The race begins!

[douglas]

Congratulations on pulling it off with a dozen turns to spare, despite having to do so much research. Of course, this still doesn't change that it's a bug exploit. How, exactly, is a ring of material around a star supposed to prevent it from exploding?

[Slick]

Thanks. The amazing part is that I went to high score with all those starbases and then back to #2 after constructing the RW. I think that kept the AI's from declaring war. Now all that research is being pumped into offensive techs and resource procurement so I can pay catch-up.

Bug exploit being the retroseries? I guess it is, however normal retrofits are flawed and I think the whole system should be overhauled. Example: it is cheaper to upgrade an anti-proton beam I to a XII than it is to upgrade an anti-proton beam XI to XII and it takes the same length of time. This is because the I is cheaper than the XI and component removal is a function of cost. Cost for retrofit should be the other way around and larger leaps of tech should take longer. The closer the gap in technology, the less it should cost. So in my mind that sorta evens things out. I always thought it was wierd that you could upgrade to totally different components. My opinion is that retrofitting should only be able to add new stuff if there's space or upgrade existing components to more advanced versions. A total redesign should come at a very high cost. But, we shouldn't get into the retrofit discussion here anyway.

[Captain Kwok]

I think he meant 'exploit' in that a ringworld can prevent the star from exploding.

Looks and sounds like you had to do a lot of calculator work for this one.

[Slick]

Yup, I even made a little chart to make it easier. I normally don't use retroseries mostly because I don't find it fun. To get the RW base it took the original starbase construction then 8 (!) retrofits to get it all the way to a RW base. At least I know it's possible now to prevent that event, provided your research, resources and system defense can support it.


I thought of this too late, but I should have saved the game off and released it as a scenario. maybe after declaring war on all the AI's first...

[Captain Kwok]

Yeah, it would have made an excellent scenario!

[Suicide Junkie]

The "Star about to vaporize your empire; leave now" is indeed a nifty and fun scenario.

My Exodus Scenario is just sittin' on Imagemodserver, waiting to be downloaded