To all who are playing the P&Nv2 HomeComing Scenario

[Suicide Junkie]

I am curious as to how many people have tried this scenario, and how you are doing.

I am sure that I picked the very worst direction to go. The middle of a warzone, a planetary wasteland (a total of two planets with one out of three values above 50%) from multiple glassings, and constant baseship attacks.

I've now reached the point where I have the income to support 4 out of 17 Dreadnaughts that I own, and am using my Legacy fighters (Flare MK2s & 3s) as a primary defense on my planets.

On the positive side, my four active Dragons are all Elite or Legendary, with a +50/+60 Experience total (including fleet XP). That raises my max range accuracy on the MSG to a respectable 70/80%, and I am making a profit scrapping captured baseships!

As an amusing side note, there is a "rebel" player who is in 19th out of 12 surviving. Apparently, he has a lower score than the players who have been defeated! Before you cry Impossible!, think tech levels & stuff.

-<Download my HomeComing scenario>- (For P&N v2.3b)
-<Download V2.3b>- (Fixed rare RCE from AI; just extract to your SE4 folder)


[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 11 September 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

So, nobody has tried this scenario?

Nobody wants to take control of a race during their darkest hour, and attempt to drive back the night?

Are there no valiant souls willing to rebuild and defend an empire against five AIs ten times your size?

Resist their military pressure, refuse to be defeated by relentless terrorist attacks, and never surrender your right to survive!

[BadAxe]

I downloaded it, am looking at it, am tempted. I am tired of starting from scratch. It looks like fun. Oh, OK, I will try it.

[Rollo]

I am playing it as well, but I haven't gotten very far (the sun hasn't exploded), yet. Between PBW and doing the Vikings AI, I don't have much spare time to play solo games. But when I do, I run a few homecoming turns .

Rollo

[Suicide Junkie]

Some pointers:
- Glassing planets results in a huge value loss (~30%!)
- Morale is critical: the 40% difference in production from Angry to Jubilant can make or break your empire.
- As a bloodthirsty race, battle victories are critical to happiness.
- Tactical Combat is critical to battle victories. Unless you are can form a strategy to get 3 DNs to win against 15 Psychic Baseships, Tactical is nessesary.
- Remember the value of ship capture. Taking a Baseship can net you over 3000 minerals, enough to run one of your DNs for 1/2 a year.
- Make good use of Nature Shrines, and monoliths. You're in this for the long run, and the shrines should overcome the inevitable sabotage events.
- Always have two SpacePorts! Losing your spaceport can potentially lose the game.
- Always have two spaceyards, but don't waste facility slots on them. Use your construction ship to build two or more factory bases.
- Resupply depots are not critical. You can fleet with a base, or use emergency supply pods. Resupply bases are useful for fast turn around time, when you're trying to defend an empire with three ships, though .

[Rollo]

Did a few more turns. Building planets in the east. Happily expanding into the south and west. Captured some alien colonizers, now have Oxygen, none and Hydrogen breathers (Hmm, where are the Ukra-Tal hiding? Don't spoil please). Also built some carriers to move the fighters to nearby systems. Now building transports to move the population out.
Hey SJ, when does the sun blow up again? I kind of forgot .

Rollo

[Suicide Junkie]

As long as you don't save and reload during the first 30 turns, you will get Messages every year, plus one final warning just before doomsday.

If you have reloaded, just go into the scenarios folder, and read the homecoming scenario file.
The Last few Messages are about the imminent destruction of your star, and will include the date (in the line indicating when SE4 shows the message)

Check out the scores, and the borders window for intel on the Ukra-Tal.

With all that expanding, I sure hope you haven't spread too thin (when the star blows, you lose all those 150% planets!)

Also, I'm curious:
Have you altered the Dragon Class designs any, and in what way?

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 24 September 2001).]

[Puke]

i have tried starting a few times, but about 5 turns in i tend to decide that im not happy with the direction i chose and i want to try again. next time will probably be the charm.

I have been meaning to try to see if it would be possible to reinvest the current facilites in the home system to mainly focus on research and resource storage, so that a high level of stellar manip could be obtained and one of those cheesy two-turn retrofitted ringworlds could be built. If its possible, ill have to name it Molly.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[Suicide Junkie]

The two-turn ringworld will still cost you 2&1/2 million of each resource. I don't think that you can produce that much, AND research four or five SM levels all in 30 turns.

One thing: If you don't save and reload, then things become much more interesting, since you have to live with unforseen consequences, and make the best out of what you've been dealt.

I am not very happy with the direction I chose to move in; 40% value is an excellent planet compared to what I've got!
But, I live with it, and try to find cheaper methods of defense. The three Dragons I can support are dedicated to doing capture missions, just for scrap minerals

[Puke]

i bet the SM tech could be traded for. if the AI is cruising around in baseships, odds are they have some SM tech. re-evaluating the situation, there is no possible way to achive that goal with the current research output.

for clarification, my geographic direction is fairly fixed. i have decided to go for the Saiph system and pick up some sensors ASAP, so that I can minimize the need for defense fleets. I am planning on making up for any lost happyness with troops, and then expanding one planet at a time to some of the better oxygen planets. in the spirit of the game, i have decided AGAINST exploring any more systems that might have better planets. when i say change direction, i am refering more to re-evaluations of the decisions i made regarding scrapping, retorfitting, or major shifts in research priorities.

i realize this still makes me no better than a rouge-like-game savegame exploiter, but at least i have some principals.

as a side note, i have a good idea why your sun is exploding. over half the other races are LUCKY! of course you are getting the bad events!

as an unrelated note, this would really suck if you had to play it against the Rage: "Matching speed Captain, sensors detect no shield grid present on the colony ship. Cutting charges ready, stand by Marines. Wait, she's coming about.. Holy SHI+, brace for impa---" *SMASH* "Damage control teams report hull breaches on decks 3-12, engines reduced to half capacity! We've been rammed hard, Sir!"

and if i can cram one more thing into this already overtaxed post, It would be a pretty sweet challenge to see who can submit a save game that fills the victory conditions in the shortest number of turns.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)