The Chronicled Lore on Psieye

Landline Fault detected
According to BT, this will take up to Sun 8 Apr to fix. It happens, and it'll hardly dent my activities (now if I didn't have access to this connection here at Uni, then it'd be a more serious matter).

Ah, I feel hayfever coming again. Guess I'd better go look for supplies.

Marisa's Log -Borrowing Era- 2402.5
[OOC: v1.33, IRM 0.99a, Medium Map]

After much research on this Simulator book, I think we are confident the simulated empires can act more competently now. Thus, I'm going to try out a completely different style ze~

Master Witch Marisa is in charge of a Collective of Magicians, forming the Gensokyo Coven once again! This time we are Schemers who, among other things, are talented in Propulsion, Scheming and Construction. Our Homeworld, Alphito III, is a Rock of No Atmosphere.

( Expansion phase )

--- Marisa's Log 2nd Era 2404.2
Well, this highly artificial instance has proven some insight into how the AI (this is how the book from the outer world describes simulated empires) falls short at present. Work is always being done on this from outside and Sukima occasionally brings us an update so it's good to know it won't always stay like this:
- the AI can only build 1 facility per turn.
- the AI sends colony ships out without consideration for distance.
- the AI doesn't build ships as much as it supposedly used to
- the AI leaves plenty of units on colony surfaces, undeployed

So as to salvage something of this instance where, despite all odds against me I've built up 4 or so decent fleets which could take out whatever the AI has built up (except on Homeworlds - it knows how to defend Homeworlds but that may be because those already were built up for it)... Patchy and I decided to have the Gensokyo Coven go 'hibernate' for a few simulation years. We get rid of all ship movement/construction and sit back while we slowly accumulate tech in Culture and other not-so-impactful places. This will allow the AI to grow a bit and develop its colonies/fleets. At least then we can get a good fight out of it. I have secured my borders so it will need exceptional initiative to break through the "Great Wall" bases.

--- Marisa's Log 2nd Era 2402.5
War was declared. If Marisa was allowed to build up for too long, then she'd still have the advantage, so the simulated empire has been provoked into action early. We will soon enough make it angry at us.

Right now, she's fortifying her warp points with Space Stations. Mere satellites and mines won't do for Marisa, who expects a good fight. "Great Wall" bases have ridiculous amounts of armour such that only the biggest of weapons can do any damage. Each defended warp point will have 3 such bases, as well as a "Summon Circle" to build extra Satellites/Fighters/Drones and "Storage Forts" to hold those units. If she was allowed to build up enough, no attack would ever hope to be able to break through trivially. They all have Beam weapons too, so there is less chance of overkill.

Important planets are being fortified with various units built by orbiting space yards while the planets themselves build ships preparing fleets to go in whichever direction Marisa chooses to assault first. She's starting from the top left corner and has designated some 'borders' already. Zeckrack colonies have been spotted nearby some of those borders already, so she's hurrying production and as she's declared war, is expecting them to rapidly built up and send something soon.

--- Marisa's Log 2nd Era - 2400.7
I flew over to Patchy's library this morning to discuss the idea I had. While we can't do much until the ruleset is fine-tuned, we knew where the simulated empires failed and could give it compensations for it.

This new instance has only 1 empire other than the Gensokyo Coven (now Berserkers under my Tyrannical rule). This empire was forged out of 3 combining together (we made them surrender to each other before passing it to the simulation to control). We both started with some initial technology to reflect roughly where I got up to previously (minus all the weapons research) then gave this simulated empire even more of a tech boost. If things work right, they'll have x7 build speed bonus, and we gave them better Space Yards anyway just in case that isn't implemented. They also have much superior Research Centres and with 9 Homeworlds to my 3, they should be getting ahead of me on research. They start at the other 3 corners of the Quadrant and have all 3 colonisation technologies at their disposal.

Oh and we disallowed colonisation of unbreathable atmospheres, so the simulated empire doesn't have to fumble with domed colonies. All Vision has been switched on such that everyone can see everything happening and as a challenge I won't be staring at what their home defences are like. Finally, we switched off Intelligence operations to further streamline the simulated empire's efforts.

Now to see how this works out in practice...

--- Marisa's Log 2407.8
I have been flown back to my home on Marisa's broomstick. Nnn~ pressing against her back while... er this isn't the place to write this.

Marisa has greatly expanded her people's book reading capacities. To simplify things, Ships have virtually stopped moving - the only reason they're moving is to quell rebellions of the former Ichase territory. We're not sure why loyalty drops on some colonies. Even if they do declare independance though, they don't last long as our troops are already on the surface to deal with the insurgents.

This instance has turned out to be one of exploring what areas of knowledge are available in this ruleset. Marisa has almost found every weapon there is. Her plans to build the Independant Fleet is still on-going but I am not sure whether we have the motivation to continue with it. We are finding more interesting things to do for us to spend long hours with the book in its current state. In other words, the simulated empires aren't a challenge still. Maybe if they learnt to unite and declare us the "Mega Evil" empire, or maybe if we set them up to wage war on us from the beginning (and make sure they ally with each other).

Her plans for the fleet were simple - Cruiser-sized ships with a high focus on defence would have been the mainstay of her fleet. All the Frigates would have been converted into either artillery or chasing ships. She was getting onto the practical technologies as we parted for the day (starting with Armour).

--- Marisa's Log 2405.8
So the war begins. The colony ship that had been planted there long ago finally carried out its duty and established a war colony. Which immediately had 1169M people on it due to half my population ships being ready there. Oh also 6 weapon platforms and 41 satellites in defence.

The Ichase Intelligence colony was spotted. It went on from there to the conquest of their Homeworld. The Ichase fleet of 32 warships successfully destroyed 3 of my warships while perishing. It is now time to see whether this failed empire can surrender. I've taken their Homeworld so that's the victory condition against this empire done.

Not too much noteworthy about this small war otherwise - they have mines but... I have so much armour our ships hardly get dented. Oh and our Intel ops failed to the end... not sure why we couldn't do anything to them through this way. Guess I'll stick to normal methods.

Actually, Patchy tells me that there's components to make a ship simulate a Resupply Depot and a Space Yard. I grow tired of simply expanding out my existing empire so perhaps I'll instead make a fleet that roams around beating everyone up and only leaving the occasional colony behind.

To do that, I need to get my Research properly developed, then go to Sensors so we can see where they are... then finally the Space Yard and Supply/Ordnance factories. Oh and bigger ships with faster engines I guess.

--- Marisa's Log 2405.0
I'm doing something uncharacteristic of me with my "Gensokyo Coven". I'm sharing out all my technology to everyone. The reason for this is because Patchy told me that the simulated empires were vastly inferior to me already and yet had no clue how to unite and wage war on me. Therefore, I have instead united them with a network of treaties so they can learn from my example and at least have ships decently equipped when I fight them. An Alliance was considered, but I want to declare war on empires individually while letting the rest learn from me.

Intelligence warfare isn't going as I'd hoped. Maybe... just maybe it's because I'm still in an alliance with the Ichase? Next month I'll break our treaty and declare war on them. We ought to see results immediately afterwards. Whether it works or not, I have 60 ships entering their system unchallenged. A "Scry Acolyte" (I felt like calling it an Acolyte) has seen a very promising number (38) of soon-to-be-enemy ships on their homeworld. The weaker fleet (26 combat ships) will try challenging them.

Maybe it's because of the tariff I've been giving them, but the Ichase (a neutral empire) has the most ships out of all the simulated empires I am told - Patchy looks at the overall picture to gauge how well things are going.

I got distracted from learning about Centralised Computer Systems, because the Coven Magicians have been making lots of breakthroughs on weapons technology. Since I can't wait to retrofit all my old ships with the latest knowledge (we learn too fast for that), I'm sending them in now and those that emerge as veterans will be treated to an upgrade.

Production really is overflowing. I'm giving 50% of my income away to the Ichase and I still have far too much surplus when every colony is building something. Maybe it's a sign that we really ought to have very advanced Space Yards and huge ships.

Ah well, to war we go~

--- Marisa's Log 2404.3
Oh my... I'm in Marisa's house... drinking tea made by her... sitting on her bed... with her right next to me... and we're not worried about stealing...

Ehem. I'm looking into how Intel projects work - exactly how much more intel points need to be spent than defence to make progress. If Marisa can be satisfied stealing stuff in a virtual world, then that's less borrowing of my books. Ah... I remember this book here... oh that book ended up here as well...

Oops, getting distracted. Marisa's negotiations to steal all the Ichase tech through a "both share all tech" treaty and then conquering them soon afterwards has failed - at least the treaty part. For some reason they're too suspicious of her. She's not worried though, as she's done the same deal with 2 other neutral empires out there who won't benefit so much from her tech as she will from their weapons knowledge. I guess it's characteristic of her to fight with other people's spells.

Some 40 ships are assembling outside the Ichase system now. There is a Non-Aggression clause in the existing treaty so these ships will warp through unchallenged. Marisa has already got a colony ship waiting on the other side to make a colony. The invasion won't begin until Marisa has prepared the logistics of setting up a war colony as soon as it's deployed. Tiny domed colonies too small to warrant a space yard are building "Friendly Mushroom" Weapon Platforms and "Danmaku Familiar" Satellites.

Citizens are being shuttled around manually by over 50 "Broomsticks", split into 9 fleets. Soon she will need to divert some of them to get ready to seed the war colony in the Ichase system.

Systems further away from the Ichase are busy building defensive ships now - which don't have much supply/ordnance in exchange for more weapons. Idea being, these ships can easily resupply as they never leave the home system. Marisa will need a new opponent to con and conquer soon.

Weapon Mounts were researched recently and Heavy Armour is outfitted on her "Mushrooms". Physics and Space Yards are being pursued now - no doubt it won't be long before Marisa learns how to capture ships. But maybe she'll want to get Centralised Computer Systems first.

Oh something smells nice. I guess we will discuss this over dinner.

--- Marisa's Log 2403.0
Naa... I never expected Patchy to come visit with Sakuya assisting her frail body ze~. A standard exchange of Danmaku helped us resolve what to do about this "Space Empires" book.

I can keep it until I make a copy of it (OOC: a Witch always writes her own spells, meaning she has to re-write it in her own way). During that time, I am to go and "borrow" Patchouli from the Scarlet Devil Mansion from time to time so she can watch me govern my virtual empire and write about it. It'd do her good to get some fresh air, away from that moldy library - they really ought to get some ventilation down there ze~

My Broomsticks are now max sized Light Freighters. Applied Research Lv 3, Space Yards Lv 4, Intel Centres Lv 6 ze~ Took a detour to get Nuclear Missiles researched - odd that the Ichase haven't sent anything my way in a while. Patchy took a look at the book and while I made some tea, found that one-way treaty clauses don't seem to work if the simulated empires ever write them - they refuse to write "Gensokyo Coven" and this voids them we think. This means the Ichase treaty needs to be re-written yet again...

I think I had some 25 "Broomsticks" flying around now. Whenever planets were idling, they built Broomsticks, though they can easily switch to warships if any invasion is spotted. Right now though, the Coven will expand - we met the "Eee" empire and have convinced them to allow immigrants and colonisation tech to flow freely. Newly established major colonies get their fleet of 300M+ population boost within a turn or so on top of immigration from my own people and the Ichase people. Expansion is quickened as new space yards are set up fast. To further speed things up, I am having my people learn from my example of being fast ze~ (Patchy didn't recognise "Nuclear Engines" as they used to be called "Ion Engines" in her old ruleset).

Once all the Broomsticks are fitted with the most efficient Nuclear Engines possible, a lot more of them must be produced. More is merrier~ I must look into how to make babies survive more often.

--- Marisa's Log 2401.9
Patchy was obsessing over this... unique spellbook... so I borrowed it to see what it's all about.

[Marisa wrote of what the SE V spellbook was about]

Looks fun, ze~
( Marisa stole the precious thing~ )

I have a visitor? How unusual ze~

[OOC: No I don't know if Marisa actually writes her "ze" speech quirk in her notes. Probably not, but it just doesn't sound like Marisa without ZE~]

--- Flandre's Log 2nd Era [End]
I've identified the problem from last time with no damage being done despite hundreds of shots being fired between the Abbidon satellite and Imouto-san's ship. A rule was being misapplied across the entire system instead of in its local sector. "Causes -X% hit in this sector" thus got applied everywhere and stacked, such that both entities only had the minimum 1% hit chance. Relatively easy to fix the rules, but the map needs to be freshly generated to implement meaning a fresh new instance. Imouto-san has flown back to her room in frustration.

That's not so relevant because... Marisa stole the simulation generator... She's gone too far this time! I must ask Sakuya to get it back...

--- Flandre's Log 2nd Era 2403.3
The Hydrogen-breathing Neutral empire she first encountered came up with a new treaty, which Imouto-san amended (and had accepted) to remove the 'trap clause' (giving all our designs to them) and keeping the "allow colonisation in each others' systems". This means, Imouto-san is unchallenged as she goes into their system to colonise a Gas planet (she gave them Rock colonisation in exchange for their Ice) and build it up into a stronghold from which to take over the rest of their system from.

The Abbidon Homeworld has been seen with sensors now. It's impressively defended by troops, 3 weapon platforms and some satellites (of which half were launched). The fairly recently (judging from population numbers and facilities) built colony nearby was undefended though. It got pummelled a bit next turn to test how effective orbital space weapons are. Secondary Fire weapons (e.g. Autocannons) cannot target Planets which is realistic I think (I read that the atmosphere burns up smaller asteroids falling to Earth, I guess the same must apply to whatever bullets we're shooting from smaller weapons).

Nuclear Missiles turn out to not do extreme instantaneous damage to the Planet Conditions - a single Blaster Fairy unloaded maybe 50 or so of her seekers down on that planet and they remained "Unpleasant". All the facilities on that planet (it was producing 42000 minerals per turn through 12 facilities) got razed by the end of the 3 minutes (we both got tired of watching battles go on for 5 minutes before ending, so disallowed Retreat, shrunk the combat map to 1000 radius and reduced the time limit). 7M out of 633M people died. This too is realistic - when powerful Youkai roam nearby, humans who can't fight don't stand around but go into hiding.

Odd thing was... neither Abbidon satellites nor Flandre's ship was taking any damage as they shot each other while Bombardment of the 2nd nearby colony took place. This would need some investigation, as strangely in the Combat Simulator the damage works just fine. I guess time will tell once we have proper battles going.

Research Centres around Imouto-san's empire are being upgraded to Lv 4. This will no doubt have some impact on the ship production schedule. Flandre was pondering whether to push Space Yards further or start developing more exotic things (Shields, Crystalline Armour, Weapon Mounts). She's decided to try flooding them with sheer numbers instead of the way of Superior Knowledge as I prefer. Hence, Space Yards (and Mineral Extraction tech).

The earliest colonies have now finished building facilities and were on Repeat Build, with Waypoints set to the edges of Flandre's empire. This is being delayed while facilities get upgraded, but they're ready to pump ships once Ship Yards have reached the next generation.

Aggro Delimited
Amidst all this aggro, we still find humour. After a serious group internal teleconference meeting, the course supervisor of a course I tutor for came to me and gave me some extra marking work generated from re-organising the tutoring timetable. He pointed out one piece of work - the papers were held together by chewing gum. This generated a nice long debate on what we should do regarding marking this... unorthodox alternative to staples, paper clips and plastic sheaths.

( Aggro Aggro Aggro )

I wouldn't have minded all this aggro if it had been software issues. But this is hardware issues. At least I get a lot of time inbetween to do stuff with my laptop. And at least I'm still "doing Grunt work for CERN" which is partly what I'd hoped for when agreeing to spend 3+ years on a PhD.

--- Flandre's Log 2nd Era 2402.9
First Hostile found - the Abbidon. Or rather, they were deemed 'hostile' because they refused to sign a treaty and they took up residence in 2 planets Imouto-san had plans for colonising. Flandre has already conquered them both, but of course this will inevitably lead to war. She's got maxed out Lv 10 Frigates and Lv 6 Space Yards so has no worries about this.

A single "Blaster Fairy" frigate is armed with 4 nuclear missiles (this ruleset's version of "Capital Ship Missile") and still has room for 3 Autocannons (this ruleset's miniature/"secondary fire" version of Depleted Uranium Cannons). Autocannons can shoot at seekers, but are not as efficient at it. Imouto-san doubts any single early-tech ship can stop 4 missiles at once and I've taught her to send in fleets of warships instead of individuals. "Buster Fairy" frigates come with 5 primary cannons and 4 Autocannons and the maximum amount of armour plating one can fit onto a frigate.

For a change of pace, Imouto-san is building up some systems as "Intel systems" where instead of Research colonies, she will fill up entire planets with Intelligence centres. I guess she'll be upgrading that tech soon. Whether they'll be ready for the Abbidon war... we shall see.

--- Flandre's Log 2nd Era 2401.9
Imouto-san has started a new instance after some repairs were done. Further repairs would take extensive time and she may as well help find more areas that need working on.

1 Homeworld start, 0 tech. Within 2 years Flandre has traded colonisation technology with other races and is on her way to signing migration deals. She has decided that managing her population is more important early on than learning to read books faster. It's an acceptable policy, as this allows her to rapidly make her new colonies produce and construct at decent speeds. A direct consequence of this is that her ships are getting big and her space yards are getting faster.

Imouto-san started in a decent location as far as breathable planets go. The fact that her Youkai are No Atmosphere Rock type mean they can breathe on the 'big asteroids' that now litter asteroid belt systems. She has yet to feel the need to use this fact because she's got all 3 colonisation techs and thus is planning on colonising everything possible so her Youkai aren't trapped in.

An ancient ruin found on an Ice planet gave her a free 35000 points' worth of research (Nuclear Weapons Technology and Culture Studies). She is taking a break from learning "how to make bigger ships, faster" and for 4 months will be teaching her Youkai "how to breed faster" (2 culture areas are relevant to this).

QE Testing
I figured I ought to mention here. I do QE (Quantum Efficiency) testing of HPDs (Hybrid Photon Detectors) these days. The latter are designed to detect single photons, therefore must not be exposed to light when powered up. They are worth $10000 each. A QE test takes 8 hours to do and is a ritual of 5 minute measurements mixed with 3 one-hour sessions of "wait for the bulb to reach thermal equilibrium". When the apparatus was designed and assembled, there was a low budget so a lot of things are greatly inconvenient.

There have been problems the last 2 weeks. My predecessor is now at CERN so I have to await his instructions by email/phone. I never wanted to do much hardware work (especially not with this $10000 pressure sitting over my head), but I've no choice as I'm the only 1st year student of the group and the only one trained to do these vital tests now that my predecessor is at CERN.

To catchup the lost time spent on figuring out what the problem was and re-calibrating the new bulb, I will be coming in on Saturday to do another QE test. I was also intending to do Sunday as well, but I hear that logistics deadlines have been pushed back a bit, so I can do one on Monday and Tuesday.

That is part of what goes on in my life these days.
End of Entry.

Edit: Scratch that. I need to re-test this calibration run due to a wobbly bulb holder. Sunday will be spent testing too.

--- Flandre's Log 2402.8
There are signs that the artificial empires haven't quite been adapted yet, or were never meant to start with 5 Homeworlds. Imouto-san has far surpassed them in all aspects. She'll continue a bit longer to see the fruits of her Expeditionary Force being made now, but likely won't be expecting much. Actually, she just might have no problem with going back to her room until it's all fixed. I'm not sure what her whims will be.

Long-Range Scanners were developed and put on Repair and Supply Transport ships. Crystalline weapons had been developed and were being outfitted to prototype ships and satellite designs. Allowed satellite components are quite different to what the rest of us are used to.

Fleets of transport ships were shuttling population around efficiently. This rule set demands that a colony has a decent (~1 billion) number of citizens before it can build at an acceptable pace.

A possible enemy had been found, but they were quite far away. I suppose if this sort of situation develops again, Imouto-san will simply befriend the farther empire and declare war on her former allies. It's not as if she needs the pitiful amount of trade they generate (new ruleset makes resource gathering very easy).

--- Flandre's Log 2402.2
Flandre is getting slightly impatient with the lack of enemies to fight. Well, she turned back her exploration ships to get retrofitted with the latest sensors so there is inevitably a delay. Imouto-san is thinking of how to amass a war colony at the fringe of her empire once she does find someone who isn't receptive to the first treaty suggestion.

Right now, all the random Domed Colonies dotted around the place are getting through their facilities so will soon be mass producing small ships. Flandre is trying to decide how best to push her technology next. Seems she's going to sit and wait for some theoretical work to be done - Crystalline Armour is useless without Shields afterall. A War colony that can protect itself will need lots of transport ships to escort it with plenty of weapon platforms (this must be researched first) and satellites. Engines doesn't seem high on her list. Unlike herself, she doesn't mind her ships being slow so long as they are tough and powerful.

--- Flandre's Log 2401.4
Imouto-san was a bit impatient so insisted upon trying out the new rules (as well as getting away from that awfully warp point congested map) despite my preference to wait for more fixes. Well, I at least advised her on transporting population by using fleets of "Wings" population transports to facilitate the process.

Facility sizes are different for each facility type, the tech tree is different and has more inter-dependencies, weapons look quite different, and the numbers used in this new rule set are much bigger. I don't foresee any economic problem for Imouto-san anywhere near in the future, if ever. Then again, space yards can build amazingly fast too so maybe she could...

Pretty much the same kind of Youkai as in the prologue - Berserkers who can't tolerate any kind of atmosphere and were born on Rock planets. Maybe it's because of the 5 homeworld start, but Imouto-san has already researched Ice colonisation (well, it's much cheaper than in the other rule set) and is on her way to getting Gas colonisation with 4 turns' worth of research points.

This Inter-Related rule set harkens back to the old days when research could go on and on. Imouto-san's attack frigates are absolutely loaded with weapons and still have room for a decent application of armour. This came about because she was dissatisfied with how few people she could take on board the early colony and transport ships, so made them bigger. Her actual weapons and armour aren't impressive, but Quantity does have something to say...

The cheapness of Sensor tech means she can now build exploration ships that can see an entire system by sitting in the centre. 3 observation satellites planted in each system give us full view during peace time and during war... Imouto-san will probably need to develop stealth for this.

The Xi'Chung have been met and surprisingly, agreed to a non-aggression, migration treaty. Imouto-san is in no hurry to pick a fight with them yet - she wants her people to not be trapped in as she has been for so long. Hence, she will wait until every planet in sight has been colonised - the new ruleset gives even domed colonies a reasonable amount of facility space.

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