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Things were looking great. We had dozens of freighter routes, a colony world, and a cruiser we built from an ancient artifact. There were no hostile races within scanning range of our homeworld. The nearest known races shared our philosophy even if they were jealous of our wealth.

That's why it was such a surprise when the Oxalans blew up our colony with a planet killer.

We thought, okay, so they want to play hardball. So called our flagship home from the ruins of our colony, to prepare for war. Outfitted him with our own planet killer and began upgrading. The Oxalans will pay for our colony with their homeworld.

It didn't seem fair when, a few months later and while the cruiser was still being upgraded, the Oxalans destroyed Earth with a second planet killer. They sent in a frigate to knock down our Invincible Shield, then followed with a gunship the deliver the killing blow.

We had one last chance. If we fly straight at the Oxalans with our doomsday weapon, maybe the last 30 humans in the galaxy can force a surrender. Worth a shot, right? We blast at full speed to Bootis II.

The journey doesn't go too well. Every year, a few crew members steal escape pods and leave to join the pirates. By the time we're in sight of Bootis, we're down to 3 crew. The last hope of mankind.

We open a hailing frequency to demand unconditional surrender. The Oxalans laugh at us. Fine. If they don't want to be reasonable, then we'll annihilate them. Maybe a better species will rule the galaxy when ours are both dead.

We maneuver close to the planet, avoiding their defense systems. Arm the planet killer, and prepare to unleash destruction.

When we fire, the HUD shows this: 1000().

Partly out of pride, and partly out of complete humiliation, I hit the self destruct button and the Terrans vanished from the galaxy for ever.

Vanished forever... or until you hit start a new game again! <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Nice story.

I see... you found that the computer uses the Planet Killers <img src="smile.gif" border="0">


Of course, better a fleet than a flag ship.

<img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Nah, I've been hit with planet killers plenty of times in the shareware version. I was just dismayed that he had two of them, and managed to defeat my invincible shields with his second one. His PK ship arrived after his main fleet, and by then the shield was knocked out.

It was just the funniest sequence of events, is all. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

BTW, great work on the AI, Andrew. I was accustomed to owning Advanced w/ all AI advantages in the old version. Now my record is about 50/50 with only the Random advantages. That's very cool.

[ February 11, 2002: Message edited by: Fasani ]</p>

Please forgive my ignorance, but what does "1000()" mean?
-BP

That's what you see when you fire a planet killer at a world which has an invincible shield. It means all the PK damage was absorbed. It's also very annoying. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Don't you think that a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet should take at least two slots on a starship... <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

What are the odds of findind a planet killer on a planet... and the odds of finding a SECOND one in the very same game?

Wouldn't it be cool if, instead of finding Pks on planets, you'd be given a special type of weapon. ---Long range (little more than torpedoes) plasma riffle, 10shots, veryslow (need 400gw recharge)but powerful (280-340gw damage), can only target planets --- Stealth Standoff, 1shot, Standoff range, can only target planets, Would pack enough power to destroy 1 city, can't be stopped --- etc.

That'd add a twist and be less devastating than the pk
What do you think <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> <img src="wink.gif" border="0">