HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
I got a weird start to my inward perfection empire. There was this really long stretch of hyperlanes that were just a straight line, no deviations. So basically it was free territory to expand to.
Which is just as well, because one of the other two directions away from my starting system has a giant space jellyfish thing. For shits and giggles about 70 years into the game I threw my armada at it just to see what that's like. Took down 8% of its health with a 5.2k fleet.
I wanted to make a Xenophile/Materialstic race of Merchants and Business men, who would fund their empire by buying minerals and materials from all their surrounding civilizations.
So whats the game do? Surrounds me 3-layers deep with Militaristic, Spiritualistic or Xenophobic assholes. I haven't met a civ yet that has an initial opinion of me above -150.
Good times... Good times...
Well, yeah. You're the fucking interstellar sales department. Nothing but cold-calling, recordings-that-sound-like-real-people, and fake vacations for time shares.
So you're basically
Sludge Vohaul?
"now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
+1
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
So what does this mean for our new weekly game? Are we gonna continue despite the BS or are we gonna have to shelve it until all the patches are ironed out, because im threading the energy line as it is with my robits. I dont start dumping heavy into energy until i know where my borders are because until then, minerals are where its at to fund the resource gathering and the initial "fuck off this is mine" fleet
The changes only apply to the opt-in beta, so we're good to keep playing our friday game with regular 2.0 rules and see how the rolling beta deals with these, a lot of the changes they've made will likely be shifted around to balance, since that's the point of the opt-in.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
If my leader isn't at least 5 stars when arrested development kicks in I fire them immediately. No reason to keep them around when they are easily replaceable!
I am now learning the value of building weapon stations at my borders with other empires. More guns plz.
I definitely place defensive stations wherever I have a nice chokepoint, until my empire expands quite a bit out from there, then i'll tear it up and put it closer to the edge of my border. They have saved my ass more than once, its nice to have like 3 defensive starbases, then I build a few anchorage, and maybe 1 or 2 more shipyards (mid to late game)
I am now learning the value of building weapon stations at my borders with other empires. More guns plz.
I definitely place defensive stations wherever I have a nice chokepoint, until my empire expands quite a bit out from there, then i'll tear it up and put it closer to the edge of my border. They have saved my ass more than once, its nice to have like 3 defensive starbases, then I build a few anchorage, and maybe 1 or 2 more shipyards (mid to late game)
I just had the Great Khan event trigger. The nearest border chokepoint to them is a fully upgraded Citadel. I also have the station ascension perk and the super-computer installed in it so it has like, 28 defensive platforms on top of the fleet of battleships I am building. It also nullifies enemy shields
I eagerly await the Khan's arrival.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I am a big fan of assigning specific ship classes to fleets after playing today.
20k corvette fleet comprised of different designs all swarm in with a gale-speed admiral, followed by a similar-strength cruiser fleet with torpedoes and artillery, and finally a battleship fleet armed with bullshit cloud lightning and arc emitters to completely ignore the enemy's defences.
Got so much reverse-engineering done out of the two marauder clans hiding in the back end of my territory.
Is it worth it to colonize marginally habitable planets? I got up to 40% on every other world type and have like 15 planets I can immediately colonize from my current 5. I know in a previous game I used migration treaties and robots to work those planet types with only a small group of original colonists.
It looks like habitability now so negatively effects production they would not be worth it.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Is it worth it to colonize marginally habitable planets? I got up to 40% on every other world type and have like 15 planets I can immediately colonize from my current 5. I know in a previous game I used migration treaties and robots to work those planet types with only a small group of original colonists.
It looks like habitability now so negatively effects production they would not be worth it.
I'm actually not sure. I know that habitability caps the happiness stat of a population (which affects their resource output). But apparently, separate of that, habitability affects resource output at the baseline.
I played a hive mind empire which had no happiness to worry about, but on a lower habitability planet the resource output was lower anyway.
Hmm, okay then, I guess I will wait until I have enough robot/alternate pops to populate the planet with high habitability guys.
I do like that you can get up to +20% so quickly now, I want to play a droid dependent species that does that.
What are good extra modules for a trade station? I am going with hydroponics and storage right now.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
I usually do the trade enhancer and storage and call it good. MAYBE food if I've got particular food trubs.
Storage modules are the unsung QoL hero of this update, though. Being able to run small deficits for a while is great. It gives you a lot more flexibility in how you address resource issues if you don't have "and if you don't solve this in the next three months then your entire economy with crash, your research will tank, your people will starve, and half your empire will rebel" as an additional constraint.
+1
NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Is it worth it to colonize marginally habitable planets? I got up to 40% on every other world type and have like 15 planets I can immediately colonize from my current 5. I know in a previous game I used migration treaties and robots to work those planet types with only a small group of original colonists.
It looks like habitability now so negatively effects production they would not be worth it.
I'm actually not sure. I know that habitability caps the happiness stat of a population (which affects their resource output). But apparently, separate of that, habitability affects resource output at the baseline.
I played a hive mind empire which had no happiness to worry about, but on a lower habitability planet the resource output was lower anyway.
I think at some point habitability changed, because my moths were getting more than 20% happiness on 20% habitable worlds. It was applying a malus to happiness and a hell of a malus to growth speed, but it wasn't a hard happycap.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
It used to be that you could not settle pops on a planet if the habitability for their species was below 40%
This has definitely changed somewhere along the way, because I made it a habit to settle on large planets regardless of climate once I had the ability to alter my pops' climate preference within a few short months of planetfall.
Also, I did not realise that you need droids technology before you can pack colony ships with robots. This makes me want to take another stab at life-seeded plays now.
Edit: Clearing out marauder systems is pretty worth it, you guys.
Hmm, okay then, I guess I will wait until I have enough robot/alternate pops to populate the planet with high habitability guys.
I do like that you can get up to +20% so quickly now, I want to play a droid dependent species that does that.
What are good extra modules for a trade station? I am going with hydroponics and storage right now.
I generally play as highly adaptive mechanists, so my people have +20% adaptability from turn 1. So I can colonize non-ideal biome worlds from the get go and use robots to do the heavy lifting if RNG isn't kind enough to give me desired biome worlds.
Still, I generally don't grab the non-ideal worlds until after I get a few habitability and happiness boosts. I primarily do this because I don't want unhappy citizens because unhappy citizens leads to dissent and political parties that conflict with my goals.
Beyond being truly desperate for territory, I'd make exceptions for massive worlds with few tile blockers that can be turned into robot strip mines. I'd also make an exception for strategically significant worlds. Before this update, that meant worlds that would expand my territory to cover desirable systems. These days that means if the system blocks a vital choke point and a planetary FTL inhibitor will dramatically slow down assailants.
I wish that I could hand out increased consumer goods rations on a per planet basis. Then I'd subsidize the citizens who live in miserable conditions by giving them some free stuff.
Hmm, okay then, I guess I will wait until I have enough robot/alternate pops to populate the planet with high habitability guys.
I do like that you can get up to +20% so quickly now, I want to play a droid dependent species that does that.
What are good extra modules for a trade station? I am going with hydroponics and storage right now.
Another thing habitability effects is pop growth. Even if you have traits and bonuses to ofset the happiness and resource production, that pop growth really effects how long it takes for a colony to reach its full potential.
As for trade-heavy starbases, there is the Offworld Trading Company, that increases the output of all Trade Hubs on the starbase. Since you usually have them at colonies, adding a Black Site is also a pretty good idea.
Last spots are a bit harder to fill. If it's near your borders, might put a Crew Quarters and make it the home of one of your fleets, leaving the Bastions a slot for auras, another possibility is the Hypelane Registrar, though some feel it isn't cost-effective enough. Hydroponics works well if you have food issues, though I wouldn't bother with storage personally; IMO if you need the extra space, then you aren't spending what's coming in fast enough.
Hmm, if pop growth is negatively effected it might be worth it then, my fear was too many of my people living there, but with happiness and immigration bonuses I can quickly steal pops to work them.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
Hmm, okay then, I guess I will wait until I have enough robot/alternate pops to populate the planet with high habitability guys.
I do like that you can get up to +20% so quickly now, I want to play a droid dependent species that does that.
What are good extra modules for a trade station? I am going with hydroponics and storage right now.
As for trade-heavy starbases, there is the Offworld Trading Company, that increases the output of all Trade Hubs on the starbase. Since you usually have them at colonies, adding a Black Site is also a pretty good idea.
Personally, I prefer doing my electronics shopping solely at Area 51.
If you are a xenophile empire with full rights for aliens, marginal planets are just big welcome mats for refugees who love the climate.
+1
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
the friday Stellaris game is up if anyone from the game is interested in playing tonight.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Alright fine, if the game is bugged and won't let me capture the scourge planet to end the conflict, I'll just BUILD A FUCKING COLOSSUS AND BLOW IT THE FUCK UP.
Yes. Unity formula fixes, various bugfixes, and I haven't had any problems with the fleet manager anymore. And the outpost energy drain really isn't that big of a deal.
Let me put it this way, I had a night before I have to work on Friday for nine hours and then drive 4 hours to go to my son's first birthday party the next day. And instead of getting a good night's sleep, I lost track of time and went to bed at 4 p.m. because of the new beta patch which is fuckingawesome. I hope this clarifies your question. I'm so tired.
Grah, had a game that was going great and then I got hit by the CB notification bug, so now that campaign's on hold until Paradox's next hotfix comes out...
So it looks like you can make missile corvettes that have the same range as large slots for destroyers and cruisers, would it be a good idea to have every weapon at the same range to do an immediate punch against the enemy?
Also how have the fortress planet tiles worked out?
I want to make my planets a bit hard to take over and I am willing to sacrifice a slot or two if they actually do something. I have a planet at a serius choke point to 5 other semi hostile powers.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
So it looks like you can make missile corvettes that have the same range as large slots for destroyers and cruisers, would it be a good idea to have every weapon at the same range to do an immediate punch against the enemy?
Also how have the fortress planet tiles worked out?
I want to make my planets a bit hard to take over and I am willing to sacrifice a slot or two if they actually do something. I have a planet at a serius choke point to 5 other semi hostile powers.
Fortresses make bombardments not kill your armies, give you 5 defense armies, buffs the health of those armies and a FTL inhib with the right tech. And a marginal amount of unity and unrest reduction
So it looks like you can make missile corvettes that have the same range as large slots for destroyers and cruisers, would it be a good idea to have every weapon at the same range to do an immediate punch against the enemy?
Also how have the fortress planet tiles worked out?
I want to make my planets a bit hard to take over and I am willing to sacrifice a slot or two if they actually do something. I have a planet at a serius choke point to 5 other semi hostile powers.
Fortresses make bombardments not kill your armies, give you 5 defense armies, buffs the health of those armies and a FTL inhib with the right tech. And a marginal amount of unity and unrest reduction
Is one slot worth it?
You are right, time to make a fortress world. 10 fortresses, beat that plant invaders!
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
Yes. Unity formula fixes, various bugfixes, and I haven't had any problems with the fleet manager anymore. And the outpost energy drain really isn't that big of a deal.
Its definitely much less of a problem than I'd expected.
Alright fine, if the game is bugged and won't let me capture the scourge planet to end the conflict, I'll just BUILD A FUCKING COLOSSUS AND BLOW IT THE FUCK UP.
At long last, the Scourge would be defeated.
Standing on the bridge of the Ghandi, first of three of the Tranquil Lands' titans, the admiral of the fleet watched as the weapon's massive petal-like structures unfolded.
'The weapon.' After consideration, command had decided that no other term was appropriate. To give an object a name implied a certain respect, if not pride. The Tranquil would not be proud of what they had created today.
Below, the besieged world of Whoo'tar glowed in the harsh light of its blue sun. Its scarred surface, mottled brown, gashed by the innumerable bombardments the planet had suffered over the twilight years of the war. The archives indicated that Whoo'tar had once been a lush, green jewel - a haven for life of all kinds. Lying at the border of the Commonwealth of Wethir and a mere jump from Uva-Xavani space, the world had once been the primary hub of galactic activity across the eastern galactic rim.
When the Scourge came, Whoo'tar was first. Almost on top of the Scourge's entry point into the galaxy, the emerald jewel was devoured and stripped of life, its inhabitants bio-mass repurposed for the creation of ever more Scourge. They had blazed across the eastern quadrant, decimating worlds in their wake. Empires melted before them; victories were few, barely able to slow their relentless advance, even as their forced spread thinner and thinner. Attempts to spearhead a task force into Scourge-occupied space repeatedly failed.
At last, a combination of Xanyr Peacekeeper and Tranquil forces had discovered a wormhole in Tranquil space - one that opened a conduit from the western quadrant all the way across the galaxy, one system away from the still smoldering husk of Whoo'tar. The allied forces rallied, organized themselves, and poured through Tranquil space into the wormhole, the Tranquils themselves committing their energies into the rapid assembly of a shipyard on the other side to serve as a beachhead.
By the time the Scourge knew what had happened, the Citadel was already in place.
The Scourge retreated from their expansion, reversing course in an attempt to dislodge the allied forces, but by then it was too late. The Tranquil, ever the nation of peace, had made an art form out of 'digging in.' Over the following years the Scourge would be pushed back, system by system, until at last all that was left to clear was Whoo'tar itself.
Allied forces had been bombarding the planet for the better part of a decade. Despite the uncountable amounts of artillery dropped on the planet, the Scourge remained, repelling all attempted landings of ground forces and continuing to refuse any entreaties to parlay from the Tranquils. The extended bombardment made it all too clear: they would not stop in their quest to devour all life in the galaxy - not unless they were made to.
The weapon's petal structures glowed as it gathered energy, massive cannon-like structure pointed towards the planet below. Shouts went out across the bridge, reporting that the weapon was ready to fire.
The admiral raised his hand, wizened with age, and hesitated. He allowed himself the luxury of a moment of sadness. If only the Scourge had listened...
He gave the order to fire. Moments later, filaments of light erupted from the weapon's barrel, glittering like threads of gossamer sugar as they arced, wrapping themselves around the planet's upper atmosphere before stiffening into a series of sequentially arranged hexagons. Line upon line, layer upon layer, the weapon disgorged its punishment like an arachnid wrapping up its trapped prey. Ground-based artillery fired, bouncing harmlessly off the expanding bubble and returning back to the surface to explode. It was only the work of a few minutes once it began in earnest.
As the last segments were being woven into place, there was a warning siren. A wave of psionic energy crashed over the fleet. All the Shakan Tranquils - the original species of their land - clutched their heads as desperate wailing filled their mind's ears.
The slick thoughts of the Scourge had always been matted in a coating of malice. All of that had been stripped away. They begged. They pleaded. They screeched as the last segments were locked into place. And then they went quiet.
Comms crackled, announcing the operation was a success. The jubilation of the fleet was palpable - literally so to the Shakans. The joy pouring in from the ships around them was a balm on the mind, and for some, would help them to forget. The war, which had lasted for over a century, was over.
Hours later, the combined allied fleets pulled away from the encased cage of Whoo'tar. Tranquil scientists claimed that the shield was strong enough to last for hundreds of millions of years - long past the life of the planet's parent star. Until then, a small number of the Scourge would likely be able to survive on what plant matter could be cultivated from the little solar radiation that penetrated the shield. After that, however, without an influx of elements from meteorite impacts, and without the energy of the star, even that tiny amount of food would dwindle. The Scourge, the nightmare that had threatened to eat the galaxy itself, would slowly starve to death over millennia.
And that's how I got around a dumb bug, ended the crisis, and kicked my Federation to over 60% of owned worlds.
Posts
Which is just as well, because one of the other two directions away from my starting system has a giant space jellyfish thing. For shits and giggles about 70 years into the game I threw my armada at it just to see what that's like. Took down 8% of its health with a 5.2k fleet.
No way I would've burned through influence to min-max my people like that before.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
So you're basically
The changes only apply to the opt-in beta, so we're good to keep playing our friday game with regular 2.0 rules and see how the rolling beta deals with these, a lot of the changes they've made will likely be shifted around to balance, since that's the point of the opt-in.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Somebody gained the "arrested development" penalty?
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
Also, if you mod a leader subspecies, does your roster try to pick from them more heavily, or is it weighted by existing populatuon?
Also, is there a way to tell between your subspecies without just changing the portraits?
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Spoiler shock images plz
I definitely place defensive stations wherever I have a nice chokepoint, until my empire expands quite a bit out from there, then i'll tear it up and put it closer to the edge of my border. They have saved my ass more than once, its nice to have like 3 defensive starbases, then I build a few anchorage, and maybe 1 or 2 more shipyards (mid to late game)
I just had the Great Khan event trigger. The nearest border chokepoint to them is a fully upgraded Citadel. I also have the station ascension perk and the super-computer installed in it so it has like, 28 defensive platforms on top of the fleet of battleships I am building. It also nullifies enemy shields
I eagerly await the Khan's arrival.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
20k corvette fleet comprised of different designs all swarm in with a gale-speed admiral, followed by a similar-strength cruiser fleet with torpedoes and artillery, and finally a battleship fleet armed with bullshit cloud lightning and arc emitters to completely ignore the enemy's defences.
Got so much reverse-engineering done out of the two marauder clans hiding in the back end of my territory.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
It looks like habitability now so negatively effects production they would not be worth it.
I played a hive mind empire which had no happiness to worry about, but on a lower habitability planet the resource output was lower anyway.
I do like that you can get up to +20% so quickly now, I want to play a droid dependent species that does that.
What are good extra modules for a trade station? I am going with hydroponics and storage right now.
Storage modules are the unsung QoL hero of this update, though. Being able to run small deficits for a while is great. It gives you a lot more flexibility in how you address resource issues if you don't have "and if you don't solve this in the next three months then your entire economy with crash, your research will tank, your people will starve, and half your empire will rebel" as an additional constraint.
I think at some point habitability changed, because my moths were getting more than 20% happiness on 20% habitable worlds. It was applying a malus to happiness and a hell of a malus to growth speed, but it wasn't a hard happycap.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
This has definitely changed somewhere along the way, because I made it a habit to settle on large planets regardless of climate once I had the ability to alter my pops' climate preference within a few short months of planetfall.
Also, I did not realise that you need droids technology before you can pack colony ships with robots. This makes me want to take another stab at life-seeded plays now.
Edit: Clearing out marauder systems is pretty worth it, you guys.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
I generally play as highly adaptive mechanists, so my people have +20% adaptability from turn 1. So I can colonize non-ideal biome worlds from the get go and use robots to do the heavy lifting if RNG isn't kind enough to give me desired biome worlds.
Still, I generally don't grab the non-ideal worlds until after I get a few habitability and happiness boosts. I primarily do this because I don't want unhappy citizens because unhappy citizens leads to dissent and political parties that conflict with my goals.
Beyond being truly desperate for territory, I'd make exceptions for massive worlds with few tile blockers that can be turned into robot strip mines. I'd also make an exception for strategically significant worlds. Before this update, that meant worlds that would expand my territory to cover desirable systems. These days that means if the system blocks a vital choke point and a planetary FTL inhibitor will dramatically slow down assailants.
I wish that I could hand out increased consumer goods rations on a per planet basis. Then I'd subsidize the citizens who live in miserable conditions by giving them some free stuff.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Another thing habitability effects is pop growth. Even if you have traits and bonuses to ofset the happiness and resource production, that pop growth really effects how long it takes for a colony to reach its full potential.
As for trade-heavy starbases, there is the Offworld Trading Company, that increases the output of all Trade Hubs on the starbase. Since you usually have them at colonies, adding a Black Site is also a pretty good idea.
Last spots are a bit harder to fill. If it's near your borders, might put a Crew Quarters and make it the home of one of your fleets, leaving the Bastions a slot for auras, another possibility is the Hypelane Registrar, though some feel it isn't cost-effective enough. Hydroponics works well if you have food issues, though I wouldn't bother with storage personally; IMO if you need the extra space, then you aren't spending what's coming in fast enough.
Personally, I prefer doing my electronics shopping solely at Area 51.
Steam: CavilatRest
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
Yes. Unity formula fixes, various bugfixes, and I haven't had any problems with the fleet manager anymore. And the outpost energy drain really isn't that big of a deal.
Let me put it this way, I had a night before I have to work on Friday for nine hours and then drive 4 hours to go to my son's first birthday party the next day. And instead of getting a good night's sleep, I lost track of time and went to bed at 4 p.m. because of the new beta patch which is fuckingawesome. I hope this clarifies your question. I'm so tired.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Also how have the fortress planet tiles worked out?
I want to make my planets a bit hard to take over and I am willing to sacrifice a slot or two if they actually do something. I have a planet at a serius choke point to 5 other semi hostile powers.
Fortresses make bombardments not kill your armies, give you 5 defense armies, buffs the health of those armies and a FTL inhib with the right tech. And a marginal amount of unity and unrest reduction
Is one slot worth it?
You are right, time to make a fortress world. 10 fortresses, beat that plant invaders!
Its definitely much less of a problem than I'd expected.
Standing on the bridge of the Ghandi, first of three of the Tranquil Lands' titans, the admiral of the fleet watched as the weapon's massive petal-like structures unfolded.
'The weapon.' After consideration, command had decided that no other term was appropriate. To give an object a name implied a certain respect, if not pride. The Tranquil would not be proud of what they had created today.
Below, the besieged world of Whoo'tar glowed in the harsh light of its blue sun. Its scarred surface, mottled brown, gashed by the innumerable bombardments the planet had suffered over the twilight years of the war. The archives indicated that Whoo'tar had once been a lush, green jewel - a haven for life of all kinds. Lying at the border of the Commonwealth of Wethir and a mere jump from Uva-Xavani space, the world had once been the primary hub of galactic activity across the eastern galactic rim.
When the Scourge came, Whoo'tar was first. Almost on top of the Scourge's entry point into the galaxy, the emerald jewel was devoured and stripped of life, its inhabitants bio-mass repurposed for the creation of ever more Scourge. They had blazed across the eastern quadrant, decimating worlds in their wake. Empires melted before them; victories were few, barely able to slow their relentless advance, even as their forced spread thinner and thinner. Attempts to spearhead a task force into Scourge-occupied space repeatedly failed.
At last, a combination of Xanyr Peacekeeper and Tranquil forces had discovered a wormhole in Tranquil space - one that opened a conduit from the western quadrant all the way across the galaxy, one system away from the still smoldering husk of Whoo'tar. The allied forces rallied, organized themselves, and poured through Tranquil space into the wormhole, the Tranquils themselves committing their energies into the rapid assembly of a shipyard on the other side to serve as a beachhead.
By the time the Scourge knew what had happened, the Citadel was already in place.
The Scourge retreated from their expansion, reversing course in an attempt to dislodge the allied forces, but by then it was too late. The Tranquil, ever the nation of peace, had made an art form out of 'digging in.' Over the following years the Scourge would be pushed back, system by system, until at last all that was left to clear was Whoo'tar itself.
Allied forces had been bombarding the planet for the better part of a decade. Despite the uncountable amounts of artillery dropped on the planet, the Scourge remained, repelling all attempted landings of ground forces and continuing to refuse any entreaties to parlay from the Tranquils. The extended bombardment made it all too clear: they would not stop in their quest to devour all life in the galaxy - not unless they were made to.
The weapon's petal structures glowed as it gathered energy, massive cannon-like structure pointed towards the planet below. Shouts went out across the bridge, reporting that the weapon was ready to fire.
The admiral raised his hand, wizened with age, and hesitated. He allowed himself the luxury of a moment of sadness. If only the Scourge had listened...
He gave the order to fire. Moments later, filaments of light erupted from the weapon's barrel, glittering like threads of gossamer sugar as they arced, wrapping themselves around the planet's upper atmosphere before stiffening into a series of sequentially arranged hexagons. Line upon line, layer upon layer, the weapon disgorged its punishment like an arachnid wrapping up its trapped prey. Ground-based artillery fired, bouncing harmlessly off the expanding bubble and returning back to the surface to explode. It was only the work of a few minutes once it began in earnest.
As the last segments were being woven into place, there was a warning siren. A wave of psionic energy crashed over the fleet. All the Shakan Tranquils - the original species of their land - clutched their heads as desperate wailing filled their mind's ears.
The slick thoughts of the Scourge had always been matted in a coating of malice. All of that had been stripped away. They begged. They pleaded. They screeched as the last segments were locked into place. And then they went quiet.
Comms crackled, announcing the operation was a success. The jubilation of the fleet was palpable - literally so to the Shakans. The joy pouring in from the ships around them was a balm on the mind, and for some, would help them to forget. The war, which had lasted for over a century, was over.
Hours later, the combined allied fleets pulled away from the encased cage of Whoo'tar. Tranquil scientists claimed that the shield was strong enough to last for hundreds of millions of years - long past the life of the planet's parent star. Until then, a small number of the Scourge would likely be able to survive on what plant matter could be cultivated from the little solar radiation that penetrated the shield. After that, however, without an influx of elements from meteorite impacts, and without the energy of the star, even that tiny amount of food would dwindle. The Scourge, the nightmare that had threatened to eat the galaxy itself, would slowly starve to death over millennia.
And that's how I got around a dumb bug, ended the crisis, and kicked my Federation to over 60% of owned worlds.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow