Cycon dealings

[Flubber]

I know that relations with the cycon were strained by the last trade round but they remain our pactmate. I was wondering if the idea of a pact-to- the-end, working to an attempt at joint victory was of interest.

I like to win and I think our best shot is to team up with someone. The cycon is our obvious choice ( securing a large boundary but not necessarily the only possible choice.

What do you folks think ? Should we try to team up with someone or not ? If so , I should broach the subject. It was mentioned as a future possibility with the cycon when we originally pacted and we should revisit the idea

[FlameFlash]

I like the look of that for now, though we may change that option in the future if we don't like future dealings.

[johndmuller]

What about making that pact to the end with the PUT instead, then squashing the Cycon (like a (Borg)bug) between us (or assimilating them)? That way we wouldn't need to worry about protecting the far side of the Borg against both the PUT and the Believers.

Personally, the idea of such a pact with the Drones is most attractive to me, but we have no idea whether or not they are interested. As for the Hive, I wish I knew whether or not they are playing the game as seriously as they are having fun with it.

[Hercules]

I am for holding my view until I have a better perspective as to what the Drones are up to. regarding current factions I am contect to follow flubbers ideas. I feel its too early to make decisions

[johndmuller]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so if someone thinks it belongs somewhere else, feel free to insert a link to this post there.

Working backwards from the Cycon's current techs and assuming that the IndAuto which I believe they researched was the last one they acquired in any fashion, the tech choice spreadsheet would have it that after they researched IndAuto, they had the following choices:

• Doc: Flexibility
• Ethical Calculus
• Progenitor Psych
• Secrets of the Human Brain
• NonLinear Math

One can't help but see that it says that they passed over EthicalCalc to research Doc:Flex, lets all give a big 'Hmmm' to that.

After we give them Doc:Flex, they will have these choices:

• Doc: Initiative
• Ethical Calculus
• Polymorphic SWare
• NonLinear Math
• High Energy Chemistry
• Doc: Loyalty

If they do Ethical Calc, the next choice loses Nonlinear and gains ProgenPsych, the Secrets and Gene Splicing;
or, if they do NonLinear, the next choice loses Ethical Calc (damn Doc:Init became their joker instead of EthicalCalc) and gains the ProgenPsych and Secrets.

So the bummer here appears to be that we can't trade the Doc:Flex (and their IOU) for both Ethical Calc and Nonlinear, but we could get either of them (soon) plus the HEC or Polymorphic (later). If we trade them something in between our giving them Doc:Flex and them finishing that research (for either EthicalCald or NonLinear), like something we get from the others for their BioGen, that will restore the missing tech (the other of EthicalCalc or NonLinear) to their offering, so we could in fact get those two techs if we also traded them something additional to change their selections.

Their tech rate at the moment is said to be 13 years, Doc:Flex due in 8 years (2143) - our tech rate is much better than theirs (only 8 years); unfortunately most of that difference is due to tech cost, so we will be in that same boat or worse soon. If they have three more techs under their belts before starting their next project (Doc:Flex, whatever they switch to, and whatever we trade them to alter their subsequent choices), their tech rate is going to be really bad, so we are not going to get the last tech from them for some time to come, like 15 or 20 years.

[Kody]

As for the Hive, I wish I knew whether or not they are playing the game as seriously as they are having fun with it.

Those were much better days

Yeah we were playing the game seriously. Ever since some threat in the public forum about Hive being disbanded got me interested in what was actually happening with the game.