LU Mayhem 2.07 AAR

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Jonzac
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LU Mayhem 2.07 AAR

Post by Jonzac » Thu, 27. Oct 16, 15:16

Hello all,

First off this is not a story. I've attempted writing one of those and I don't have the patience for that. Instead I just wanted to describe the game I'm currenly having in MAYHEM 2.07.

Reminder that Mayhem is a mod based on LU's work and creates a universe where all races fight each other and take over each other's sectors. You can do the same thing, but when you "claim" a sector you start a mechanic that constantly lowers your standing with ALL factions. (I currently have this disabled until I claim my third sector...then I'm a risk that cannot be ignored)

Mechanics are a little different than LU. No SCHs, so factories have to be connected with ships flying to and fro. Also you are given a "Santuary" which is in essence a PHQ that can build both ships and stations. This is needed because you can't buy ships or stations from anyone, and all ships produced are given maximum engine, cargo, rudder upgrades automatically. Additionally, you are given a research center. The research is needed to "build" a profile of any ship, laser, or missile you want to produce.

So, you start out in Unknown Sector Omega with a research center and Sanctuary, neither of which work. Additionally, you have 50 survivors on the Sanctuary that will need additional food, this was originally a 2.04 runthrough, but when 2.07 came out I scrapped it and started over.

MODS:
Bounty Hunter 1.1
Internal Distribution System 1.2
Satellite Monitoring 1.7
Marine Repair and Training 2.14
_________________________

I've been playing for a while and went through all the basic stuff. Started exploring, laying satellites, etc. There were two specific paths that took different than normal.

First, I stripped the shields of a Industrialtech Baldric and scanned it. I wanted a fast TS ship and the Baldric fits the bill. Taking it from IndustrialTech also took away the risk of pissing off the Terrans too early.

Second, I used the SpringBlossom to attack and scan an Argon Phantom. I did it early in the game and caused my Argon rep to drop to -1, but hitting Xenon in Geste Fune quickly brought it up. The reason I took the Phantom was its ability to shoot Boarding Pods AND hold over 10 marines. Once I researched and produced a Phantom I was able to capture an additional four M6s, starting with Bounty Hunters and then a Hyperion from the Paranid.

With a total 4 M6s, I was able to pounce on a wounded Polacca and board it. Researching the Hyperion allows me to produce it and I decided to start taking out the Paranid in Helios Delta. I took out the Trading Post which caused a Ariadne and a Agamemnon to jump in. The Agamemnon was severely damaged so ordering the entire force to jump to the other gate, we attacked the shields of the Ariadne and I completed the scan but the Polacca in particular would not stop attacking the ship was destroyed. Did the same with the Agamemnon but made no attempt to board.

Not long after, boarded a Hercules and bought a Plutarch Asteroid Mover. Combined all the asteroids in Unknown Sector Alpha and moved them to Unknown Omega. I made the asteroids TOO big as the ore mine on the 1000+ ore asteroid goes through 3000 eCells a minute.
Last edited by Jonzac on Mon, 20. Feb 17, 23:18, edited 2 times in total.

Song Of Obsidian
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Post by Song Of Obsidian » Thu, 27. Oct 16, 19:50

Sounds like a fascinating mod. Going to live vicariously through your non-story story while I don't have the time to try it for myself.

Jonzac
Posts: 296
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Post by Jonzac » Fri, 28. Oct 16, 07:21

I continued to build miners in groups of four whenever I had over 14 million to pa for the MDS. I was continuing the research into the MDS blueprint with the though to eventually build my own. Meanwhile I continued to explore the universe and made it a point to get the blueprint for an L and LX.

There is a reason for the focus on Xenon ships. Each Sanctuary gets a "bonus" for building certain ships and my starting one had a 15% discount on the build materials and time needed for Xenons. Now you can sacrifice 50 people in a Sanctuary and have a random roll for another discount, but getting people are expensive. You will sometimes get refugees if there is a sector being taken over close by, but most of the time you need to buy slaves and set them free in your Sanctuary. Right now that isn't feasible, besides the Xenon ships are half bad...especially if I can scan a Xenon I or Z.

I did build a Scruffin Farm and had an IDN freighter move eCells from the Sanctuary to the factory and a Frighter assigned to the Sanctuary to bring the Scruffin Fruit in to feed my people. I did eventually go get 50 slaves and free them bringing my population to 100...which is the most you can have and it directly impacts the speed at which you build things. (At least I'm pretty sure about that).

I now had about 12 miners when the MDS blueprint was done and I built the factory. I had already built a Cattle Ranch and Cahoona Bakery in preparation to feed the MDS factory. I ran two IDN Mistral from the Sanctuary to the factorys and the IDN script moves eCells from the Sanctuary to the factorys and the Argnu Beef to the Cahoona factories once the Cattle Ranch hit its Export value.

THe factory was finally built and the amount of resourses needed to produce them was staggering. For 20 MDS every 4 hours and 24 minutes I would need
39600 eCells (9000/hour)
26400 Meatsteaks (6000/hour)
3300 Ore (750/hour)
825 Silicon (187.5/hour)

I had four Dock Agents buying the material and one Cahoona Bakery producing 3000 meatsteaks/hour. I build another Cattle Ranch/Cahoona pairing, but rapidly ran into a problem. I couldn't get enough Ore or eCells into the system fast enough...especially if I tried to build any miners or freighters at the same time. The Dock Agents couldn't (or wouldn't) buy just eCells but all the other materials as well....so it took a significant amount of time to get the materials to the level to produce the MDS. It took so long I had built another 4 miners and bought the needed MDS buy the time I got the components I needed. That showed me that with the limited station space I had I could build the infrastructure needed for MDS in my home sector and NOTHING ELSE.

So after getting the first batch in production I pulled all the remaining material and eventually dismantled the station after it produced a grand total of 20 Mobile Drilling Systems.

By then I had beaten up a Pelican and scanned it, as well as a Hyperion that was out by itself. I didn't destroy either one, so my reputation only took a dive to -2...nothing a little pirate/Xenon hunt couldn't fix.

I also started researching Wasp missiles. I planned to have both Wasps and Tornados in production to fill my fighters and M6s. I then started a production run of 12 LX fighters and 3 Pelicans. I bought HEPTs for the LXs and Wasps to setup the Templates. Total cost of the weapons was around 28 million or so, that included the 12 or so 25Mj shields I hadn't already salvaged.

Took the ships for a spin and found out that I could do without the Wasps as the LXs were devastating with Tornados against M4s and higher at any range less that 2KM...it was crazy. I did lose two after a few fights but I had enough resources to build them quickly.

I had enough resources because I had invested in two SSP Ls, an Ore Mine and a Silicon Mine. Additionally, I built another Research Center and claimed Unknown Sector Alpha....that means under my rules the next sector I claim starts the reputation loss game mechanic...unless I get my Boron rep to 8, which has a bonus of removing that loss over time.

I did build a Wasp factory and then immediately tore it down. The current info in the Mod makes the cost of building the Wasps more than it is to buy them.

20 Wasps every 40 minutes cost
6000 eCells
600 Rastor Oil
500 Ore
125 Silicon
500 Computer Components

If I bought the stuff on average price each missile would cost me 59,370 to build and they only cost 33,692 to buy. I put in a question on the MOD thread to see if this was an unintended bug.

I have also been researching the J blueprint and have it at 675/2100, but stopped it to research the Hyperion. I can build about 10 of them and then take over a sector....or at lease a specific sector.

I have decided to take the fight to the Paranid. One, they already don't like me and two they still have two sectors in the Omnicron Channel with no Shipyards and no defenses. 10 Hyperions should allow me to kill the 8 or so stations in a reasonable amount of time.

Right now the situation is as follows.

Unknown Omega.
Research Station
Home Sanctuary
2 Cahoona Bakery
2 Cattle ranch
2 SSPs

Unknown Alpha
Research Center
1 Ore Mine
1 Silicon Mine
1 Sanctuary with MLCC installed (War Base #1)
1 Mining Orca
25 M3 Miners

War Machine
3 Pelicans
12 LX
2 Hyperions (no weapons yet)

I'm down to 25 million and slowly losing money...and I finally figured out why. I have more eCells that I called for and my Dock Agents are selling them instead of the more lucrative weapons. I'll up my inventory soon to stop that.

Jonzac
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Post by Jonzac » Fri, 28. Oct 16, 07:23

I"ll try and post the status of the universe soon. Although in general terms the Argon and Teladi are kicking butt, especially Boron butt. The Terrans and Pirates are trading the same sectors back and forth.

The Paranid and Split seems to be moving much more slowly than the others.

Jonzac
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Post by Jonzac » Sat, 29. Oct 16, 15:47

I have been wanting to launch an assault on Helios, but I may have made a bad decision. I stopped my Sanctuary from buying eCells and Ore because I did the calculation that showed I was producing more than I needed. I had added a third Ore Mine in Unknown Alpha and I was running the following numbers

3 Ore Mines producing 2571 Ore/Hr using 15426 eCells/hr
2 Silicon Mines producing 536 Wafers/Hr using 12894 eCells/hr
Scruffin Farm producing 4500 Scruffin/Hr using 4500 eCells/hr
2 Cahoona Bakeries producing 6000 Meatsteak/hr using 9000 eCells, 1800 Argnu/hr
2 Cattle Ranches producing 1800 Argnu/hr using 9000 eCells/hr
200MJ Shield factory producing 21.5 200MJ Shields/hr using 9000 eCells, 6000 Meatsteaks,1500 Ore/hr
2 SSPs producing 92594 eCells/hr using 668 Crystals/hr

Now I was overproducing but I had forgotten two critical items. One, I was using a lot of eCells on my logistics fleet of about 15 Mistrals and Nexus SFs. Two, I needed alot of eCells to build Hyperions at an acceptable rate and I had crippled that by addeding the 200MJ shield factory...not to mention the 25MJ shield factory I had build but not started because I would have to buy another Cahonna/Argnu combo to feed it...pulling even more eCells away.

So I started buying them again, but that barely gets me ahead. The prodcution numbers are theoretical and do not take in the delays of freighters traveling.

That said I was able to build 5 Hyperions and put them on MLCC call with the Pelicans and their LXs run manually (I never used TM class in a vanilla LU so I didn't know that MLCC cannot use TMs in their assist or intercept code).

While I was waiting for the J to be finished researching I figured I might as well try and raise my rep to 8 with someone so I can buy Jump Beacons. I was all over the board and the empires were ACTIVE.

The Borons lost Menaleaus' Paradise to the Xenon who came out of the East gate because the Argon were attacking the same sector pulling them away. The Z,I,J,C and Q with fighter support eventually killed all the stations. The same thing started happening in Bluish Snout but the Argon eventually left allowing the Boron to finally defeat the Xenon.

The Terrans were slowly dismantling the Paranid down by Cardnials Domain the Teladi were snapping up territory near Grand Exchange. The Terrans and Pirates were still fighting when the OCV showed up.

The research on the J was going so slowly and even upping the stock level on my eCells wasn't having the effect I needed in replenishing my stock. I managed to get enough material together to build another Orca. When it was completed I sent it on an eCell buy run for one million units. The Sanctuary had over 94Million in the back so the 16 million for eCells wasn't to bad. The delivery was timely as well, because when the eCells arrived the research on the J finally finished. I had to send the Orca out for 9000 Ore units and 2500 Silicon Wafers but the J was started.

Jonzac
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Post by Jonzac » Tue, 1. Nov 16, 06:25

While waiting for the J to finish building, I also started a medium weapons complex to build HEPTs. It takes a lot longer to build a station and the J was about 50% completed when a Xenon Q, P and 20 or so fighters spawned in the Argon owned Xenon Sector 594 just north of Geste Fune and headed right for Unknown Sector Alpha and the first indication I had of a problem was a notification that my Silcon Mine was under attack.

I jumped into the middle of the sector and called in the 10 LXs I had on Pelicans. I headed toward the fighters which had seperated from the Q and P to chase down my Couriers and Internal Freighters. I used MLCC to call in the four Hyperions and started taking down the fighters. I lost one Hyperion and two LX's in the battle, but when we were down the fighters were gone and so was the P.

I ordered everyone to attack the Q and I launched 20 Spectre Missiles at it as well. I had to jump out at 15% hull on the Springblossem, but we did kill the Q after it took 25% of the mine's shields. It was obvious I needed the J built as soon as possible.

I bought 16 PPC, 16 CIG and 16 Flak Artillery to fit out the J and transfered the remaining LX's to it. I then spent the next little bit jumping in and hitting pirates around the Belt of Aguilar, where their fleet had claimed the sector from teh Argons. I moved into Albion Beta and watched as the Split took out the Shipyard there and claimed the Sector. I then went to explore Albion Alpha and found a Shipyard with no defense forces. I jumped in all my ships and started to take it down. It built several waves of 7 or so fighters which we took down and finally destroyed the Shipyard and I claimed the Sector. I had been waiting because my medium weapons complex had been completed and I placed it in the sector, but for some reason the menu would only show Mining Drill Systems and not HEPTs...which I had researched a while ago...not sure where the glitch is, but I started a light weapons complex to see if it shows up there.

I did manage to get enough components to start another J and I have just enough money to outfit it in the same way. Hopefully the HEPT complex works and I can start building and outfitting enough LXs.

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Zaitsev
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Post by Zaitsev » Tue, 1. Nov 16, 16:19

Mmm ... I like this, especially since I'm thinking about testing Mayhem myself. I think I'll wait for v2.05 though, to let Joubarbe iron out some more bugs first.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am :D

DiDs:
Eye of the storm Completed
Eye of the storm - book 2 Inactive
Black Sun - Completed
Endgame - Completed

Jonzac
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Post by Jonzac » Wed, 2. Nov 16, 06:08

Yes, Mayhem is a very interesting way to play X3LU....almost like a slower version of StarCraft. You get resources, slowly build your forces and then move to a sector that has more resources...slowly building your ability to create massive fleets.

---------------------------------

One thing I forgot to mention was the OCV attacking in Home of Light. They jumped in a MASSSIVE FLEET. I had to scroll down three pages before the list ran out, including over 6 OCR V's. They wiped out HOL and then split moving into all the adjacent sectors. Some they passed through and others were destroyed. Right now HOL is gone and the TerraCorp HQ is in CBSW, Elena's Fortune was half destroyed, Red Light is gone and so is CBSE.

After taking Albion Alpha, I finished the Light Weapons Complex and was able to choose HEPTs to build. Not sure why its a medium class weapon in a light factory but, oh well. It needs 2 Cahoona Bakeries to fill it and one Ore mine. I've finished the complex there with 1 HEPT, 3 Cahoona, 3 Cattle, 1 Crystal Fab and SSP, with an Ore and Silicon mine in Unknown Alpha. That should make the complex completely self-sufficient except for the extra 34 crystals per hour the SSP needs over the Crystal Fab's ability to produce. Pretty easy to compensate for. Additionally, I've moved the support of the 200MJ shield factory to the 25MJ factory as I'm going to need more LXs to fill the two J's I have.

J's are a perfect ship for me with above average firepower for a M1 and 22 fighters to launch, which is doable with my current production capability.

Overall position is Argon with 40+ sectors, Teladi with 51, Terran with 45, ATF with 10 and the rest being eaten alive. Its weird as the Terrans and Teladi are often allied and attacking sectors together but the Teladi end up with the Sector.

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