AAR with Advisors

[idjester]

Guys, great points and yes I do always want your comments, thoughts, suggestions.... Don't be afraid to voice your concerns and always speak up if you see me doing something wrong/incorectly. You won't upset me or hurt my feelings and I do need them from time to time....

What I am going to do is do a short (yes short this time) view of the game without playing and scope in on all aspects of our government so you guys can "see" everything. I didn't have time last video because it ran so long and I didn't want to take another 10-15 minutes doing that and making the video that much more longer. Once I upload this video then I will give you a short time to post any additional things you want about your division within our empire or if you want to change anything. Probably be playing the next "real" video Saturday night or Sunday....

As a side note if I post a message saying that I am "uploading the videos" then they have been played and recorded and I can't go back. So any post that you guys after my post about uploading will have to wait until the new video.

Thoughts and comments about these questions.....

1) What to do about the super weapon we found? The planet killer (or something like that)

2) The new form of goverment The way of the Darkness, do we switch or stay with Way of the Ancients

3) Which colonies to colonize first...... what say you.. I ignored the close systems because we wanted to expand out and now the Teekans grabbed one of them from us (that brown spot is a new Teekan planet)..

4) Shall we land troops on the Dyauts planet and take it over forceably?

Also.... I LOVE the chart..... Love it... Great job... You get extra credits to spend on ships this month....

[Modest]

I am glad to see that You are really open to our advices. So I will go on with explaining You what kind of technology is pointless to buy from others.

First of all if You will look on a technology tree (let's say it will be weapons, and paticulary blasters - the one on top) You will see that there are two general kind of technology. One with a red arrow next to the icon representing tech, and one with no arrow but difrent icon. Shortly say - those with arrow are simple upgrades to already existing component, and those with a difrent icon are completly new components. So if You will invent an upgrade tech (the one with an arrow) this upgrade is in instant implemendet to every existing already ship in Your empire (providing it uses this type of components of course) and for every future. When research is done with a new component, than no of Your ships will recive any bonuses. To use new components You must simply go to the design and change current designs to use Your new tools (this may be done by simply selecting a design and clicking button "upgrade design" on the bottom of the design list, amongs other buttons). Best solution is to select all (propably using shift or control when clicking on listed designs) ships and upgrade them afther every research breakthrou. BUT! But if You are using autodesign then all this is done automaticly all the time, so You do not have to worry. You have to worry then when it come to fight with enemies because those auto designed ships are not always the ones that You would like to have.

But one simple example will be better than those all words spoken by me... So, let's create such situation with Blaster Weapons. But I have to say that Ion Weapons, Wave Weapons and Phased Beams will be not mentioned at all in this example - for this they are irrelevant.

At begining we had already researched Beam Weapons. Of course that was our first weapon which was used to arm our early escorts (those with damage 10 or little more). We built them few. If we would research next invention which is Enhanced Beam Weapons we will upgrade every ship, mining station and space port that is using Beam Weapons. We do not to do anything for this to occur. But afther that we have up to three possible ways in science. We may upgrade our current weapons with Efficient Blasters, but also we may invent better weapons - Long Range Lasers or High Power Blasters. Efficient Blasters are simply upgrade, so they will upgrade our weapons in an instant everywere. But two others must be implemented in design. Then all our ships must be retroffited to the new type. It will cost us. The point is that researching Efficient Blasters and Long Range Lasers (or High Power Blasters) take equall amount of time, so it is highly inefficient for us to upgrade those old Beam Weapons if we can have better ones. And when we have better ones why we would care about the old ones? THAT is the kind of technology we do not want to invent and buy from others - the third upgrade is usually completly unnecesary. Just look at other research trees - this pattern is used very often. Third upgrade is usually useles and is a waste of money and time. Only three kind of situations make it usefull. One is when there is some other technology behind the third upgrade, and this occure actually only in shield technology - paticulary we are talking about Planetary Shield Facility. Second situation is when for some reasons You do not want to bring all Your ships back to space ports and retrofit (for example You are at war and may not withdraw them even for short duration of time) but You want them to become bit stronger. The third situation is when we are speeking about final technologies - those should be upgraded to maximum. So when You will look at the technology tree hopefully You will be able now to regognise all useless technologies which should be not purchased nor invented unles something special is going on.

I hope that this was understandable.

With Regards
Research Expert and Chief Scientist
Modest

[Kalthaniell]

ORIGINAL: idjester


1) What to do about the super weapon we found? The planet killer (or something like that)

2) The new form of goverment The way of the Darkness, do we switch or stay with Way of the Ancients

3) Which colonies to colonize first...... what say you.. I ignored the close systems because we wanted to expand out and now the Teekans grabbed one of them from us (that brown spot is a new Teekan planet)..

4) Shall we land troops on the Dyauts planet and take it over forceably?

Military point of view:

1)If we manage to finish building it, we should use it in one of our fleets. But we shouldn't destroy all the planets we see with it (set from the empire policy window). When the going gets tough, let the big guy get going. If for some reason we are losing badly and we don't care about anyones opinion of what we do with our superweapons, we should destroy the enemy homeworld.

2)Well, we would get all that neat military bonuses, then again we would lose the even neater economy bonuses. Same as with the deathstar, we should switch if we are losing a war, badly.

3) Still, try to take the outer ones first. The problem has it's roots in selling our galaxy maps to Teekans so they knew the location of a potential colony. Now it's to late for that. We should colonize what we can and take our rightful colonies by force afterwards.

4) Conquer what you can. Let the invasion commence. Before you start invading transfer our best troop general to the attacking fleet. It can be hard to take over a spider planet.

[idjester]

Part 11 is uploading now... NO gameplay but rather just an overview of our empire so you guys can catch up on everything and see on the screen all of your different parts...

So I can still take any recommendation/thought/suggestions that you want before next play and still implement them. Plus anything else you want to change/edit about your other posts.

Ready to go now...

Matrix Empire Part11

BTW, are the videos clear and good quality? What setting on youtube you to use to watch them? At first when watching my video on youtube it seamed not clear or good quality but I adjusted my setting on youtube up to HD or 720 quality and it looked much better. Can you see details and stuff clearly on your screens, can you read the text? Let me know.

Thanks

[Kalthaniell]

..come in there and squash thier little frog brains if we want to..

I lol'ed so hard... xD

Anyways, I really like how our fleets are starting to get organized. Great job with that. It seems that by the time we are done clonizing we will be ready to do some re-writing of the pie chart with a nuclear pencil. Keep it up.

The video and audio quality seems to have improved in the last episode. I could make out the system names when I switched to 720.

[Modest]

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

I want to thank You for this report. It has been mostly helping, and showed me what exacly is going on in our research division. Also now I managed to prepare a better list which will should rewrited older one. I am also glad to inform that thanks to Your decisions of buyind some tech from our allies, we are now more advanced than I previously thought.

So, as usually I will start with Weapons research.

1. We should finish this one percent missing Area Weapon
2. Rapid fire Projectiles
3. Projectile Arrays
4. High Power Discharges
5. Medium Torpedo Bombers
6. EMP Blasting (good at space ports for protection)

Second will be our Energy research
1. I think that we should stop researching Pure Energy Discharge for now, and insted let's take care of Quantium MicroUtilisation
2. Accelerated HyperJump
3. Now let's finish our Pure Energy Discharge
4. Enhenced Damage Control
5. Robotic Repairs
6. Fusiun Physics

And at last Hi-Tech research
1. Let's finish another one percent missing Advanced Fuel Storage (do not forget to retrofit all our ships so they may have better fuel storages - with exceptions of those found ones)
2. Fleet Targeting
3. Fleet Contermeasures
4. Advanced Cargo Storage
5. Armanents Research
6. Optimized Cargo Storage.

And at last - I want to remid You about the most important thing to do actually - build that Open Trade Network on our homeworld. It is very important for our economy.

Also I must say that building any additional Space Research Station should be still forbidden - we have much more than our total potential is able to fill.

As for Your questions about quality of the video - I will just say that normaly to plan research using proper names I had to go into a game and check everything there. Now I was able to cleary see how everything was named. Really great.

And now a little explanation how those limits for research are workings. Each base can have on board research labs. Each lab is giving certian potential research output. Ofcourse research space station have the biggest number of onboard research labolatories. But there is limit how many researchers our great empire can support. The number is named Total Empire Research Potential, and is shown on the right of our research stations list. The pink one. Our TOTAL Actual Output (providing that we DO NOT have any research bonuses from locations) may never pass this number. So if our Total Empire Research Potential is 300, then our Weapons + Energy + Hi-Tech = 300 or less if we do not have eoung research stations. Even if we will build another research stations and we will have 600 Total Research Capacity in Weapons, than still it will not be bigger that our Total Empire Research Potential which is 300. Ba! It would not even reach this 300 because Energy and Hi-Tech would still be taking some of this Total Empire Research Potential for themselvs. It would only succeded in improving our Weapons Acctual Output at the expense of other two.
Question is, how it is possible to have higher Actual Output than Total Research Capacity and even that Total Empire Research Potential? Answer is simple - bonuses from locations, wonders and ruins have this possibility.
So simple example. Our Total Empire Research Potential is 200. Our Weapons Actual Output is 100. Our Actual Output is 50 and our Hi-Tech Actual Output is 50. This is situtation without any bonuses. 100 from Weapons + 50 from Energy + 50 from Hi-Tech = 200 (which is our Total Empire Research Potential). But now let's say that our Weapons Research Station is build on planet with + 15% bonus. In such situation Weapons Actual Output will be 100 + 15 (as 15% from 100 is 15). Others two Actual Outputs are still the same (50 each), but the first thanks to a bonus was able to jump over the limitation. I hope that it was helpfull, or will be in the future.
If somebody is interested in this than should look in the forum, because Nedrear explained this with more details and far better than I was able to do this here.

With Regards
Research Expert and Chief Scientist
Modest

[idjester]

I sure am glad I made you laugh, I had to watch the video again just to hear that... it was pretty funny...

If our research division could please go over his analysis and explain how he has determined our research capacity is reach that would help his poor leader...

(i.e. I'm not sure how this is done, if you could spend some time and explain that would be most helpful.... Thanks)

[Modest]

Already done my great Leader. I added it via edit in my last report, using blue collor. But to put it simply - if the pink numbers at the bottom of research bases is lower than this little up, than it means we have reach our limits and no amount of labs will help.

[idjester]

Thank you kind sir for your quick report.... You get extra rations for your department this month....

It's good to know our military advisor laughs.......

[Modest]

Oh.. Thak You - extra rations are always welcomed.

There is something I saw in Your report about our situation, which also needs a bit of expenation. It is about repairing this super weapon project. You had right in indentyfying construction ship which decidet to og to some planets. The point is he should be not interrupted, because he simply had to go for more resources. This is how construction ships are building and repairing stuff - first going for needed resurces, then starting to work. So interrupting them is rater conterproductive. Exception is when it try tu built a station without needed resources. It can be easili found in it's cargo list. Simply - left collumn is a cargo on board and right is the cargo which will be uset to complet current task. If numbers in right collumn are bigger even at one resource than number in left that meens it is best to give him other order (go here for example) and afther a while order him to repair construction which he stopped to build when You ordered him to do something else. This way he will just go for a planet to take missing resource. At least that it was in "Return of the Shakturi".

[idjester]

Part 12 of the Matrix replay is uploading now. Another long session but with some much going on and having to discuss so much the sessions have to be longer then in the beginning.

Look for the new video below when it is finished uploading.

Set video to upload to youtube while I slept but the video bombed out when it was uploading.... Trying again.


Matrix Empire Part12

[idjester]

Part 13 is now uploading as well..... Was part 13 lucky or was it a curse.... Watch the "full" video to find out!!!

Once posted look for it below

Matrix Empire Part13

[Modest]

<That was VERY lucky! And to think that I was starting to plan a secret talk with our Military Minister about taking Loros Fruit by force... Well, that is better way . Also You made me laughs when You were talking about sucking wisdom out of Kadians head That was a good one>

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

I am glad to see that our empire finaly decidet to build Trade Nexus. The following result is really clear when You look at our tresury. I think that for some time it will be sufficient.

There is many thinks to talk about, but in my opinion the most important right now are our military affairs. Everything for me is a sight that the war is closing in very fast to us. And maybe even it is us which will start one. Interesting times, really interesting. But to the point...

First of all let's look at our recent Destroyer design. Yes, the famous Delta X-Ray X1-D. It is really good ship, especially compared to those of Gizureans, but it can be a lot better with our current technology level. So right now I will point what needs to be done, and what may be done.

1. Need to change reactor type to Quantium (the purple one). Without this our ship will be loosing energy during combat faster that it will be able to create it. So it will have weapons problems.
2. Need to change torpedo weapons - right now it uses obsole Epsilon Torpedo. If we want to be able to really hurt our enemies we should use our best torpedos, and that are Shockwave Torpedos.
3. Need to add Damage Control.
4. We may to put one or two more UltraDense Fuel Cells so there will be no more need to refuel ships afther a while. And I know how frustrating this can be
5. We may to take of some of Rail Guns, and put few more Shochwave Torpedos. But this is optional of course.

Also I feel obliget to inform You that our Rail Gun technology is very dangerous even for everything on planet surface. Actually we can use our ships with Rail Guns to BOMBARD planets in order to get rid of sentient life. This will of course have two negative effects. One is that our reputation will drop greatly for that in most cases. Second is that such planet will have temporary lowered quality. It will recover afther some time, or quite fast if assisted by Terraforming Facility, so we should not worry about this. Never the less, I would suggest consulting with our Politicial Minister and Military Minister before using such metods of war.

This means that we will have to retrofit our fleets... Again!. To speed up this proces I would strongly suggest to do it on our homeworld space port. The long time of retrofiting is in most situations caused by lack of resources. And on our homeworld always should be plenty of them. Also our space port there is bigger and can retrofit more ships at once. Also I have to make this clear - the fact that our spaceport is actually being retrofited do not have any effect on it's speed of building or retrofiting ships. At least not negative. So do not worry about this.

That was about our ships of war, let say something about our enemys - the Gizurean. As I saw, they are using Missile Weapons. That is a strong chose of them - missile have very good range and their shoots do not loose power with range. Also Missile are quite fast. But our torpedos are not worse when it come to the range, and are dealing much more damage. Also Missile are very weak against armor. We can easily fight wiht them without any special adaptating... This is what I can say about ship to ship compasion. Military Minister will give You more realistic big picture with including possibe outnumbering and outmanuvering, and so... Also, from what I can see those are not Gizuerans which are our main enemys for now, aren't they? I hope that we will kill those Toads

As for our Technology, this time I will not give You much on the list because right now everything will be researching much slower, sa we are trying to invent much powerfull things.

Weapons

I would like to add only one thing to the list - Massive Ion Weapons.

Energy

Nothing to add for now.

Hi-Tech

I would like to add only one thing again - Archival Facilities.

I have seen also that You have problems with refueling Your fleets. When You order them to refuel from interface, than they are choosing the closest possible location which has Calson in it. This is why some space ports are just ignored. You can easily check if some system has fuel or not (in space port or at gas mining station). To do that simply look if next to the name of planetary system is blue icon of barrel with oil (looks the same that the one from interface that You use to order fleet to refuel). Also it is better to refuel at the Gas Mining Stations, because space ports will need fuel when they will built a ship. If You will refuel Your fleet at a space port then it may happen that next build ship (civilian or state) by this space port will not have fuel and will start it's existence from extremly pasionate journey to the nearest station with Calson (Hydrogen, depending what kind of reactor You are using). But the best way to refuel military fleets is tu use resupply ships. I advice You to build at least four of them and deploy over planets with calson.

At the end I would like to reccoend building our Weapon Research Wonder on a planet which will have high quality (let's say more than 85%) and biggest population. But not on our homeworld.

With Regards
Research Expert and Chief Scientist
Modest

[Hellfirejet]

I just love these video tutorials as I'm new to the game,but I was wondering how you download the video to my hard drive instead of being online all the time watching them?

[idjester]

Kirk, not sure you can.... or at least I haven't found a way. Maybe someone else knows more then me though...

[ASHBERY76]

ORIGINAL: kirk23

I just love these video tutorials as I'm new to the game,but I was wondering how you download the video to my hard drive instead of being online all the time watching them?

This.

http://www.hddownloader.com/index.php

[Hellfirejet]

Hi thanks for the link,I did a search online and discovered that I needed to add a browser plugin,I have realplayer already installed on my PC,but I will check out your link and hopefully it might give me better quality thanks again for the link![;)]

[idjester]

I waited about as long as I could so that I could get advisor's recommendations into this part.... But playing part 14 now and will upload it when finished. Look for it below.

The new massive part 14 is uploading now.... OH my what interesting and different things happen in this part. Stand by to find out......

[J HG T]

*Clearing backlog; Watching episode 12*
It's a bit hard to concentrate on this as I'm playing two(!) DW games simultaneously (Kiadian and Ketarov). Also, farming money for American Le Mans race-cars in Forza 4 and final, "optimal" playthroughs of my three main characters in Mass Effect 2 in preparation for Mass Effect 3 take majority of my free time.

I'll try to get back into it today.
Still, you have been doing just fine, Idjester. Especially considering that you are pretty much a rookie to this game.

[Theluin]

//Just as I finished watching part 12 part 14 arrives [:D] In that case I'll wait and watch it before posting//