attending, from time to time, one of several different sporting events, each of which is designed to showcase how the WarMongerian people play and think, and one of which will be the equivalent of a high school football game, but the game they are playing is on a far larger field, and consists of heavy infantry {Phalanx like} fully armored formations, duking it out with wooden spears with rounded tips and the like, with each member of the teams 'front lines' carrying a large infantry shield to ward off enemy spears, and the ranks behind having progressively longer spears, so that players in the 5th (rear) rank can reach the enemy front line, and the game would be about brute force vs small unit tactical cohesion, maneuver, and skill.
Still another way I plan to introduce another 'day in the life of a WarMongerian', will be something like our own 'survivor' type of programs, but where folks are living off the land with just hand made tools to work with and master their environment, and an extreme version of this sport, no metal/advanced materials tools, and in the harshest environments the Cradle has to offer.
2) The technological disparity. WarMongerian modern civilization is broadly divided between the vast majority who, because of their choice to accept technology, can support far larger populations because of this, that are currently debating re-building the whole of their technological civilization in totally uninhabitable places within Cradle's biosphere, rather than just inhospitable places, like high up in the mountains, deepest dessert, or nastiest swamp. The non-technological populations make no use of electricity, as this makes life to easy and at the same time totally dependent on it's nature despoiling infrastructural requirements. These two disparate groups are not in conflict over this issue, but rather unified in accepting that technological populations are a necessary evil for the survival of the WarMongerian race, despite the deep seated racial repugnance of despoiling the natural environment of the Cradle.
Why this is so, is something that will only be hinted at, until I am ready (read as, I've developed my writing skills to the point where I'm not too embarrassed to at least try) for the introduction of the concepts of the "What Came Before" times, an Epoch in time referred to only in ancient written records (that are themselves few and far between), that describe events that predate the foundation of ancient WarMongerian civilization, and when the ancestors' ancestors' were locked in a genocidal war of extermination with 'the Twisted Ones'. Until recently, no one was really all that interested in such stories, as the vast, ruined cities described in them are nowhere to be found today, and likewise no one has ever found any trace of any "twisted ones", so who, or what, that term is meant to describe, is little considered and unknown. Or is it, author's first test of hidden messages, PM me if you find this!
3) The educational disparity. Not going to lie, I'm straight up inspired by something from another author's works here. The other fellow used terms like, "the First Knowledge" that low caste folks were given, and they were restricted from knowing about the "Second Knowledge", although IDK/remember if the low caste folks were allowed to even 'know of' the existence of the Second Knowledge, or merely what was contained within the Second Knowledge. In my custom race, the non-technological populations have the 1st Knowledge, and they know that other levels of knowledge exist, but those levels of knowledge deal with secondary issues, primarily technological ones, rather than issues of the first importance, like reproduction, raising healthy babies, that grow strong, and have a proper set of values, so that families are stronger for their membership, and families grow within communities that all share reverence for nature, and their place in the world. They also know that, anyone that wants to can be uplifted to the 2nd Knowledge, but very few are then allowed to remain within the non-tech populations, for fear of cultural contamination. Many that were born into the 2nd Knowledge, choose to leave such behind, and return, as is their legally protected birthright, to the 1st knowledge, after swearing the oath to keep the 2nd Knowledge to themselves. You see, for a member of my WarMongerian race, they see life choices as one of two paths, life as one with nature, or life as one with science and technology, but choosing the technological path isn't seen as better, but as a sacrifice of the path of nature, for the safety and security of all WarMongerian.
So, how much time can I take to develop and flesh out my pregame stories, and what suggestions do folks have to work the kinds of things mentioned into my AAR? So far, I've been predominantly trying to work on my game starting position, but now I'm starting to work on the story, as I am in a good spot game wise (at long last), and am wanting some suggestion and perhaps tips...
You can flesh out your pre-game stories as much as you want. There aren't really rules. Technically, you don't need a game... at all. The forum is AARs, LPs, and Fanfictions, after all.
I mean, I'm doing a lot of backstory and lore for my Stellaris AAR, so...
Most of the population will be living in the 'modern - technological' version of the WarMongerian civilization, for the simple truth that higher tech can support higher populations, but I want to spend some time highlighting that there are two main civilizations co-existing in the present, the 'modern - technological' civilization that is moving into space and is the one that is responsible for all of the gameplay content, while the other 'modern - nontechnological' civilization is like unto an 1860's USA level existence, with animal drawn vehicles/ploughs, no electrical power in their homes/daily lives, but living amongst landmasses that are dotted with what we would consider mega-cities, but with high walls that constrain technological infrastructure within them.
Their homeworld is called "Warriors Cradle", or more often shortened to just 'Cradle', so instead of the Amish-like experience we are familiar with, it's kinda like reverse of that, so what roads there are, are for the non-techs animal drawn vehicles, while the paved roads/motorized vehicles are all within the walls of the mega-cities (think LA, but zero 1-2 story buildings, instead 10-20 story buildings as the smallest ones within the walls), so Cradle has no superhighways as continent-spanning, nature-disrupting things, and all railroads outside the walled cities are subways, buried deep under the surface so as to not interfere with nature, while still allowing folks to get places quickly if need be.
Like the Star Trek franchise has the ideas of the {Prime Directive} for fears of Cultural Contamination, the WarMongerian civilizations prize having alternatives to just one global technological 'Trantor - Like' world city. Too that end, the 'modern-nontechnological' civilization, which takes up far and away more of the land surface area of Cradle than all the many other civilizations combined, is completely self sufficient, building all their own tools, vehicles, (sailing/steam)ships, homes and cities, without relying on higher science for any manufactured goods or products.
You can flesh out your pre-game stories as much as you want. There aren't really rules. Technically, you don't need a game... at all. The forum is AARs, LPs, and Fanfictions, after all.
I mean, I'm doing a lot of backstory and lore for my Stellaris AAR, so...
I started reading that one myself, but health has been keeping me at home/in bed more that I would have liked lately, but feeling better now and did get a few (short) bicycle rides in, as well as some limited walks.
One thing that I am considering doing, but perhaps not right off the bat, is giving a detailed look at star systems that I survey in game, with only the home system done in detail right off, but I'm pretty sure that that kind of detail wouldn't be something most folks would want to have to be forced to go through, and so that kind of stuff would always be in the spoiler sections.
Along those lines, I have been making a Microsoft Office word document, and tried to work out how to build such a file, but I don't want to try cutting and pasting from that format to the format used by the forums, so I'll try to build one here at some point, but the task is likely to tedious to do by hand for more than a few star systems.
Been quite sick, missing medicines, and generally feeling poor. I haven't even been able to play for the last 3-4 days. Whatever bug has ahold of me, I need to just stay warm, and sleep my way through it.
On the plus side, I did log in and ask some questions, and got some of the answers I was looking for. I now know, for instance, the difference between a {pre-sapient} species, and a {primitive civilization}, and what I can and cannot do to/for/with them. Because I wanted the +20% population growth bonus, I took the Fanatic Xenophobe pick, and so cannot perform the Technological Enlightenment that I would like to play around with a bit, but then again, my pre-game story board ideas wouldn't have had my WarMongerian folks actually doing that on a civilization wide basis anyway, because of the reasons that I'll make clear when my AAR game actually makes contact with one of the pre-space civilizations. Suffice it to say, my AAR is going to be going rather heavily into this aspect, as it is one I am quite interested in sharing and expounding upon.
Not going to lie, I'm a bit creeped out by the {Uplifting}process being genetic manipulation based, but not to the point that I won't play around with this aspect of the game.
So, a happy accident with choosing my race picks, that leads to me not being able to do something that my guys wouldn't do anyway, but the invasions of the primitive worlds shall proceed...
One of the things that happened back when I was still playing, before the bugs got ahold of me (AGAIN), was that I once again realized my game was FUBAR'ed, because I didn't do enough to fix the 'Empire Sprawl' problem. Keep in mind, every time I change anything in the defines file, my old games have always gone into the dumpster, and I have been restarting my efforts, again, and again, and again...
This was getting annoying to the point where I was actually getting a bit discouraged. Here is the problem:
I had thought that by increasing the base from 30 to 300, that I would not have to be bothered by this aspect of the game, while trying to learn the basics (but still conquering the galaxy, of course) but as it turns out, that solution was just a tiny drop in the bucket, and did nothing to stop what you are seeing above from 'ruining' my game. I was sick at heart, knowing that my game was messed up like this, and thinking that correcting/editing the game files to my liking was going to have forced me to either play anyway using the dang values contained in the defines file when I made the game, because the save game doesn't use the changed file, or have to once again scrap everything, so that I could use the new and improved (at least to my thinking) values, like these:
I took this screen shot, to verify that this time, I had indeed found a way to eliminate empire sprawl from my 'learning the basics game playthroughs'. I didn't like not being able to take over the entire galaxy, and conquering everyone in the process, and learning everything I could along the way. But again, I thought that I was going to have to start over again, or play with the old values, and neither of these really appealed to me.
So after I took that image, I exited out of the game, and then got hit by the bugs, and so am still feeling under the weather 5 days later.
But then...
I made a most joyful and unexpected accidental discovery!!!
After I had decided to just continue without restarting, and thinking that I was just going to have to 'suck it up' and play with values I found unacceptable, this happened:
As it turns out, the game will not use the new defines file values, if you just reload your pre-change save game, BUT, if you first create a new game, now using the new values, that fixes the problem, and your old save games will now start using the new values, without the need to restart anything!!!
This is a most welcome discovery, and I sorely miss not knowing this hard learned lesson right off the bat, so here it is:
Lesson learned (at long last), if you ever want to change any values in your installed versions' {defines} file, and want them to work with your ongoing game, just make a new game, forcing the program to read the new values, and then just restart you previous game, and it will now be using the new values!!!
Once my health is back on track and I'm feeling up to continuing, I can now look forward to completing my first ever game, and seeing all the things I have never gotten too see before. All previously played games have ended before 2300, but now I know that I can continue all the way to victory!!!
Here it is on a Sunday, and I haven't posted anything since the September the 22nd, or the Fall equinox.
On the Plus side, I have some very interesting ideas now. I'm reading up on the Wiki page, and I'm going to be back later on with some posts about limited goal setting, and doing specific playthroughs to explore different concepts about basics.
I'm also working on getting "Senate Resolutions" into a template, which will be something dressed up as an in game message, but will serve to make my role play elements of the storyboard seem like part of the game itself.
Some of these role play things will be in he form of announcements about required things, like:
1) Exploration/control of all star systems within two jumps/hyperlanes of the HomeSystem.
2) Fleet bases within each sector. {Upgraded starbases with Crew Quarters}.
3) Orbital food bases within each sector. {Upgraded starbases with Hydroponics Bays}.
4) Mandatory fleet strength requirements. {Have to figure this one out, but empire sprawl and size of survey fleets needs to be in this decision making process}.
Because of the current map I'm going to be playing all my games on, there are a couple nebulas nearby, so I need to figure out rules to make for getting the refineries up and running in a timely fashion.
I may be wrong, but it seems that, Anomalies, Primitive Civilizations, and Pre-Sapient Species are all randomly generated each playthrough? If this is indeed the way of Stellaris, then I need to keep that in mind, so that I can use that in the story elements.
I'm going to be making one of these on roughly a weekly basis, and they will be threadmarked for easy navigation within this learning thread. I'm going to try to post basically an empty post, while I work on the contents I wish to place in it, as a way of saying "hey look, contents coming" that I'll be doing something within 48 hours (health permitting).
What I want these posts to be like is about some near term goals, for instance, 'learn how to get this or that aspect of planet/population understood/explored', and this could be crime, happiness, stability, what have you. I'm also particularly interested in getting armies built, and military escorts for my science squadrons/construction/colony ships, as this has been completely overlooked in previous games.
This first one will be a learning experience, where I start off documenting the initial WarMongerian governmental laws regards to Exploration & Expansion into all the immediate neighbors of the HomeSystem.
By order of Imperial Majesty, Emperor VoidStalker, the imperial survey ships will begin a detailed examination of all nearby systems:
As these mission are being carried out, the survey command will be augmented as resources allow, while the combat forces will conduct continuous, and extended training missions, while the Imperial Corps of Engineers will continue the laborious task of harnessing the as yet untapped resources of the Craxius star system.
9-27-2021
For my WarMongerian AAR.
The headman of the Imperial Senate, Carlos Vidia, took his place at the podium, and surveyed the crowded seats surrounding the central floor of the chamber. Waiting for silence to descend so that all could hear his words on this auspicious occasion, he began without preamble, "The Imperial Senate, in session on this day of January 1st, in the year 2200 of the modern age, has received his august Imperial Majesty's approval of the plan put forward over a year ago in bill 134-EX-596, the "Exploration & Expansion Act".
"As you all know, this bill was put forward after our esteemed brethren over at the Imperial Academy of Astronomy, together with the folks over in the Survey & Exploration Command department, concluded emplacements of our central systems sensor platforms and satellite constellations throughout the trinary Craxis solar system" "This was a decades long process, involving many thousands of personnel, serving in hundreds of ships, but was eventually concluded successfully in the recent past, and began collecting the data that led to the discovery of the gravitational anomalies that exist between star systems, now known as 'hyperlanes' in common parlance".
Pausing to reflect upon his thoughts, he continued "It was realized quite early on that if travel were even to be possible between systems, that the voyages would not be a matter of a few quick trips of a handful of months, but rather measured in years, and that this would mean that no existing ships built or building at that time would be capable of making such journeys. To that end, the Imperial Navy was tasked with coming up with designs for ships far vaster and more costly than all existing ships, that would be truly named 'Star-Ships', as they would need to carry all the supplies needed to sustain both ship and crew, on their extended deployments among the far flung stars of our galaxy, and because of these severe mission requirements, these 'star-ships' easily out mass regular 'space-ships' by 100:1."
Authors note: I needed to at least partially address the in game issues, of a space faring species having just 5 ships at game start, despite being in space for at least several decades if not centauries, rather than the thousands or hundreds of thousands that would far more likely have to have been built to even begin harvesting a solar systems resources. Since I cannot have the 'space-ships' in game (and to be honest, I really wouldn't want to have to have them), I just get around that point by making the 'star-ships' far bigger and more expensive, and an easy mechanism is to require them to be all but self sufficient, thus explaining away any need to return to base for maintenance, refits, or repairs & resupply for years at a time.
"That being the case, a complete retooling and rethinking of our construction process was needed, before we could even begin to build such ships as these missions would require, but once that was done, we now have the ability to rapidly construct these immense and extraordinarily expensive ships. To date, we now possess a trio of huge combatant ships, a specialized science ship, as well as a construction ship." "We now have our orders..."
A look at the stellar neighborhood of the WarMongerian civilization: View attachment 760241
With the science at their disposal, the current (game start) knowledge of the WarMongerian civ's nearby hyperlane connections. The top priority is the six star systems that link directly to Warriors Cradle, so by law, all 6 of these systems MUST be fully surveyed, and because we know that our home is surrounded by a ring of 9 interconnected stars, and that this ring has just two points that lead outward, the full survey effort will begin with the first directly connected system to the SW, and proceed in a counter clockwise fashion, so that the survey fleet will end up in the far leftmost system of the ring. The six direct connected: View attachment 760242
and with the other three stars in the 'ring': View attachment 760243
This displays what the guys want to make their own, and should such be achieved, the WarMongerian civ will have 10 star systems under their control, and just two points that need to be defended. View attachment 760244
That is the initial desired setup, for the first week's goals, without thought to what are in the systems in question. For further expansion: View attachment 760245
Let me know how these images work for folks. I like the shapes/colors, and want to use such things from time to time during the AAR. I was surprised to note that, at game startup, without using the {Intel} command, I could find the black holes and nebulas right off the back, as well as noting some systems that seem to have a ring around them on the galaxy map.
I'm playing the first playthrough, and already made a mistake or two (that I know of), but will leave them in rather that restarting, and hope to have a bit of fun with folks spotting my goofs. The TM post above is going to get several edits, until the gaming session winds down tonight, and when I'm finished, I'll post that it is completed.
Ok, working on the update images now. I was going to try to just meet the goals (That I still have not published, yet) for this weeks play. Basically, the TM post will set out the various goals for the coming week, and then whatever the mission will start getting played from that point on. Because I don't yet have a template I like, I'm behind on posting the goals, but they will be done like in post #55.
Ok, first preliminary stuff is in the TM post, and as the week progresses I hope to modify things to be a good starting point. Feeling weak and without energy atm, so have to knock off and grab a nap.
