[WhiteHojo]

Well, the Corsair Race had it's initial run this weekend - didn't have as much time to spend on it as I wanted but such is life.

Here are a few of my observations along w/some Qs for the group:

Started the race in a large galaxy (150 systems) on 1 world that was set to poor. Total of 18 races... could only view my own score (believe it or not this makes it more difficult than I thought it would - sucks not knowing what the race you're about to attack has)... all races set to high diff... med bonus... no neutrals...

the Corsairs (to the best of my recollection) had Nat Merch (no space port needed), Pys Tech, Prop exprt, min settings on ground combat, research, reproduction, all resource production & trade... max'd on ship att & ship def, & ship maintence and breathed none on rock...

race had a special Pirate tech that gives access to Machine Shop 1,2,3 (50kt that repairs 1,2,3), Pirate Space Yard 1,2,3 (200kt that builds at 500,750,1000), RetroYard (100kt space yard that doesn't build or repair - only allows the recovery of res from scrapped ships - a rather failed experiment), Pirate Intell center 1,2,3 (produces 1000,1500,2000 intell points), Pirate counter intell 1,2,3 (the only intell project that the Pirate Intell Centr can run w/o researching normal Intell), a Pirate colony ship (150kt hull w/2 engin max) & a pirate rock colony pod (100kt comp w/max cap of 1M)...

Started the game smack in the midd of the map on a small world w/no res above 85% - very little production goin on.

Built a scout ship & did a little exploration. This is where I ran into my 1st role playing test & I'm ashamed to say I failed - found a large rock planet w/no atmo that had 2 tiny moons w/no atmo - ashamed to say I moved my homeworld here - limited my self to building 3 min res mininers 1 org & 1 rad, 1 resup & 1 const - the rest was research & intell...

Anyway, after finding this home (took a VERRRY long time to colonize those 3 planets) I stopped colonizing. Built some Des sized Const Yard Ships, found acouple of systems w/storms and built pirate bases (500kt spaceyard w/pirate SY comp & some wpns - later put stealth armor on it to try to hide it) also built a few remote mining stations (500kt space station w/2 min & 1 each of org/rad) - researched like mad till I got ship capture (tech started on low w/med cost)... then I built some Des sized boarding ships and went a pirating...

found the Darlocks, captured a few - lost all to a dang minefield - built another fleet w/boarding, supply, repair & SY ships - and went in other direction - found a race w/PPBs captured much tech from them - lost a couple of fleets but am slowly making headway -

Played 175 or so turns and moved from Last to high of 8th... It's great fun and alot more difficult than I thought it would be.

the other roleplaying decision I was torn on is whether or not to accpt a races trade & research treaties (anything above that I flat out refused) - I sat back and thought what would a good pirate king do???

I accepted the treaties, of course... at least until I was unable to locate any enemy ships then I'd turn on the partner - brought a rather guilty feeling of pleasure to pounce on the unsuspecting ships of suppossed alies...

Found that once I'd captured the tech level for shield depleting wpn - life as a pirate was MUCH easier -no more slugging it out waiting for those shield to colapse. Also, putting a PPB on each boarding ship helped in those battles where I was outnumbered and obviously couldn't capture them all. Stealth armor was the defense of choice - either captured or researched to Stealth lvl 2 armor - better than shields in my opinion (for the pirate anyway)...

Gotta go - will check back later w/more thoughts... and as always, feedback is appreciated.

------------------
Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

[This message has been edited by WhiteHojo (edited 12 March 2001).]