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Well I don't need to concern myself with making this story anymore because it already exists and it's a pretty cool time waster.

Seedship puts you in the role of an AI trying to find a suitable home for the last remnants of humanity. You go to different planets and determine if they're good enough for humanity to survive on. Stuff like resources, water, gravity, atmosphere, temperature and gravity are all taken into consideration.

You also need to deal with the trip itself and try to not let the ship get too damaged or else you might have a hard landing (resulting in colonists dying before colonizing even begins) or lose so much scientific knowledge in your database that you won't be able to build past the bronze age.

So far the best I've managed to do is build a Post Singularity tech level civ run by corporations on a frozen planet. (9048 points)

Anyway here's the game.

http://philome.la/johnayliff/seedship/play

Yeah, that game's a nice time waster. It's perfectly accessible on my Android with Talkback, it's cool to see there's a web version as well. The highest score I've got so far was 10981, Engaged Information Age Democracy.

Settled the very first planet I wound up at:

The colonists begin constructing a settlement with the aid of the seedship's construction robots. They can leave the ship wearing minimal breathing gear and refrigerated suits to protect them from the lead-melting heat, but 140 colonists die when a partially-completed structure melts in the heat. The crushing gravity means they can barely move without mechanical assistance, and 101 colonists are killed when partially-completed buildings collapse. They must ration the small amount of water they can extract from the atmosphere, and water shortages kill 104 colonists. The colonists manage to keep the planet's relentlessly hostile animals at bay, but 256 colonists are killed before their perimeter fence is secured. The planet's plant life is extremely poisonous to humans, and 282 colonists die before they can clear it away from their settlement.


117 left, not bad! There's a lot of inbreeding in humanity's future, assuming anyone survives the next turn.

Although parts of the cultural database are missing, it still contains much historical information to instruct the colonists in the building of their society, and much art and literature to inspire them. The heavy losses sustained by the colonists make building a new society more difficult.

The planet's outstanding ugliness increases tensions among the colonists and makes it harder for them to build a peaceful society. The colony splits into several large nations which wage war with one another, until reckless leaders set off a nuclear war that destroys the infrastructure of civilisation.

The surviving colonists live on in a post-nuclear wasteland. What remains of the cultural database is lost in the disaster, and what the colonists remember of Earth they confuse with stories of the pre-war colony.

Garden's alien forests stretch away beneath a blue sky. The colonists live in cities of steel and concrete under airtight domes, by lakes of water melted from the planet's ice caps. The cities are in ruins, and the survivors of the nuclear war survive as best they can in the wreckage of human civilisation.

In the ruins of the first city stand monuments to the 757 colonists who died building the first settlement and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

Still scored 6003. Lol.

The cultural database contains a wealth of historical information to help the colonists make their choice of government, and a vast library of art and literature to entertain and inspire them. The heavy losses sustained by the colonists make building a new society more difficult.

The colony develops into a high-tech police state, in which the population lives under constant surveillance by the untouchable ruling class, and the slightest dissent is violently put down. The surviving cultural database is preserved, but access to it is strictly limited by the state.

Garden's tall alien plants reach hundreds of metres into a blue sky. The colonists live in tall cities of steel and glass beneath the planet's open sky, beside rivers that flow into the planet's oceans. The streets are filled with security cameras and patrolled by armed police who violently put down any hint of dissent. In the first city stand monuments to the 650 colonists who died building the first settlement and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

8106, though with all the poisonous plants and dangerous animals on the planet, the state could probably just exile people rather having to bother to execute anyone.

Bounty's tall alien plants reach hundreds of metres into a pale blue sky. The colonists live in tall cities of steel and concrete with buildings sealed against the planet's harsh environment, gathered around water production plants. Poverty, exploitation and crime are rife, and the corrupt elected government does little to alleviate them. Many of the planet's native inhabitants live in the human communities, and the colonists' culture has been enriched by alien influences. In the first city stand monuments to the 70 colonists who did not survive the journey, the 458 more who died building the first settlement, and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

10,342

Ha, second try noobs.

Arcadia's squat, thick-limbed alien plants stretch away beneath a blue sky. The colonists live in  squat cities of steel and glass with buildings sealed against the planet's harsh environment, by lakes of water melted from the planet's ice caps. They live lives of peace and spiritual fulfilment beyond the dreams of their ancestors on Earth, guided by a combination of human and alien philosophy. Traders and diplomats from the planet's native nations are occasionally seen in the colonists' communities. In the first city stand monuments to the 17 colonists who did not survive the journey, the 4 more who died building the first settlement, and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

Score: 12,032

https://prnt.sc/it098l

https://prnt.sc/it07ti

?

Edit: Third attempt and a new record score of 14,030 with 0 casualties.

https://prnt.sc/it0j61

?https://prnt.sc/it0ivn

Landed on the first planet just for the lols.

Arid's landscape of spindly rock outcroppings and impossibly tall mountains stretches away beneath a sky filled with corrosive clouds. The colonists live in  towering stone-walled cities under airtight domes, gathered around water production plants. The cities are dominated by the palaces of the emperors, who live in luxury while the population toils to support them. In the first city stand monuments to the 734 colonists who died building the first settlement and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

 

Score: 3166

Oh what the fuck, I lost 2000 points for genociding the native aliens?

I ended up scoring better when I nuked myself into a post apocalyptic hell.

That's bullshit. I've been trying for that for awhile too.

Let's do this.

...oh, and the moon is unstable.

Well predictably the moon broke apart and bombarded everyone with fragments, destroying most of the colonists' technological knowledge, sending them back to a pre Stone Age existence.

Somehow they were able to persevere and overcome those obstacles and build self-sustaining water production facilities, indestructible habitats and genetically engineer their children to survive the harsh environment. The future is looking bright!

Icehell's perfectly flat, barren landscape stretches away beneath a sky filled with corrosive clouds. The colonists live in wandering hunter-gatherer tribes under airtight domes, gathered around water production plants. Each tribe lives in fear of its brutal chieftain.

Got my best yet. 12,380

https://www.johnayliff.com/games/seedship/index.html?bmmOrjnp.7.El%20Dorado.1000.1000.5.9.17.1000.1130.5

You befriended squid people, I'd hardly call that a win.

Darn it, End!

I was gonna work on writing today, but you got me hooked on this thing!

I want my hours back!

An alert from the sleep chambers jolts the AI awake. Chambers across the ship are executing their shutdown command, and in a few moments the colonists within them will die.

The AI traces the shutdown command to a rogue program hidden in the control software of the scientific database. The program is targeting colonists with a particular set of genetic characteristics. A message embedded in the program, apparently meant to be found by the colonists after landing, talks about "purging" humanity of an "inferior" race.

The program is affecting 90 sleep chambers. The AI cannot stop it in time to save the colonists without damaging the scientific database.

Apparently Nazis got aboard the ship.

I like that it gives you the option of just letting the program go so you can support the Nazis if you want.

The way this game handles scoring is pretty annoying tbh.

My highest yet came about because I settled a planet with no resources, meaning everyone was reduced to using stone tools. Once down on their level, the cave people aliens were willing to befriend us and that led to us recognizing the wisdom and beauty of their culture or some shit and become Neolithic hippies just waiting for some other aliens to happen along and eradicate us all. Which the game views as greatly superior to to infinitely more interesting societies it generates.

e: 'Neolithic Cosmic Enlightenment' is what the game actually calls it lol

The game definitely rewards you for achieving a Star Trek commie cultural degeneracy rather than a gloriously pure 40K Imperium of Man society.

It's always considered a negative if you genocide aliens some odd reason. Obviously a failing in an otherwise cool game.

Anyway, I had this similar idea for a story awhile back, but just never got around to it. A few different events not in this game would have been:

People waking up ahead of schedule causing conflict with the AI's perception of its mission.

Genetically altering the colonists to make them better able to survive harsh planet.

Cybernetically altering them for similar reasons, though this could go one step further where you decide that humanity should just upgrade into fully robot bodies. (or just come to the conclusion that humanity is too dangerous to live and exterminate them altogether)

I think I had the total at 50,000 colonists as well. (Along with plants and animals also in frozen stasis which provided even more opportunities for genetic alteration fuckery)

Sending only 1000 colonists to carry on humanity alone is kind of ridiculous tbh. Like from a genetic standpoint, they're fucked. Even if cryopod space was an issue they could at least send some frozen embryos or something along.

With the level of technology they seem to possess there should be a lot of options there really, and I'm not even convinced whatever happened to Earth would've left it worse off than some of these other planets I'm putting them on that they're still able to survive on somehow.

Although it actually would be completely doable and not even all that difficult to make something inspired by this with the CYS editor that addresses the few issues I have with it.

killing colonists is great and all but please take time to lovingly fondle your own balls everyone, Malk is worried you might have cancer

Oooh... think I'll throw my hat into the ring. ^v^

Don't do it! You'll never get that time back!

Bounty's calm ocean that stretches to the horizon a pale blue sky. The colonists live in squat cities of steel and glass under airtight domes, on platforms floating on the planet-wide ocean. They spend their time pursuing art, leisure, and spiritual fulfilment, while automatic machines take care of their material needs. In the first city stand monuments to the 120 colonists who died building the first settlement and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

Score: 9630

---

I was actually hoping it would take longer than two minutes haha! Oh well, time to try again!

Once you found the colony it's out of your hands pretty much, all of the decision making comes in when you have to spend awhile searching.

I just ran into some aliens that boarded the ship and took selfies with my science equipment and then wandered off again. Dicks could've left me a map or something.

Damn, it's like playing the slots haha!

11,768 is my best score so far.

https://ibb.co/hx6D4c

https://ibb.co/c4yFHx

Didn't beat End's best run on the score, but I feel pretty good about how it turned out.

Post-Singularity Cosmic Enlightenment  13,568

https://www.johnayliff.com/games/seedship/index.html?bmmorjnpr.3.Eden.859.859.5.10.17.1070.1280.17

I'm done with that for now. Most certainly an effective time waster.

Earlier I got a pretty neat event where my AI took up writing poetry, adding to the cultural archives.

Unfortunately it took ages to find a suitable planet, I eventually settled for one with dangerous wildlife, and at the end my 188 remaining colonists had a war that presumably deleted the poems, along with over half of the rest of that database.

I got that same event. Unfortunately, my AI sucks at writing poetry, and it was so ashamed of its work that it decided to delete half of the culture memory.
 

"Post-Singularity Post-Scarcity Utopia"

Newhome's tall alien plants reach hundreds of metres into a blue sky. The colonists live in tall high-tech cities with buildings sealed against the planet's harsh environment, beside rivers that flow into the planet's oceans. They spend their time pursuing art, leisure, and spiritual fulfilment, while automatic machines take care of their material needs. In the first city stand monuments to the 131 colonists who did not survive the journey and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.


Okay I need to stop coming back to this tab and focus on other things. Winning is fuckin boring tbh.

I'm torn with trying for a high score or seeing if I can actually kill off all the survivors haha!

I now see how this is a huge time-sink.

Exactly. And then you can try for seeing how few survivors you can leave, but not kill them all. The best I could do was 299.

I think I had like 232 and that was due to the poisonous plants and moon crashing into the planet.

My best run in that case was my very first game/very first post in the thread where all I did was immediately land on the first planet and wound up with only 117 survivors.

My most interesting civilization meanwhile were the Stone Age hunters living at the whims of their brutal chieftains and building mud huts around the water recycling plants that they depended on utterly and I imagine probably worshipped. Hell I'd read a story about that.

15 survivors.

First play. With seven probes left, settled for:

Very low gravity
Oceans
Breathable air
Rich resources
Moderate temperature
Good/stable atmosphere

Vegetation: Neither harmful nor helpful

612 survivors after construction (lost around 24% to gravity ailments prior to construction completion)
Industrial age tech/no electricity
Oppressive Theocracy Gov.

Score: 7,487

---

Fun game. Will update as I waste time tonight.

---

Did marginally worse second time.

Water: Ice covered planet
Gravity: Low
Temperature: Low
Atmosphere: Breathable
Resources: Rich

Non helpful/harmful animals
Non helpful/harmful vegetation
Metal-rich mooon
Stone-age aliens
High tech ruins

Decent planet, had higher level civilization and culture, as well as more survivors. But the -1,000 score for enslaving the natives dropped us a little below the previous score. Although, we basically continued modern life. We had a democracy dominated by a de facto wealthy ruling class. Will proceed.

Score: 7,392

---

Managed to kill everyone by landing on a largely hospitable planet that had poisonous plants, dangerous animals, and dangerous ruins.

Score: ~ 2,000 some

---

After a number of plays... ~ 10,400 high score. Game strongly favors neutral or positive anomalies while being rather indifferent to negative planetary constructs. A bit disappointing to note that no atmosphere is less concern than poisonous plants.

The wording could be clearer on the plants. 'Poisonous' implies they just shouldn't be ingested, but either they're putting out deadly spores or I never have less than 200 colonists shoving random alien plants in their mouth immediately upon landing.

Maybe you dumb fucks should've just stayed on Earth.

Never got this text before. I'm guessing it was due to low pop (43) and high tech (118)

Heavy losses mean that the colony has a very small population, but the colonists were trained in cloning and genetic engineering techniques to compensate for this. The first few generations include children cloned from the surviving genetic material of the dead colonists, until the population's genetic diversity increases to a safe level.

Holy shit, this is great. Had only 11 colonists on arrival, but that's not the best part.

The landing system controls the seedship's descent, and it splashes gently down into the ocean off the shore of one of the planet's continents. The few surviving colonists wake from their sleep chambers and survey their new home. Forests of alien vegetation stretch away beneath a blue sky. They build a memorial to the 989 colonists who did not survive the journey, and name their new world Paradise, because of its perfect conditions.

The colonists begin constructing a settlement with the aid of the seedship's damaged construction robots. They build their settlement near caves, which they use for storage. They can leave the ship without breathing gear, wearing light clothing in the comfortable temperatures. They can move easily under the Earth-like gravity. They build their settlement near a river that flows into one of the planet's oceans, and farm the native plants for food.

Heavy losses mean that the colony has a very small population, but the colonists were trained in cloning and genetic engineering techniques to compensate for this. The first few generations include children cloned from the surviving genetic material of the dead colonists, until the population's genetic diversity increases to a safe level.

The planet is rich in metals and other resources, and the scientific database contains a wealth of information on how to make use of them. The colonists use alien scientific knowledge to create a level of technology beyond the dreams of the people who built the seedship.

Although parts of the cultural database are missing, it still contains much historical information to instruct the colonists in the building of their society, and much art and literature to inspire them. The heavy losses sustained by the colonists make building a new society more difficult.

The colony splits into several large nations which wage war with one another, until reckless leaders set off a nuclear war that destroys the infrastructure of civilisation. The surviving colonists live on in a post-nuclear wasteland.

What remains of the cultural database is lost in the disaster, and what the colonists remember of Earth they confuse with stories of the pre-war colony.

Paradise's alien forests stretch away beneath a blue sky. The colonists live in high-tech cities beneath the planet's open sky, beside rivers that flow into the planet's oceans. The cities are in ruins, and the survivors of the nuclear war survive as best they can in the wreckage of human civilisation.

In the ruins of the first city stand monuments to the 989 colonists who did not survive the journey and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

Got to Paradise only to nuke the shit out of it. Lol.

http://www.johnayliff.com/games/seedship/index.html?bmmorfgj.0.Paradise.11.11.-1.10.10.1090.0.24

I think you won the game.

I really have to resist letting this suck up anymore of my time, but I'd love to see if it were possible to end up with only 1 survivor.

Weren't you gonna do a storygame like this?

The AI moves data to save the scientific database, and sectors containing the cultural database gradually fail. Cultural guidance for new colonists, records of human history, great paintings, novels, symphonies, videogames—all lost forever in the dark.

Not the video games!!!

e: The colonists search through the badly damaged cultural database, and manage to reconstruct some information about Earth's history and culture to guide and inspire them. The losses sustained by the colonists make building a new society more difficult. The colony develops into a slave state, in which the bulk of the population toil to build great gold monuments to their emperors, or die fighting in their wars. Much of the surviving knowledge of Earth is lost, as the emperors preserve only what they can use to prop up their rule.

The terrible consequences of not having video games.

Finally got one of the scenarios I've been trying for. Now I can continue on with my life.

As the colonists expand from their initial settlement they must find a way to share their new home with its native inhabitants, with guidance from what they can recover from the cultural database. The similarity in technological level between the colonists and the natives makes relations easier, but conflicts escalate into a war that ends with the humans being completely wiped out.

Terra Nova's alien forests stretch away beneath a blue sky. The ruins of the colony are overgrown with alien plants and overrun by alien animals. Nearby stand monuments built by the planet's native inhabitants to celebrate their victory over the invaders.

Apparently there are scenarios where the aliens can enslave you (and vice versa). You only get -1000 for slavery as opposed to the -2000 for genocide.

I mostly just enjoy the implication that the colonists are turning to like, a digital reproduction of the Mona Lisa and the Mass Effect games for guidance on how not to kill and enslave people. (Or how not to be killed and enslaved.) Without those, they just can't figure it out.

Well, maybe there's a copy of that blue alien movie or an old VHS of Dances With Wolves in there somewhere.

I had a medieval society with benevolent monarchs become friends with the aliens. Other than the benevolent part, I think I found Westeros and Essos.

All the colonists are dead. With no way to fulfil its mission, the seedship AI deactivates all systems that could wake it, and enters hibernation for the last time.

The ship drifts for hundreds of thousands of years, until it is pulled in by the gravity of a star and incinerated.

Planets visited: 40

---

Score: 0

Cool game, cheers, End.

"Honeycomb's squat, thick-limbed alien plants stretch away beneath a blue sky. The colonists live in wandering hunter-gatherer tribes beneath the planet's open sky, beside rivers that flow into the planet's oceans. The people live like animals, having forgotten almost all of their language and culture. In the ruins of the first city stand monuments to the 8 colonists who did not survive the journey and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home."

https://www.johnayliff.com/games/seedship/index.html?bhmopefjn.0.Honeycomb.992.992.-1.0.0.0.0.21

I lost all culture, all scientific, but only lost 8 colonists. So now they're savage pre-stone age people. 

Stuff like this is so stupid though. Anyone with a basic high school education or even a complete illiterate from a third world shithole can still pass on concepts like 'language', 'fire', 'agriculture', and 'wearing pants' to their kids. Where the hell did they find these people?

Probably CoG.

What is this thing you call "wearing pants?"

Took a meteor to the landing gear early on, so when I finally got to a planet that wasn't hell, I lost about 300 colonists, and all my carefully maintained culture and technology. Figured the squid people would at least help me out with all the happy friend times this game seems to go for, but apparently I've been totally screwed and ended up a dystopian police state. Remember that, kids! A single meteor can bring a planet that should've been 11000+ points down to the 6000s, at the mere whims of the RNG.

In a later game, I also happened upon a mostly green planet with only a few downsides, and superior culture and technology. Guess they still found a way to fuck that up! I guess it is only my fault for choosing to settle on Planet Russia. If it's not completely perfect, I guess RNG will never give me a proper human society!

I dunno what's going on with my games lately, but I can have a fairly high culture and for whatever reason it'll still end up with everyone nuking each other unless their tech level is below the atomic age.

The best I managed to get was 153 culture, but my tech level had taken a beating (4!) so everyone was living in this enlightened primitive monarchy holding hands with the aliens.

The landing system controls the seedship's descent, and it splashes gently down into the ocean off the shore of one of the planet's continents. The few surviving colonists wake from their sleep chambers and survey their new home. Forests of alien vegetation stretch away beneath a pale blue sky. They build a memorial to the 998 colonists who did not survive the journey, and name their new world Earth Reduex.

The colonists begin constructing a settlement with the aid of the seedship's construction robots. They can leave the ship wearing minimal breathing gear and light clothing in the comfortable temperatures. They can move easily under the Earth-like gravity. They build their settlement near a river that flows into one of the planet's oceans, which provides all the water they need. Earthquakes kill 2 colonists before they complete structures that can withstand them.

Earth Reduex's alien forests stretch away beneath a pale blue sky. The ruins of the colony are overgrown with alien plants and overrun by alien animals. The planet's intelligent natives explore the ruins, but not enough remains for them to learn anything about the extinct human race.

Planets visited: 29

---

Damn It!!!

What exactly did you do to those poor bastards before you landed?

I really wonder whether there's special text for an Adam and Eve scenario now.

So I still have the fewest survivors with 15 then?

Endmaster mentioned above that he had 11 survivors. 

Dang it. Looks like I'll be trying to beat that for the next 3 hours at work.  ;)

BZ got 2 literally right above this.

No, they died in an earthquake five minutes after exiting the ship, they don't count.

What I think I've figured out so far.

If your landing gear is not 100 or very near 100 (99 or 98) you’re going to take damage to your data storage and lose colonists.

The construction gear I’m less clear on since I’ve typically never had that one too low, but I think it probably results in colonist deaths during the construction phase if its on the lower side. Probably limits your tech level as well, not sure.

Any planet with less than ideal conditions is going to typically result in colonist deaths. Red obviously kills more than yellow. Not sure about the increments, but I imagine stuff like Toxic/Corrosive atmosphere kills more than “None” at all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single hostile condition kill more than 300 by themselves though.

However, you can get around it sometimes with the planet features.

Airtight Caves - protect you from inhospitable atmosphere

Insulated Caves - protect you from inhospitable temperature

Useful Animals - overrides inhospitable gravity

Edible Plants - helps with lack of plentiful water

Iron Rich Moon - helps with lack of resources

High Tech Ruins - adds to science

Monuments - adds to culture

Beautiful landscape - makes the colonists more peaceful

Any bad features (Unstable Moons or geology, dangerous plants, animals, ruins) are most certainly going to kill your some of your settlers (Usually in the 200-400 range) and the moon one will actually knock down your tech level. The ugly landscape will make your people more warlike and more likely to genocide natives and nuke the planet.

Your tech level is probably going to be medieval or below with a planet with shitty resources. You might get industrial at best. You have to have rich in order to at least make anything above industrial.

Having a tech level atomic age or above and low culture is most likely going to result in nuclear war. I’m not sure how low, but I’ve had 70 (still light green) and the people still nuked each other, but I also had under 100 colonists (needed cloning to thrive) so I’m guessing low colonist count when you land also plays a factor in how aggressive your colonists are. (Clone madness!)

On the flip side, if you culture is 100 or more you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a hippy society that lives in peace. Beautiful landscape also helps greatly in this regard.

If you want to get the highest scores you basically need to get tech up to achieve a Post Singularity society and in addition to having a high culture, you need to land on a planet with similarly advanced aliens so you can integrate with them and have alien orgies every night.

I think I've figured out you have played this game way too many times.

The real problem with the game is that addictive as it is, a lot of this can be figured out in the first few hours of playing.

Maybe not in that level of detail, but it became obvious really early on that culture and landing gear were the things to protect above all (or that deliberately letting the culture database take the hits had predictable results) and animals, plants, and moons always had the same results too.

A little more variety is badly needed. The initial obsession gives way too quickly to the sense the game has run out of surprises, and the actual gameplay isn't engaging enough on its own.

Well said.

I think poor construction mixed with yellow/red planet attributes kills more because your shitty huts collapse and the planet kills you. I think it’s mostly irrelevant on a full green planet.

More people seem to manage to die of thirst on a planet that's literally entirely made of water as well.

Yeah, every time your level two upgraded water scanner works, it takes you to "oceans" instead of "planet wide ocean" despite both being green.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure planet wide ocean pops up as yellow. Polar ice caps is green. But I never get that with the level 2 water scanner.

There's also ice covered surface which is yellow too since it's basically the frozen version of planet wide ocean.

The damaged landing system cannot completely control the seedship's descent, and it suffers some damage when it splashes down into the ocean off the shore of one of the planet's continents. The surviving colonists wake from their sleep chambers and survey their new home. Forests of alien vegetation stretch away beneath a blue sky. They build a memorial to the 93 colonists who did not survive the journey, and name their new world Terra Nova, because it resembles the Earth they left behind.

The colonists begin constructing a settlement with the aid of the seedship's construction robots. They can leave the ship without breathing gear, wearing light clothing in the comfortable temperatures. They can move easily under the Earth-like gravity. They build their settlement near a river that flows into one of the planet's oceans, and farm the native plants for food.

With their settlement complete and food supply secured, the colonists mount an expedition to the nearby ruins. The explorers find advanced alien machines, some of them still functioning. Reverse-engineering these machines will let them fill some of the gaps in the damaged scientific database. However, they also trigger a long-dormant defense mechanism, which kills 268 colonists.

The planet is rich in metals and other resources, and the damaged scientific database still contains much information on how to make use of them. The colonists transition to a medieval level of technology.

The cultural database contains a wealth of historical information to help the colonists make their choice of government, and a vast library of art and literature to entertain and inspire them. The losses sustained by the colonists make building a new society more difficult. The planet's outstanding natural beauty makes life there more pleasant, helping the colonists to build a better society. The cultural database from Earth has been augmented by alien cultural knowledge, and the colonists use this to build a society unlike any that the seedship's founders could have imagined, in which every member lives a life of peace, happiness, and spiritual fulfilment.

Terra Nova's alien forests stretch away beneath a blue sky. The colonists live in stone-walled cities beneath the planet's open sky, beside rivers that flow into the planet's oceans. They live lives of peace and spiritual fulfilment beyond the dreams of their ancestors on Earth, guided by a combination of human and alien philosophy. In the first city stand monuments to the 93 colonists who did not survive the journey, the 268 more who died building the first settlement, and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

---

Score: 10316

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Well, good enough for me. I think I'll finally call it quits.

Found this game from the other thread.

Not only did I save an alien civilization by sharing my scientific knowledge with them, but I ended up winning with only 8 colonists. Strangely, they never even bothered to clone themselves to ensure adequate genetic diversity.

 

https://www.johnayliff.com/games/seedship/index.html?nLmnrknpyu.9-11.La%20Vok.1000.8.7.9.11.1000.1000.5.2022-6-25.0

I think you've got the lowest amount of surviving colonists yet.

I figured those eight might have just done a lot of fucking with blue alien chicks, but you got the human immigrants one rather than the alien integration hybrid one, so it looks like those eight just eventually did the incest thing, or at least their offspring did.

Forgot my score now (it was just a bit higher than 10K I think), but 900 of my dudes survived, and I settled on a planet whose only issue was the atmosphere.

At some point, a huge rock crashed into my science data modules, so my civilization was stuck in the medieval technology tier.

On the other hand, I got into a cultural exchange program with some aliens along the way, so my society was morally and culturally superior to earth.

The description was "Medieval Cosmic Enlightenment", with the planet being called "Bounty" because of the plentiful resources.

Overall, perfectly satisfied with the outcome of my first game. Medieval ain't bad, and clearly, there will be no degeneracy in my utopia.

Just wait until you realize that the game considers a fascist society to be "bad".

I mean, what's your definition of "doing fine"? If you just look at the description at the very end, I guess you could say you're "doing fine".

But, looking at the score, I think it's only "fine" from like 9K upwards. And looking at the description of the planet, I definitely wouldn't want to live there.

While I don't think the game is necessarily too complex, and probably gets boring after two or three runs, I also don't think it's as simple as you're making it out to be.

You get the better stories from less optimal conditions for sure.

Just did a quick game testing what you said about settling early. The first planet had a bunch of native savages, but also a moon that was going to explode soon and shower the planet with fragments. So I just zipped along and left them to their data.

The next one had some cool message about how I was at the edge of the galaxy. Breathable atmosphere, but everything else sucked. It did have a metal rich moon, edible plants and warring natives though. Which I decided made things interesting enough to try settling there.

The gravity was so high we needed special machinery to walk, which I'm sure made us all the more intimidating once we started to enslave the natives. Unfortunately though, the 2% of the cultural database that deleted itself when we had a rough landing specifically contained the secrets of how to have a democracy that wasn't corrupt, so poverty and inequality continue to be major problems.

The best score I've gotten is 10724, though I'm coming to the conclusion that beyond some simple strategizing, this game is mostly luck.  The wide variety of possible endings is fun though.

Just started a new game and threw down on the very first planet I found. Score: 10650.

Ocean world and all my colonists are living lives of peace, happiness, and spiritual fulfillment beyond all imagining because they went and looked at some alien ruins, I'm pretty amazing at this game.

Linky

New record, second planet. Are ocean worlds with monumental ruins a common combo?

I do have to say the Cosmic Enlightment culture ending is the most boring one of all though.

Oh hey I got Atlantis too!  The high tech ruins are kind of OP lol.  I think the best way to maximize score is post-singularity and cosmic enlightenment, which are 3000 points each (I got 11869 on Atlantis).  It's cool how the most interesting endings have lower scores.  The most interesting ones so far for me have been where you land on a planet that already has a reasonably advanced species native to it.

I got one ending where an alien dictator snuck onto my ship and took over the colony once it landed lol.

This was quite fun. I will be playing it again. I will share my first result. I'm surprised at how little you are penalized for ending up as a lower tech civ.

Arcadia's squat, thick-limbed alien plants stretch away beneath a blue sky. The colonists live in squat stone-walled cities beneath the planet's open sky, beside rivers that flow into the planet's oceans. The cities are built around royal palaces, from which beloved monarchs rule the population wisely. Traders and diplomats from the planet's native nations are occasionally seen in the colonists' communities. In the first city stand monuments to the 85 colonists who did not survive the journey, the 208 more who died building the first settlement, and the seedship AI that guided humanity to its new home.

Planets visited: 17

Score
Planet atmosphere: 500
Planet gravity: 250
Planet temperature: 500
Planet water: 500
Planet resources: 250
Survivors after landing: 915
Survivors after settlement construction: 707
Final technology level (Medieval): 1250
Native relations (Friendly): 1000
Final culture (Benevolent Monarchy): 1500
Surviving scientific database × 10: 600
Surviving cultural database × 10: 1100
Total: 9072

I got a truly super weird WTF inducing ending... I've played this game a bunch of times before and had no idea this event could happen

 

The navigation system wakes the AI from its hibernation to report unusual astronomical readings. What looked at first like a faint brown dwarf star close to the seedship's course is exhibiting properties unlike any phenomenon that could occur in nature. Its mass is much greater than its faint luminosity would suggest, and what little radiation comes from it has a spectrum different from any known type of star.

Thousands of years later, the AI wakes again as the seedship is decelerating into orbit of the strange star. Even from a few astronomical units out, the object is almost completely black. The seedship's navigation scanners reveal that the entire star is encased in a solid, opaque shell. Searching through the scientific database, the AI realises that it is a Dyson sphere—a previously hypothetical construct that captures the entire energy output of a star.

The seedship's builders gave it an inter-species greeting it could use to open communications with intelligent aliens: a pulsed series of prime numbers establishing intelligence, followed by a diagram depicting human figures and explaining the seedship's mission and its peaceful intentions. The AI transmits this now, and waits hopefully for a reply.

A swarm of tiny objects peels off from the surface of the sphere and surrounds the seedship. Lasers probe every contour of the seedship's hull, and its electronics begin glitching as the objects search for and then find frequencies that will let them remotely interface with the seedship's computers. The scientific and cultural databases light up as the alien intelligence reads and analyses their contents.

A wordless message appears in the AI's consciousness. The AI has difficulty understanding so vastly superior to its own, but manages to glean that the inhabitants of the sphere are offering sanctuary to the humans. They will construct a new home for humanity, based on the information from the ship's databases. But if the seedship accepts this offer, that will be humanity's new home; there will be no chance to move on.

The AI does not know how to respond to the message, but the aliens seem to sense the thought in its mind, and move in. The scientific and cultural databases come to life as the machines read and analyse every scrap of data they contain. Meanwhile, the swarm objects close in on the seedship until they are clamped on to every part of its hull. Damage alerts flare up as the machines intensely scan and disassemble the ship, and the AI panics as the machines penetrate the sleep chambers, but by that time it is too late to get away.

I scored a whopping 11000(!!!) points as the colonists woke up on a literally perfect planet with a breathable atmosphere, moderate gravity, moderate temparture, oceans, rich resources, edible plants, useful animals, and outstanding beauty... but none of it was real because in reality the colonists were trapped in a computer simulation made by aliens of an ideal world. I guess that still counts as a win?

The matrix is canon in Seedship, confirmed.

Yeah I've gotten that one before. Anytime you find that dyson sphere event, it's like an automatic win for your people.

I was shocked at how many colonist injected toxic plant matter into their insulated space suits.

Yeah poisonous plant will just slaughter your colonists. I've probably had less people getting killed by dangerous wildlife or shitty landing gear.

I always got the impression that the poisonous plants were semi-active and were like a Kudzu plant growing invasively all over spreading poisonous spores rather than people eating them.

Just got my best score yet: 11582.

The funny thing is I got it with an event that I hadn't seen before.

I got some alien message and decided to respond to it. Ended up having a century long conversation with the aliens as the ship was getting closer to the planet. They start building an entire branch dedicated to communicating with the ship.

However, it goes on about how the tone of the messages starts to abruptly change constantly, as if the scientists talking with the ship are being replaced. Turns out the aliens are having a lot of internal struggle on their planet. You get the option of sending some scientific data to help them out, but I didn't because fuck xeno scum.

It mentions that a planet recently devoid of an alien civilization might be an ideal home for humans. Then it says the communications get less and less until they're gone completely. Then it mentions some sort of AI faggotry about weird feelings of guilt of letting them die.

When the ship reaches the planet, it's got high tech ruins and monuments which already increases my completely intact cultural and scientific databases. In fact the only downside was losing a bunch of colonists to FUCKING POISONOUS PLANTS, but after that it was post singularity and post scarcity utopia.

And the aliens wiped themselves out, so it wasn't my bad thing!

Those fucking poisonous plants ruin everything. One would think with an intelligent AI, science banks, and all the other tech we'd be able to not die to fucking plants, but no, these retards apparently love getting naked and just running through fields of these things.

I had a pretty ideal planet, or so I thought, but it had dangerous animals and dangerous plants. I said, "plants shouldn't be a big deal. It's not like they have to eat them."

Plants took out more people than the dinosaurs.

Lol the plants are so overpowered that even Killa came out of hibernation to complain about them too.

It's even on sale. How fortuitous.

10 dollars, I think I'll wait until it's free like Seedship. 

I was stumbling upon a lot IF related stuff that looked interesting, though nothing I really want to spend money on at this time. 

Then I noticed some of these had "CoG" as the company and was looking to see if there was a way to filter out those.

Okay I just had 570 people die from the plants. I think that's my highest yet with them.

It's close to or even exceed the unstable moon or earthquake dangers I've had in the past.