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

[Siber]

Based on those writeups, I'm going to go with

[X] Inside The Briar Patch

[dragoongfa]

@Razor One

If I may make a suggestion for the 5 points, have them become available after we have found a way to alleviate the jump sickness. The points could be explained as "now that people don't suffer from the jump sickness anymore they have become fully aware of their strengths and weaknesses, each finding ways to better themselves now that their jump sickness ordeal is over".

[Razor One]

The five points were for you personally, not for everyone under your command. The idea was that it was you rising to meet your first real challenge of command and finding out what you were really made of.

I figure I'll just make it a personal action for now and give you the option to take it or leave it. Personal actions only cost time, generally speaking. I was going to lock you out of them for the first three turns at least, but I'll lower that by one turn to make up for it.

Oh, and for obvious reasons, no, dumping your points into Psi is a no go. Not unless you have Soia level genetic-fucking-magic, turn blue and start growing elf ears.

[dragoongfa]

Okay, some more questions in regards to general gameplay now that we are about to dive into the CK2 phase.

1st: Derelicts. What are the possibilities and their uses?

2nd: Trading. How is the system going to work? I guess through some short of barter system.

3rd: Research and Development. On what factors will it depend and how will the dependence split? Like personnel, equipment, learning score and etc?

4th: Diplomacy and rolls. I am having some reservations with fails in situation where even a minor fail would be downright moronic (like rolling a zero when we propose a mutually beneficial alliance or agreement with someone who is already friendly with us). For such cases, will the diplomacy rolls take into account the wants and needs of both sides in regards to the probability of acceptance? Like only needing to roll a 10 when we offer something that the other side really wants while requesting something that they are willing to part with.

[Razor One]

Okay, some more questions in regards to general gameplay now that we are about to dive into the CK2 phase.

1st: Derelicts. What are the possibilities and their uses?

Derelict vessels tend to be mysterious. On the one hand, you could salvage some sweet loot from them. On the other hand, there's probably a reason they've been left adrift for who knows how long. Some of them will be heaps of scrap metal, picked clean by millennia of scavengers before you, others will be... something quite a bit more than that. It depends on what wrecks you check and how your luck rolls.

2nd: Trading. How is the system going to work? I guess through some short of barter system.

I was saving this for the CK2 update, but I'll explain it here.

Trade will go on a Resource Unit (RU) system. Food will be converted into a unit system as well, instead of an individual meal thing as it is now. Resource units are basically an abstracted relative value. A ton of gold is quite nice, but it's actually got a low RU value compared to say, Iron, Copper, or Titanium. This also includes useful compounds and other complex materials. A computer system made of many parts for instance will have an RU value. Generally, making one will cost more RU than you'd get from recycling it.

For the most part, mining and the like will generate Resource Units. Actions will cost RU.

You can trade food and finished products for RU if you can find a trade hub, at which point you can then spend your RU on products from said trade hub. You can bring in your own raw resources for RU directly and then purchase from there as well.

Barter is also a possibility if what you have either can't be rendered down into an RU value or is somewhat unique and can't be valued.

For reference, your default starting RU amount was planned to be 2500 RU. Taking raw resources boosted that to 12,500 RU. You'll definitely be off to a good start, especially when coupled with your mining equipment.

3rd: Research and Development. On what factors will it depend and how will the dependence split? Like personnel, equipment, learning score and etc?

You've essentially got a preview of that with language. Each thing you need to research has a point value you need to fill out in order to learn it. You get a roll for the research, plus learning depending on who's appropriate for the task. Volkova would tackle engineering and science problems, Campos would handle medical stuff. You do have experts amongst your colonists though, so specialists can also be brought in to handle the really tough stuff. You definitely have a physicist on board who is wigging the hell out about this new universe he gets to science the shit out of.

Some research will be fairly easy. Others will be quite difficult. Some will have prerequisites, such as building a biolab or a particle collider, others will simply be available straight up. Language will be available by default, and you've already got some progress in there. If you choose to continue learning Loroi Trade, you'll get a 4d100 + 4d20 added to the current progress bar, though because they were only children, the best you can learn is capped at their level for now.

Researching the Collars will be a much harder prospect. They're a product of a highly advanced civilization and they affect things you have absolutely no understanding of. The DC to even make progress for it is 90, and if you break that DC you only get learning plus whatever you had over 90 as progress. And the progress bar is not small. There are ways to reduce the difficulty and increase the likelihood of gains though. You can try to iron man it or you can wait for a better time.

4th: Diplomacy and rolls. I am having some reservations with fails in situation where even a minor fail would be downright moronic (like rolling a zero when we propose a mutually beneficial alliance or agreement with someone who is already friendly with us). For such cases, will the diplomacy rolls take into account the wants and needs of both sides in regards to the probability of acceptance? Like only needing to roll a 10 when we offer something that the other side really wants while requesting something that they are willing to part with.

To be fair, you can't possibly roll 0 on a 1-100 roll.

The DC will generally take certain things into account. Making an Alliance with the Nafen right out of the blue has a DC of 100. You can't possibly succeed. Likewise with the Loroi; the relationship just isn't there to establish one.

If you take the logical steps towards building and cultivating an alliance and are on the cusp of signing a document, but fail the DC, several things happen.

First, if you have put a lot of effort and thought into that kind of thing instead of proposing it out of the blue, the DC is likely to be quite low. Secondly, if you do fail the DC, other factors come into play. Homura Izumi, who is arguably your face now, has a bonus to diplomatic rolls; if she fails them, she gets a reroll. Whatever roll is best, she keeps, then applies her diplomacy to that. I may actually have to nerf how stats apply to keep things challenging.

Finally, if all is said and done and you've well and truly failed, then I'll try to keep that failure as plausible as possible. A sudden shift in the aliens government, other matters forcing them to put it off for now, opportunistic politicians rising up and delaying things to wring out better concessions from you, objections to the wording of the agreement, etc. etc. There's loads of things that can hold up the political process.

In the past I've seen good GM's take the discussion that lead to a decision into account when writing an update, even if what was discussed wasn't a part of the vote in and of itself. The GM was so impressed by the players lateral thinking that he not only rolled with it, he gave out a bonuses. Other GM's also reward particularly good Omake's, stories set within the Quest, with canonisation and bonuses to be applied as the players see fit.

That being said, I'm actually a little worried that I may have bored people with the quest so far. Or intimidated them with the daily updates. Or put them off with the lengthy story so far. I'm still new at running things like this, so feedback is nice. Please. please? **fidgets nervously**

[dragoongfa]

I can't offer much of a feedback, mainly because this is the first time I play such a game on the net. I can say that I enjoy myself this far, especially when my proposals where proven wrong

[Absalom]

4th: The tip of one of the angles of the nearby black triangle hides a pinwheel.

Good catch.

2nd: The problem with the sensors will have to be addressed quickly somehow. Probably through dedicated research.
3rd: Lot's of points of entry, we will need plenty of automated defenses or a fast flotilla. (thankfully we have brought industrial stuff)

I think that the first-step answer to both is "VDA".

Intelligence Report

Urkuk

The Urkuk are a primitive species, often considered a pest by other races. They live for ten years, breed in litters, and lead short and brutal lives. They are divided into numerous packs or tribes.

The one's in your area of space are pirates and raiders who do little more than wander, plunder, and pillage as they can. This is evidently successful enough to tide them over. They are semi-nomadic, having territories and redoubts but few places of permanent inhabitation.

Because of their voluminous breeding and rapid maturation rate, they are incapable of mastering a higher degree of technology than they already have. They simply do not have the necessary time to learn the more advanced science necessary to push the boundaries. This also plays into their tactics. Urkuk do not value their lives and throw themselves into battle unhesitatingly.

At a later stage, this proposes immoral industrial & combat practices.

A number of obstacles, barriers, also exist throughout underspace. The Urkuk navigation data shows that the Urkuk have never crossed them, and the Loroi describe them as something like a woodchipper that rips ships apart on a molecular level.

Possible long-term goal: shredder weaponry.

The Urkuk are their primary threat. The Orgus are quite happy to offer a bounty for every confirmed Urkuk raider killed.

Mid-game: increasing safety approximates income.

Technologically they're somewhat bizarre, often employing whatever technology they can find and make work. This has made their fleets a mess of highly advanced to utterly primitive, ranging from the poorly maintained to mint condition ships.

Every so often, the fleets stop over at what they call Redoubts, where the fleet collects resources and performs vital maintenance work. The Loroi state that there is a rumour that when others colonise these redoubts a violent response ensues.

Once the colony is properly setup, the Hadrekak will be both potential customers and potential enemies. It'll probably be best to move the colony mid-game to one of the areas controlled by the Urkuk, presumably the ones furthest to the south, and possibly leave a "tithe" wherever the colony is initially setup at. It may be best to send a mission to the outpost at the earliest opportunity to buy info on where the local Redoubt(s) is(are).

The Nafen keep mostly to themselves far to the 'east' of the local region, but they do send out lone scouts and explorers. The Loroi children were advised to stay as far from the Nafen as possible.

So the "Briar Patch"-specific threat is the Urkuk early-game, and the Nafen mid- to late-game.

Okay, some more questions in regards to general gameplay now that we are about to dive into the CK2 phase.

1st: Derelicts. What are the possibilities and their uses?

Derelict vessels tend to be mysterious. On the one hand, you could salvage some sweet loot from them. On the other hand, there's probably a reason they've been left adrift for who knows how long. Some of them will be heaps of scrap metal, picked clean by millennia of scavengers before you, others will be... something quite a bit more than that. It depends on what wrecks you check and how your luck rolls.

So some are dead dragons, and others are dragon-liches? Sounds like mid- to late- game only, and with the primary survey vessel always outside the light-second sphere. Using the transport on the task is a good way to lose a irreplaceable ship.

[alpha]

[X] Rapids

I still want to go to the Rapids. All of the earlier reasons in addition to the fact that the Nafen might send a scout make the Briar Patch look bad.

[Razor One]

The votes so far:

[X] The Rapids

alpha

[X] Briar Patch

dragoongfa, Siber

Since this is an incredibly important vote, I'll not call it for a few days. Where you start is going to impact a number of important things, so it's best to get a clear cut decision rather than one decided on three votes with a single vote majority.

I can't offer much of a feedback, mainly because this is the first time I play such a game on the net. I can say that I enjoy myself this far, especially when my proposals where proven wrong

If you enjoyed yourself, that's awesome. If there's something in here that doesn't work or seems like it could be done better, I'd like to know. There are less players now than at the start, and while that's a natural thing since quests can evolve in directions players don't find interest in, knowing if it's because the quest is crap or because of time constraints or other reasons is helpful. Not all players are on the same time schedules or zones, so a daily update regime might be unworkable for them. Alternatively, some people might be under the impression that they can't join in. Nothing could be further from the truth! Anyone can join or leave at any time!

I think that the first-step answer to both is "VDA".

Fairly close, and your scientists already have Ideas on that front:

Chief Volkova uses the downtime between repairs and arguments with Professor Conrad to do some further investigation. Using one of your shuttles, she confirms the one second light cone isn't a result of damaged sensors. The shuttle disappears when it passes 300,000 kilometers and reappears when it comes back into your detection envelope. Crucially, linking your sensors extended your range, allowing you to see further than you otherwise would. Your shuttles are not designed to do forward reconnaissance and you are loathe to use them in that role in case you need them for anything else, but it is useful information. Several of the civilian engineers suggested using a drone network, but you had to veto the idea since you can't produce such things with your on-board facilities. You did greenlight the design work to begin though as a way of not completely crushing their hopes and dreams.

The final product of that research, should you choose to fund it, will be a drone that extends sensor range depending on how many drones you load your vessels with. It'll have a basic sensor package, microthruster, a small amount of fuel and an explosive capable of denying salvage rights. More advanced drones will have better sensors, bigger booms, or better thrusters.

At a later stage, this proposes immoral industrial & combat practices.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Immoral for the Urkuk, or immoral for you?

Possible long-term goal: shredder weaponry.

Possibly~

So the "Briar Patch"-specific threat is the Urkuk early-game, and the Nafen mid- to late-game.

Generally speaking, the Nafen will only be a threat to you if you make them a threat, or if something riles them up. They're located off the map far to your east. If they do send a scout your way and you can't avoid it, the Loroi advice on what to do sounds suspiciously like the wasp meme.

[Nugget]

Well i've had fun so far, even if can't log in too often.


[X] The Briar Patch

Seems like a fair risk/reward trade.

SpoilerShow

and the gm wouldn't throw a nefan scout at us early, rite

[Razor One]

SpoilerShow

and the gm wouldn't throw a nefan scout at us early, rite

Mmmmmaybe~

SpoilerShow

Realtalk: You have a safety margin. How long that is is location dependent and known only to me. After your safety margin is gone, you have a slim but non-zero chance of certain specific random encounters that could either work well for you or ruin your day, depending on how you handle it with a little luck mixed in.

[joestej]

[X] Inside The Briar Patch

Stealth is good, and we'll want to be close to the Loroi. I do NOT like the sound of the Nafen, but the Briar Patch will hopefully let us hide from them.

[Razor One]

It seems that there's a solid majority for the Briar Patch, so barring a sudden upset, I'll call the vote in about eight or nine hours.

I've got the update mostly written up, just needs final confirmation and customisation for your locale.

Until then, here are some rolls:

Ensign Izumi Sick?: 63 = No
<<Redacted>>: 35 = Yes

Interesting.

Language Roll: 4d100 + 4d20 = 26, 4, 41, 61, 8, 3, 6, 14 = 163

You rolled pretty shit on your standard monthly deal for learning languages. Then I remembered that the journey length was 45 days, not one month, so I then added the extra two weeks on top of that:

Addional: 2d100 + 2d20 = 98, 3, 16, 19 = 136

It turns out the dice took pity on you and gave you better rolls with a 2d100 + 2d20 then you got on a 4d100 + 4d20.

Ensign Izumi is currently sitting on 701 / 3000 on Loroi Trade, though there's a cap of 1750 since they were only children on a training cruise and not fully integrated into their society.

You have the following resources:

12500 Resource Units (Used for construction, trade)
1000 Scientific Equipment Units (Laboratory gear, precision equipment)
2000 Medical Supply Units (1 unit heals 1 person if they're moderately injured per month, 2 units per month if heavily, 3 units if severely, 5 units if critically)
853 Food Units

You have industrial equipment which will make getting heavy industry off the ground much easier after you establish yourselves, and you also have access to data drives that have social, cultural, and scientific knowledge you might have found yourself without. That helps cut down a little on research and your people have a lot of reference material to work with. Less chance of screwing things up due to lack of knowledge, some of the basic things won't even need research, letting you skip to the unfamiliar territory side of things.

The only thing a bit screwy is your food situation.

I've run the conversion from "Total Meals" to a Food Unit system. 1 Food Unit is how much a colonist will eat in a given month at full rations.

Right now, 2/3rds of your colony is on 2/3rds rations, with 1/3rd on 1/3rd rationing. The Loroi only eat at 1/3rd rationing by default. This makes for a total consumption of 303 food units per month, 539 if you were on full rations. Your food supply is 853 units after doing the conversion and rounding up, after subtracting the time taken to get to the Briar Patch.

853 / 303 = 2.815 Turns until you hit rock bottom.

You're 19 units short of lasting the full 3 months you need for your first harvest. You need one month to build up your agricultural center, and two months for the crops to mature. As it stands, you'll run out of food 10 days too early.

In order to make the full time without enduring a mild starvation penalty, you'll need 50 additional people to go from 2/3rds rationing to 1/3rds rationing, bringing your consumption down from 303 to 286 and 1/3rd, with some slight upwards rounding to your benefit. I'll include this as a free emergency action that is apart from the other actions, all that it will require is a yea or nay on the survey when it goes up.

[dragoongfa]

Hmm...

How much stuff will the agricultural center produce as a first harvest provided we plant everything solid (not genetic samples) that we brought with us?

EDIT: This includes some potatoes of course.

[Razor One]

I did some research and found that Potatoes mature in 70 days (60 for the purposes of this quest), Corn/Wheat in roughly 90, and Rice in 120.

Since potatoes are the only crop that will mature before you starve, I figure it's all in on potatoes unless you like starvation.

Due to the miracles of rounding and genetic engineering, you'll be planting potatoes exclusively for your first harvest and they'll mature in two turns from planting. Since you need to build the agri-complex before you can plant, you'll be planting at the start of turn 2 and harvesting at the start of turn 4.

It'll produce 500 units of food, and will require an input of 3 RU per food unit to do it, in addition to upkeep costs. Additional production and food types will require expanding the agricultural complex.

Corn, wheat and rice will require you to UNLEASH THE BEES, though your potatoes won't need them.

[dragoongfa]

I guess then that we will build the agricultural complex on the first turn. Planting potatoes in turn two while also expanding the agricultural complex (perhaps consider using the free action to get double sized agricultural center or something). Plant more stuff in turn three and if the numbers don't add up expand the agri center again. Harvest on turn 4 then do the math again.

EDIT: Which reminds me, what can we use the free stewardship action for?
EDIT2: If I understand things correctly, the first harvest for the potatoes will be in turn 4, the next harvest will then be in turn 6 right?

[Razor One]

You get two choices when it comes to stewardship actions. You have plenty of them to choose from, trust me.

Your agri complex takes a month to build, expansions also take a month, so your first harvest will be Turn 4, but if you build an expansion in Turn 2 and plant in Turn 3, then you'll have a second harvest in Turn 5. From there I can just average things out on a monthly basis for Potatoes unless you change the crop rotation.

Once you have basic needs, you'll be able to diversify without risk of starvation.

[dragoongfa]

Okay then, I will probably then suggest building a third expansion with the aim of having it be the base of the diversification process. 1/4 bees, 1/4 wheat, 1/4 corn and 1/4 rice then have small plots of potatoes rotated into the new crops after each harvest, easing in the diversification and thus 'justifying' the averaging of the harvest results. When we have mining, some industry, and the bio labs going. We build more with the aim of adding the results of the genetic samples in.

How about the Yeast situation?

PS: You can still go to sleep and answer tomorrow

[Razor One]

Yeast by itself isn't very useful without a feedstock material. You could start growing it, but it wouldn't provide enough food to cover your needs right now.

Algae might have done it, but that was taken as a genetic sample, so it's locked for now.

Algae + Yeast = Nutrient Paste, a vile but nutritious food that keeps forever. Cheap to produce, your colonists won't starve on the stuff, but they will take morale hits unless they're a freak of nature like your character and grew up on that stuff. Otherwise it supplements your food and colony kids like yourself get the lions share at the mess hall when they feel like it.

And yeah, going to sleep now.

[alpha]

Algae might have done it, but that was taken as a genetic sample, so it's locked for now.

Algae + Yeast = Nutrient Paste, a vile but nutritious food that keeps forever. Cheap to produce, your colonists won't starve on the stuff, but they will take morale hits unless they're a freak of nature like your character and grew up on that stuff. Otherwise it supplements your food and colony kids like yourself get the lions share at the mess hall when they feel like it.

This makes me think of Bean at Battle School. And another series that I vaguely remember.

2nd: The problem with the sensors will have to be addressed quickly somehow. Probably through dedicated research.
3rd: Lot's of points of entry, we will need plenty of automated defenses or a fast flotilla. (thankfully we have brought industrial stuff)

I think that the first-step answer to both is "VDA".
Looks like I'm not the only one who follows Schlock Mercenary here! (Same username on the Schlock Forums)

Question:

How much chocolate do we have left?