2228Status of Earth, beginning of year:
The council decreed that a newer, cheaper colony ship be designed. The engineers got together, and came up with this:
The Basque class colony ship. While mostly identical (except for physical appearance), it was cheaper and actually a little faster than the classic colony ship, thanks to the new Ion engines. The downside was that it only had around half the range.
The Interstellar Construction technology was finished just days after the new year started.
Interstellar Construction allows for Small hulls.
Xeno Engineering was completed a few weeks later:
Increases social production and adds new starbase modules
...and was immediately followed by Xeno Research:
Provides an upgrade for the default research lab. Thanks to the Creative ability, this one was finished near instantly.
Xeno Biology was next in line ((provides nothing by itself, but leads to Xeno Medicine)).
A new colony was founded: Amcor III:
Underneath the planet's surface, a sort of "mind control device" was discovered that could potentially boost our influence. After consulting with scientists,
we decided to turn up the power supply to it, as we could discover no harmful effects to our own populace. A C16 planet with both a manufacturing bonus and a farming bonus, Amcor III started building up needed infrastructure.
A new alien race was discovered, thanks to our flagship moving through their territory. They call themselves the Krynn Consulate:
Thankfully, they don't seem to be hostile. This also demonstrated to the nay-sayers that the universal translator was working as promised.
We received word that a citizen working at the Innovation Complex had developed a new fertility treatment:
Xeno Medicine, once again thanks to the Creative trait. 10% boost in population growth.
It proved to be immediately popular.
A new planet, Amber I, was colonized, and...
This planet must have been a major settlement long ago. Not only did we find artifacts, but an entire LIBRARY of precursor knowledge. This may eventually be the research capital of the Terran Alliance.
Oh, and there's also a good spot for a farm and an influence-boosting tile.
Sadly,
MAX POWER! had to be patient. Though the populations on the colonies were filling out, the treasury was still depleting at an alarming rate. Taxes had been raised again, and it still wasn't enough to stop the drain. With a heavy heart,
MAX POWER! ordered that all shipbuilding cease as soon as current projects were completed. New colonies would only receive the barest infrastructure to get by, including a market center, until the populations rose enough to bring in more than they spent.
Almost as if to mock the Terrans, more species, major ones, began popping out of the woodwork. First the Arcean Empire, who told humanity, in a no-nonsense tone, that all the stars were to be claimed by them:
Next came the enigmatic Thalan Empire, who warned of terrible devastation:
Feeling that the populace needed a lift in spirits, the Xeno Entertainment technology was completed:
Unlocks an improved morale-boosting structure, the Multimedia Center, as well as a passive morale boost.
Though expensive, these centers began to gradually improve morale across the Alliance, with some worlds reaching a 97% approval rating. Still, the money situation was getting worse.
New worlds were discovered, though many were fairly low class. Chebychev III was not such a world, and was added to the Alliance:
Fairly unremarkable, but it has a flexible future.
Another minor race appeared, the Akillians:
One of the last colony ships before the shutdown sent an excited message to HQ. In orbit around a strange purple star was a planet that, until that moment, had only been theorized: a C22. Named Embor I, it was quickly colonized:
Some entrepreneurial scientist came up with a feasible method of interstellar trade:
The Trade technology, as you may have guessed, allows the construction of trade ships.
...and then came up with a method of detecting planets:
Stellar Cartography. No creativity here, the tech only took one week to research.
Before the year ended, the great-grandson of Bill Gates managed to revolutionize computing once again.
Advanced Computing. Allows the building of a Technological Capitol, which provides a massive boost to a single planet's research production.
And before anyone knew it, it was time for the next United Planets assembly. The humans, after having a rough year, were eager to show the universe that they were still in charge. Unfortunately...
After the dominance of the previous year, humanity now had less than a quarter of the votes. The Thalans, on the other hand, held around 1/3 of the votes and were not afraid to use them.
The races were split. Thankfully, it was a relatively unimportant issue, but despite being the only race to vote for 5 parsecs/month, the Thalans emerged victorious. Clearly, the Terrans were no longer the big shots in the galaxy...something that
MAX POWER! didn't care for at all.
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I could really use some suggestions for how to do updates, other than the hueg wall o' text I'm currently doing. I may also alternate between playing days and posting days, especially since I will be going back to school next week. I think I spent more time writing this update than I did playing it!
Forgot to mention: I forgot to get a screenshot, but another planet was colonized as well. It's pretty boring actually, no special tiles IIRC. However, the name is really long and impossible to remember. I would like suggestions on renaming it.
