Degla Garden Inevitable, with Sundry Orts and Musings

[Gilmoy]

Degla: The Garden - Scarce 6 Extreme Impossible
Clans (Moklumnue, Alta Mesa, Zenrin)

I think I'm winning
Turn 493, my central core is intact and crunchy, my economy is OK.
I'm slowly eating my way up AI #1's chain of planets.

As this looks to be a very long game still, I shall post a stream of smaller topics.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0. Literate Sheet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this run, I log some data every game turn. I may publish all of it later.

Some of my upcoming small topics will extract small lessons from this pile of data.
Data is good for that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-1. Manual gives 404
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ST:4X store page has a "View the manual" link, but it gives a 404 error.
https://www.tresebrothers.com/star-traders-4x-empires/game-manual

The Manual is not:
- a Guide in the Steam Discussions Guide section
- a stand-alone document included in the distribution on disk

I learned everything on my own

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Crash/hang bugs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These crash successfully 100% of the time.

A) Crash on action hotkey for a command that a ship lacks
Every ship can have at most 3 Training commands.
These are hotkeyed to 'z' = 1st, 'x' = 2nd, 'c' = 3rd, and 'v' = Cancel.

+ For a ship that has only 1 Training command, pressing 'x' or 'c' crashes.
+ For a ship that has only 2 Training commands, pressing 'c' crashes.

startraders.exe goes "doot" (plays your system error beep noise), and hangs.
Press Esc to return directly to desktop.
Press Play to launch it again.

B) Hang after stacking 2+ Details windows
Click Research, right-click any, click Details, right-click any other, click Details again.
Click Cancel to return to the 1st Details window.
Click Cancel again to ... do nothing.

The game is now hung. It never returns to the game.
You're trapped in a modal window prison.
Esc and Cancel have no effect.

Task-kill to escape.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Exploration Phase, and the Unhittable Scout Trick
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All players, in every game, can design a nigh-immortal scout on turn 1, and explore the map.

Briefly: Evasion 20 (the cap), all the rest into Durability.
Captain's skills go into Pilot and Stealth.
Cheapest possible gun, no armor. Your goal is rock-bottom $29 maintenance.

AI ships from Rating 1 to Rating 3 will miss 99% of their shots at you.
You can saunter through enemy backfields to the 4 corners of the map, attract 10-30 hostile ships around you, ignore all of their fire, and sail away until they finally give up and let you go.

Later, the high-Evasion gimmick works for your combat Fighters, too.
Rating 4-5 ships do hit you more often (1 in ~20), but by then you have Multi Repair.

+ Exploring the map locates space sites (asteroids, anomalies, planets) and AIs.

- Empty space squares are always "forgettable".
Seeing them (with any ship or planet, or via any Sector Scan) gives you 4(?)-turn sight.
Your sight gradually fades over time, until you "forget" them and lose vision.

+ While you have temporary sight in space, you see AI ships moving through.
This can give early warning of inbound raids.

- Space sites (asteroids, anomalies, planets) are, by default, forgettable.
If you never click on them, your sight o'er them decays the same as for empty space.

+ But if you manually left-click on each space site, they are "added to your stellar map".
Then you permanently see them, for the rest of the game.

- Hence, one of the minor chores of ST:4X's UI is to left-click on every new space site.
Explore, see 3 asteroids, click click click on them. It's a chore.

+ After clicking each planet, you see them forever.
Then you also see when an AI just colonized one, and its xeno stats.
This can inform you of that AI's progress in expanding into its neighborhood.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Xeno AI Stats (mood, worlds, XP, levels)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I grit teeth and log, every turn, for all 6 xeno AIs, their public stats from the Factions tab.
This gives you knowledge-beyond-vision of their expansion progress.

a) # of worlds

Whenever (a) the number of worlds goes up by +1 for an AI I've seen, I briefly scan the map and look in their region for a neutral world that they now owned. If you already have permanent sight over that world, you can catch it newborn, with population 6 or 7.

b) XP

Each AI earns constant XP per turn.
At L01, they gain +1 XP per turn.
At L40, they can gain 880 or 1,000 or 1,040 XP per turn, depending on their # of planets.

Their delta per turn is close to (level + 1) * (planets + 1).
So it tends to change:

+ when they just went up a level,
+ or 3-8 turns after they got +1 or -1 planet.

c) level

XP gives levels, according to some fixed table.
It seems to be the same table for all AIs, across all games.

I think AI levels unlock ships of higher Rating.
L01 AIs have Rating 1 ships, which are weak chaff, with low HP and few dice.
L40 AIs have Rating 5 ships, which have more HP, armor, and dice.

d) mood

On turn 89, it occurred to me that this is highly significant data, worth logging.
In fact, now I see it as the single most significant influence of a game's shape.

+ Every turn, the Factions tab tells you whether each AI is "Aggressive" or "Neutral".

+ Some start-of-turns give you an alert message saying:
++ "increased activity" = just changed from Neutral => to Aggressive
-- "decreased activity" = just changed to Neutral <= from Aggressive

But not all changes give you an alert text. Some happen quietly.

+ This dovetails with your Unhittable Scouts penetrating deep into AI backfields.
You can watch their behavior in real-time.

I deduce from all of this that AIs actually have (exactly) 3 moods.
They're always in 1 of these 3 moods.

~~~~~~~~

3-A) Aggressive, says "Aggressive", may have alerted "increasing activity"
This AI is actively moving its entire backlogged fleet into your space.
Its brawn ships are coming to shoot yours.
Its World Killers are beelining to 1 target world each.
Its ships will chase and attack your scouts.

3-B) Shooting, says "Aggressive", may have given no alert
This AI will chase and attack your scouts in its territory, but is not actively invading you.

3-C) Bashful, says "Neutral", may have alerted "decreasing activity"
This AI wants to be Out of Your Visual Range. It does not want to even see your ships.
Its ships will turn away and actively flee from your owned space.
Its ships in its own backfield will flee away from your scouts, and will not shoot at you.
If your scout moves toward 20 of their ships in their own space, they will all flee from you.

Your scout can be Border Collie and actively herd AI ships far(ther) away from your space.
N.B. AI ships will always counterattack you normally, but in this mood they won't attack.

Pitfall c.1) A bashful World Killer may retreat to be only 6 squares from your sight.
Then it's happy to sit there motionless for 50+ turns.
It's still a long-term threat to you. Eventually, this AI will flip to 3-A again.
Then that World Killer is only 2-3 turns away from being a problem again.

~~~~~~~~

I now actually consider the union of moods to be the single critical datum each turn.
It determines the direction(s) of imminent threat.

Glancing at my sheet, I see that the 6 AIs go through Epochs of Syncopated Activity.

+ all six green (aggressive) -- from T089 to T131
Early aggression is not a threat to you, because none of them have reached your Core.

- all six red (neutral) -- from T146 to T183
This is a safe epoch, during which you can build and repair in peace.

+ all six green (aggressive) -- from T202 to T236
My first 6 defenses vs. World Killer attacks, plus many large-scale dogfights.
I killed ~15 other World Killers before they arrived, but I couldn't get them all.

+/- some invading, some shooting, some neutral -- all game long
Generally, some AIs are neutral, and you can ignore their directions completely.
Some are invading, and you must pivot your scans and fleets to intercept their inbounds.

Hence, by knowing all 6 AIs' locales and moods, you know where to rotate your fleet(s).
Then you can successfully defend a central core with surprisingly few fighting ships.
My fleet was 6-7 fighters, 3-4 carriers, and the starting 1 Explorer + 2 Templars.

~~~~~~~~

Funnier: Around turn 200, your Unhittable Scout gains a new role as Pied Piper.
Scamper through an Aggressive AI's backfield to gain temporary sight over space squares.
See and attract 8-12 hostile brawn ships.
Lure them into chasing you back into a kill trap, and intercept them with your fleet.

Over 30-turn chunks, this sweeps that AI's space clear of fighting ships.
It dilutes that AI's next Invading-mood beeline assault.

Incidentally, your scout in Border Collie mode is also a Canary that detects the transition from Bashful to Shooting. When that AI's ships cease fleeing, pivot in place, and shoot back at you (and all miss ), that's the signal, even with no text message.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Trese Brothers' Dice, +Attack, +Defense, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The burning question is:

[_] Does ST:4X also use Trese Brothers' strong + standard dice?
It's not explicitly mentioned in any of the (very terse) in-game Help text.
Searching the ST:4X forums here on Steam, and on Trese Brothers' site, for "dice" gets 0 hits, so nobody else has answered it already.

[_] Was it in the Game Manual?

+ Weapon stats seem to suggest so, when they use "Gun + Pilot" terminology, or similar.
I quibble a bit as to why my (defensive) Pilot rating would give standard dice to my (offensive) Gun attacks. Of all stats to pick for dice, why that one?

- Designer step 3 seems to suggest not, when it says that values less than 3 incur a penalty.

+ The stats of Attack (gun) / Hypersonic Attack (missile) + Defense suggests so.

Anyways, my Trese Game instinct is to prioritize +Attack.
This drives my ship designs, and especially my (ahem) ship upgrade plan.

z. Templars as damage sponges
They're free and cheap, but they have lousy Evasion, and get hit often.

0. unhittable tank
2 AP light gun = 2 shots, but +0 Attack.
Its #1 job is to lure attention and dodge hits.
Templars can hide behind this tank, and use their Torpedos at long range.

1. Trained Crew = +1 Attack
Minutely better at hitting things. I built 5 of these, and then recycled all 5.

2. Titan Crew = +5 Attack
My mainstay 2-shot fighters, far superior at hitting targets.
In fact, this is the best Crew module for +Attack in the entire tech tree.

I build my torpedo carriers and Mesa Hawk Fighters with +Hypersonic Attack modules, and they are very reliable at getting hits. So I trust the +Attack stat, and it's gotten me this far.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Sidegrading Ships for Power and Profit (ahem)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every 4X player soon asks: How do I upgrade a ship?
In ST:4X, the answer is: Build a brand-new one, then Demolish the old one

+ When you Demolish a ship, you earn salvage +Credits back.
You can earn back 40% - 120% of the original cost, depending on ship type and damage.

This appends a text alert in your start-of-turn Alerts. Press 'a' to re-read them.
The salvage refund is the same regardless of where you are, even in deep space.

The Explorer was salvaged for $216. C_x = $32 + $2 * 92 hull (of 92)
The Sparrae was salvaged for $352. C_e = $106 + $2 * 98 hull (of 98)
The Sparrae was salvaged for $302. C_e = $106 + $2 * 73 hull (of 98)

You earn back (C_i + 2 * current Hull) credits, for C_i depending on the type.
Ship designs with high Hull actually earn you a profit

Coelecantha, Zenrin War Barge, L3, Durability 20 = 433 Hull
Build for $807
The Coelecantha was salvaged for $1,014. C_c = $218 + $2 * 398 hull (of 433)
The Coelecantha was salvaged for $0,952. C_c = $218 + $2 * 367 hull (of 433)

An undamaged one would earn $218 + $866 = $1,084 = +$277 profit.
That's a poor usage of 97 CP of work, since you could have sat idle to earn $970.
But it is a profit!

~~~~~~~~

In this game, I test a strategy of remorseless upgrades by build-and-Demolish.
I especially do this with my Fighters to prioritize +Attack dice.
My Carriers prioritize Torpedo Spread 1, then Multi action.
My Assault Fighters emphasize getting 4 MP.

Then I ruthlessly minimize (to 0) the Maintenance I spend on older designs.
It's a waste of money to pay 90% of the maintenance for 30% efficacy.
I invest the build time for an equal number of replacements, then Demolish all old ones.

I do sacrifice a lot of early XP this way, but I'd rather have reliable ships that score hits.

1 Sparra, -232 build +202 salvage, no Crew. I rented it for -20 total
1 Sparrab, -534 +360: Combat Crew (+1 Attack, +4 Damage)
3 Sparrac, -502 +360
5 Sparrad, -807 +352: Trained Crew (+1 Attack, +5 Damage)
5 Sparrae, -867 extant: Titan Crew (+5 Attack, +6 Damage)

2 Magpia, -413 +319: Harrier Pod, 3 MP
2 Magpib, -663 extant: Dart Pod, 4 MP

1 Cassowara -597 +440: Torpedo Strike, Repair Fighter 1
1 Cassowarb -743 +440: Torpedo Spread 1, Repair Fighter 1
1 Cassowarc -704 extant: Barracuda Torpedo, Spread 1, Multi Repair 1
1 Cassoward -879 extant: Mark 40 Torpedo, Spread 1, Multi Repair 1

1 Kakapoa -700 +440: Mark 30 Torpedo, Spread 1, Refuel Ship 1
1 Kakapob -704 extant: Barracuda Torpedo, Spread 1, Multi Refuel 1

3 Sunfissa -734 +897: Transport, Heavy Drop Pods, 2 MP
3 Coelecantha -807 extant: War Barge, Heavy Drop Pods, 3 MP
Upgrading these invasion ships actually earned a profit
The Sunfissae conquered 6 planets from 2 AIs in their time, so it can be done.

Within each category, I keep only the bottom-most line (or 2).
For most of the earlier ship designs, I paid about 50% net to rent them.
Now all of my maintenance costs go to support the latest designs only.

I still have the starting 1 Explorer + 2 Templar Defenders.
And I've held the Core vs. Degla Garden Impossible for 493 turns with just 5+2 fighters.
Briefly, exploit your knowledge of 6 AIs' moods to know where to rotate your fleets.

~~~~~~~~

Sad but true: For 490 turns, I had the mistaken impression that Demolish must be adjacent to a friendly or Indie world to earn the refund. But I just (ahem) tested that now, and found that you get the same refund even in deep space.

I must have wasted 20-30 turns of unnecessary flight across all of my old ships, to fly them back to friendly worlds. I could have Demolished all of them wherever they were.

That probably cost me -$2.0k of unnecessary Maintenance, or a few turns' worth of income. So I'm behind by "a few turns". I'm still winning!

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~
6. Ship XP
~~~~~~~~
Combat ships earn:
+1 XP per ship-exploding kill shot (including your counterattack during the AIs' turn)
=0 XP for inflicting damage that doesn't kill the target

Invasion ships earn:
[_] 0 or +1 XP for Scout
[_] 0 or +1 XP for Invade inflicting damage that doesn't purge the world
[_] 0 or +1 XP for Invade dealing the planet-purging kill shot?
[_] haven't tested Bombard

My Sunfissa invasion ships had, before I logged XP as a stat:
+ 8 Scout
+ 1 Invade for damage and world purge
+26 Invade for damage
+13 Invade with no damage

After that, they had exactly 5/6/6 XP each = 17 XP total.
Evidently, some of those actions earned +1, the rest earned +0.

After I started logging XP, they purged 4 more worlds, but ended with 6/7/7 = 20 XP total.
So at least 1 of the world-purges earned a 0.

In contrast, my Coelecantha invasion ships have done this in their brief tenures:
+ 1 Invade world-purge for +1 XP
+ 9 Scout for +9 XP
And they have 5, 5 = 10 XP total, in exactly 10 actions total. Go figure.

[Gilmoy]

Now I think that:
+ invasion ship's first 5 actions, of any sort, earn +1 XP each, to 5 XP
- thereafter, additional +1 XP awards are either random (~5%),
- or very infrequent (1 per 20 actions?)

[jamesthesecond]

Can you transfer this to the guide section, so it will not be lost in the discussion section?
Thanks for your details.

[Gilmoy]

Quick update, more later.

================================================
1. AIs soon fully(*) colonize their corners, and cease expansion.
================================================
I call this the end of the early game. They plateaued at this number of planets each:

T209 - T232: Nyktos 17*, Bollish 17, Zenga 22, Xytox's 23, Sidtax 24*, Jyeeta 25

* Some AIs oddly leave 3 planets fallow, and don't touch them for 200+ turns.
+ Sidtax AI left 3 planets fallow for 287 turns, and finally colonized them on T518-522.
+ Nyktos AI left 4 planets fallow for 284 turns, and colonized 2 of them on T493-494.
I stole the other 2 myself, via 2 bold naked bootleg runs at range 60.

I like to think that I galvanized Nyktos AI into action by kicking its butt.

========================
2. Early active-defense phase
========================
On T232, I have only 7 planets. Even this is a small victory.
I had to win 2 sprint-races to steal the last 2 empty planets from Jyeeta AI's colony ship.
I beat it by 1 turn to both planets.

7 planets gives me just enough economy to afford 2 small fleets.
A self-contained fighter fleet is 2 carriers (1 refuel, 1 repair) + 3-4 fighters.
My core sprawls over 3 separate small theaters, each too far apart for mutual coverage.

I survive by rotating my 2 fleets according to the mood of 6 AIs.
They don't usually all invade me at once.

========================
3. Local counter-invasions
========================
AIs colony-hop up their entire chain of planets from their corner to your center.
Then they colonize "your" empty planets right in your own green dot repair zones.
With only 2 small fleets, you cannot guard your space, nor even see them coming.

On the plus side, this means you eventually invade them from your own green dots
I eked out a tiny fleet of 3 speed-2 invasion ships, the Sunfissa mentioned earlier.
They sufficed to gradually conquer planets.

================
4. Killed Nyktos AI
================
Nyktos AI is #6 of 6 (last place, by least XP). But it's closest.
So it's the convenient target.

My invasion fleet is 1 fighter fleet (= 2 carriers + 3 fighters) + 3-4 invasion ships.
It suffices. As I colonize purged worlds, I earn enough to build a 3rd fighter fleet.
Then my Core defense has 2 fleets, and my current invasion is the 3rd.

T444 - T670: Captured all 19 Nyktos, eliminating it at L38 and only Rating 5 ships.
On T670, I have 25 planets, of which 18 come from Nyktos.

A conquered AI still gains XP every turn.
N.B. I think this is why the XP gain formula is (worlds + 1) * level.
When worlds == 0, it still earns +(its current level) in XP each turn.
It was only 646 XP from L39, and still earns +38 XP per turn.

T687: Nyktos AI's ghost reaches L39, on schedule.

================
5. Killing Jyeeta AI
================
T670: Jyeeta AI is #1 at L51. I love to attack the #1 AI, in any 4X.

T693 - T792: Purged 12 of 25 Jyeeta worlds, colonized 7.
Jyeeta is now #2 at L55, still building Rating 7 ships.
My invasion fleet is somewhat larger: 2 refuel carriers (1 combat, 1 invasion), 7 fighters.

T796: Now I have 40 colonies. I'll colonize 8-10 more from Jyeeta.
My green dots grow across the map like a starfish's arms.

Rating 7 ships are a strenuous test. They have moar dice.
- My zero-fuel Barrage attack hits them about 1 in 5.
- My Precision 1 attack hits about 1 in 2.
- They hit me about 1 in 8, for -45 damage.
- Jyeeta ships have very high Hull and Armor, so you need even more hits than usual.

My kill rate is still infinity:0 in my favor.
Jyeeta is a dead duck, we shall play out the string.

============
6. Future Work
============
T794: I click to add an Asteroids to my stellar map. I am ... faintly embarrassed.

T796: Sidtax AI is now #1 at L56 with 26 worlds, currently Aggressive but far away.
I worry a bit that it will reach L60+ and Rating 8 ships before I finally get around to it.

Meanwhile, it shall worry about me

[jamesthesecond]

Nice job, if you ever decide to make a guide for this game, I am sure it would be appreciate.

[zman]

Still needs to be updated for 64 bit Mac OS...