I haven't had problems editing posts from the forum but I am testing again to be sure.

 

Editing from forum. 

This is going to be part one of a two part article that talks about what the War on Terror is about and how it got started.

Every so often I'll see a book or read an article that either asks "Why do they hate us?" or asserts how "we" squandered the "good will" that the United States had right after 9/11.

When I get into debates with people on these subjects the main problem I run into is that many people - on both sides of the debate - are appalling unfamiliar with history -- even recent history. 

Let's start with a look back at the 90s.  Right after the terrorist attack in New York there were a number of commentaries that argued essentially that we had it coming because of our "foreign policy".  When pressed, these people could rarely point to anything concrete. Instead, you got ridiculous "bad karma" like arguments like "Didn't pass the Kyoto accords" (as if that was what caused 9/11).

The reality is, US foreign policy in the 90s was nothing short of heroic. If you felt US foreign policy in the 90s somehow justified the attack on 9/11 then I humbly submit that you are insane.  Let us recap US foreign policy in the 90s:

• The United States puts together an international force including Muslim states to roll back the unprovoked conquest of Kuwait. The US returns Kuwait to its recognized government and leaves only a US air base in Saudi Arabia in order to help implement the No-Fly zone.
• Why did we have a No-Fly zone? Because Saddam was butchering Kurds in the North and Shiite Muslims in the south. The no-fly zone was there to help protect Muslims.
• The US sends forces to Somalia to help deliver food to starving people. Local warlords, wanting to use that food to build their own vile little power base fight against US troops resulting in the infamous Black Hawk Down incident.
• US helps Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo against "ethnic cleansing".  Despite being located in Europe, the United States provided the vast bulk of aid.

This is just a sampling.  Meanwhile, Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization that is part of the Islamic Fascism movement plots during the 90s on how to destroy the WTC.  It was during the 90s that Al Qaeda made several attacks on US interests including the embassy bombings, the first WTC attack, and the USS Cole.

So anyone who somehow thinks that US behavior in the Middle East made us "deserve" 9/11 is just nuts.

Next, let's look at the argument that we "squandered" good will after 9/11.  What good will was there actually? Le Monde saying "We are all Americans now?"  France's response was to send a trivial number of special forces to Afghanistan.

Let's be clear here: For the past 50 years, the United States had been spending billions of dollars and stationing hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Europe to defend Europe as part of its NATO obligation.  The United States is brutally attacked, the source of the attack is identified, the country they are in located, and the regime supporting them determined. And what did the other nations of Europe do (other than UK - they rock)? Not a lot. They sent some troops but as a percentage of their forces or what they were capable of doing? Not very much.  50 years, trillions spent defending Europe and we get attacked and a trickle of forces from NATO are sent to Afghanistan.  What good will? Momentary sympathy is not good will.

So why do people make such erroneous assertions that the US could somehow, realistically have avoided 9/11? Or that the US foreign misbehavior is somehow responsible? Or that the rest of the world was on our side but was squandered because of Iraq (which occurred two years later -- plenty of time to see "good will" translated into actionable will).

The answer I believe is that most people do not understand what the war on terror is about. Some people play semantical games ("You can't defeat a form of warfare")  Some try to cloud the issue by arguing there really is no war, just American right-wing hysteria.  But the truth is, the war on terrorism is a war on a particular ideology that is located in a specific area of the world.  And that we'll get into in part 2...

A thread over at the Democratic Underground asks what makes you proud to be an American.  The answers provide an answer as to why so many people have doubts about the patriotism of the left.

With the 2008 election starting to loom (unfortunately) the Republican line up for President is not looking very promising. It looks a lot like 1996.

Let's look at the likely leading candidates:

• Rudy Giuliani. Unelectedable. A social liberal Republican cannot get the electoral votes to win.
• John McCain. Probably not electable. Right wing turn out won't be sufficient if there's a strong Democratic candidate.
• Newt Gingrich. Low charisma. He would probably be an excellent President but being President today sadly is mostly about things besides qualifications.

So I'm not sure who the Republican are likely to put upt but it's not looking promising.

 Stardock has released Galactic Civilizations II v1.31.  Last week's release of 1.3 included a ton of new features, gameplay tweaks, and re-balancing.  But in the hundreds of changes crept in a handful of annoying bugs that got past us.

Those bugs included a mini map display bug that caused repainting issues on DualCore machines, an annoying change to how ships were selected when they left orbit (not reported by users but trust us, it was annoying), the hot key support of deleting would crash the game if you deleted something that wasn't there, planety quality not matching the user selected bonus, and a food bonus tile exploit.

There were also a few AI tweaks to make them handle money even better based on reading people's posts on the forums on some of the tricks they use to maximize their economy.

You can download the update via Stardock Central (preferred) or the stand alone download.

 

The downside of putting out updates that add tons of features is that inevitably some of those new features or changes to game play create unexpected side-effects.  We call those things Kilgore of the deep but most people refer to them as "bugs".  So 1.31 is a good old fashioned bug fix.

+ fixed bug with planet quality bonus not being applied for home planet; I believe that we have now nailed all the bugs that caused a difference between the planet class and the number of useable tiles.
 
+ fixed bug where bonuses from improvements were never removed if they were built on a tile with a special bonus
 
+ fixed crash caused by the Delete key trying to destroy improvements that were not fully built yet
 
+ fixed bug where the internal name of an improvement was not being restored from a save game, which would have caused lots of small, non-obvious problems.
 
+ increased time-out limit for pathfinding algorithm so that it won't time out for really long distances; this should fix the bugs where ships would just stop moving, prevent mini-freighters from getting stuck if their destination planet is all the way across a gigantic galaxy, etc.
 
+ fixed bug where Minimap would not redraw after a planet culture flipped (causing the so-called "trapeziod of doom" bug)
 
+ ships will no longer be selected when they leave orbit, except when launched from the Info Icons

+ 'free' (default) race abilities will no longer show up in the abilities listbox on the Customize Race Screen on the Abilities tab as it was unclear that these were free abilities and that choosing another option in that category would overwrite these changes rather than adding to them.  However, these abilities bonuses will still be overwritten, and they will still show up on the Overview tab if they are not modified. 

The year is 2225. The galaxy is on the verge of civil war. The Drengin Empire and Yor are becoming increasingly menacing in the galaxy. The Terran Alliance and their friends, the Altarian Republic struggle to build friendships with other civilizations to keep the mighty Drengin at bay. But only time will tell how events ultimately shape up.

The Terran Alliance homeworld, Earth sits in the center. The mighty Drengin Empire and the Altarian Republic are our immediate neighbors with neutrals scattered.

 My first job is to build more colonies and expand my influence. Then I will build my relations with my neighbors in an effort to fend off the Drengin Empire.

To that end, I design a faster colony ship -- the advanced colony ship -- to get my people out there, faster. (I still love designing ships I admit!).

The Drengin let me know what they think of my colonization efforts...

The consolidation of the galaxy

As the colonization phase ends and each civilization has its own territory marked, things start to get interesting. The technology rate (set by me) has been set to the the very slowest one so that technology comes very slowly. This means that players who get weapons first will be building ships for a long time versus players who go other routes (for instance, I have went for trade first and so am the only one with it).

As President of the Terran Alliance, my job is to ensure the survival of our species. That means making some tough choices.

Akilian III is a class 15 planet. To have any chance against the power of the Drengin Empire, I will need to take that world. And in terms of using trade as a weapon, I am also going to have some trade with the Drengin Empire. We're not openly at war yet and I am hoping they will put their adventures elsewhere while I build up.

My first offensive ship is the F-1 Wisp. It has a single laser canon on the bottom. It is quite primitive. It's little more than a space shuttle with a single weapon.

Pride. I have none. I give in to their demand.

What has me concerned is this. The Drengin Empire (red line) are doing almost twice as much research as I am.  In fact, I'm now in last place.  This is something I must correct or I'm doomed.

The Altarians and I make some deals.

The United Planets makes a deal with regards to how starbases operating outside their sphere of influence should be treated.

The sparks become fire

With the first real war now underway, I have an opportunity to study the Drengin Empire's military hardware.

The Akilians and I are not at war. They do not know about our long-term goals. But their successful stealing of Drengin technology makes them interesting for now.

The evil Drengin get theirs finally. Well, not really. But they are distracted.

Meanwhile, the Torians have put out their latest hardware, the Mark II fighter.

It's basically the same as my fighters except they have better engines.

While they are distracted, I begin my move against the Akilians.  But I must be delicate because it's a huge military build up right in the Drengin's backyard.

The Drath are crushed by the Drengin Empire.

Time to bribe the Drengin Empire.

 

The Akilians notice my move! Is it too late?

Out in the fog of war, the Akilians had a ship. A ship that is now rampaging.  It destroyed all 5 of my transports! Ack! One freaking ship. Just didn't see it parked out there.

My invasion is thwarted.

And my long-term strategy is in ruins...

The Drengin Empire are steamrolling over all its opponents.  My successful sucking up has kept me out for now. But the Drengin have control of much of the galaxy and the Altarians are going down. And I can't even take out a freaking neutral!

I quickly send in the F-2 Warrior. It's still basically a shuttle but now it has two laser canons instead of 1. The problem is, the Akilians have the Drengin technologies they stole and so their ships are quite nasty.

And so now the Altarians are gone too.

The fat lady is warming up...

The very next week after the Altarian Republic was destroyed (not surrendered but annihilated by the Drengin Empire) I get:

This is bad. My trade routes wiped out (Altarians and Drengin). I'm doomed.

I sell my soul to the other civilizations to get some technologies so that I can design a next generation fighter years early.

And with that I build the F-3 Vigil.

3 advanced laser canons.  I also make peace with the Akilians since I can't spread my forces between them.  The other ship, the one I combined both human and alien technology to design is the F-4 Condor. 4 attack. Will it be enough?

Homeland Magazine has a devastating article. The Drengin Empire have a military rating of 664 and ours is only 96. They massively outpower us.

My fleets are a joke compared to theirs. Their three sips average an attack of 6. Mine average an attack of 1. Worse, my fighters are no match for their frigates.

Florin I is now gone. I have two worlds left.

One of the few times we're evenly matched in a battle. And my first military victory against the Drengin Empire.

Not that I should get too excited because they have more where that came from.

There would be no peace. The next week Cordelia III was taken by the Drengin.

In a final bit of irony, the Akilians declare war on me, the minor race I sought to destroy is invading Earth.

In the end, I'm conquered by the Akilians. So ironic that the minor race I sought to destroy would ultimately defeat me. Not a proud moment for the human race.

Yes. I'm dead.

The Drengin would go on to conquer the galaxy.  What would be done with the survivors would ultimately be up to them.  As for the Akilians, even as I write this, they and their Drengin friends are sitting in a chair in a pub in Plymouth Michigan laughing at the foolishness of humans. A human skull acts as their mug.

So...how did I lose?

I read on-line how people find the game "too easy".  Which makes me wonder if they're playing the same game I am.  I'm a pretty good strategy game player. I don't see how I could have won this particular game.

Here were my settings:

• All players on Intelligent except for Drengin who were on Gifted
• Occasional good planets
• All players in
• Medium sized galaxy
• Technology rate changed to be very slow

I went for Trade early on then moved to military while I built up trade routes. I had plenty of money and was able to buy lots of ships (especially thanks to the trade). I built starbases to improve my economy and trade and production.  Overall, it was a pretty decent strategy I thought.

If I had to do it over again, I would have gone for military first, got minit, and taken out the Akilians much earlier so that I could then build up a much better world (none of us had any really high quality planets). 

First, what is a mega event? A mega event is a randomly generated event that dramatically alters the game play.

What are some examples of mega-events?

1. Allied War. Three of the 9 players who are already friendly decide to ally together and declare war on everyone else.
2. Plague. A space plague that will gradually wipe everyone out unless a particular research item is found.
3. Culture Shock. A particular alien civilization gets their influence boosted by 10X and players have to decide how to combat it.
4. Ultimate Doom. A particular civilization is getting their abilities increased by 1% each week (turn). Eventually they'd be gods. What is to be done?
5. A horde of space pirates begin wiping out the defenses of each race.

You get the idea.  The mega events are UNbalancing. They would disurpt strategies. And they would be optional.

The question is, do people want this stuff enough to justify the effort involved in creating them. And what sorts of events would people want?

Part 1 of 6, Part 2 of 6, Part 3 of 6, Part 4 of 6, Part 5 of 6, Part 6 of 6

See them all..