So I'm pretty sure I'm screwed. [Short Tale, concluded.]

[Sting_Auer]

(Right click and choose view image to see the whole thing!)




I have modified world generation settings to make resources rarer and less rich, but much larger. Alien nests are also rarer, larger, and richer.

The area in the far east is my main base. The fort north of the supernest is a coal-mining fort. The area in the peninsula is a small oil extraction area that puts them into barrels for transport to the main base.

I am completely out of copper and the nearest deposit is the one on the southern tip of the super-nest.

I have many turrets placed at my main base, and I may be able to get away with removing some of them if I need them elsewhere.

Difficulty has reached the point where medium aliens seem to be more common than small ones, and big ones are fairly common. My tank is all but useless.

I am running 0.11.1 , so I do have multiplayer if anyone wants to try to help me.

I have 2 potential plans.

One is to go full trench-warfare and extend an arm of walls towards the gap in the middle of the nest, and spam what turrets I still have into it. This is extremely unlikely to work both due to power constraints and the impossibility of stopping spitters from grinding things down.

The second option is to a build a power line along the far west coast and build a fort on the copper. I am fairly certain, however, that the copper is close enough to the spawners that they will auto-aggro upon spawning. Even if they don't, it's too easy for them to wander in, and the pollution from the miners will definitely aggro them.

I will try to keep you guys updated on progress as things unfold.

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

UPDATE 1: 2014-11-07 10:00PM PST

**MAP EXCHANGE SEED!**

>>>AAALAAEAAAADBQYAAAAEAAAAY29hbAEDAAoAAABjb3BwZXItb3Jl
AQMACQAAAGNydWRlLW9pbAEDAAoAAABlbmVteS1iYXNlAQQBCAAAAGl
yb24tb3JlAQMABQAAAHN0b25lBQMELZkJmpYIAACRigAAAAAAAAAAAA
ADAGcl1gA=<<<

I have managed to set up a small base on the copper deposit running on its own electrical grid, as it is not possible to run a power line from the main base to it due to a combination of resource shortage and the aliens being close enough to aggro to it.

There is some danger, as the big spitters are able to cause some damage before being dispatched entirely.

A small care package of Copper ore has been delivered and temporarily restarted production. I will soon be further fortifying the mining base by fully enclosing it with walls. I will also add more chests to properly store the copper prior to it being loaded into a tank's cargo and ferried back to base for processing.




UPDATE 2: 2014-11-08 8:27AM PST

Chariot runs in a tank are a failure. A tank has been lost, leaving 2 in the automatic motor pool left. A new strategy must be developed due to the impracticality of replacing destroyed tanks with the current resource shortage.

Moving parallel to the edge of the Hive at the maximum range a cannon shot can hit still attracts dozens of medium and big biters and spitters, which a lone tank cannot deal with and still gives some trouble to 12 laser turrets with plenty of power.




UPDATE 3: 2014-11-08 1035 AM

**I have been defeated**

http://i.imgur.com/I8KEynC.png

After loading one of the two remaining tanks with tons of fuel, ammo, and some base-starting supplies, I decided to strike out and see if I could find a possibly more ideal location. This proved to be a failure, as I attempted to clear out a small nest on top of an enormous copper deposit next to an iron deposit. The big biters and spitters proved to be too much, and I was killed.

Since I am choosing to play with permadeath, I will be deleting this world and starting anew with similar world gen settings instead of loading from the latest save. Thanks for following this story, everyone!

[Nova]

Could you (and do you want to) upload the map? I would like to test some things.

[Sting_Auer]

Could you (and do you want to) upload the map? I would like to test some things.

I'd rather not go through the trouble of that, sorry.

[DaveMcW]

The main lesson is, you need to reserve more resources for military on a map with such a low resource/biter ratio.

If you want to dig yourself out of this, you need laser turrets. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of them.

One is to go full trench-warfare and extend an arm of walls towards the gap in the middle of the nest, and spam what turrets I still have into it. This is extremely unlikely to work both due to power constraints and the impossibility of stopping spitters from grinding things down.

You have plenty of coal and iron, build as many steam generators as you need for power. But you need more laser turrets too.

The second option is to a build a power line along the far west coast and build a fort on the copper.

Yes, you need to do this to get more copper for more laser turrets. I suggest you walk in with a bunch of steel, iron, and sulfur in your pockets. Then convert copper into laser turrets as fast as you can mine it.

I am fairly certain, however, that the copper is close enough to the spawners that they will auto-aggro upon spawning. Even if they don't, it's too easy for them to wander in, and the pollution from the miners will definitely aggro them.

1. Mine the southernmost copper to have more space.
2. Biters will not wander into a base. They might wander across a base to settle on the other side, but you can build some fake walls to the south to claim it if you are paranoid.
3. Only use a couple miners to keep pollution low. Effiicency modules would be very useful if you have them. If all else fails, you can always mine by hand.

[Sting_Auer]

-SNIP-

I'll give a small scale mining operation a go. I hadn't even considered mining by hand. I will report back with results after trying it out.

Oh, and for fuel, I don't use coal for fuel anymore. I use solid fuel made from petroleum, so much more efficient.

[Sting_Auer]

UPDATE 1: 2014-11-07 10:00PM PST

**MAP EXCHANGE SEED!**

>>>AAALAAEAAAADBQYAAAAEAAAAY29hbAEDAAoAAABjb3BwZXItb3Jl
AQMACQAAAGNydWRlLW9pbAEDAAoAAABlbmVteS1iYXNlAQQBCAAAAGl
yb24tb3JlAQMABQAAAHN0b25lBQMELZkJmpYIAACRigAAAAAAAAAAAA
ADAGcl1gA=<<<

I have managed to set up a small base on the copper deposit running on its own electrical grid, as it is not possible to run a power line from the main base to it due to a combination of resource shortage and the aliens being close enough to aggro to it.

There is some danger, as the big spitters are able to cause some damage before being dispatched entirely.

A small care package of Copper ore has been delivered and temporarily restarted production. I will soon be further fortifying the mining base by fully enclosing it with walls. I will also add more chests to properly store the copper prior to it being loaded into a tank's cargo and ferried back to base for processing.

[Sting_Auer]

UPDATE 2: 2014-11-07 8:27AM PST

Chariot runs in a tank are a failure. A tank has been lost, leaving 2 in the automatic motor pool left. A new strategy must be developed due to the impracticality of replacing destroyed tanks with the current resource shortage.

Moving parallel to the edge of the Hive at the maximum range a cannon shot can hit still attracts dozens of medium and big biters and spitters, which a lone tank cannot deal with and still gives some trouble to 12 laser turrets with plenty of power.

[DaveMcW]

Did I mention you need more laser turrets?

[Sting_Auer]

Did I mention you need more laser turrets?

Not enough copper to do so yet, and it's still difficult and dangerous to reach the small copper mining base.

[Darthlawsuit]

We need to get Uranium for these situations...

[Sting_Auer]

UPDATE 3: 2014-11-08 1035 AM

**I have been defeated**

http://i.imgur.com/I8KEynC.png

After loading one of the two remaining tanks with tons of fuel, ammo, and some base-starting supplies, I decided to strike out and see if I could find a possibly more ideal location. This proved to be a failure, as I attempted to clear out a small nest on top of an enormous copper deposit next to an iron deposit. The big biters and spitters proved to be too much, and I was killed.

Since I am choosing to play with permadeath, I will be deleting this world and starting anew with similar world gen settings instead of loading from the latest save. Thanks for following this story, everyone!

[DaveMcW]

Not enough laser turrets.

[Eurofighter1200]

We need boats to get away from a place like this...

[Rahjital]

We just got tanks, let's at least wait a bit before demanding another vehicle again

[Pigeon039]

Wooden Boats at least plz



Oh and sea biters

[Eurofighter1200]

Oh yes seabiters like a watermonster and other water structures like offshore drilling platform would be wasome but back to topic

I think with much much lasers and good research on the lasers you may can break out of this buts its really really hard and need more then one try

[_aD]

I've got to the stage where I need the second coal patch. A fun map so far!

[NotABiter]

I've got 1K lasers (which is kind of overkill - 1/2 that would be sufficient, though 600+ makes the fighting a little less tedious), all the laser upgrades, 180+ speed-upgraded construction bots, 30MW of solar, 2GJ of accumulators, 30 steam engines linked in via accumulators (so they only really run when needed), and about 2.5 steel chests full of solid fuel on "standby". I still haven't quite used up all of the copper from the starting area (mined the big copper area dry, but still have a bit left in the little one). I have wiped out the eastern mega base, western one's next. I'm still only using the coal from the starting area. (10 of my steam engines are running on coal, but they hardly turn on at all, so most coal use is for plastic, and I don't have a lot of copper I can afford to throw at advanced circuits anyways - had to cut off research to save on copper - so I've got way more plastic than I can really use at the moment.)

Anyone trying this should definitely reserve not only enough copper to get the lasers and laser upgrades (and panels/accumulators if you decide to go solar), but also a good amount for repair packs -- I think I went through somewhere on the order of 1K repair packs taking out the eastern mega base due to spitters. Biters, on the other hand, can't get remotely close to my "mobile laser fortress". (It's too bad that in a game about automation I can't fully automate the movement of my "fortress" - that would really take a big bite out of the tediousness of combat.)

[Lee_newsum]

Done but more fun to come

[ssilk]

Moved from General