Birth of the Federation, an AAR, Part 12
Chapter XII: NO SNAPPY SUBTITLE
So let’s take a look at the intergalactic love-fest that is the human race. It’s been a while since the last update, and so that means as President of the…uh…Federation…something, it’s my duty to carry on the time-honored traditions of world leaders going off on vacation for weeks at a time, to play golf or something. I hate golf, unless it involves putting creds into stripper’s zero-G-thongs. (Hey – don’t judge. At least I’m honest, unlike most politicians.)
Here’s the Galactic Map, showing our slice o’ the universe as of our last outing. We haven’t even explored a quarter of this vast, wide galaxy, and we’re 160 turns into this game!
I KNEW I should have stuck with the small map…
In any case, it is what it is.
Well, check out the data at left; I’m (err, I mean, the Federation) is pulling in over 500 credits per turn, and has a bank account of over 45,000 credits. Note to self: new wing on mansion, then move it somewhere reasonable. Like Cayman Island.
The populace is content, which is good. We’re not at war, and if there’s something these tree-huggers hate more than war, it’s processed foods and tree-eating aliens. (Not that we’ve seen anything like that lately. Ahem.)
Only thing is Makus is not pulling in a food surplus, so either they’re too queasy to eat clone meat, or just haven’t built enough Farms. I’ll fix that quickly.
We’ve also built a new Light Cruiser…called the Defiant. Yeah, yeah, the name is a few generations early to be established as canon, but this is the Star Trek BC Universe, so suck it, canon.
Meanwhile, we’re expanding more. And since we have a rather large surplus of credits and a good income, I need to ramp up my military and get some more warships out there. I mean, ‘peaceful explorers armed with alien-burning phasers and pucker-inducing photon torpedoes.” Wait…have I even invented those things yet?
The order of the day is to send out more Troop Transports. I want to fully explore the lower right of the galaxy (see the first image, above) to be sure there’s nothing out there. Probably a waste of effort but I’m pretty OCD when it comes to ‘fog of war’ spots on my maps.
Back home in Sol, I acquiesce to possible xenophobia and start building my first ever Orbital Battery.
No, seriously. First EVER. As in, never built in ANY of my previous games of BotF. I just never messed with them, except when assaulting systems (relax, not as the Federation…the people don’t take kindly to that kind of behavior).
Just because the (unseen, undiscovered) aliens aren’t out there doesn’t mean they won’t be out to get me…
Meanwhile, back at the egghead ranch, they’ve discovered “Beam Hardening.”
Uh…Uh-huhuhuhuhuhuh…
The geeks in the white lab coats wait patiently for my childish outburst, then continue with their description of this breakthrough: “Shield resistance is increased by power, but decreased by impact area. Hardened beams are fired in a convergent pattern whose cross-sectional area is vanishingly small at the point of shield impact. This reduces the effective strength of enemy shields, effectively increasing the impact strength of the beams.”
I didn’t hear much of that, but it sounds powerful. In fact, it’s a level 3 tech in weaponry. I’m going to move into the Computer arena and pour all of our resources into improving that. I want to get the Light Cruiser II, which is akin to the refurbished Enterprise of the original motion picture.
The Level 2 on everything else worries me a bit, but we’re making steady progress. If you’re yelling “Why the hell did you do that” as you read this, you’re taking this far, far more seriously than I am. Just sit back, relax, and keep reading. Besides, if you’ve tolerated my writing this far, you can take just about anything.
No, I will not continue that by saying “…even with [FORUM NAME DELETED] and [FORUM NAME DELETED] using an [OBJECT DELETED] all over their [LOCATION DELETED].”
Two things I’d REALLY like to see in a BotF mod (and if these are a thing, please let me know):
- Being able to zoom out with the mouse wheel. The two levels of zoom are a giant pain in the tribble’s butt.
- An indicator that shows whether a ship icon is moving or stationary. I hate having to click on every single icon JUST to be sure I’m not ignoring my ships.
Anyway.
The Galactic West’s newest Outpost is built and I’m moving my Western Fleet out to that Outpost. Well…okay, it’s not much of a fleet; it’s the USS Essex (a Light Cruiser) and the USS Zodiac (a Destroyer). You can tell my Galactic Naming Ships Department Bureaucracy still likes to name ships after serial killers. Well…I guess that’s better than “USS Fluffy Bunny.” Yes, I’m choosing to ignore that I have a ship named after a section of the newspaper for people that refuse to take responsibility for their own lives, leaving it to some closet hack to type out in mom’s basement somewhere.
Anyway, again.
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