Infinite Space Insights: The Price of War

Infinite Space Insights: The Price of War

My most recent playthrough of Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars was just the latest one of many in which I was able to cause two localized vacuum collapses in the same game. I did this by activating a Limited Vacuum Collapser (which I had discovered early on in this playthrough) in one part of the map (which contained the Tchorak and Garthan home systems, as well as a large chunk of nebular mass), before acquiring a Timeless Bauble later on, which I subsequently converted into a second Limited Vacuum Collapser - and this one was detonated closer to Glory (the Terran home system), but not close enough to actually overwrite it (which would've caused this playthrough to end in defeat regardless of what had happened before).

What made this one special was that the second detonation overwrote the system in which, at an earlier point in this playthrough, I discovered the first Limited Vacuum Collapser, and because this map did not meet any of the criteria for the other quests, I triggered the quest to destroy a Yellow Kawangi Dreadnought before it could annihilate the Glory system. It arrived in the Tan Ru home system, and I arrived there before the Dreadnought reduced it to a neutron star (although had that happened, it would've left me without any hostile fleets to encounter and potentially destroy later on); when I finally got there, I chose to activate the Chromium Gong I had in my possession after the Dreadnought had destroyed the Tan Ru fleet defending that system. Although the resulting Gong hit rendered that particular device unusable, it also took out the Dreadnought with just one direct hit, and I was able to salvage the equipment stored there with impunity.

Above, from top: A chronology of events that occurred during a recent playthrough of Infinite Space III: Sea Of Stars in which I activated a Limited Vacuum Collapser on two different occasions, affecting two different areas of the map and removing a combined total of 10 star systems (including 4 alien homeworlds) from play.

All told, I'd overwritten 10 of the 32 star systems I visited during this playthrough (four with the first LVC and a further six with the second), leaving only 22 systems intact. And even though one of those lost systems was the Klakar home system, I felt it was a small price to pay after considering the fact that, in addition to the malevolent and thoroughly evil Urluquai being purged, the system in which I found the first Limited Vacuum Collapser was also removed from the map, taking the possibility of the Kawangi duplication bug with it. 

Also, given that the Garthans and Tchorak had exhibited hostility towards my fleet, my initial use of a Limited Vacuum Collapser to overwrite their respective home systems was also a worthwhile preventative measure. Finally, there is one more interesting fact: in addition to obliterating large amounts of the nebulas that had been present at the start of the game, the dual vacuum collapses would've removed the home systems of every hostile faction had the Klakar and Tan Ru home systems swapped places with each other, thus leaving me without a hostile flotilla to attack for the rest of the game.

As it was, however, the Klakar lost their original home system, although even after the dual vacuum collapses ravaged the sector, it would not be unreasonable to assume that they would've establish a new home elsewhere in one of the surviving systems with similar habitability (at the very least). But at least I was able to permanently safeguard Sector Prime (or what was left of it) from further Yellow Kawangi, Urluquai, or Garthan invasions.

That's the problem with intergalactic warfare in the 46th century AD: sometimes you have to make difficult decisions to avoid a costly defeat. And on this occasion, there was no third option in which the Klakar home system was saved while the Urluquai were wiped off the map. Even so, by the end of the game, I'd earned enough money to upgrade my four capital ships (two Terran frigates, a Garthan frigate, and a Calatian cruiser) and two fighters (a Terran fighter and a Garthan fighter) to my heart's content. So my strategy of causing two localized vacuum collapses at different points in the game, affecting two different parts of the map, turned out very well in the end, but you should be aware that you may not always be as fortunate as I was if you find yourself in a similar situation.