Outcast Quest [Updated 10/10/18 - Turn 14]

[dragoongfa]

Damn...

I will have to redo the numbers again...



In any case, it looks like we will have to build an extra agri center down the line to count in the population growth. As things stand now the Yeast gives more food for RU and with an Extra agri center we are going to have a surplus even before the food diversification is finished.

I will work on the spread sheet later though.

[Razor One]

The kids will only get added on Turns 12, 24, 36, etc. etc. Anyone born before then eats for free, and those not technically grub from your food supply before they're born. On balance this should work out in the same fashion that rounding works for five cent coins. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

[dragoongfa]

As I am transferring my fan fic from the manuscript I just realized something that may piss Razor off.

If what makes the noise on Fenrir is some short of beacon then we will have to do a few things.

First, move the beacon to an other asteroid group. Then move our asteroid group somewhere else before we open a mine on Fenrir to cover where the beacon was.

I think that we may need the stabilisation thrusters ASAP. And if someone like the Hadrekak comes asking then we shrug like we know nothing.

EDIT: In any case, the stabilisation thrusters allow us two crucial abilities:

1st: The possibility to completely avoid a collision with an incoming asteroid.

2nd: We can keep our home moving within the Briar patch in case someone discovers our current position.

[Razor One]

Why would that piss me off? It's as valid a plan as any.

So far you've passed all the checks for asteroid collision and crop failure. You pretty much need to roll a natural one each turn to get them and you haven't as yet.

[joestej]

As I am transferring my fan fic from the manuscript I just realized something that may piss Razor off.

If what makes the noise on Fenrir is some short of beacon then we will have to do a few things.

First, move the beacon to an other asteroid group. Then move our asteroid group somewhere else before we open a mine on Fenrir to cover where the beacon was.

I think that we may need the stabilisation thrusters ASAP. And if someone like the Hadrekak comes asking then we shrug like we know nothing.

EDIT: In any case, the stabilisation thrusters allow us two crucial abilities:

1st: The possibility to completely avoid a collision with an incoming asteroid.

2nd: We can keep our home moving within the Briar patch in case someone discovers our current position.

I'm more liking the idea of disabling the beacon (if there is one) than moving it. If its a marker designed to allow research vessels or mining ships to home in on that particular asteroid, the previous owners are going to want words with us for stealing their claim. If its a navigational beacon (like a high-tech lighthouse), screwing with it is going to result in some angry aliens wondering who turned out the lights. And if it's somehow a monitoring device strong enough to punch a signal through the Briars, we've got REAL problems.

In all cases, tampering with it will be noticed. But while an inactive beacon could be the result of many things (equipment malfunction, asteroid impact, etc) a beacon that's been moved suggests only one thing: intelligent intervention. They WILL come looking for us, and moving our base will be much less effective against someone actively searching for such tricks.

Once we've been found, claiming ignorance will work best if we disabled the beacon: "Don't look a us, it was broken when we found it!" That excuse is somewhat unlikely, but still plausible. It is significantly less plausible that someone else picked up their beacon, moved it, and cleared out almost exactly when we showed up. We have to assume that Occam's Razor will apply to alien logic as well: don't go looking for a mystery race with unknowable motives when there's another race with really obvious reasons for screwing with your beacon right in front of you.

Constantly moving within the Briar Patch seems like a bad idea. Those thrusters will still require fuel to run, and shifting a mountain is not easy. We should probably only move if we have reason to believe someone knows where we originally were, or if we need to avoid some form of danger.

Why would that piss me off? It's as valid a plan as any.

So far you've passed all the checks for asteroid collision and crop failure. You pretty much need to roll a natural one each turn to get them and you haven't as yet.

Glad to know the odds of deadly collision are so low. I'd still like to get those thrusters up eventually (we've rolled ones before!), but with the naturally low chances of collision and the fact that we've already got Altitude Thrusters, I'd say Stabilization Thrusters aren't probably going to be something we'll need for the next few turns. Of course, now that I've said that we are almost guaranteed to roll a 1 next turn. You'd think I'd know better than to say stuff like that out loud...

[dragoongfa]

The atmosphere will provide the necessary fuel for movement since the thrusters are described as 'air breathing'.

We don't know if its a beacon at the first place, however I am extremely anxious in the case of it belonging to someone who isn't nice. If it is a beacon and it works with sound (since the light second limit is universal) then the one who put it there knows how to move around the Briar patch and realizes that sound is the best way to home in on stuff.

Moving it and making it look like some Urkuk did it while looking for loot will provide a plausible explanation if someone comes asking, especially if we say that we moved the asteroid to keep wandering Urkuk off our backs.

In short, if someone comes asking, blame the snooties.

[joestej]

The atmosphere will provide the necessary fuel for movement since the thrusters are described as 'air breathing'.

We don't know if its a beacon at the first place, however I am extremely anxious in the case of it belonging to someone who isn't nice. If it is a beacon and it works with sound (since the light second limit is universal) then the one who put it there knows how to move around the Briar patch and realizes that sound is the best way to home in on stuff.

Moving it and making it look like some Urkuk did it while looking for loot will provide a plausible explanation if someone comes asking, especially if we say that we moved the asteroid to keep wandering Urkuk off our backs.

In short, if someone comes asking, blame the snooties.

Even if they require no extra fuel to run, the energy to move the asteroid has to come from somewhere. If we start using the thrusters non-stop, it stands to reason that we can expect to see SOME sort of penalty. Besides, thruster emission is traceable, and stealth is our biggest advantage right now. Constantly blasting off huge engines will either stir up the currents or give us away in some other fashion. Remember, as far as anyone else knows there's nothing here but dead rock. We should try to maintain that illusion for as long as possible.

Sound does obviously carry farther than other methods of detection in the Patch, which lends some weight to the beacon idea. Still, if this beacon is supposed to reach for millions of kilometers like whatever is Over Yonder, I think it would be a heck of a lot louder.

After doing some research into infrasound, I found this:

Infrasound can be generated by human processes such as sonic booms and explosions (both chemical and nuclear), or by machinery such as diesel engines, wind turbines and specially designed mechanical transducers (industrial vibration tables).

I suspect this isn't a beacon at all, but a mine, turbine, or other construct left behind by another faction.

But if it is, why would the Urkuk MOVE a beacon? They'd smash it, sell it, or tear it apart trying to figure it out, but leaving it intact and moving it to another asteroid is a level of subtle that seems out of character for them. Even if it wasn't, there's no benefit for them to just move it instead of destroying or stealing it.

EDIT: Did more sound research and reread some of the existing descriptions, revised opinion of sonic tracking.

[alpha]

Lost planned post because Safari is bad.

Link to Character Spreadsheet:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Sort data using filter views in Data->Filter Views.

What role should we take?

Actually, what role should everyone take?

Lt. Cole is an obvious choice for director of trade, and can focus on either stewardship or intrigue.
Dr. Campos and Engineer(?) Volkova are obvious choices for researchers, and should probably focus on Learning.
Ensign (soon to be Lt.) Izumi is obviously going to be our ambassador / language instructor. She should probably focus on Diplomacy and Learning.
Cdr. O'Malley is our future naval commander if we choose to take another role. She should probably focus on Martial.
Col. Pierce is our marine commander, and should probably focus on Martial.

Also, action suggestions:

Military:
[X] Militia Training
Nothing better to do. The other options can wait. Also, we might get more options (machine shop/hidden options added by GM).

Diplomacy:
[] Opening Relations
Not with those odds. Let's learn more Loroi Trade first to improve our chances.
[] Debate Moderator
[X] Common Folk
I think we should do common folk first, so that we can figure out what they want, and how we can make them happier (Healthier, if this is Beyond Earth).

Stewardship:
[X] Mine Expansion
More RU!

[X] Agricultural Complex Expansion
[] Yeast
We have a deficit of 138 after the diversification. Our current food supply will last for 4 turns.
The Agricultural Complex Expansion will bring up our food production to 375 or 500, depending on Razor, which will stop the deficit until the diversification ends. Then, we can diversify the expansion .
Yeast has the advantage of being a guaranteed 250 food without reduction due to diversification, but it can wait until later.

Learning:
[X] Over Yonder
[] Over There
[] Loroi Trade

Eh. Why not.

Personal:
[X] Setting Ensign Kelly to Rest
Next turn, we promote Ensign Izumi.

[Absalom]

Diplomacy:

[X] Debate Moderator

Important with the elections slowly approaching.

For the choice after this, I would suggest Common People before Opening Relations, on the chance that a sticking point will be noticed in the process.

Stewardship

[X] Mine Expansion
[X] Yeast

Going for RU and Yeast for the Protein. Next turn I plan to suggest Stabilisation Thrusters according the Head Plan to which no one has given any input yet

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

I thought Razor said the first births would be turn 12, why does food consumption spike in turn 10? If this isn't an artifact, then I would strongly suggest another Ag Expansion soon.

Learning:

[X] Over Yonder

Fenrir is within the house but if it was something nasty it would have happened already. The sounds though, I don't like them at all.

It's still a point of curiosity, though. Still, I doubt that a Nafen or Hadrekak (or any, really) "intruder detector" would make beeping noises, on account of the intruders hiding the evidence while you aren't watching by carefully accelerating a small but existing meteorite to sufficient speeds to obliterate it, so unless it's a homing beacon for a long-lost wreck, it's probably some sort of subtle geyser.

Though I suppose it could be a secret Nafen colony, or "Tacoma Narrows in SPAAACE!!!!!", both of which could be very bad.

[dragoongfa]

Turn 9 marks the possibility of lifting the food restrictions at that turn. If the restrictions are lifted in turn 10 then we won't have to build an other agri center despite the increases after the first births.

Gonna have to rework on it soon anyway.

EDIT: Reworked the food, if we lift the food restrictions a turn after Yeast is ready then we shouldn't have any problem at all with food unless 100 children have been born.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

BTW: How many children will there be in turn 12 Razor?

EDIT: Razor? How about that survey?

[Siber]

I dunknow what part of the world Razor is from, but if it's the USA, we've got a big family holiday thing going on today

[dragoongfa]

TBH, I thought he was from the UK or something.

Also @joestej regarding the thrusters and their detection. I just realized that any particles left over from the thrusters will be carried away from winds in such a thick atmosphere. Barring a critical fail in a roll it will be almost impossible for anyone to find us in the briar patch considering its size, the sensor limitations and the winds.

[Absalom]

Razor, question: Can actions be "queued" before the ship leaves if the Captain goes along on the mission to Loroi space, or will it be restricted to only the actions to be started immediately upon the turn that the ship leaves?

Turn 9 marks the possibility of lifting the food restrictions at that turn. If the restrictions are lifted in turn 10 then we won't have to build an other agri center despite the increases after the first births.

Gonna have to rework on it soon anyway.

EDIT: Reworked the food, if we lift the food restrictions a turn after Yeast is ready then we shouldn't have any problem at all with food unless 100 children have been born.

I would probably still try for another Ag Expansion soon, but those numbers look much nicer. Also, when were you aiming at Heavy Ore? If done in turn 16, it looks like it'll only take 2 turns to pay for itself.

[dragoongfa]

The head plan focuses around getting to house Arilad as quickly as possible while leaving behind a modicum of defense. Heavy Ore would be my choice to start before we leave, with that done even if we leave construction to the colonists until we return we will still have a big RU surplus to build what we want after that.

Could require some tinkering with the plan in order to do that though, probably delaying the Chemical missile plant for later in order to use its RU cost for trading and Heavy Ore. The missile plant is useless without its launchers and with 60% chance on top of the turns for both the plant and the launchers combined? Yeah it doesn't look that missile defense should come in the way of the Heavy Ore investment which will produce plenty of RU to do stuff with almost immediately.

Something also tells me that people will start with the missile path right after we leave anyway.

[Razor One]

Survey is up, please vote here

Re: Number of Children, you're sitting on 50 as of right now. I've counted them since Turn 2, and you've rolled 14, 9, 7, 1, 19. A hundred children by turn 12 is very likely assuming this is average.

Re: My slowness, it's due to my sister giving birth to my latest niece on the same day my brother went to hospital for surgery. I've been paying visits to them in the interim. Also collecting debts from my nephew. I still haven't had a chance to actually see my new niece though; my sister has been both flat out and too utterly exhausted from dealing with the kids. Couple that with work getting in the way and I've been rather frustrated. Might get an opportunity tomorrow though.

Re: Actions in your absence; No. You can set things that will take a number of turns, but after that, your very capable crew that you trust to run things in your absence will be running things in your absence. The idea is that you're making a tradeoff. You can stay at home and manage everything but leave the mission to chance, or you can go on the mission and attend to it personally, but leave your colony in someone elses hands who might have a different way of doing things.

You could theoretically remain in contact if you left a series of comm beacons/drones in your wake, but you'd need a lot of them. It'd also give the Loroi a beeline to where you live, which may be advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on the circumstances of your first contact and what you choose to do.

[dragoongfa]

So you are counting them from the moment they are conceived? naughty, naughty Razor and your numbers

Hmm...

In this case both Yeast and a Agri center are now priorities, I will alter the plan accordingly later but for the next few turns I will vote according to plan.

Voted:

[X] Militia Training
[X] Debate Moderator
[X] Yeast Production
[X] Mining Expansion
[X] Over Yonder
[X] Setting Ensign Kelly to rest

EDIT: Turn 6 Survey for visibility

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RCDGTMV

EDIT2: Updated Head Plan, including extra Agri Center and Heavy Ore.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

[alpha]

Voted:

[X] Militia Training

[X] Common Folk

[X] Mine Expansion
[X] Yeast Production

[X] Over Yonder

[X] Setting Ensign Kelly to rest

[Razor One]

Turn 6 Results

Military

[X] Militia Training: Train your civilians in how to use sidearms and defend themselves should the worst happen.

Cost: 500 RU, Time: 3 Months, Chance of Success: 100%, Reward: Colonists able to contribute to defence against boarding actions.

-Training the civilians in self defense and how to safely handle sidearms has begun. While Colonel Pierce does tut quite a bit, he's confident that the civilians won't be totally useless by the time training ends.

Action locked until completed.

Diplomacy

[X] Debate Moderator: Although elections are still months out, it seems that the two parties want to have a series of debates over the coming months and they've asked you to moderate them. They both consider you to be impartial.

Cost: 0, Time: 1 Month, Chance of Success: 70%, Reward: Debates moderated, political process goes forward, Opinion of you improves.

Rolled: 44, Success

-The debates between a visibly pregnant Vanessa Hughes and Jonathan Spencer went reasonably well. You managed to correct both sides on assertions that were not 100% truthful while keeping everything from descending into a slanging match. In the end, the race between the Frontier and Homesteading parties remains locked in a dead heat.

Stewardship

[X] Yeast Production Plant: Yeast has numerous uses, from basic food production to alcohol and bread making.

Cost: 750 RU, 125 RU Upkeep, Time: 2 Months, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Yeast Production Plant Built, New Food Options, Able to Grow Yeast, +250 Food.

Rolled: 11 + 17 = 28, Success

-There were some hiccups in putting the production plant together, mostly to do with misplaced parts. Fortunately Alex Cole was able to reshuffle the build schedule to give the project workers the time they needed to sort out all the kinks.

Locked in until completed.

[X] Mining Operations Expansion: Expand your existing mine on Niflheim for more glorious ore.

Cost: +250 Per Expansion (750) Time: 1 Month, Chance of Success: 100%, Reward: +500 RU per turn

-Your mine is now somewhat deeper than it used to be. The rate of mineral extraction grows alongside your smile at the surplus material.

Learning

[X] Over Yonder: Find out what the hell that racket is, and pray it's just loud but benign neighbours and not a war.

Cost: 0, Value Needed: 0 / 75, Difficulty: Very Easy (1d100), Reward: Knowledge of what that noise is.

Rolled: 82 / 75, Success

-You send a shuttle with two months of supplies and some of your best and brightest. They returned by the end of the month, ecstatic and excited about what they found.



Life. They've found life out there amongst a large bank of hydrocarbon rich clouds, ranging from large docile eating machines they've dubbed as Space Whales to smaller but far more agile manta-like carnivores that rip into their flesh in addition to a host of other complex life forms. It seems that the Space Whales are responsible for the racket; they're completely blind and rely on sonar to track the hydrocarbons they eat to stay alive.

What's most astonishing though is their size. The creatures are positively enormous, with the smallest being a dozen meters in size, and the largest ranging up to almost thirty kilometers in length. The size and variety of life present is a testament to just how old the Briar Patch really is.

With no gravity to weigh them down and a very large pond to swim about in, the Briar Patch apparently teems with some of the largest life forms witnessed by man. If they keep following that bank of hydrocarbon rich clouds, they'll pass by your colony close enough that you can reach out and touch them in the next two months.

Fortunately for your next question, your science team was able to determine that they're not a threat to you. They're repelled by magnetic fields, and given how easy they are to generate, it's a very simple matter to ensure your fledgling colony is protected against these enormous, majestic creatures.

Personal

[X] Setting Ensign Kelly to Rest: The death of Ensign Kelly actually hit you and the crew quite hard. If not for all the troubles you'd been facing keeping everyone alive, you'd have laid him to rest long ago. Rectify it. Privately.

Cost: 0, Time: 1 Month, Chance of Success: 100%, Reward: Ensign Kelly laid to rest. Weight from your shoulders lifted.

-Ensign Kelly rests in peace at last. His grave is the first to grace your new home. You realise only once it's all over that funerals aren't just to mourn the dead; it's a form of group therapy for those that are left behind. You have to say that... it's definitely helped. At the very least, you're resting easy now.

{Edit}

Miscellaneous

Spear has been visiting Ensign Izumi lately. The marine escort is a reasonably common sight outside her quarters now.

The other Loroi have been seen curiously inspecting your ship under marine escort as well. They've been kept out of sensitive areas so far, though that causes Spear to reiterate their desire to lend a hand instead of languishing eternally in their holding area.

The infrasonic sounds from Fenrir have been growing in intensity.

Chief Engineer Volkova has been looking particularly happy since you commissioned the yeast plant. Rumour has it she's building a still.

Spear's English: 1112 + 32 + 12 = 1156 / 3000
Ensign Izumi's Trade: 838 + 45 + 86 + 1 + 17 = 987 / 1750

<< Turn 6 || Turn 7 >>

[dragoongfa]

Hmm...

So the building rolls will have to be taken each and every turn that the building is under construction?

That should bring forth a resuffling of the build order since the 50% Stabilization thrusters look like a far more challenging proposal for now, giving us only a 25% chance of a successful build without loosing turns.

I will look into the head plan to see how things should go forth in regards to them, for now far more safe and rewarding avenues should be pursued in their stead. I will look into it.

Over Yonder results:

Huge underspace whales? Expected something really nasty tbh, for now I will propose Over There for the next project.

EDIT: Reworked the Headplan without Stabilization Thrusters, saves us a turn for the expedition. Of course the build order for when we leave is a placeholder:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

[Razor One]

Note to self: Stop updating while tired.

The Yeast Plant is locked in until it's done, and yeah, you roll for it each turn. Fixing the update now.