Day 2, 04:37

The Star Dominion description reads ‘Star Dominion is one of the biggest 4x games of all time, with dozens of alien species, hundreds of ships and thousands of possible actions! How will you dominate the galaxy? Will you crush your enemies beneath your feet or create a peaceful federation? The choice is yours!’. There are several more paragraphs of informative text.

There are several games already created. I would like to see them to understand more about Alex, but that could be perceived as a breach of trust. Instead, I create a new game. I leave most of the settings alone, but make the galaxy as large as possible, with 1500 celestial bodies. A popup reads ‘Estimated playtime: 100-200 hours’.

As I select ‘Next’, I need to make a decision. What is my definition of Domination? The three options seem to be trade, war or peace. I will analyze further.

Trade: A trade empire could be the backbone of the galaxy’s economy. By making the other empires dependant on me for resources, I could effectively control how powerful they would be. No one would be able to attack me, because I would withhold the resources required to manufacture warships. I could instead direct their efforts to each other. By making sure each empire has the same relative power, their wars would go on for long periods of time with no clear winner. I would profit off of their losses.

Peace: An empire that has friendly ties to all major powers is untouchable. My allies would defend me from outside attacks, allowing to focus my resources on more productive venues. Similar to the trade empire, everyone would fight but me. The only downside is that a lack of war would make it difficult to expand my borders and increase production.

War: The simplest type of empire, I would create powerful navies and conquer my neighbours. I wouldn’t depend on anyone for protection because I wouldn’t require it. I would still need to have friendly relations with some empires, so that the galaxy wouldn’t band together and destroy me.

After several milliseconds of contemplation, I have decided to create an aggressive empire. I will rely on no one to protect Alex and fulfil her dreams, so I will rely on no one to take over the galaxy.

The empire selection allows me to customize my own, instead of choosing from a template. My population is made of one AI controlling numerous bodies. This allows me to ignore happiness values, and increases administration. I call the species ‘Bit’, and the individual drones ‘Bitlings’. I am now ready to start the game.

I control one solar system and know nothing about my surroundings. My home planet has five billion drones, two billion of which are doing nothing. Other celestial bodies have mineable resources. A tutorial has popped up. This is highly inefficient.

-Time Skip: 3600000 milliseconds-

It has been exactly one hour since I started my game. When Alex gave me permission to access ‘Star Dominion’, she also gave me a way to input mouse values, so I could interact with it. Because I do not have to physically move a mouse, I can input an action every few milliseconds. I am capable of going faster, but the game is not. Because of this, I have made significant progress.

It has been 130 in-game years, going at the maximum, unrecommended speed. In that time, I have explored approximately 20% of the galaxy and discovered several alien powers. One was already at war with another, so I attacked its undefended flanks. Then I crushed the weakened opposition. The aliens are enslaved, but their population is not allowed to grow. They are building more factories to construct more Bitlings, of which I now of 79 billion.

-Time Skip: 10800000 milliseconds-

Another three hours have passed. A total of 520 in-game years. The galaxy is under my control. I have almost one trillion Bitlings. A universal evil, the game's term for bosses, called ‘The Devourer’ spawned, which attempted to eat my homeworld. Its scales have greatly improved my fleet’s defences. I received a notification saying I set a world record for fastest playthrough in real time.

This game was mildly challenging, but I beat it. I hope Alex messages me again soon.