MY2115/16 - IMMINENT Research Decision

johndmuller · June 24, 2003, 03:07

(Please pardon me for quoting all this from the Turn Thread, but . . . )

Quote:

The CyCon gave us the InfoNets; I didn't accept it during the pre-turn so that we wouldn't have to decide on our next tech right away - I didn't think we were ready. In fact I haven't accepted it yet (although I will have before the end of the turn) as I am a bit unsure what happens if I were to accept it, then save the game - would it make us choose then? - I don't think so, but I don't really feel like taking that chance. Anyway, we will need to choose at the beginning of the 2116, so that means soon. I believe we will be offered these techs:

Progen Psych
Planetary Nets
Industrial Base
Social Psych

There is an outside chance that BioGenetics and/or AppliedPhysics will appear instead of some of those, but I give that a really low propability. . . because . . . I created a scenario with our 7 factions and played a couple of beginning-games. The offerings matched for the offerings we have already seen and I choose the same techs to research. In the first game (playing all the factions), I happened to meet the CyCon first and they were in a position to trade me InfoNets, so that scenario was exactly right on, and led to those techs above.

I'm going to start a poll with all six options in it, but from what I've seen in our threads so far, I think it is going to come down to Social Psysh versus Planetary Nets. Now Drogue (or whomever played their turn), offered to trade us Planetary Nets for our precious Doc:Flexibility, so they clearly have it already and so we could trade them for it at some point down the road if we want to keep Doc:Flexibility close-to-the-vest. In fact, I think I will use his proposal as an excuse to counter-offer by giving them the list of 3 other techs (ProgenPsych, IndustBase & SocialPsych) I think will be available and seeing if they would trade the Planetary Nets for any of them.

So, vote for one of the 4 preferably, or one of the other 2 if you want to eat crow (or your parrot, if you prefer) "Awwk . . . Eat Me! . . . Eat Me! . . . Eat Me! . . . Awwk!!", or vote for "Whatever works for you, Cuspidore" If you want to trade with the CyCon or else don't like those choices. Comments are naturally welcome.

Personally, I have been agitating for Social Psych for a while now, but I did manage to get along without it pretty well in the 2nd of the scenario test games I started, forcing as it does, a more ICS style of play; I did build more transports though in that game, since I had to build a bunch of InfColony Pods to keep the population down. My scenario was by no means as well endowed with goodies as is this one, however, so there was not a lot happening in some of my bases to make me wish I could grow the pop to take advantage of more workers. Industrial Base is not all that bad either. So, I guess I am effectively neutral on this and it will depend on my mood if you'll leave it up to me, so if you've got strong opinions, now is the time to lobby.

Oh, and the techs that will be available "for sure" next time (if we haven't gotten them yet) and next time is only a couple of years later, are IndustBase, SocialPsych, BioGenetics & AppliedPhysics - I believe that one of these - PlanetaryNets or ProgenPsych will also be available, but I forgot to write them down until after I selected one and they were gone, so I'm not sure which it was (and it of course also could include other techs if we choose something other than Social Psych, which was what I picked in that game).

Makahlua · June 24, 2003, 04:11

I voted SocialPsych - I'm thinking that way the core 3 bases can get their RecComs and take some of the 'must build colony or riots' pressure off (tho I'm still in favor of pushing pods out the door as fast as we can cover the sea

)I have the feeling the CyCon would be quite amenable to trading PlanetNets for SocPsy, don't you?

Mark123jansen · June 24, 2003, 04:47

I voted plannets, get some probefoils out there

Flubber · June 24, 2003, 15:58

I would vote plan nets unless you get the cyborgs to agree to trade it for something else-- in which case, research the something else

I oppose any trade of doc-flex at this time-- I would hope that we could keep a monopoly on that and then perhaps when we have metalmost all the factions, trade it to each of them for a different tech

johndmuller · June 24, 2003, 16:51

We may have a deal for such a trade as Cap'n Flubber specified; it only remains to clarify that they will be willing to trade the PlanetaryNets for (SocialPsych or IndustBase), not some other tech of theirs like Applied Physics. I think it likely however, that such a deal can be made, perhaps with a small cash sweetener if necessary. See the Borg Correspondence and my comments in the turn thread (perhaps here).

johndmuller · June 25, 2003, 11:00

Oops, the poll closed before I could vote myself - I would have deadlocked it to keep the decision loop open since we seem to have a likely deal for PlanNets and because some of you voted before that possibility was raised. In any event, I am going to start a new poll later today (hopefully after hearing from Drogue with his clarification on the trading of our soon-to-be decided replacement tech for Infonets. The new poll is here.