Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2015 18:46:47 GMT -5
I finally got around to getting the Great Clans expansion and started a new game using Thulun (my favorite), Moklumnue (TP =$), and Clan Zenrin (an unknown).
I decided to play Degla: 48 x 48 (60 worlds), fighting the Bollish and Xytox's xenos. On normal difficulty. This is one of my favorite maps...
...It is year 3.2 AE, turn 106. I'm taking a moment to reflect on the state of our Confederation. These are my personal thoughts and musings.
We settled in this sector of the Degla Spiral out of necessity. The great Hive ships that sustained us for so long were badly damaged and low on fuel. With habitable systems nearby, and no other options, the Faction Representatives voted to settle here and I concurred. For better or worse, this became our home.
Prime Colonies were established while our Templar ships explored 'south' and 'east' into the lower right corner. In the mean time, we waited for colony ship research to be completed to further our expansion.
Once colony ships were properly researched, all colony development was stopped and two colony ships per faction were ordered to be built and sent out as they became completed. I ordered our ships to expand directly 'east' to colonize three high quality yellow systems: Butakov Ring, Northpines, and Leiwin. This was immediately followed up by colonizing the two remaining stars in that area, and venturing further into 'south east' corner of the sector.
At this point we met the "neighbors" in the form of a Bollish recon patrol probing our 'northern' defenses. Our Templar Cruisers, and Scout ship fought off the Bollish recon patrol easily enough.
Things settled down with further colonial development and a fourth wave of colonization deeper into the lower right corner. The single exception was House Thulun establishing a colony on New Canaan, north of the Primes, as a military outpost to gaurd against the Bollish. Each faction now has four colonies and, according to Faction Representatives, all is well.
Within a few turns, however, two of these new colonies, along with Northpines, were besieged by overcrowding. This was quickly followed by morale loss.
" Colony X has reached maximum housing limit."
" Overcrowding on Colony X has led to morale loss."
"Rioting on Colony X due to overcrowding has led to moral loss."
"Virus outbreaks due to overcrowding on Colony X has led to morale loss."
To add insult to injury, the Bollish picked this time to make another, stronger, probe into our growing Confederation and seriously tested our defenses around New Canaan. Once again our Templar Cruisers and Templar Scout, with the aid if a single Zenrin Assault ship, were able to route the Bollish and chase them out of Confederation space. (This highlighted a growing concern over our lack of Naval forces. To help alleviate this concern, two Cruisers have been commisioned and will be built in the Thulun Prime shipyards. Shalun's Will, they are ready before the next Bollish attack).
In the mean time the residents of the troubled colonies are suffering greatly. I am constantly besieged by Faction Representatives demanding I do something, yet I am limited in my ability to ease their pain.
In truth, my initial concern was only for the struggling Moklumnue colony. Zenrin has "morale loss protection" and is a hearty race of survivors. I thought they should be able to withstand the hardships easily enough; and from experience, Thulun can quickly build their way out of any problem. So New Canaan should be fine as well.
The subsequent turns were quite nervewracking as Faction reports continued to come in with updates of the crises as the colonies scrambled to stave off further disaster.
I could only watch and wait as morale continued to spiral out of control. Waiting many turns to build subsidized hab units in order to get the overcrowding under control; then waiting the multiple turns to build multiple spice festivals to increase morale.
Its heartbreaking to watch the morale of 25% of your colonies drop to less than 3 points.
The Thulun colony on New Canaan recovered the quickest. As expected. Their +2 Cp makes it easier and quicker to build the needed colonial upgrades and morale is back to 6. Moklumnue's Northpines colony also behaved as expected. With only 1 CP it is taking longer to build its way out. Currently the housing crises has ended, yet there is still work to do as morale is at 1. Again this is expected since Moklumnue's strength lies in the area of finance.
The surprise, and disappointment, was Zenrin's colony on Xenox. It behaved the same as Northpines, with the same recovery times and spiraling morale. Although its morale plummeted only to 2. It is in recovery. I admit I expected something different though.
The Zenrin, as a faction, seem to be undernourished when compared to other factions. Even Steel Song gives +3 EP per turn per colony.
Other than their life's blood, the Zenrin have little to offer the Confederation except plans for an alternate invasion ship (it is still being researched so I have yet to see its value against the cursed Bollish). Yet the Zenrin only have "morale loss protection" as their strength. And I am unable to see it.
Don't get me wrong, I like the Zenrin people and I respect their history. To paraphrase the great historians Cory Trese and fallen, 'Clan Zenrin are survivors. Fighters. Notable for being the last Clan liberated from the guild. They are tough...their history of oppression is a great source of strength.' In short, the Zenrin...endure. They adapt. They persevere and overcome.
With this history, I expected the morale loss to be half that of the other colonies. I expected the Zenrin to rely on their resilience and history, and fight their way back from the edge.
Maybe the answer to the question of Zenrin's morale problem is not with "morale loss protection", but rather in "morale restoration".
Perhaps Zenrin colonies should start with a smaller version of the 'Zenrin Memorial' that can restore morale loss by 2-4 points, at a cost of 15 - 20 cp and 100 credits. Roughly equivalent to a spice festival.
Furthermore, they should be given the opportunity to rely on their ability to adapt and overcome hardships by temporarily gaining additional CP as morale drops. This will aid them in rebuilding. For example: if morale drops to 7 points they temporarily gain 1 additional CP . If morale drops to 4, they temporarily gain 2 additional CPs (max). This would continue until their morale is back to 10.
Unfortunately any solution of the Zenrin morale problem must now be left to the historians. The Bollish are attacking New Canaan once again, this time in force, and I am called to the War Room.
Cursed Xeno! Why won't they leave us alone! Well, they may challenge our defenses, but they will not challenge our resolve.
Here is our home and here we stand!
I decided to play Degla: 48 x 48 (60 worlds), fighting the Bollish and Xytox's xenos. On normal difficulty. This is one of my favorite maps...
...It is year 3.2 AE, turn 106. I'm taking a moment to reflect on the state of our Confederation. These are my personal thoughts and musings.
We settled in this sector of the Degla Spiral out of necessity. The great Hive ships that sustained us for so long were badly damaged and low on fuel. With habitable systems nearby, and no other options, the Faction Representatives voted to settle here and I concurred. For better or worse, this became our home.
Prime Colonies were established while our Templar ships explored 'south' and 'east' into the lower right corner. In the mean time, we waited for colony ship research to be completed to further our expansion.
Once colony ships were properly researched, all colony development was stopped and two colony ships per faction were ordered to be built and sent out as they became completed. I ordered our ships to expand directly 'east' to colonize three high quality yellow systems: Butakov Ring, Northpines, and Leiwin. This was immediately followed up by colonizing the two remaining stars in that area, and venturing further into 'south east' corner of the sector.
At this point we met the "neighbors" in the form of a Bollish recon patrol probing our 'northern' defenses. Our Templar Cruisers, and Scout ship fought off the Bollish recon patrol easily enough.
Things settled down with further colonial development and a fourth wave of colonization deeper into the lower right corner. The single exception was House Thulun establishing a colony on New Canaan, north of the Primes, as a military outpost to gaurd against the Bollish. Each faction now has four colonies and, according to Faction Representatives, all is well.
Within a few turns, however, two of these new colonies, along with Northpines, were besieged by overcrowding. This was quickly followed by morale loss.
" Colony X has reached maximum housing limit."
" Overcrowding on Colony X has led to morale loss."
"Rioting on Colony X due to overcrowding has led to moral loss."
"Virus outbreaks due to overcrowding on Colony X has led to morale loss."
To add insult to injury, the Bollish picked this time to make another, stronger, probe into our growing Confederation and seriously tested our defenses around New Canaan. Once again our Templar Cruisers and Templar Scout, with the aid if a single Zenrin Assault ship, were able to route the Bollish and chase them out of Confederation space. (This highlighted a growing concern over our lack of Naval forces. To help alleviate this concern, two Cruisers have been commisioned and will be built in the Thulun Prime shipyards. Shalun's Will, they are ready before the next Bollish attack).
In the mean time the residents of the troubled colonies are suffering greatly. I am constantly besieged by Faction Representatives demanding I do something, yet I am limited in my ability to ease their pain.
In truth, my initial concern was only for the struggling Moklumnue colony. Zenrin has "morale loss protection" and is a hearty race of survivors. I thought they should be able to withstand the hardships easily enough; and from experience, Thulun can quickly build their way out of any problem. So New Canaan should be fine as well.
The subsequent turns were quite nervewracking as Faction reports continued to come in with updates of the crises as the colonies scrambled to stave off further disaster.
I could only watch and wait as morale continued to spiral out of control. Waiting many turns to build subsidized hab units in order to get the overcrowding under control; then waiting the multiple turns to build multiple spice festivals to increase morale.
Its heartbreaking to watch the morale of 25% of your colonies drop to less than 3 points.
The Thulun colony on New Canaan recovered the quickest. As expected. Their +2 Cp makes it easier and quicker to build the needed colonial upgrades and morale is back to 6. Moklumnue's Northpines colony also behaved as expected. With only 1 CP it is taking longer to build its way out. Currently the housing crises has ended, yet there is still work to do as morale is at 1. Again this is expected since Moklumnue's strength lies in the area of finance.
The surprise, and disappointment, was Zenrin's colony on Xenox. It behaved the same as Northpines, with the same recovery times and spiraling morale. Although its morale plummeted only to 2. It is in recovery. I admit I expected something different though.
The Zenrin, as a faction, seem to be undernourished when compared to other factions. Even Steel Song gives +3 EP per turn per colony.
Other than their life's blood, the Zenrin have little to offer the Confederation except plans for an alternate invasion ship (it is still being researched so I have yet to see its value against the cursed Bollish). Yet the Zenrin only have "morale loss protection" as their strength. And I am unable to see it.
Don't get me wrong, I like the Zenrin people and I respect their history. To paraphrase the great historians Cory Trese and fallen, 'Clan Zenrin are survivors. Fighters. Notable for being the last Clan liberated from the guild. They are tough...their history of oppression is a great source of strength.' In short, the Zenrin...endure. They adapt. They persevere and overcome.
With this history, I expected the morale loss to be half that of the other colonies. I expected the Zenrin to rely on their resilience and history, and fight their way back from the edge.
Maybe the answer to the question of Zenrin's morale problem is not with "morale loss protection", but rather in "morale restoration".
Perhaps Zenrin colonies should start with a smaller version of the 'Zenrin Memorial' that can restore morale loss by 2-4 points, at a cost of 15 - 20 cp and 100 credits. Roughly equivalent to a spice festival.
Furthermore, they should be given the opportunity to rely on their ability to adapt and overcome hardships by temporarily gaining additional CP as morale drops. This will aid them in rebuilding. For example: if morale drops to 7 points they temporarily gain 1 additional CP . If morale drops to 4, they temporarily gain 2 additional CPs (max). This would continue until their morale is back to 10.
Unfortunately any solution of the Zenrin morale problem must now be left to the historians. The Bollish are attacking New Canaan once again, this time in force, and I am called to the War Room.
Cursed Xeno! Why won't they leave us alone! Well, they may challenge our defenses, but they will not challenge our resolve.
Here is our home and here we stand!
