After 2 failed attempts, 1st too easy and concept for 2nd did not work,
give it a try with the 3rd aka MoO2 dec 2017 challenge. Well at least i hope its a challenge;)
As always: some merciless feedback is appreciated!


Get the savegame incl. readme, Orion2.cfg and \150\borg.cfg here:
sabercathost.com/9ihG/MoO2_dec_2017_challenge.zip
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Story:
The Androids AI turned out to be far better than expected,
2 days after the rise of the machines who call themselves "The BORG", the last Meklar was annihilated.
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Vanilla rules(aka Set150.cfg) of 1.50.42 with some changes,
make sure to check the details at the bottom here, or in the readme thats inside the .zip archive.


You start with 3 android workers and 3 android scientists located on 2 planets in your home system.
Settings: insane(+;), huge, average, 8, prewarp, tac/antarans/random: on
/noOrion, /noReport
Picks: Food -0.5, BC -0.5, Uni, LHW, Cybernetic, Repulsive, TD, Omni.

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Spaceport, Stock Exchange, Colony Ship&Base are not in the BORGs tech tree
and may not be built if that tech is gained in any other way.
But you may wait to scrap Stock Exchange/Spaceport on a captured planet, as long as one bio unit remains.
Other stuff may be missing in tech tree of one or more species.

Money is utterly useless for the BORG, so their collective will NEVER raise taxes to generate BC.
´
To use trade goods in other systems than the home system,
the BORG need 5 free freighters for every system where they use trade goods.


Pop on conquered planets must be annihilated unless they are Silicoids.
If you misclicked, you may instantly "transport-kill" them to a full planet.
If you have no full planet, you must constantly transport them until transport-kill is possible,
or restart the challenge from turn 1.

The council is irrelevant for the BORG, so they will not accept any of its decisions,
i.e. you can not win or lose by council.
However the BORG participate in council elections und always vote for themselves,
the dont make tactical votes for a 2nd species even if this will mean a 3rd species "wins".

To scan enemy ships, you need a ship with a battle scanner.
Size of ship with battle scanner + 1 is the max scan potential in one turn,
it may be split over multiple small ships, e.g. a size 4 battleship may scan 5 size 1 frigates/turn.
Tachyon/Neutron Scanner tech adds a bonus of 3 respectively 5 scan potential/turn on top, but they are not cumulative.
Sensors allow to scan ships as if you had a battle scanner, with same limits&bonus options.
Sensors AND battle scanner on ship add 10 scan potential/turn, + possible bonus.
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To win the game, either:
1) Replace all biologic units in the galaxy with your species(androids) so you can build up the fleet required to take the next galaxy.
Silicoids are ok as they dont force you to care for food or pollutuion, so they make fine workers.
or 2) win the battle at Antares with 6 command points,
e.g. 1 Titan a 1 Frigate or other option to "splits" 6 command points.
To prevent the "lock the Antaran home fleet size with early visit" exploit:
The Borg dont retreat from Antares, and after the 1st visit they will attack the Antarans EVERY turn.

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Install instructions:
The archive contains: [Orion2.cfg], [save4.gam], [\150\borg.cfg],
and [Readme__moo2_dec_2017_challenge.txt](latter contains basically same text as this message)


1st backup your own Orion2.cfg file! (its located in the games main folder)
Now extract Orion2.cfg and save4.gam archive to the games main folder
and borg.cfg to the \150 folder (if \150 is not present create it)
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Changes and additions i made in set 150.cfg for this savegame,
in case you want to add them manually instead of using \150\borg.cfg
(not sure if the recent version 1.50.9 requires to place these settings somewhere else)

interactive_combat_stats = 1; # ship stats update within the combat turn.
strict_combat_sequencing = 0; # vanilla
max_combat_turns = 100; # there should no be a time limit at all for battles ;)
defensive_fire = 0; # normal mount beams of inactive player can not fire defensively.
missile_initiative = 0; # missiles and torpedoes move at the end of each turn.
missile_glue_old = 0; # missiles launched in different turns will not glue together.
board_range normal = 2; # ships boarding range is 2 square (classic range is 3).
board_in_black_hole = 0; # no boarding to ships in a black hole.
satellite_capture = 1; # keep a captured satellite if the colony is also captured in the same turn


event_duration = 4 4 4;
event_duration anomaly_chance = 20;
event_duration beast_chance = 20;
event_duration flux_chance = 20;


# Borg reproduction costs adjustments
# --------------------------------------
misc_costs android_farmer = 400; # as Borgs dont need food, they have issues with farming
misc_costs android_worker = 200; # The standard borg, cheap and effective worker/soldier
misc_costs android_scientist = 250; # These units require the best logic circuits to increase creativity
# max neg pick adjustment
NUMBER_OF_RACE_PICKS Maximum_Positive_Picks = 20;
NUMBER_OF_RACE_PICKS Maximum_Negative_Picks = -99;

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Have Fun!

ok new challenge. cool.
question;- is there a compelling reason to stay on v1.50.4.2? honest feedback appreciated.

Its entirely related to the laziness of a paranoid CCC dino,
who accidentially plays moo2 on a "safe" machine, i.e. its isolated from web etc pp
so i would have to prepare a 3rd machine to completely scan the storage device(with delay! ;) that has the dld from the surf machine(the one where i type this in) on it.

I should point out that i personally dont think your software itself contains any malicious stuff,
but a what about stuff that may have found its way onto the storage device which was attached to a potetially compromised device??
A safety strategy fails the moment you make the 1st exception.




Of course there may be subconscious reasons that even i am not aware of ;)

ok got it! we should start pressing cd-roms then... :)

There is no warranty that all machines involved in the process are uncontaminated.
Better send letters with the code so we can type it in on our machines. :D

Just realized that the large homeworld isnt really that large,
but since i started with the same condition, medium should be fine,
while it may lead to building a 2nd research lab on 01 I,
i think its rather unlike to reach the pop limit in the home system.