I've started play proper now, with 1961. It's been a busy year: the grav survey of Sol has finished (unfortunately, only two jump points, and one of those appears to be a dead end another system down the line), we've started further surveys and now know of seven systems, and we've got almost 3 million colonists on Luna. Research and industry are humming along, although they're not going to pay major dividends until next year.
Do note that we still don't have most of our fleet or any ground units built. Hopefully we can get that sorted out soon (we'll bring it up at the virtual meetup) and we can pick up the pace of play. Normally, I'll try for more than a year at a time, but things are still settling down. The new database can be found here.
Comments
The solar system looks like kind of a bust here, aside from some asteroids that are probably worth mining when we get the tech. I do nonetheless favor colonizing both the Moon and Mars to jump start civilian trade networks. And on general principles, of course.
For our first extrasolar colony, I'd go with Wolf 1061. The second planet has a nice assortment of minerals, and in particular all the duranium and corundium we'll ever need at high accessibility. Should be reasonably terraformable as well, though the maximum population will be limiting in the long term. And, being on a dead-end jump line from Sol, it shouldn't need much defending.
Finally, we're going to start needing warships, to keep the colonists happy and to hedge against early discovery of an intractable adversary. My preference is still missile frigates up front, to provide the cheapest early self-defense capability with the ability to add more sophisticate missiles as the tech advances, maybe even to the point of building a dedicated low-tonnage, multiple-slip shipyard to crank them out. But we'll need a few larger warships for range, survivability, and sensors.
Makes sense. Worth pointing out is that if we warm up Wolf 1061 A-II (and we can rename these things) enough to melt the ice sheets, we can start pulling water vapor out of the atmosphere, which will shrink the hydro cover and raise the population cap.
John and I discussed things briefly during the meetup today, and purchased 12 of the Poignard class frigates. More ships are of course on the table.
Is "Hoth" a little too on-the-nose? I considered suggesting one of the French Antarctic bases, but they (Dumont d'Urville Station , Charcot Station, Port Martin) just don't have the right feel for "planet" to me.
We're planning on terraforming, so it won't stay Hoth forever. I'm also not sure why the French would name the planet after a planet in a movie that will never be made.
How about stealing one of these names? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands#Islands
Apologies for not doing a post last week. I've been busy, and just didn't get around to it. Things will continue tomorrow.