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

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dragoongfa
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by dragoongfa »

Razor One wrote:
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Choose One.

[] Amidst The Rapids: Far from your current location, this area is awash with powerful radiation fields that create significant barriers to entry. In the center of this region is a rather large zone of stability with a fairly rich asteroid field. The radiation and particulate effects of this area make navigation hazardous, meaning you're highly unlikely to ever be disturbed unless you go looking for trouble.

Cost: 60 Days travel time, 12% Fuel.
Pro: Isolation, you won't be found unless you put in a dedicated effort, and even then, you're likely too far to bother with.
Con: Isolation. Difficulty reaching others, too far to bother with. It may take years before anyone ever finds you.

[] Inside The Briar Patch: This area has less radiation and barriers, meaning you'll have less direct protection from anyone hostile, but is nearer to your current position. The area is nestled deep within a complex gas cloud akin to Jupiter's atmosphere in terms of density and composition and has a scattering effect on sensors, reducing sensor range to almost nothing. Fortunately your crew did an exceptional job interpreting the Urkek 'maps' and found a large asteroid field that can be fashioned into a homestead.

Cost: 45 Days travel time, 7% Fuel.
Pro: Hidden location. Excellent for remaining icognito until you're ready to enter the wider world on your terms.
Con: There's a lot you don't know about your new home. It might not be as safe as you think.

[] Within The Grand Fortress: This area is closest to your current location, making for short travel time. The likely passage through hostile space and proximity to aliens other than Urkek make your more hawkish officers were worried about this, until they saw the location. It's practically a fortress. The barriers surround this area, leaving only a single narrow opening less than 10,000 kilometers wide to let ships pass through. Properly fortified, it would be murder for anyone trying to break in. The downside is that there is only one exit, and if they want to blockade you there's nothing to stop them... if they're hostile, of course. As with your other options, an asteroid field awaits development and your people's inhabitation.

Cost: 30 Days travel time, 10% Fuel.
Pro: Strong defensive location and likely close enough to meet someone who isn't a raider very soon.
Con: You will be found whether you like it or not. Hostile forces can blockade you easily if they know you only have one exit.
In light of the new information I thing that the Briar patch is a nice balance of pros and cons:

[X] Inside The Briar Patch:

Pros

1st: It's hidden and highly unlikely for someone to find us.
2nd: The Urkuk are bugging off from the nearby area and soon they will no be there.
3rd: May be some extra goodies nearby, lot's of black space and all that.
4th: The tip of one of the angles of the nearby black triangle hides a pinwheel.
5th: Moderate distance from derelicts when the Urkuk fuck off.
6th: Little possibility of someone bombarding us from afar.

Cons

1st: The Urkuk are bugging off, could be because of superstitions, something nasty hurting them , lack of targets or a combination of the previous.
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)

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Re: Outcast Quest

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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.

When faced with an overwhelming challenge, the Urkuk do not shy away in fear. Instead they gather in greater and greater numbers until they overwhelm their target with sheer numbers and attrition. The best method to avoid this is to kill all Urkuk on sight and hope you get them all, or to flee the area and frustrate them.

The Loroi you picked up were defeated in this fashion. Their training vessel was overwhelmed by hundreds of such vessels over several weeks of non-stop combat. They believe that an invasion of their home space was underway and they simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They state that the Urkuk are no threat to their real military.

As they have been held captive for a over a year, they believe they were being conveyed to an Urkuk kingdom far to the 'west' of your current position. Analysis of the plotted flight path of the Urkuk vessel you boarded supports this assertion, along with the fact that the vessel seemed to separate from the large horde of vessels it had been a part of.

Chief Engineer Volkova is certain that the collars found aboard the vessel are not of Urkuk origin. Analysis seems to indicate that whoever made them seems to support the Urkuk and have both knowledge of and a grudge against the Loroi.

Alien Collar

Made of an unfamiliar alloy and utilising exotic components, Chief Engineer Volkova could spend a lifetime studying this and be utterly unable to figure them out. They're clearly artifacts of an advanced technological culture.

Your Loroi guests describe them as a tool of both torture and suppression. When active and worn by a Loroi captive, they dampen their psionic abilities to nothing, necessitating speech to even communicate. Though they're not sure how it determines this, certain patterns of misbehaviour trigger a painful feedback response.

A few of the Loroi managed to deactivate their collars, allowing them to plan a breakout and take the ship. Due to internal group politics, the group that deactivated their collars did not free their brethren.

The Loroi Children

The Loroi children were on a training mission in preparation for their initiation into their navy. Unfortunately, their training vessel was ambushed by a massive force of invading Urkuk who had, Spear believes, found a back door deep into their territory and they were taken into captivity. It was during this time that a major split occurred amongst the survivors.

Spear, being their leader, was blamed by a decent fraction of the group for their failure to defeat a savage and inferior species. With their telepathic abilities blocked and only words between them, the two groups could not form a cohesive whole and the inmates began fighting amongst themselves, though the collars always prevented things from ever getting lethal.

In the end, the rival group attracted the strong whilst the weak were relegated to Spear's camp. The rival group monopolised food, water, and other supplies, and managed to unlatch their collars in the leadup to their breakout. Too weak to fight, Spear's group was left behind as their rivals stormed the ship and Urkuk crew.

In the weeks that followed, several of the weaker members of Spear's group committed suicide, believing that it was better to die on their own terms rather than starve to death. Spear barely managed to hold the survivors together by lying to the rest, stating that she had encouraged them to kill themselves so that they would not starve to death. The lie, and the cannibalism, kept them alive until your fateful rescue.

They are currently in quarantine and recovering from their ordeal. Though physically they are doing quite well, psychologically they are all scarred, likely permanently.

Underspace

The Urkuk term for the universe, Underspace, is surprisingly apt. If Hyperspace is 'above' truespace, then underspace is 'below'.

From what you've been able to glean from their databanks and your Loroi guests, there are no stars and no planets. Anything that gathers too much mass and gravity in a location causes an inversion; gravity becomes anti-gravity, pushing everything violently apart.

Without exception, inhabitants live solely on ships, stations and bases that get built and expanded as resources become available.

The one light second visual limitation is not limited to you. Even the Loroi have to deal with such limits, and they describe their technology as being far ahead of yours. The physicists amongst your colonists believe that this is some kind of hard physical limit, though they're not sure if the limit is distance or time.

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.

The Loroi

The Loroi are a telepathic species that lives beyond your current region to the 'north-east'. Politically they are a diverse confederation of competing or cooperating power blocs called 'Houses'. There are currently 70 major houses and several hundred minor ones. They are highly technologically advanced, numerous, and as far as they are aware, without significant rivals. For the most part, the Loroi are isolationist, having relatively little contact with outside species.

The children you picked up are from a minor house, 'Avilac', who live on the borders far from the centers of power. Their primary rivals were the 'Tanir', though they didn't pay much attention to House politics, and so cannot comment more than that.

They are quite certain that House Avilac will be grateful for all that you've done when you return them.

Psionics

The Loroi are the only known psionic species. The children in your care have demonstrated the ability sufficiently enough to prove to your brains trust that your officers are not in fact huffing paint.

How this ability works and its limitations and possibilities are unknown at this time. The children are either unwilling or unable to elaborate on it more at this time. What is known however is that humans are psi-immune, much to the relief of Colonel Pierce.

The Orgus

The Orgus are eccentric mercantilist traders without a fixed territory. They primarily employ themselves as middlemen and traders, bartering deals between major powers and individuals alike, deploying trading hubs in both peaceful and hostile zones and furthering both their neighbours and especially their own prosperity.

Their propensity towards neutrality in all affairs is seen as an advantage. They tend to keep out of conflict and prefer peaceful trade and gentle persuasion over military might and violence.

Technologically the Orgus are unimpressive, often relying on others to ferry and protect valuable trade items and tend to provide neutral trading hubs as go-between points for the various powers.

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

The Hadrekak

The Hadrekak are a lizard-like species of nomadic wanderers. They run what is called The Grand Circuit that passes through a wide swathe of both known and unknown space. They were last spotted in this region of space thirty years ago and have long since moved on, though it is not unheard of for the occassional group to go counter to the rest and run The Grand Circuit in the opposite direction.

Their disposition is friendly to most everyone. They're not quite as friendly to raiders however. They're quite happy to take in strangers and aliens into their flotillas as long as they pull their weight and share their resources with the rest.

This attitude has made the Hadrekak a bit of a melting pot of cultures, ideas, and people. They host many different enclaves, each of which is free to leave at any time provided they pay the correct tithes.

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.

The Nafen

The Nafen are a silicon based life form that employ carbon based organic tools, believed to be the products of improbably masterful bio-engineering. All encounters with the Nafen have actually been with their tools. No one has seen a living Nafen and lived. They do not see carbon based life forms as 'alive' and regard them as infestations and resources to be consumed. Attempts to redress this misunderstanding have all met with failure, followed by a lethal response, followed by recycling.

The Basroth, the former inhabitants of this region, took exception to this and attempted to vigorously correct the Nafen on such misunderstandings eighty years ago. They are now extinct. All traces of their existence have been removed and all witnesses killed.

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.
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dragoongfa
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by dragoongfa »

Question because I am confused:

The course of the Purple Urkuk was taking them from the 'North East' towards the 'West' of the map. The Loroi survivors say that they were taken to the 'East' but the map shows otherwise. Is the 'east' the Loroi describe the 'west' of the map and thus is the Loroi territory at the 'North East' of the map while the Nafen are far to the map's 'west'?
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by Razor One »

dragoongfa wrote:Question because I am confused:

The curse of the Purple Urkuk was taking them from the 'North East' towards the 'West' of the map. The Loroi survivors say that they were taken to the 'East' but the map shows otherwise. Is the 'east' the Loroi describe the 'west' of the map and thus is the Loroi territory at the 'North East' of the map while the Nafen are far to the map's 'west'?
That was me being dumb and confusing east and west like a moron. I think I've fixed it now.

The Ukruk Kingdom is to the west, the Nafen to the East, the Loroi to the North-East.

Another thing I forgot to note: Congratulations on passing your first complication. There were six potential scenarios:

1: The Haunted Hulk
2: The Lost Cargo
3: The Skittish Cargo Haulers
4: The Berserking Scum
5: <<Redacted>>
6: <<Redacted>>

You rolled up the one in bold. Originally it was simply meant to be a berserker probe, but I decided to throw your first comp in, nerf the tech, up the numbers, and rework the original idea into something else. The Berserking Scum became The Slaving Scum and you passed through it mostly intact.

Your other complication will take place at another time. Whenever I want. Muahahaha.

I also meant to give you five stat points to allocate, but forgot. Oh well. I'll keep them banked for now and offer it to you later.

Hurry up and choose a location please. :P
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by dragoongfa »

Hmm...

All things considered I still think that the Briar patch is still the best choice.

With what we now know of the Urkuk it seems probable that we will be swamped the moment they detect us and prove ourselves 'a challenge'. Staying hidden until we have a basic manufacturing capacity is key. When we have enough combat ships (maybe a dozen) it should be easy to swat a small swarm, no need for those ships to be big or heavily armed, some corvettes with basic lasers and mass drivers should do at first, now how long it will take to build them is something for later.

The chief threat will be the Nafen. Staying out of their way, without poking the hornet's nest is key to keep them off our necks.

Establishing friendly relations with the Loroi is key and doing that while being near them is ideal. The 'Avilac' are a minor house, they can't offer much beyond some thanks and basic stuff. What we want from them are two things, basic concepts of advanced technology and the opening of a trade market through their contacts. We may have to jump through some extra hoops but I think that the possible returns will be worth it.

So still [X] Briar Patch

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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by Siber »

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

[X] Inside The Briar Patch
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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".

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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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. :P
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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.

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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by Razor One »

dragoongfa wrote: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. :P

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. :P

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**
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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 :P

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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by Absalom »

dragoongfa wrote:4th: The tip of one of the angles of the nearby black triangle hides a pinwheel.
Good catch.
dragoongfa wrote: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".

Razor One wrote: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.
Razor One wrote: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.
Razor One wrote: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.
Razor One wrote: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).
Razor One wrote: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.

Razor One wrote:
dragoongfa wrote: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.

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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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.
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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.
dragoongfa wrote: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 :P
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!
Absalom wrote:
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.
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Nugget
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Re: Outcast Quest

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

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Razor One
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by Razor One »

Nugget wrote:
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and the gm wouldn't throw a nefan scout at us early, rite
Mmmmmaybe~
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joestej
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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.
"Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness."

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Razor One
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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.
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dragoongfa
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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.

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Razor One
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Re: Outcast Quest

Post by 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. :P

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.
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