AAR with Advisors

[idjester]

Part 14 is uploaded but I can't upload a link to it right now at work. Will do that later but you can go to my youtube account and get access to it. I will post the link later for sure but until then you still have access to it.

Posted link at youtube for this part

Matrix Empire Part14

[Hellfirejet]

Already downloaded and saved to my usb storage for future reference,I have been watching the videos for the last 4hrs and loving every minute,plus getting alot of tips on how to play this brilliant game!!!![:)]

[Modest]

>>>>> Research Planing Athorities <<<<<

I am VERY glad to see that TOADS have been punished for being toads. That was great development. Hope that next time I will be able to see our great Matrix Empire flag over their homeworld. And I believe that this is a thing to come yet. As for research I will not give anything new because as You saw - research is going really very slowly right now.

However there are two things about wich I am... Well, one is just a little explenation - no big deal, You simply didn't know few things. But the second is kind of shamefull. To put this simply - do You know from where Teekans have actually Korribian Spice, which they are trading with us? Yes... That is right. They stole our source by colonising planet with it and now they demand us to buy it from them. And that is why they become so powerfull in score suddenly. This is also propably why Hummans are now economically non-existing - we have their Loros Fruits. Actually this is kind of funny, because if we will look on our military power, Korribian Spice may become also the reasons for Teekans falldown if we will decide to fight for it.

As for explenation... Well, You made few mistakes when dealing with Ressuply Ships. First of all, they should be not in one fleet, but rather spreed out in empire on our borders... Military Advisor should point where exacly to put them. But this is not a big deal. What is really important is that before anything may refuel they must be:
1. Depolyed - not under deployment, not on the way to planet on which they will deploy and not under redeployment. They must be deployed when You are giving ships order to refuel on them.
2. Filled with Calson (Hydrogen) - once deployed, they need some time to harvest Calson (Hydrogen). Give them one month for that from the moment they deployed.
3. Nod Disturbed - if You will give them difrent order once they are deployed, they will stard redeploying and any refueling will be stoped until again deployed.

Those are basic.

And by the way - I am glad to see that You honored our pact with Hummans - it is good to do so, especialy when our reputation is very low. But this is only my opinion, and I am only the science guy, not politician.

With Regards
Research Expert and Chief Scientist
Modest

[idjester]

Part 15 is underway...... Hopefully it will be uploaded later night. Look for it then.

Still uploading this morning..... so I guess that means it was a big one.[&:]

[Kalthaniell]

I haven't seen the part 15 yet, but I just want to say that our leader did an excellent job fighting frogmen and dog-people.

The emergency plan was well executed. The strategic decisions were all very sound. The only thing that kinda buffled the High Command was the handling of our resupply ships. As our scientists already explained the proper way to command them I'll only recommend to scatter them all along the borders with hostile empires. Another clever thing to do is to have some follow a fleet to a hostile system. After an enemy gas mining station is destroyed, you can deploy your resupply ship in a hostile system. Then, your fleet can roam through enemy territory with a fuel source just minutes away.

Also, I'm very happy about the toad smashing and thier subjugation. That will teach them not to dare leave thier homepond again.

Keep it up.

[idjester]

Just as an FYI, the only reason the resupply ships were in a group was so that they were easier to manage and find. I do understand the part about how to use them it just didn't seam that way then they were in a group. Like I said though it was just to access them easier and get them up to the front lines quicker. After they got up there I didn't have time to deal with them properly because the toads needed to be dealt with but after episode 14 and getting a chance to analyze the situation I came up with some solutions and had a chance to figure out exactly what is going on with our gas situation and why fleets were not refueling. Hopefully this is explained in the beginning of episode 15.

Thanks for your advice as well, great point about using them to with an attacking fleet, never thought about that but will use that trick in the future.

Hopefully this is explained in part 15 and I was able to get those resupply ships into positions to help our fleets.

Toads and Shrimp on the barbarcue.....

The Matrix Empire Part15

[Modest]

>>>>> Research Planing Athorities <<<<<

Congratulations for Your first victorious war... I meen the first serious victorious war, as those two smaller before with the Toads and Dog-people I do not count as a serious. Again I must say that I am very glad to see that You are honoring our obligations towards alies. However I am quite concerned about our reputation... But to hell wit it! Our ships are the most advanced and powerfull in the galaxy, not counting The Guardians, so we do not need to worry about this to much. Actually it is another reason to make them even more powerfull! And that is what I would like to do now... So...

Weapons... We should do it like this:
1. Fast Enegry Propulsion
2. Total Energy Acceleration
3. Advanced Plasma Physics
4. Advanced Fighters

Posisions 1 and 2 are invented ONLY because they are needed to invent posision number 3. That is the only reason.

Energy... We should finish what we have in plans and than add to the list following:
1. Advanced Fussion Physic
2. Fusion Balance
3. High Speed Hyper Drives
4. Effitient Hyper Drives

Hi-Tech... As with Energy. We have to finish our great Wonder (and built it afther that in very speciall location), and afther that add to the list following things:
1. Advanced Troop Transport
2. Planetary Defence
3. Ultimate Troop Transport
4. Planetary Governance

Also I would like to inform You and our Military Minister about the possibility of building huge planetary Ion Cannons on our most important worlds. For a price of course...

There is also one important thing, on which we should look carefully. It is our economy. Aparently despite the fact that we have plenty of credits in our banks, we are loosing more than we earn. For a long term this will bring on our empire economic crisis. It is good moment to start to think about what to do with this little situation. Hopefully I have some plans, but they will need to be discussed with our Military Minister. Actually He will have final word in this terms.

With Regards
Research Expert and Chief Scientist
Modest

[Kalthaniell]

>>>>>Military High Command<<<<<

First and foremost, the High Command wants to congratulate the Leader of the Matrix Empire for capturing a couple of lobsters' colonies. Well done. Secondly, we must urge you to dismiss the exploration ships from fleets. They are making our fleet computers jump away from enemies instead of attacking them.

The fuel problem is becoming more and more apparent. We really need that fuel bases and resupply ships.
The High Command decided it would be best at this point to put most of our fleets on automation. They can handle themselves pretty well. Only the most important fleets should be commanded manually. There's just to much going on at the same time for one man to take care of everything.

There is one more thing. VERY IMPORTANT, CRUCIAL EVEN.
It seems we stand on a brink of war with most of the other empires. We can't risk war with all of them. The High Command strongly advises to use our allies while we still can.

What needs to be done:
-go to diplomatic screen
-speak with our allies
-propose trade
-ask them for declaring war an all empires that has 0 listed as price.
-do it any time we are at war with someone.

We are about to get our alliances cancelled anyways so we might just as well use them. We hope the chaos of war between other empires will allow us to stay on the top of the pie chart till the end. Which is very soon.

One more thing. If we will be reaching the deadline, and we are not on top - NUKE IT ALL TO HELL. NUKE IT ALL!

Over and out

>>>>>>C-i-C HMR J.T.F.<<<<<<<<
Kalthaniell


PS: What's the plan Modest?

[idjester]

Part 16 is underway.... Upload tonight. Hopefully it will turn out good. From my usual overlook of the galaxy some VERY interesting things are a possibility to start here in the beginning of this part. Won't know until I start what might happen but I did add in your recommendations before the start of the episode. As usual --- Thanks a bunch!!!!!! [&o]

As this series enters into the late phases of the game does the Matrix Empire win the scenario? Do they achieve victory or is there more to come..... Watch the video to find out....

Upload is underway....

The Matrix Empire Part16

[J HG T]

Just watching 16th episode. Seems like you got some proper steamrolling going on there, not a bad thing.
Pirates are propably concentrating on you 'cause you have the wealthiest empire. If memory serves, that affects pirates.

I may have said this before, but oh well: If ships/fleets are jumping all over the place, set their stance to "defend *insert homebase here* only" (settings in lower left panel), and set them to "engage system targets" or "engage when attacked" from options screen --> empire settings. That should help controlling your main fleets alot.

For your next game I'd suggest using 10x10 or even 15x15 map with 400-700 systems. The increased galaxy size presents certain new and interesting challenges. As long as you don't abuse the ship design system too much, that is.
I don't remember what difficulty settings you used, but I'd recommend to set aggression no higher than restless; The AI empires can ruin themselves if they are constantly in war with each other, thus making the game easier for human player.

It was interesting to provide assistance. Too bad other stuff took my time and I "dropped from the ship".
Hopefully the little advice I gave was helpful though.

EDIT: Finished watching the video.
K! Let me just say, that you are in big, BIG trouble there. First, The Ancients will mess you up 'cause of the diabolical reputation of Matrix Empire. Secondly, The "Refugees" are bad news, and I mean really BAD news. Ever played Mass Effect, know about Reapers? Yep, you are going to get oblitared quite soon.

I hate to say this, but this will amuse me greatly. [8D] Nothing personal, of course.

Your best bet is to get Archives up with gusto and hope the game will end before the Refugees truly reveal themselves.

[Modest]

>>>>> Research Planing Athorities <<<<<

I am writing to warm You about the Guardians. Do not let to be decived - raw military power is not only thing which counts here. Their weaponry systems are far better than our, their contermeasures are capable to make most of our weapons miss their targets. This is not a war which may be won by our technology. For the first time we met an opponent which will have upper hand when it come to quality. Quantity is our strenght. Quantity and manuverability. Also we do not have to be worried about invasions as Mechanoids cleary do not care about taking others planets. And that is one trouble of the shoulders. We should also look very closly to those strange refuges. I DO NOT TRUST THEM... Oh, no... As for those stupid amphibians, You did a good thing my Leader. Total occupation was the only possible outcome.

/\/\/\/\/\ Ministery of Military Research /\/\/\/\/\

Unfortunatly, my plans for saving our economy are obsole with Guardians declaring war on us, and those strange Refugees showing up. But nevertheless I will present them, so maybe in other situations we will decide to implement them.

We can of course research better command center, but it will help us up to 10% of our maintandance. That is not good eoungh. We can also research better trading, and that can help more than reducing maitandence, but still I do not think that would help us for longer term.

What I wanted to propose is as follow:
1. Design new Escort, Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser and Capital Ship - the best we can, with newest weaponry and with maxed size.
2. Design another Escort, Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser and Capital Ship as a weaker version of previous ones, but when I say weaker, I mean really weaker - like 66,6% weaker. Less shields, no armor, far less weapons on board, less fuel cells and so. Still strong eoung to fight of pirates and space creatures but to weak for enemy fleets - like a Police or National Guards.
3. Most of our ships should be retrofitted to the weaker version of our new designs, but not all - let's say that we would leve two fleets retrofitted to the stronger versions.
4. Stronger versions are used to fight of Legendary Pirates and destroy their bases, and in case of enemy sudden attack - for slowing down their advance and protecting our planets from being taked.
5. In case of enemy attack or our plan of attacking an enemy, weaker versions would be taken to the nearest medium or large space ports and retrofitted to the stronger ones.

Basicly this plan would work like war mobilisation, and since retrofitting takes much less time, money and resources than building new ones, I think that could be a good idea. During peace time we would be paying less maitandance and still have quite capable police force to protect our empire, and in case of war we would be able to quickly change it to really devastating war machine. Unfortunatly this has also it's dark sides. First of all it would take a lot of effort to do this. Secondly if our enemy would attack us during peace time and would strike at a system with our police fleets than it could be very devastating for us. But most of all this plan may not be implemended as long as political situation is not stable, and right now I am afraid that it simply never will become stable.

Plan B - raise taxes

Plan C - muster a great land forces and conquer somebody homeworld and tax it :D

Unfortunatly plan B and C are not wise ones (and only wise are expected by Zenoxians) but still effective. And they also have their dark sides, like for example the trouble of taking somebody homeworld.

With Regards
Research Expert and Chief Scientist
Modest

[idjester]

And the race is on..... The massive weight of The Ancient Gardians millitary plus the new arrival of an alien species attack The Matrix Empire. With them are aligned many of the other known races and they are all trying to destroy The Matrix Empire before it reaches 90% and win the game. We start with the finish line within sight and the race is on... Can we get to the finishline before being wipped out.....

Watch to find out.....

Episode 17 unloading now....

The Matrix Empire Part17

[Kalthaniell]

[:'(] there is a way the game shows you how far the ships can get with thier current fuel. If you select a ship, a grey circle appears arond it. That circle is the range you was talking about. Everything inside the circle is within ship's fuel range. If the ship has a lot of fuel, you might need to zoom all the way out to see the entire circle, but it's there[:'(]

Also, if you play the game again, leave the majority of your ships on auto. They really do a great job if you let them. I'm an experienced player and I never control more than 2-3 fleets manually at once. When they did what I told them to do, I always put them back on auto. An advice for the future [:'(]

There is a number of ways you can change or remove the annoying 'under attack' sound. Search the modding section of the forums to find new sounds and other neat stuff.

Last but not least, I really enjoyed watching this ARR. It kinda reminded me of my own first playthroughs. In fact, I myself made a terrible mistake of assaulting the guardians' homeworld. Never a good idea[:-]. Anyways, thx for your time and effort IDjester and hope you'll maybe make some more videos in the future.[:)]

[idjester]

Kalthaniell, its been fun having you along for the ride. You certainly gave me tons of good info and helped me manage my fleets of ships nicely.

As far as leaving my ships on auto, I have some personal feelings about that and that is why I didn't do it. I feel as though I am there to play the game and not watch the computer do it for me, if I leave things on auto then I could just sit there and let the game play itself. So although I understand what you are saying for me its more a matter of being part of the game and letting my stradegy and ability determine the outcome of the game as opposed to having the computer determine the outcome of the game. If I mess up or do the wrong thing then that should have a bearing on the outcome of the game as opposed to having the computer determine what happens.

I might do another replay if people are interested in watching more of my videos. So far I'll count your vote as ("1-For").

[Modest]

Uff... So You did it! Congratulations! It was very nice to be part of this AAR and if You will decide to make another one I hope to be also welcomed. So You may count my vote for also. There is many things that may be done in difrent ways than we did. If we would build that last wonder erlier than propably last war would be not a race with time, but rather quick jumping from enemys colony to another colony and invading everything that is in our possibility. If we would go into more carrier oriented warfare then also everything would be totally difrent. Really, lot's of stuff to see still. And ofcourse, difrent races with difrent playing strategy So I hope that You will decide to make another AAR. If I will not be a part of it then definietly I will be watching it

By the way, did You enjoyed war with the Ancient Guardians? Hehe

[idjester]

Thoes Ancient guys are bastards... tuff as nails.

Modest, I thank you for all your effort and long post. I needed them and enjoyed them alot.[&o]

You are certainly invited back if I do another AAR, would love to have you and Kalthaniell if he wanted as well.

[Modest]

I remember my first war with Ancients... Oh, only one system when I have around 50... It will be a cakewalk! Seriously, what they can do to me... WRONG! In few months of war I lost most of my space ports and was unable to build effectivly new ships Hehe... Your assault on their homeworld was somehow similar - I have 5 fleets and he has only one space port and three bases... It will work Surprise!

It is really nice to know that I was able to help and I am glad that if anything I will be invited Thank You

[Tomatoes]

Nice one mate You did it! Im sorry i didnt have the time recently to be a proper advisor. I was reading all posts but just didnt have the time to watch all the videos. (I hope to at a later date)

From what i did watch.

That annoying Ancient Gaurdian mine in your drayu system causing a headache?

Thats what spies are for!!

Set one to destroy the base then build one before they go back to it. I use that to get hold of resources whenever there is a mine where i want well....MY MINE!!!


Good AAR thow mate