With the 28 votes (see preceding story post for screen shot) I cast in the election, this brings my 2450 colonist score to 32 + 28 = 60. You'll notice that the planets on this display happen to have zero bases (and zero shields) between them. Most are simply out of range of any possible attack, but the real reason is just that I can detect incoming fleets long before they can arrive, and easily build enough defenses in a single turn to defeat them; I therefore didn't bother building those defenses in advance! It's true that I have no fleet at this point too (having just scrapped the entire thing) but the zero percent of my economy getting spent on bases is due to rounding only; not all of my planets are completely defenseless.
Researcher: From a scoring perspective, taking Orion was clearly a mistake; the gain doesn't even begin to outweigh the opportunity cost of 1) spending tens of thousands of BC on research instead of ships, and 2) selecting Planetology instead of Weapons as the third field of continuing research (with Computers and Construction of course), killing spending in weapons entirely. Klackon production increases hand-over-fist with planetology tech level, accelerating research even more, and of course that very tech also allows more Klackons (and commensurately more high-RC factories) on each of our innumberable worlds - it isn't even remotely close. From a story and enjoyment perspective on the other hand, going after the Guardian was great!
My researcher score for 2450 is ridiculously high for a normal game, but I have no idea if it's impressive for this map: Construction 62 + Weapons 50 + Computers 44 = 156 researcher points for 2450 alone! But with Maalor and Artemis right in our pockets, and the possibility of taking Rha across the galaxy ... well, it's hard to say. I should also note that the number of research points shown above is pretty close to normal for this period in this game, as I had nothing to do but research across my entire empire ... but that this is the first time in decades I've had more than one click of spending in planetology, or any clicks at all in force fields or propulsion. I also didn't hit "Next Turn" like this; I decided at the last minute to rearrange tech spending slightly, not that this makes the slightest difference.
Diplomat: Yeah. After my strategic blunders in the 2360s and my poor diplomatic luck in the last several turns of the game, there was no way I could unite the triad. I did the best with this one that I could, but my low 2375 score in this field couldn't be salvaged. Still, under the circumstances, the 2450 one alone is fairly respectable at least.
Tense (2) Humans + Relaxed (12) Silicoids + Harmonious (30) Psilons + Harmonious (30) Bulrathi = 74 Diplomat points. Lasitus was really unbelievable in my game; I guess he was as "Honorable" as his reputation claimed in some sense: In spite of my imputations of insanity, he wasn't anything like an erratic ruler, who behaves semi-normally for a while and then declares war out of the blue; on the contrary, Lasitus was completely reliable about timing his breaches of treaty or declarations of war: always at the very earliest legal opportunity.
Here's the map at 2450, simpler than usual because we already know everything there is to know about the galaxy:
And the power graphs you have to see to believe. I'm sure others' were even more ridiculous than these, of course, but on the scale of normal "hard" games ... well, look at these things!
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