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

[dragoongfa]

Hmm...

A slight change of plan is in order then but I have to say that for realism's shake, an ore refinery is a very easy structure to make. Smelting basic ores is easy and we have been doing it since the copper age. However the size of the smelters is the problem so I can see a refinery having a size able footprint in regards to RU's but the structure and the machinery needed shouldn't be very complicated.

I would consider an investment of 3000 RUs and two turns to be a solid block to start with and for balance reasons I would put a top on how much ore the refinery can smelt before needing an expensive expansion. Something like only being able to process 2000 raw RUs each turn at its basic level, bringing its max production to 4000 RUs before needing an expansion. The power generator would then provide only a 50% increase in RU with the total from a 2000 raw income into an ore refinery being 5000 RUs

If I am to make one more suggestion in regards to balance.

Have the advanced machine shop provide a maintenance discount instead of further halving the costs of a mine, in the sense of it being the ideal structure for repair and recycling. Spare parts and precision tools are vital for maintenance and being able to repair what has only been lightly broken reduces the RU footprint of structures and machinery. A 25% discount should be easy enough.

[anamiac]

If we hadn't selected the extra 10k RU, would we be pretty much doomed to starvation at this point?

[dragoongfa]

If we hadn't selected the extra 10k RU, would we be pretty much doomed to starvation at this point?

We would have broken down the jumpdrive for 15.000 but I say we keep it for later use (who knows how much someone will trade us for it).

[Razor One]

Raw materials was actually very cheap at only three points. There's no reason anyone wouldn't have gone for it in retrospect and in fact I don't recall a single plan that didn't.

If you hadn't opted for the extra RU, there probably would have been extra options unlocked to redress that problem, such as cannibalising the jump drive, certain ships systems and so on. The way I imagine things going typically for most species that misjump, that's usually what happens. They rip their ship up trying to survive, and manage to either flourish, barely eke out a living, or perish. Perhaps the initial outlay was too low, or the initial startup costs too high on certain things, but as things stand, they're fine for now, and I'll probably need to work out initial balance better in future. I am open to revising numbers when I think I may have gone too far on certain things, such as the agri-investments previously.

The way things are going right now is a very stewardship heavy build to keep you busy on that front. My preference is that you should never run out of options. Skilled Migrants would be a learning heavy build, while the Core Worlders would have had a temporary boost to Stewardship until they left the crisis stage.

Regarding the ore refinery, it's built to handle all kinds of ore at whatever capacity you're capable of pushing through it, including fissile material refinement, rare earth processing, the works.

As to your machine shop and related maintenance, most of what you've built so far hasn't aged enough for that to even be a concern. Your upkeep costs are the abstracted variables such as opportunity-costed personnel, volatiles and consumables required to keep things running, such as oxygen, water, nitrogen, CO2 scrubbing and so on. Some structures do have upkeep, such as your agri and hab complexes, others do not, such as your labs, fuel refinery, mines, the machine shop, the medical center...

Honestly with that many structures essentially maintenance free, I'm tempted to actually go ahead and give you that discount on the condition that you need to pay upkeep for everything.

[dragoongfa]

Okay, we will see and plan accordingly but remember to let us reach the mid game content. I want a fleet flooding all frequencies with Wagner while kicking snootie arse.

[Razor One]

Just remember that their general strategy would be to bury you in numbers.

That being said, there is a plotline waiting to be unlocked that could be considered along those lines if you make the right decisions. I've so far been running things over in my head to this music.

I've also been toying about with ship to ship combat mechanics. Still very much a work in progress. Here's a copy of my notes:

Attack - Long Range [Mid Range] (Short Range)
Defense
Armour
Agility
Movement
ECM

PDL = 1
Medium Laser = 2
Heavy Laser = 4
Plasma Focus = 12
Wave Loom = 30
Medium Mass Drivers = 1
Heavy Mass Drivers = 2

TL Differences

Terrans: Start of TL 10
Loroi/Umiak: Late TL 11
Urkek: Start of TL 8

1 Tech Level difference = x10 multiplier for more advanced party
2 TL difference = x100 multiplier

L'Amour

Atk: 2[0](0)
Def: 2
Arm: 1
Agi: 2-4
Mov: 5
ECM: 0

Urkek Wanderer

Atk: 1[0](1)
Def: 1
Arm: 1
Agi: 3
Mov: 2
ECM: 0

VS. L'Amour:

Atk: 200[0](0)
Def: 200
Arm: 100
Agi: 200-400
Mov: 500
ECM: 0

Will probably need a HP system or something at some point. Taking a look at the tech level chart on insider, the Urkek are barely above 20th century tech in most respects. They're almost pitiable.

Almost.

For reference, I've also statted the difference between the Tempest and the Victory Class heavy cruiser:

Tempest

Atk: 24 + 72 + 30 = 126 [96 + 1 = 97](0)
Def: 6
Arm: 11.2
Agi: 7
Mov: 30
ECM: 11

--

Victory Battlecruiser

Atk: 72[24](0)
Def: 18
Arm: 8
Agi: 4
Mov: 6
ECM: 5

vs. Tempest

Atk: 1260[970](0)
Def: 60
Arm: 112
Agi: 70
Mov: 300
ECM: 110

Yeah, it might need a bit of work. Perhaps exclude movement from the TL force multiplier? Probably. Probably.

{Edit}

Speaking of notes, the local region where you've made your home:

Niflheim - Home Base
+Large Rocky Asteroid
+Holds everything in its gravity
+All your infrastructure are belong to it
+Sweet digs
+If only you lived there

Asteroids associated with Niflheim's gravity

Huginn
+Metallic Asteroid, Iron rich
+Not very wind worn, appears to be new to the region

Muninn
+Chondrite
+Smooth and wind worn, is gradually eroding away, will be gone in a few centuries

Geri
+Metallic Asteroid, Platinum group metals
+Has a thick coating of hydrocarbons, appears to have been knocked around though

Freki
+Mudball, Ice, hydrocarbons, carbon
+Seems to have come from deeper in the interior of the Briar Patch
+Appears to have experienced up to a hundred atmospheres of pressure
+Odd striations throughout its surface, as though it's been scratched

Fenrir
+Silicate rock
+Little if any metals
+Appears to have broken off from a larger silicate asteroid in the last century

Basically, Niflheim holds these asteroids more or less captive due to its size and density. Local winds tend to blow these giant rocks around at a fairly sedate pace, and generally the state of affairs is both stable and disruptive enough to prevent them from coalescing into a greater whole or flying off on their own separate journeys. It's probably stable. Probably.

Pray there are no storms.

[dragoongfa]

Okay then, renewed head plan:

Previous plan, without pricing that would fail mid way.

SpoilerShow

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine

Turn 3: Mine + Ore refinery (I assume 2 turns)

Turn 4: Tools + Ore refinery (This should bring more than 2000 RUs each month)

Turn 5: Yeast + Thrusters

Turn 6: Yeast + Thursters (Food done at this point)

Turn 7: Housing + Thursters (Food + Housing morale secured)

Turn 8: Medical + Power generator (for extra RU if thrusters are done)

Turn 9: Medical + Power/Fuel refinery (depending on what has been finished.)

Turn 10: Medical + Power/Fuel refinery

Current head plan, with pricing in the case the Ore Refinery is too expensive and takes too long to finish:

SpoilerShow

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine = 10000 - (2250 + 250) = 7500 RUs

Turn 3: Mine + Thrusters = 7750 - (3250 + 500) = 3000 RUs

Turn 4: Mine + Thrusters = (3000 + 500) - 500 = 3500 RUs

Turn 5: Yeast + Thrusters = (3000 + 1000) - (750 + 500) = 2750 RUs

Turn 6: Yeast + Mine (if thrusters finished) = (2750 + 1500) - (750 + 1000) = 2500 RUs

Turn 7: House + Mine = (2500 + 1500) - (2000 + 1125) = 875 RUs

Turn 8: Mine = (875 + 2000) - ( 1250 + 1375) = 250

Turn 9: Nothing = (250 + 2500) - 1375 = 1625

Turn 10: Nothing = (1625 + 3000) - 1375 = 3250

This in case the Ore refinery is prohibitively expensive for turn 3 and the return don't allow for early thrusters and yeast.

Head plan will certainly change with the numbers for the ore refinery.

EDIT: Question can we use both stewardship actions to expand a single building?

[joestej]

Hmm...

A slight change of plan is in order then but I have to say that for realism's shake, an ore refinery is a very easy structure to make. Smelting basic ores is easy and we have been doing it since the copper age. However the size of the smelters is the problem so I can see a refinery having a size able footprint in regards to RU's but the structure and the machinery needed shouldn't be very complicated.

True...if we were just refining simple metals. 21st Century+ materials are much more complex. Titanium alone is the fourth most abundant element on Earth, but to make it usable you need a 1200 degree welded-shut steel reactor filled with argon and either sodium or magnesium. The very largest reactors can make one ton of usable titanium per day. To compare, a large blast furnace can produce 10,000 tons of processed iron per day.

Remember, we live on (around, until the habitat modules are built) a huge asteroid in the middle of Jupiter-esc conditions. One of our plans is to set up thrusters (likely fusion-based) powerful enough to move literal mountains of rock, ice, and metal. We're going to need something stronger than steel crossbeams for that.

That's not to say that we won't need/find uses for steel and other basic metals. But if you want that fleet of Wagner-blasting warships, you're going to need facilities that are several orders of magnitude more complex than what you're envisioning. Razor's assessment of the cost/complexity seems logical to me.

Just remember that their general strategy would be to bury you in numbers.

Anything that can Zerg-rush a Loroi ship is NOT something I want to mess with until we're a lot stronger. There are some good tricks we can use against them now that we know their general strategies, but frankly I'd rather not pick that fight at all. If they become an issue, we'll deal with them. If not, why waste resources looking for trouble?

Okay then, renewed head plan:

Previous plan, without pricing that would fail mid way.

SpoilerShow

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine

Turn 3: Mine + Ore refinery (I assume 2 turns)

Turn 4: Tools + Ore refinery (This should bring more than 2000 RUs each month)

Turn 5: Yeast + Thrusters

Turn 6: Yeast + Thursters (Food done at this point)

Turn 7: Housing + Thursters (Food + Housing morale secured)

Turn 8: Medical + Power generator (for extra RU if thrusters are done)

Turn 9: Medical + Power/Fuel refinery (depending on what has been finished.)

Turn 10: Medical + Power/Fuel refinery

Current head plan, with pricing in the case the Ore Refinery is too expensive and takes too long to finish:

SpoilerShow

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine = 10000 - (2250 + 250) = 7500 RUs

Turn 3: Mine + Thrusters = 7750 - (3250 + 500) = 3000 RUs

Turn 4: Mine + Thrusters = (3000 + 500) - 500 = 3500 RUs

Turn 5: Yeast + Thrusters = (3000 + 1000) - (750 + 500) = 2750 RUs

Turn 6: Yeast + Mine (if thrusters finished) = (2750 + 1500) - (750 + 1000) = 2500 RUs

Turn 7: House + Mine = (2500 + 1500) - (2000 + 1125) = 875 RUs

Turn 8: Mine = (875 + 2000) - ( 1250 + 1375) = 250

Turn 9: Nothing = (250 + 2500) - 1375 = 1625

Turn 10: Nothing = (1625 + 3000) - 1375 = 3250

This in case the Ore refinery is prohibitively expensive for turn 3 and the return don't allow for early thrusters and yeast.

Head plan will certainly change with the numbers for the ore refinery.

Seems logical. I'm on board with this as our general strategy. We can adjust as needed if we roll especially well/poorly, or something comes up.

[anamiac]

Is it possible to take the same stewardship action twice in a turn?
For instance, could we:
Turn 2: Agricultural Complex + mine
Turn 3: Mine + Mine
Turn 4: Yeast + Ore Refinery...

[Absalom]

Razor, question:
How big does something need to get for anti-gravity to build up enough to push it apart? Could this be used to create artificial gravity with neither energy nor rotation?

Or is this one of those "your scientist is very interested too" things?

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine = 10000 - (2250 + 250) = 7500 RUs

Turn 3: Mine + Thrusters = 7750 - (3250 + 500) = 3000 RUs

Turn 4: Mine + Thrusters = (3000 + 500) - 500 = 3500 RUs

Turn 5: Yeast + Thrusters = (3000 + 1000) - (750 + 500) = 2750 RUs

Turn 6: Yeast + Mine (if thrusters finished) = (2750 + 1500) - (750 + 1000) = 2500 RUs

Turn 7: House + Mine = (2500 + 1500) - (2000 + 1125) = 875 RUs

Turn 8: Mine = (875 + 2000) - ( 1250 + 1375) = 250

Turn 9: Nothing = (250 + 2500) - 1375 = 1625

Turn 10: Nothing = (1625 + 3000) - 1375 = 3250

Probably better to swap Medical with Thrusters, since, you know, timing. I would probably go for Thrusters before Habitat, but the pregnancies probably do call for Medical.

Since the ore refinery is very valuable and powerful, I'll probably be making it expensive and more difficult to make, I haven't quite settled on the numbers there, could be more expensive, could take more time, could be both. Expanding your mine will be a much cheaper alternative for now. At some point, building new mines will be cheaper and easier than expanding existing ones, and upgrading your efficiency will be preferable to either later down the track.

I would suggest a cheap but slow-production Bacterial Refinery as an alternative once some research in the Data Drives has been done.

Data Drives were selected, right?

The machine shop will unlock basic toolmaking and will allow you to reproduce your tools to millimeter accuracy. It would also halve the cost for building a mine if you hadn't taken mining equipment. If you were to build a new mine on a nearby asteroid, you'd need to start from scratch since your mining gear is locked up in your existing mine, and the cost would be at base. A machine shop lets you build the more basic mining tools amongst others, halving the cost.

Advanced Machine Shop halves it further, allowing you to reproduce a full suite of tools down to micron accuracy.

The Precision Machine Shop will allow you to build the highly precise tools required for scientific insight. You're currently limited to your physics lab and biolab with the equipment you have, if you want something more than that, you're going to want this. It basically allows you to build additional types of research structure. It will also allow you to build laser systems, the more powerful mass drivers, computer systems and so on.

Basically, the machine shop tree gives you the tools to make the tools to make the tools that let you burninate your enemies.

And for certain extremely large-scale things (e.g. turret rings large enough to mount armored domes that can hide the L'Amour), specialty Mega-scale Machine Shops would be needed, right?

Incidentally, for later stage things (e.g. missiles), there will be both the option of producing them in a machine shop, and the option of using a machine shop to produce a faster and more efficient but also expensive Dedicated Factory, right? Cheap missiles & rockets are nice, but keeping the ability to produce low-count specialty items is also nice.

If I am to make one more suggestion in regards to balance.

Have the advanced machine shop provide a maintenance discount instead of further halving the costs of a mine, in the sense of it being the ideal structure for repair and recycling. Spare parts and precision tools are vital for maintenance and being able to repair what has only been lightly broken reduces the RU footprint of structures and machinery. A 25% discount should be easy enough.

I think it would be more sensible to have a Scrap Shredder that lets a portion of the maintenance be converted into RUs. After all, machine shops usually can't fix e.g. broken screws: they remove them, throw them away, and use a new one as a replacement.

I've also been toying about with ship to ship combat mechanics. Still very much a work in progress. Here's a copy of my notes:

I've scratched out a little of the battle system for that forum 4x that got bounced around a few months ago. The direction I was going in involves a bit of math (you'd want a cheapo calculator on hand), and I haven't tried to get very far (it was basically brainstorming), but here's the concepts that I came up with:

1) Since you want there to be a difference between commanders (at least for a 4x, you don't have many for this) you want a bit more complexity than just some magical firepower * ship-count system.
2) But you want some simplicity, so:
3) You want to boil down the different ship stats to something more convenient. E.g. Agility * Movement or Agility + Movement translate to Dodge. Dodge * or + ECM and Defense (what is Defense, incidentally?) combine to form a ship's Evasion.

There were several per-battle stats, which I believe were going to use relative values somehow (subtract the enemies targeting from your ECM, but subtract enemy speed from your speed, for example), but it's been a month or two. I do recall, however, that some Ship stats were intentionally used in multiple Battle Stats, such as dodging ability being used in both evasive battle stats, and survivability (which also involved Armor & such, and maybe Endurance?).

Tech level, incidentally, wasn't going to be a stat: just give the weapons a longer range and/or higher damage output and/or better accuracy (I don't think I tried to work out speed differences, though missiles were going to get their own stat that they'd have to work against).

Once you have the formulas worked out, the complicated part is done. It's just number crunching (or even better, spread-sheet scripts) after that.

Basically, Niflheim holds these asteroids more or less captive due to its size and density. Local winds tend to blow these giant rocks around at a fairly sedate pace, and generally the state of affairs is both stable and disruptive enough to prevent them from coalescing into a greater whole or flying off on their own separate journeys. It's probably stable. Probably.

Pray there are no storms.

A physical bracing system is probably called for as a long-term goal. It could also be used for asteroid-to-asteroid transport.

EDIT: Question can we use both stewardship actions to expand a single building?

I can see that reducing a 3 turn building to a 2 turn building, but I can't see it reducing the time for a 2 turn building.

Hmm...

A slight change of plan is in order then but I have to say that for realism's shake, an ore refinery is a very easy structure to make. Smelting basic ores is easy and we have been doing it since the copper age. However the size of the smelters is the problem so I can see a refinery having a size able footprint in regards to RU's but the structure and the machinery needed shouldn't be very complicated.

True...if we were just refining simple metals. 21st Century+ materials are much more complex. Titanium alone is the fourth most abundant element on Earth, but to make it usable you need a 1200 degree welded-shut steel reactor filled with argon and either sodium or magnesium. The very largest reactors can make one ton of usable titanium per day. To compare, a large blast furnace can produce 10,000 tons of processed iron per day.

And then you have to weld or mold the stuff, which basically requires vacuum: the Russians apparently have a vacuum chamber the size of their submarines for just this reason.

Remember, we live on (around, until the habitat modules are built) a huge asteroid in the middle of Jupiter-esc conditions. One of our plans is to set up thrusters (likely fusion-based) powerful enough to move literal mountains of rock, ice, and metal.

Considering the environment, giant windmill blades could be used for low speeds.

Just remember that their general strategy would be to bury you in numbers.

Anything that can Zerg-rush a Loroi ship is NOT something I want to mess with until we're a lot stronger.

We don't know the strength of the local Loroi, other than Stronger Than Us. Still, they apparently invent slowly, so reasonable enough.

Is it possible to take the same stewardship action twice in a turn?
For instance, could we:
Turn 2: Agricultural Complex + mine
Turn 3: Mine + Mine
Turn 4: Yeast + Ore Refinery...

That would probably be ideal for this stage.

[Razor One]

Okay, I think I'm gonna call the vote. Here's what won:

[X] Meeting with Spear
[X] Agricultural Complex Expansion
[X] Mining Operations
[X] Loroi Physiology
[X] Elections Held in Turn 10

I'll set about writing the update and rolling things up after I've taken care of the odds and ends for this post.

EDIT: Question can we use both stewardship actions to expand a single building?

Not until I can figure out how to get that to easily show up on a survey. I'll research it, though it may not be applicable for all things.

I am considering giving you a double down option, basically a mechanic where you can pay double for a thing to get an increased chance of success (+10 or 20% or so) if you feel that you cannot afford to leave things to chance, though that'd be more of a factor later rather than now. A differing mechanic would be a "Double Time" option, where you can halve the time it takes to build things for half the success rate, though that's problematic for other reasons.

Not gonna give that to you right this second though since its early days yet and you're still in crisis mode.

Is it possible to take the same stewardship action twice in a turn?
For instance, could we:
Turn 2: Agricultural Complex + mine
Turn 3: Mine + Mine
Turn 4: Yeast + Ore Refinery...

Probably not, at least not until you've got a second mining complex on one of the nearby asteroids.

Just remember that their general strategy would be to bury you in numbers.

Anything that can Zerg-rush a Loroi ship is NOT something I want to mess with until we're a lot stronger. There are some good tricks we can use against them now that we know their general strategies, but frankly I'd rather not pick that fight at all. If they become an issue, we'll deal with them. If not, why waste resources looking for trouble?

There were factors at play that tipped things in the Urkuk's favour. Get to know the Loroi better to know what these factors were, but the long and short of it is that they got caught by a massive invasion fleet and got buried in numbers. The Urkuk generally don't gather in such numbers unless there's been a massive population boom, and the local pirate raiders are nowhere near as numerous.

Razor, question:
How big does something need to get for anti-gravity to build up enough to push it apart? Could this be used to create artificial gravity with neither energy nor rotation?

Or is this one of those "your scientist is very interested too" things?

You'll probably need a physics lab for that. Research is where you're going to be hurting for a while since you're restricted to one action on that front. There are ways to increase it which are tied to special circumstances, but it'll be tough for a while yet.

Since the ore refinery is very valuable and powerful, I'll probably be making it expensive and more difficult to make, I haven't quite settled on the numbers there, could be more expensive, could take more time, could be both. Expanding your mine will be a much cheaper alternative for now. At some point, building new mines will be cheaper and easier than expanding existing ones, and upgrading your efficiency will be preferable to either later down the track.

I would suggest a cheap but slow-production Bacterial Refinery as an alternative once some research in the Data Drives has been done.

Data Drives were selected, right?

Yeah, you've got data drives. I've re-assessed the situation, so check below.

And for certain extremely large-scale things (e.g. turret rings large enough to mount armored domes that can hide the L'Amour), specialty Mega-scale Machine Shops would be needed, right?

Incidentally, for later stage things (e.g. missiles), there will be both the option of producing them in a machine shop, and the option of using a machine shop to produce a faster and more efficient but also expensive Dedicated Factory, right? Cheap missiles & rockets are nice, but keeping the ability to produce low-count specialty items is also nice.

You'll probably have a dedicated factory rather than a limited production run deal at the machine shop. You generally want to keep your explosives away from other vital structures in addition to having good standardisation and testing for what you do produce, since if every handful of missiles is ace custom then it introduces too much variability into things where variability is not wanted.

Okay, that out of the way, I've reassessed a few of the things for structures and the like. Here's a pared down and fluffless list:

SpoilerShow

[] Habitation Complex:

Cost: 1000 RU, 250 RU Upkeep
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Habitation Complex Built, Room for 500 People
New Options

[] Recycling Tanks (Requires Habitation Complex)

Cost: 500 RU
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 100%
Reward: +1 RU per Population

[] Hab-Complex Expansion (Small) (Requires Hab Complex)

Cost: 500 RU, 125 RU Upkeep
Chance of Success: 100%
Reward: Hab Complex Expanded, Room for +250 People

[] Hab-Complex Expansion (Large)

Cost: 1000 RU, 250 RU Upkeep
Chance of Success: 100%
Reward: Hab Complex Expanded, Room for +500 People

[] Agricultural Complex Expansion

Cost: 2250 RU, 250 Upkeep
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: +500 Food

[] Yeast Production Plant

Cost: 750 RU, 125 RU Upkeep
Time: 2 Months
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: +250 Food

[] Attitude Thrusters

Cost: 1000 RU, 125 RU Upkeep
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: Able to avoid catastrophic damage from flying mountains.

[] Stabilisation Thrusters (Requires Attitude Thrusters)

Cost: 2000 RU, 375 RU Upkeep
Time: 2 Months
Chance of Success: 50%
Reward: Able to move asteroid home (slowly) out of harms way.

[] Biolab:

Cost: 6500 RU
Time: 4 Months
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: More research options, biologically related research improved.

[] Physics Lab

Cost: 8750 RU
Time: 6 Months
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: More research options, physics related research improved.

[] Mining Operations

Cost: 10,000 RU
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 100%
Reward: +500 RU per turn, unlocks new options

[] Mining Operations Expansion

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

[] Light Ore Refinery (Requires Mine)

Cost: 1000 RU
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 100%
Reward: +50% Base Income from Mining

[] Heavy Ore Refinery (Requires Light Ore Refinery, Machine Shop, Habitation Complex)

Cost: 4000 RU
Time: 3 Months
Chance of Success: 70%
Reward: +50% Base Income from Mining

[] Centrifuges (Requires Heavy Ore Refinery)

Cost: 5000 RU
Time: 3 Months
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: Fissile Materials available for use.

[] Fission Plant (Requires Centrifuges)

Cost: 15,000 RU
Time: 4 Months
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: +100% Base Income from Mining, limitless power for your colony, fission warheads

[] Fuel Refinery

Cost: 2000 RU
Time: 3 Months
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Ship automatically refuels while at home.

[] Docks

Cost: 3000 RU
Time: 2 Months
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Allows for easy disembarkation of people and goods, Unlocks new Options.

[] Drydock (Requires Docks)

Cost: 3000 RU

Time: 3 Months
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Allows for major repairs and refitting of the L'Amour. Allows the production of smallcraft (Fighters, Corvettes) when researched.

[] Shipyard (Requires Drydock)

Time: 3 Months

Cost: 3000 RU
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Allows the production of frigate and scout vessels.

[] Shipyard II (Requires Shipyard)

Time: 3 Months

Cost: 3000 RU
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Allows the production of destroyers.

[] Shipyard III (Requires Shipyard II)

Time: 3 Months

Cost: 3000 RU
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Allows the production of cruisers.

[] Shipyard IV (Requires Shipyard III)

Time: 3 Months

Cost: 3000 RU
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Allows the production of carriers and battlecruisers.

[] Warehousing

Cost: 1000 RU
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: A place to store goods and cargo other than the ship.

[] Machine Shop

Cost: 1000 RU
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: Basic tool production, New options.

[] Machine Shop II (Requires Machine Shop)

Cost: 2000 RU
Time: 2 Months
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: Advanced Tool Production, Shipbuilding

[] Machine Shop III (Requires Machine Shop II)

Cost: 4000 RU
Time: 4 Months
Chance of Success: 80%
Reward: Scientific Tool Production, Shipbuilding

[] Skunkworks ((Requires Machine Shop III)

Cost: 15,000 RU
Time: 6 Months
Chance of Success: 70%
Reward: Better able to analyse advanced alien technology, reverse engineering

[] Clinic (Requires Habitation Complex)

Cost: 500 RU
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: Basic medical treatement available for all colonists

[] Medical Center (Requires Clinic)

Cost: 1000 RU
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 90%
Reward: Medical treatment available for all colonists except Loroi.

[] Scrapping the Jumpdrive

Cost: 0
Time: 1 Month
Chance of Success: 100%
Reward: +15,000 RU.

The main changes being:

Hab-Complex increased in importance; now a prerequisite for certain structures.
New Structure: Recycling Tanks
Hab-Complex expansions Small and Large for a bit of granularity.
Stabilisation thrusters split into attitude thrusters and stabilisation thrusters.
Ore refinery split into may new structures, affects base yield rather than total income, bonuses additive, not cumulative.
Tentative Docks stewardship tree revealed, subject to change.
Hospital split into two new structures, made cheaper, takes less time.
Costs, chances and time for certain actions revised.

Let's just say that I got a little bit annoyed that you guys could get away with building a hospital on an asteroid you weren't even living on.

{Edit}

Added a few things.

[dragoongfa]

I think that you forgot to add the escalating costs for the mining expansion, other than that it looks like I am going to change the head plan again.

Let's see

Previous head plan with outdated information:

SpoilerShow

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine = 10000 - (2250 + 250) = 7500 RUs

Turn 3: Mine + Thrusters = 7750 - (3250 + 500) = 3000 RUs

Turn 4: Mine + Thrusters = (3000 + 500) - 500 = 3500 RUs

Turn 5: Yeast + Thrusters = (3000 + 1000) - (750 + 500) = 2750 RUs

Turn 6: Yeast + Mine (if thrusters finished) = (2750 + 1500) - (750 + 1000) = 2500 RUs

Turn 7: House + Mine = (2500 + 1500) - (2000 + 1125) = 875 RUs

Turn 8: Mine = (875 + 2000) - ( 1250 + 1375) = 250

Turn 9: Nothing = (250 + 2500) - 1375 = 1625

Turn 10: Nothing = (1625 + 3000) - 1375 = 3250

Current head plan with current information:

SpoilerShow

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine = 10000 - (2250 + 250) = 7500 RUs

Turn 3: Mine + Light Ore = 7750 - (1250 + 500) = 6000 RUs

Turn 4: Mine + Altitude Thrusters = (6000 + 500) - (1500 + 500) = 5000 RUs

Turn 5: Yeast + Habitation = (5000 + 1500) - (1750 + 625) = 4125 RUs

Turn 6: Yeast + Recycling = (4125 + 2250) - (500 + 875) = 5000 RUs

Turn 7: Clinic + Stabilization Thrusters = (5000 + 2250) - (2500 + 1000) = 3750 RUs

Turn 8: Medical Center + Stabilization Thrusters = (3750 + 2250 + 500) - (1000 + 1000) = 4500 RUs

Turn 9: Mine + Stabilization/Machine Shop (depending on rolls) = (4500 + 2250 + 500) - (1750 + 1375) = 4125 RUs

Turn 10: Large Habitation + Stabilization/Machine Shop/Heavy Ore = (4125 + 2250 + 500) - (5000 + 1375) = 500 RUs

Depending on our rolls we will be cutting it tight by the time the Heavy Ore is finished but after that we will be having an income of 4500 with expenditures being 1625 giving us a net profit of 2875 RUs. If we ain't lucky in our rolls we will be having more RUs in the bank when the Heavy Ore will be finished, allowing us to invest them to mines and industry for an enhanced RU income by the time the Heavy Ore is done.

The Large Habitation is for future proofing, taking into account the possibility of other humans joining us later while our stewardship actions are devoted to building other stuff.

EDIT: Corrected the numbers because I am an idiot
EDIT2: Bah, I need reading comprehension lessons.

[joestej]

Remember, we live on (around, until the habitat modules are built) a huge asteroid in the middle of Jupiter-esc conditions. One of our plans is to set up thrusters (likely fusion-based) powerful enough to move literal mountains of rock, ice, and metal.

Considering the environment, giant windmill blades could be used for low speeds.

A good idea, but I doubt we have the resources for windmills that can move a 100,000,000,000 ton asteroid. Even if we mounted ten thousand of the strongest turbo-props ever designed, we'd only be capable of cruising at a little less than a kilometer per week (assuming my math isn't wrong). A fusion thruster would be cheaper and much more efficient.

Besides, we only need the thrusters for if a storm kicks up and we have to dodge one of the other asteroids in a hurry. It's not like we're trying to relocate our base or anything.

There were factors at play that tipped things in the Urkuk's favour. Get to know the Loroi better to know what these factors were, but the long and short of it is that they got caught by a massive invasion fleet and got buried in numbers. The Urkuk generally don't gather in such numbers unless there's been a massive population boom, and the local pirate raiders are nowhere near as numerous.

Ah, I was wondering. A Loroi ship should be about three times as fast as us and have around six times our range, so I suspected there were some mitigating circumstances.

[Razor One]

Turn 2 Results

Diplomacy

[] Meeting with Spear: Spear has expressed a desire to meet the person responsible for her people's rescue.

Cost: 0, Time: 1 Month, Chance of Success: 70%, Reward: Introductions between Spear and yourself, ???

Rolled 51, Success

To be continued in "One Leader to Another"

Stewardship

[] Agricultural Complex Expansion: An expansion to your existing Agri-Complex, this expansion will double your food production capacity.

Cost: 2250 RU, Time: 1 Month, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Agricultural Complex Expanded, Increased Food Production, +500 Food, requires 250 RU upkeep, requires two turns to begin production after completion.

Rolled: 32, Success

Your agricultural complex is now expanded and the planting of your second crop of potatoes has begun (Harvest on Turn 5). With alternating potato crops giving you a steady supply of food, famine soon be off the table for the immediate future, though your botanists advise diversifying food sources whenever possible.

Reward: 500 Food, +250 Upkeep (Applied next turn)

[] Mining Operations: Unpack your mining gear and break ground on the positively immense mineral wealth available to you.

Cost: 0, Time: 1 Month, Chance of Success: 100%, Reward: Mining operations commenced, +500 RU per turn, unlocks new options.

Rock and metal are torn asunder beneath your mighty colonists drill bits. You now have a steady if limited stream of raw material to work from, and some of the metals you're digging up are pure veins and not merely ore, allowing you to work it right back into the foundations of your colony.

Reward: +500 RU per month

Learning

[] Loroi Physiology: Doctor Campos would like to do a full medical workup on the Loroi in your care. As similar as they are physically, there may be differences that could hinder effective medical treatment.

Cost: 0, Value Needed: 0 / 80, Reward: More effective medical understanding and treatment for Loroi.

Rolled: 75 + 16 = 91 / 80, Success

The Loroi seem to be nervous around Doctor Campos, but with Ensign Izumi vouching for him and functioning as a translator, he finds that the Loroi, biochemistry aside, are almost exactly like humans, right down to the structure of their organs. There's even an appendix exactly where you'd expect it to be. His findings are so remarkable that he's able to apply certain key assumptions to his prior biochemistry work, though that still needs to be verified.

Rewards: Research threshold for Loroi Biochemistry reduced, excess points applied to Loroi Biochemistry, bonus roll to research Loroi Biochemistry (2d100).

Loroi Biochemistry: 160 / 650

Miscellaneous:

Note: Every major interaction gets a 1d100 plus learning plus bonuses to languages. No interactions, no rolls. Learning actions to languages get the full 4d100 + 4d20 + Learning bonus.

Loroi Trade: 32 + 15 + 17 + 701 = 765 / 3000
Spear's English: 1034 + 12 + 2 = 1048 / 3000

--

Strange shapes have been seen moving within the cloud banks. It's hard to tell because your lighting is only so bright and can reach only so far. This has been coupled with strange sounds that reverberate and boom throughout the atmosphere. They're not explosions, they're far too irregular, far too patterned to be that. You're not familiar with the wind currents, and the thick atmosphere carries sound incredibly far. It's probably nothing. Probably.

Alex Cole reports that several supply closets have been opened up and rifled through. You practically want to order a firing squad until he calms you down and explains that nothing is missing. Whatever it was they were looking for wasn't there and they simply left. It leaves you with mixed feelings. You're glad that nothing was stolen, but the fact that there's someone who can sneak by and open your locked and secured doors makes you eminently nervous. You do the only thing you can and change your security protocols. There's simply too much manpower needed to build your new home to post guards, but if supplies start getting stolen, you are not going to be a happy captain.

<< Turn 2 || Turn 3 >>

[dragoongfa]

Hmm...

For once everything went better than expected

I don't like the irregular shapes and sounds at all and being a paranoid asshole I say that we should be prepared for anything...

So I will suggest this for our next stewardship turn:

Code: Select all

Turn 3: Mine + Altitude Thrusters = 7750 - (1250 + 500) = 6000 RUs

Having the first tier thrusters as early as possible sounds as the most prudent course of action.

Next research should be Loroi Biochemistry in order to cover our Loroi guests from all possible angles. If we are lucky this will provide a research bonus to Jump Sickness and thus allow us to return to our normal stats.

I have a question in regards to crop diversification, can we start it at turn 4 by planting only 400 units of potatos and slowly introduce other corps to the other 100 units?

In essence getting only 400 units of food for several months until the 'average' of the various corps is diversified and returning the harvest to 500 after the process is finished.

EDIT: Also a sneaky bastard is on board...

I think that we are about to find our Spymaster

[Siber]

Metagame knowledge: A canny enough telekinetic Loroi could probably be pretty good at opening locks. Are our Loroi friends keeping couped up, or do they roam freely through our little settlement?

[Suederwind]

Do we have enough manpower/fuel to send out a shuttle patroling and extending our sensorrange?

[Razor One]

Metagame knowledge: A canny enough telekinetic Loroi could probably be pretty good at opening locks. Are our Loroi friends keeping couped up, or do they roam freely through our little settlement?

They're being kept in quarantine. Not because they need it now of course, but because there's nowhere else to put them that would also be secure. It's as much for their own safety at this point as for your civilians, who'd probably poke and prod them incessantly without establishing some boundaries. Besides, free roaming implies a level of trust that has yet to be earned or warranted. Even Alex, benign and protagonistic as he is, doesn't get that right. Your marines are pitching in a lot, but that's one place the Colonel refuses to take chances. He saw the result of just 13 of them running amok and isn't keen on a repeat with you on the receiving end, even if his assessment of the Urkuk as combatants is maniacal laughter.

I rolled for telekinetics the moment that Loroi came off the random encounter table. They needed to roll 5 (5% occurrence of Telekinetics) or lower to be Teeks and none of them hit the required roll. They're just regular telepaths. And before you ask, no, none of them are farseers, the occurrence rate for them is (probably) so abominably low you'd likely never make the roll.

Do we have enough manpower/fuel to send out a shuttle patroling and extending our sensorrange?

Your shuttles are locked up ferrying people and supplies to and from various construction projects and work shifts. Perhaps if they lived on the asteroid and not around it, you'd be better off.

--

One Leader to Another

You're asleep at your desk when the call comes through.

"Captain? Captain are you there?" asks Ensign Izumi through the door comm.

You snap back awake and wipe the drool from your cheek. You've been so utterly tired lately. Everyone is feeling it. Colonising might be what everyone signed up for but this isn't colonising. It's pioneering. You need to build everything from scratch and you never really appreciated just how much infrastructure went into building a self sustaining colony.

You throw everything about yourself into order as quickly as you can. You fix your hair and uncrease your uniform to make as good a first impression as possible and then answer the door.

"Ensign, Spear, please come in," you say politely, inviting the two into your ready room.

You finally get a good look at the Loroi who leads the children you rescued from that Urkuk vessel, and not the filth and grime that once covered her. She's a little shorter than you, and for the life of her she looks like she's barely out of her teens.



She's definitely looking healthier than when you picked her up. Her blue hair is now smoothly combed instead of frazzled and wild, her green eyes are steady and more calculating now, rather than wild and half-crazed.

A series of small teardrop shaped tatoos runs along her cheek beneath her eye, and upon her foreheard lies another teardrop falling into a crescent moon. On her left ear hangs an earing that connects from the lobe to the pointed elven tip.

"You are Cap-tain?" asks Spear in halting but reasonably fluent English.

"Yes, I am," you confirm.

"I greet you," says Spear with a slight bow of her head.

"And I you," you respond, returning the gesture, "shall we sit?"

You indicate your desk and chairs. She nods and you make your way to your seat and they to theirs.

No sooner are you all sat down and comfortable that Spear speaks again.

"Are we pris-o-ners?" she asks.

"No, of course not," you say, "Why do you ask?"

"We sit. We wait. But we are not going home. Why?" she asks.

It's a simple question. An obvious question. But you don't have an answer she'll like.

"We are not from here," you explain gently, "We do not have fuel, we do not have food, we do not know the way to your home."

"Our House will help you. The finder of lost children is always r-rew-rewa-rded," she says, stuttering towards the end.

You sigh and call up the map you've managed to cobble together from the Urkuk vessel.

"Where is your House?" you ask, showing her.

She looks confident at first, but then begins to look crestfallen as she realises how limited your knowledge is.

"I... do not know..." she says with a hint of shame.

"When my people have food, fuel, and are safe, we will find your House," you explain, "You would do the same, yes?"

Spear looks at the map again forlornly before responding.

"Yes," she says, "If you cannot stand, you cannot fight."

"Wise words," you say.

"Wise?" she asks and then turns to Izumi.

A quick conversation, half in Loroi and half in English takes place, with the two switching between languages on the fly, before Spear looks back to you.

"Yes, wise," she confirms, though she seems sceptical.

"Is there anything that you need?" you ask, "Anything we can do to help you until then?"

"Bored," she says, "need things to do. Things to learn. If possible, help you, to help us."

You blink back your surprise there. A few extra bodies won't mean much, but them actually offering to help you is something that came completely out of left field.

"You were going to be slaves to the Urkuk, and you're children, it wouldn't be right," you say.

A frown crosses her features and she asks Ensign Izumi a question. Another interchange in broken Loroi and English takes place before Spear settles back on you.

"I am adult," she says, then corrects herself, "would be adult, if I were home. End of training, I become adult, we become adult. Have names. Have lives."

"We'll work something out," you say, rising to signal an end to the meeting, "I'm pleased to have finally met you, Spear, and I'm glad our people's could meet."

You hold your hand out, expecting her to reach for it as a sign of friendship. Instead she just stares at it, then at you, then back at it, then Izumi.

The Ensign nods in encouragement, and slowly, gingerly, Spear clasps your hand with her own.

You pay no mind to the strange tingle in your skull, but you do notice how Spear starts as you squeeze her hand. Poor girl probably wasn't expecting you to squeeze so hard.

The moment you let go the spell is broken. Spear seems to find herself again and gives you that same slight bow she gave when she entered your office, which you return.

You dismiss them without incident and the marines retake their escort positions. The door shuts, and you wander back to your desk and slump right back where you started, tired and out like a light.

--

Rolled 51 on meeting, it goes well.
Rolled 1 on Intrigue check. You fail to notice something critical.

[dragoongfa]

Damn, natural 1 on intrigue.

[alpha]

Rolled 51 on meeting, it goes well.
Rolled 1 on Intrigue check. You fail to notice something critical.

The crit fail though.

Current head plan with current information:

SpoilerShow

Turn 2: Agri center + Mine = 10000 - (2250 + 250) = 7500 RUs

Turn 3: Mine + Light Ore = 7750 - (1250 + 500) = 6000 RUs

Turn 4: Mine + Altitude Thrusters = (6000 + 500) - (1500 + 500) = 5000 RUs

Turn 5: Yeast + Habitation = (5000 + 1500) - (1750 + 625) = 4125 RUs

Turn 6: Yeast + Recycling = (4125 + 2250) - (500 + 875) = 5000 RUs

Turn 7: Clinic + Stabilization Thrusters = (5000 + 2250) - (2500 + 1000) = 3750 RUs

Turn 8: Medical Center + Stabilization Thrusters = (3750 + 2250 + 500) - (1000 + 1000) = 4500 RUs

Turn 9: Mine + Stabilization/Machine Shop (depending on rolls) = (4500 + 2250 + 500) - (1750 + 1375) = 4125 RUs

Turn 10: Large Habitation + Stabilization/Machine Shop/Heavy Ore = (4125 + 2250 + 500) - (5000 + 1375) = 500 RUs

I like the Head plan. Anyone want to make a planning spreadsheet?

EDIT: Question can we use both stewardship actions to expand a single building?

Not until I can figure out how to get that to easily show up on a survey. I'll research it, though it may not be applicable for all things.

I am considering giving you a double down option, basically a mechanic where you can pay double for a thing to get an increased chance of success (+10 or 20% or so) if you feel that you cannot afford to leave things to chance, though that'd be more of a factor later rather than now. A differing mechanic would be a "Double Time" option, where you can halve the time it takes to build things for half the success rate, though that's problematic for other reasons.

Not gonna give that to you right this second though since its early days yet and you're still in crisis mode.

You could split each action into its own question on the survey.

I forgot to vote .

We should probably create a planning spreadsheet.