"Stars!"
Game Diary – Breakout III"Stars!"
Game Diary – Breakout III
Hosted by Gene Russell
August 31, 1998 –
Diary of the Zoinks – Doug Payton
Prelude
This is a game for beginners. As I’ve only played one E-mail game before, and that one died around year 70, I figure I still qualify. I am again playing a race called the Zoinks, as I did that first game, but the race itself was designed from scratch, influenced by the way game options were set; Beginner Unlimited Minerals, Accelerated BBS Play and Slow Tech Advances. Since minerals will not be much of an issue, I concentrated on high factory output to try to offset the slow tech advances. My race looks like this:
Jack of all Trades
Improved Fuel Efficiency
Only Basic Remote Mining (since minerals will be in such good supply)
All habitability ranges shifted slightly to the right (1 in 2 planets habitable)
15% growth rate
1 resource / 1000 colonists, factories produce 14 resources, factories cost 9 resources, 10,000 colonists operate 13 factories
10 mines produce 8kT, mines cost 8 resources, 10,000 colonists operate 8 mines
Weapons and Propulsion research cost 50% less, Biotech costs 75% more
The game has 16 players and will be played in a Medium universe.
Year 2400
I’m on the east edge of the galaxy, on the planet Ho Hum. We’ve started with over 1000 kT of Ironium and Germanium, and about 700 kT of Boranium. That should get the factories cranking on these homeworlds. The red planet right next to me is Kludge, a –9% world for me. It’s so close (28 light years) that mining will be quite quick.
I’ve decided to start researching Weapons. I intend to scrap my initial ships (after some brief use) and build ones that will both be a bit better (e.g. putting just torpedoes on my destroyer instead of the usual combination of X-Ray laser and Alpha torpedo), and also different enough with different names so that my primary racial trait will not be as obvious (since some races get ships with standard names that, if you know what the different races start with, you can get an idea of what they are). Research in Weapons will allow the new ships I make to be a bit better in the defense department, but we’ll see how well that works with Slow Tech Advances. I played a short test game using computer players, and since my habitability allowed me to colonize many planets, I was able to find a number of "strange artifacts" that give you random tech advances. While the area these advances come in are random, this will still hopefully work towards these new ships, as the amount of resources that will actually go towards research will be almost nothing for a while since I’ll be only contributing leftovers to research and ramping up factories.
I’ve sent out both my Armed Probe and Long Range Scout on missions to check out all the planets currently in my planetary scanner range, and then they’ll return to be scrapped; the Probe in 7 years and the Scout in 14 years. If I can build something better or more race-hiding before then, they’ll be replaced.
I already have a Medium Freighter hull, so after I use my supplied Santa Maria, I’ll create a colonizer with that hull instead. The Cotton Picker and the Teamster will get to work right away, as they probably won’t be coming in contact with other races very soon. The Stalwart Defender is scrap metal. While a Destroyer with two X-Ray lasers can do more damage than two set of Alpha torpedoes, the range of one on the lasers usually means that the target leaves unharmed before the Defender can get close enough. If someone escapes from battle, I at least want to make my point by giving them a few pokes with the torps.
Year 2406
I’ve spent the intervening years bouncing between 4th and 5th places.
I scrapped my Stalwart Defender as planned. I’ve not done any tech research yet, so I’m not prepared to build a replacement, but I haven’t bumped into anyone yet, either.
The Long Range Scout and the Armed Probe have been scouting the nearby planets looking for colonization possibilities and have found 3 habitable and 2 terraform-able planets. Cherub, to the southeast, was colonized in 2405 by one of my new "Colony of Zoinks" ships; a colony ship designed on the medium freighter hull. The colonists on Cherub found an artifact giving me 267 points of research in Energy, so that has made up a bit for not putting resources directly to research. Cherub is a 57% planet for me, and it just about touches Hell, a 39% planet. Both of these are right on top of Eisenhower, a yellow terraform-able planet, but which will probably end up a mining colony for the other two. Another planet due north, Desert, is a 34% planet and has another Colony of Zoinks destined for it. Cherub was colonized with the original Santa Maria, so I built another Colony of Zoinks ship to beef up the population. I’m going to hold off colonizing Hell for the moment to let my population grow a bit.
Year 2408
I’ve been hanging around in 4th place even though my score took a sharp turn up this turn.
The universe is starting to show signs of crowding. In the past two years I’ve come upon 3 races (or they’ve come upon me); the Danis, the Spacemen, and the Wolves. The Danis and the Spacemen both popped in at Desert (the Danis last year, having come from Lever to the northeast, and the Spacemen this year, looking like they came from Cochise, to the northwest), and the Wolves have two scouts that will arrive at two of my planets next year--Hum and Cherub—having come from Planet X and Lynx respectively. The scout flying to Ho Hum is zipping in at warp 9, so either he’s a long-range scout with ramscoops, or he’s Interstellar Traveler with better propulsion than most.
I scrapped the standard Armed Probe as planned, and created a new design called the Tiny Zoinker. It’s a scout hull with the Fuel Mizer engine and an alpha torpedo. I didn’t include the Rhino scanner that the standard Probe had, since it added only 6 light years to my 60 light year JoaT hull scanners. Two of them were built at Ho Hum this year, which should give the Wolf scout going there something to think about, though he may still get a scan of my homeworld before the battle. I’d also built another colony ship at Ho Hum this year, to keep in reserve should I find another habitable planet that might be taken by someone else, but instead I determined that any planet I find that is habitable is close enough to others to make me want to get there first. I filled it up and sent it to Hell to colonize.
The colonizer that I already had waiting was filled up and sent to Hexnut, a 24% planet closer to the middle of the universe. Expansion just won’t wait. I’ll built another colonizer to hold ready for newly discovered habitable planets.
I did colonize Desert last year, but I don’t have either a planetary scanner there nor a ship with scanners to let me know who’s coming to dinner. I sent a "friend or foe" message to the Dani’s, but I imagine I can generally wait until I hear from those I contact. Staying quiet can be intimidating.
Year 2409
I am currently in 5th place.
The battle at Ho Hum was a miserable failure. The two Tiny Zoinkers missed on every shot. However, I did find out that the scouts are Smaugarian Peeping Toms. And it has also just occurred to me that the Tiny Zoinker design may, in fact, reveal my JoaT trait, as it has no scanners. Why wouldn't a probe have scanners? If it’s a JoaT race that doesn’t need them! Time to scrap and add perhaps a bat scanner. But first I want to take care of those Wolf scouts.
I built a new Cotton Picker this year to add to Kludge Mining.
The Danis and I exchanged E-mail addresses and gave each other some information that might be helpful. From them, I found out that the rv-988212g are bailing out of the game, and that they’ll be on housekeeping AI. This means their home planet will be wide open but for minimal defense. It would cost some serious resources to make bombers and freighters and transfer people, but for a homeworld it may be worth it. The Danis didn’t tell me what planet it is, but they did forward a message from them that the Danis could have Albemuth, so their homeworld must be somewhere in that vicinity. First thing I have to do is find it and find out what it’s planetary stats are. In return, I’ve told the Danis what I know about the locations of the Wolves, the Spacemen, and the recently heard-from Minions. It appears that the Danis, being in the corner, are bordered by the rv-988212g and me, and thus they need to go through one of us to launch out into the galaxy. Keeping the peace with them may cause them to prefer expansion westward instead of southward. But I still would like that homeworld.
The Danis also mentioned that the Spacemen were War Mongers. In addition, the rv-988212g told what they knew of the Falconians; they are Jack of all Trades, their homeworld is Aquarius (155k population as of 2408), they have a colony at Witter (22k population as of 2407) and have colonized Elephant Ear as well.
The Minions have seen my (to be scrapped) Long Range Scout at Humus. They’ve asked me not to go any farther west than Deneb or Coda at this time, but they would trade information in the interests of peace. I’ll let them know what I know about locations, but this bit about the open homeworld will not go any farther than me.
Year 2411
I’m currently in 4th place
Factory building drained me dry of Germanium in 2410, so mine production finally started
I colonized Hell and Hexnut in 2410, bringing my number of planets to 5. There was an artifact on Hexnut boosting Electronics research by 302 resources.
I followed the Wolf scout that had been at Ho Hum to Kludge, where my miners are. This time I did 70% damage to him. I’ll continue to follow him. The other scout has scanned Hell.
I created the Little Zoinker scout to replace the not-so-hot Tiny Zoinker. This has a Bat Scanner to give the pretense of not being a JoaT and low tech, and an X-Ray laser to see if it’ll do better in the destruction department. I just built a couple at first, sending one to go after the Wolf scout currently orbiting Hell, in case he doesn’t call them off. With the Germanium shortage, itl took all I had to build two of them this year, and I got about 550 research towards Weapons giving me tech level 4 in that area; the first actual research I’ve done. Right now I’m 940 away from Beta Torpedoes.
Tiny Zoinkers chasing the Minion scouts ran out of fuel. Guess I can’t stop him from exploring now. Right now, it’s blazing out of my space at warp 9. The other one is probably behind a planet down in the southeast; Eisenhower or Walla Walla. I’m sending the scouts back to be scrapped, though since they’re in full view of other scouts I’m going to go to nearby Kludge first, so that perhaps some of them might think that’s my home planet. Built two Little Zoinker ships, with X-Ray lasers and a Bat Scanner at Ho Hum.
I discovered that Deneb is a 64% planet for me, so I loaded a colonizer with a Little Zoinker escort to head out there. The other Little Zoinker is going to Cherub, to keep an eye on my front with the Wolves and do a little exploring.
This year I saw a Dani scout at Hydra, and a Spaceman scout just leaving Hyrda at warp 4.
I did get a message from the Wolves in 2410 simply asking me to contact him. I replied that his scouts in my area were a bit too prying and to ship out or have then destroyed, but I’m leaving the door open to cooperation later. This year, they again sent a message that simply asked me to contact them and that we need to talk. My message to him crossed in the mail. The Minions sent me E-mail saying that they are currently in negotiations with the Wolves to form an alliance, and thus information trading would have to wait on that. They did propose a non-aggression pact that would allow unarmed scouts in each other’s territories, and the scouts would have to avoid colonies and move no faster than warp 7. I’m getting a bit cramped for space already, so I’m not sure if I want to limit myself to these terms. Additionally, keeping my current planets humming (I’ll have 6 once I colonize Deneb) will take enough of my resources as it is, and my need to find still more potential colony planets has been diminished. I’d like to keep scouting around, and I want those scouts to be able to defend themselves. I sent a message back to the Minions saying I’m going to refrain from setting any specific terms right now, and that ships of any sort are fair game. I also asked him to keep me updated on the progress of their alliance with the Wolves, since that is what is holding up information sharing (though I’m not sure if he’ll actually do that, given how important that information might be). I then sent a message to the Danis saying I want to solidify relations with them, noting (without suggesting I’m alarmed about it) that the Minions and the Wolves are talking alliance and we may need to hang together.
Year 2416 – Invasion of the Spacemen
I was in 4th place in 2412, but have stayed in 5th place since then.
Scouts are still all over my territory. In 2412, the Dani scout that was at Hyrda moved to Ho Hum. I let it scan as a token of peace. The Spaceman scout was still hobbling along at warp 4. A scout from a new race, the Bejavas, passed through my northern space, but didn’t stop at any planets, at least according to his route; must be another JoaT. The Wolves said that their scouts were leaving, and they did, at warp 9. The Dani scout heading to Ho Hum arrived in 2413, in time for the completion of two Little Zoinkers, which proceeded to attack the scout. However, they did not injure the scout, and I sent a message telling the Danis I would set them to Friend status.
Production at Ho Hum went back into factories in 2413, while also putting 1 Colony of Zoinks in the queue each year to shuttle off colonists to the outlying colonies, as Ho Hum is about one third full.
I finally scrapped the Long Range Probe in 2414, as originally intended.
In 2415, the Spacemen started to make incursions in my area of space, and that began to change some of my plans. I saw a scout and a small freighter heading to Desert and another scout going to Castle. All three ships came from Cochise, so it appears to be their homeworld. I was pretty sure they’d scanned Desert before sometime after I colonized it, so I figured they must be coming to invade. But even with a cargo pod, a small freighter could only carry 12,000 colonists and I had over 30,000 on the planet. I’m not sure why he might attack with a force not big enough to take the planet completely, and I figured it may have been a target misunderstanding on his part. The scout was going warp 4 about 16.5 lightyears out from Desert, so at that speed he would arrive in 2 years and the freighter in 3.
I sent a message to the
Spacemen:
I see your scout and
freighter on their way to Desert. Given you've scanned that
planet before and most assuredly saw my people there, do I take
this as an attack? If you do not reply, I will have to assume
that it is. Respond quickly and well.
In preparation for casualties, I built a new colony ship, filled it and sent it to Desert. It would arrive in 3 years, in time to turn around if Desert becomes a war zone.
Apparently, he must have noticed the distance vs. speed to Desert and he changed to warp 5 and arrived in 2416, where his Yakimor Light Phaser blew away my X-Ray laser scout, leaving Desert undefended. I’ve put 2 Defenses in the production queue, and while they won’t do much, it’s better than building mines or factories that I may never get to use. The colonist resupply ship on it’s way there is going to hide behind Hydra while waiting for military reinforcement.
In an unrelated but fortuitous incident, my Hexnut Protector is going out to examine Loan Shark, but now I’m seeing a Spaceman small freighter on it’s way there. I’m speeding up to attack him next year, in retaliation for the anticipated losses at Desert.
I built 2 new Little Zoinker ships at Ho Hum. They’re on their way to guard the colony resupply ship going to Desert. They can make Hexnut in 2 years.
Sent a message to the
Minions:
The Spacemen are acting
like the War Mongers that they are. They’ve destroyed an
armed scout of mine defending a planet, and have a freighter full
of colonists ready to invade. Suggest we ally, as they are close
to you as well and look like they’re horning in on your
territory (e.g. Loan Shark). I’ll look into bringing in
other allies and take this scourge out now while it’s easier
to do.
Year 2417
I’m still in 5th place.
A comet smashed into Walla Walla, which, given it started with all 100% mineral concentrations, makes it prime real estate for mining operations. The Danis have expressed interest in Kludge for colonizing, where I’m currently mining. That’s really close to home, but I think they have nowhere else to turn for a good ally (with the rv’s out of the game, and the Spacemen not being all that friendly), so I think they would be safe to have nearby. And since I believe them to be Interstellar Travelers, an easy point into their (soon to be) stargate network will be very nice to have. Therefore, moving my mining operations to Walla Walla, while farther away (114 lightyears, 2 years at warp 8), will most likely be worth the added minerals.
My attack on the Spaceman colony ship failed because a ship from another race, the Makisachi, apparently wanted to take out the colony ship as well, but our battle plans called for going for armed ships first, neutral or enemy (the typical default battle plan). The 3-way battle saw us go after each other first (with his Alpha Torp Destroyer taking out my X-Ray laser scout), but the colony ship escaping before he could be shot at. Loan Shark is probably now a Spaceman planet.
The situation with the Spacemen continues to emerge. The Minions told me that they don’t want to ally and will deal with the Spacemen on their own in their own space should they arrive. The Danis, who are willing to take on the Spacemen with me, told me that they were offered a treaty of sorts; give the Spacemen a scout ship and they would not attack…for now. They also told me that the Spacemen are taking advantage of the rv-988212g situation, which means that even if we give them a hassle, they have a place to expand to and launch from there. If we don’t curtail the Spacemen now, I fear they will take all of us in the northeast quadrant out of any serious contention for winning, even if they don’t succeed in destroying anyone. We’ll be using our resources for warships while others are building their economy.
It appears that the Spacemen decided not to go after Desert after seeing the number of my colonists there. My scanning range is hampered by the death of the scout there, so I don’t know where he went, but the armed Spaceman scout that took out the colony protector is still there. I intend to retake the orbit. I built 4 new Little Zoinkers to handle that task, to add to the 2 that will meet up with the colony resupply ship. His message to me was simply that he intends to attack, but that was sent last year, so he’s had other thoughts. Still, it doesn’t sound like he’s interested in diplomacy.
A scout from the Wolves showed up at Deneb (which I colonized this year), but my Deneb Protector (another X-Ray laser scout) couldn’t get close enough to get a shot off. He is still in orbit, and another scout and a freighter (no doubt a colony ship) are due to arrive next year. He may call them off once he sees me there, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I’ve seen that the planet Lynx is inhabited by Wolves. It’s been terraformed closer to my habitabilty, so it looks like we may have similar ranges. Just south of Lynx, I see a scout from a new race; the Tobacs. They’re flying by planets, so it looks like yet another JoaT race.
I’ve decided I really need Beta torpedoes to make an armed scout that can go after these annoyances. And a Beta Destroyer wouldn’t be bad either, but we’ll hold off to see how well a Beta Scout fares. With that in mind, I’ve started taking resources for research to at least get the Beta Torpedo next year. After that, it’ll be business as usual. As far as hiding my race, my inability to chase down a simple scout has suggested to me that the more weight I shed off my ship designs the better. Future designs will not include scanners. Forget racial trait hiding, I need to make an impression.
To the Minions:
The Spacemen are on a
rampage, and I would suggest that you might want to help out in
slowing them down while we still can. If not, you may well be
their next victim. Keep in touch.
To the Makisachi:
It looks like we were
victims of our own battle plans, going after each other instead
of the Spaceman colonizer. I suggest we band together to slow
down or stop them so that we can return to building our empires
instead of defending them. I have potential allies for a
concerted effort to get their attention. Are you with us?
To the Wolves:
Deneb is mine. Attacking
it may be hazardous to your health.
Year 2418
I am currently in 5th place. The Tiny Zoinkers were dismantled as intended. The Wolf ships heading to Deneb have already turned around. Their scout saw my colonists.
Jumped into Weapons tech 5 this year, getting the Beta Torpedo, the Black Cat bomb and Radiation Terraforming 7.
From the Wolves:
Stop your probe heading
for Moonbeam.
I’d already turned it around before I read his message, and let him know that.
From the Dani, after
discussing habitabilities:
Planets I think may be
good for you: Siberia - high on Temp & Radiation, right smack
in the middle on Gravity.
Cherry (Spacemen have plans to colonize) might be good, but
Radiation is pretty low.
Dipstick - low on radiation but not as low as Cherry. High on the
other two areas.
Sputnik - kinda low on Radiation but not as low as Cherry.
Libra - low on Temperature
Clatsop looks like it might be a 70+% for you. But the Makisachi
have already colonized it.
Ziggurat is just a little low on Gravity.
Elron may be at least a 70% planet for you.
I replied:
If you like Kludge,
you’ll love Walla Walla, so you’ll have to make a
decision as to which you want, and we’ll mine the other.
A few of these planets are rather distant, but it’s time for some deep space exploration now. However, with the Spacemen between me and some of those planets, it’s time to up the ante. I created the Little Zoinker II, which is the same as the Little Zoinker minus the superfluous Bat Scanner. The Not-So Little Zoinker has a Beta Torpedo instead of X-Ray laser. I think a combination of these should keep deep space colonizers rather safe. To get rid of my current crop of Little Zoinkers, I’m going to build enough Little Zoinker IIs to cover the Protector duties, and send the Protectors out with the colonists. I’ve also created the Peeping Zoinker, with a fuel tank but, again, no scanner. I’ve put a combination of these in Ho Hum’s queue to prepare for exploration and colonization.
Year 2419
I’m currently in 5th place.
The Spacemen have 6 mini-bombers at Desert this turn (they took out 2900 colonists, though I grew by about 1800), but my resupply fleet is ready at Hydra; 6 Little Zoinkers and a Colony of Zoinks ship with 21,000 colonists. At warp 8, they’ll be there next year. There is a Spaceman scout coming to Hyrda next year, a year too late to see my fleet together.
A colonizer has come back from resupplying Hell, so I’m going to put together a fleet to find another planet. Unfortunately, most of the planets the Danis say I might be able to use are quite a ways away through Spaceman space. The others may already be colonized by them or the Makaschi. I’m going to go on an exploration mission, with my ultimate destination (should I not find anything suitable before then) being Siberia. The fleet will have to pass through the heart of Spaceman space, so it will consist of a Colony of Zoinks, 4 Not-So Little Zoinkers (with Beta torps), and 3 Little Zoinker II’s (with X-Rays but no scanners). An original Little Zoinker, that was protecting Hexnut, will join them, and a Little Zoinker II will take his place. A Peeping Zoinker will go with them to scout around once a planet is colonized.
Another Peeping Zoinker is heading towards the southwest to see if there’s any other pickin’ elsewhere.
The Danis have expressed a desire to colonize Walla Walla, since it is better for them than even Kludge. I’m going to go along with it, since Kludge is so close, though it is tempting to go to Walla Walla for minerals, as the Danis say the concentrations are in excess of 180 for all minerals. Still, it’s a 4 year round trip instead of 2. Therefore, I’m building a couple more Cotton Pickers to add to Kludge Mining.
From the Makasachi:
I will definitely smite
any Spacemen in my area. Just let me know where the war party is
meeting. As for my battle plan it is set to attack ONLY enemies,
and the ONLY enemy I have listed is the Spacemen. Your battle
plan must be set to attack neutrals. I suggest you set it to
attack only enemy and that way you get to pick your battles. Just
my opinion.
I took his advice and set
my Default battle plan to Enemies only (and the Spacemen are my
only enemies now), but added a new "Neutrals &
Enemies" plan, for those protectors and scouting missions. I
replied:
Will do. Default plan
now only targets enemies.
Are you up for going after the Spacemen actively, or just as they
make incursions into your own space?
From the Wolves:
I hate threats. I feel
sorry you think you need to use them. I give you a warn. Stay out
of my space.
My reply:
Just letting you know
that I intend to keep Deneb. We haven’t talked enough for me
to know your intentions, hence the "Don’t attack"
message. I see you left on your own last year, so after seeing
that it’s apparent I don’t need to warn you off in the
future. Enjoy.
Next year is 2420, and the scores become public. While diplomatic relations have been tense, this may serve to decrease tension in some cases, and increase them in others. The Danis tell me they’re in 4th place while I’ve been stuck in 5th for a while now, so we make well-matched partners. The questions will be; who is in those top three spots, are they near us, and where are the Spacemen?
Year 2420
I’m in 5th place, and now the scores are public. It explains a few things, and I do believe it will indeed affect diplomatic relations.
Of the four races ahead of me, I’ve only just met scouts of 2 (the Bejavoid and the Tobacs), I have tense relations with one (the Wolves) and am allied with one (the Danis). I may need to start being nicer to the Wolves, though I haven’t been entire antagonistic on the whole. All in all, though, I’m not planing on attacks from stronger individuals. Alliances, however, are another story. If the Wolves and the Minions have indeed allied, they could be formidable, and unless I have a more military alliance to help cover me, if they wanted to take me on they could do some serious damage.
The Spacemen are in 14th place, and the two players behind them (undiscovered players 5 and 11) don’t look like they’re actively in the game. This makes the Spacemen the weakest active player, but (unfortunately for me) the most aggressive. They have only 2 planets, which is probably why they’re fighting so hard for Desert. My ships arrived at Desert and destroyed (as it turned out) the two Spaceman armed scouts, while the bombers fled the battle. (Interestingly, his armed probes used the tactic "Disengage if challenged", but they never go the chance to. >smile<) Normally I could stick around next year and mop them up, but a medium freighter of Spaceman colonists and 4 destroyers will arrive next year. I’ll dump my colonists on Desert (leaving 55,000 on the planet) and ship out, except for 1 scout (named "Last Man Standing") that will remain to attack and find out the design of those destroyers.
The Danis sent a message
saying that Nope would be a great planet for me, but the
rv-988212g are on the planet currently. While they are inactive,
still it would require an invasion and casualties that I
can’t afford, so I’ll pass that up for now. The
Siberian Colony is on its way. I sent a message back:
You may have Walla
Walla. Thanks for the info on Nope, but if I have to fight rv
colonists to get it, I can't afford it just yet. I'm heading for
Siberia, so if you see anyone going there, please let me know.
Thanks.
The two Colony of Zoinks ships that have been resupplying Hexnut now have new orders to colonize terraformable planets. Upon their return, one will load up colonists to colonize Eisenhower and the other will go to Castle. Castle is rather close to Desert, so that may change, but it’ll be 7 years before it gets to Ho Hum, so I’ll be able to reassess the situation at that time.
Given the Spacemen’s
poor standing at this point, I’m sending the same message to
the Makasachi, the Danis and the Minions, noting that I’m
copying all of them:
The Spacemen, as of
2420, have but 2 planets, and they’re currently attacking
one of mine with bombers and new destroyers. While my motive for
removing the Spacemen is obvious, the time has come to take this
scourge out of the galaxy before you folks are next, if you
haven’t been targeted already. He’s desperate for
planets, and –will- take them by force. I propose a
"Remove All The Spacemen" (RATS) initiative. Who is
with me?
