Maybe one die each on Interdepartmental Communication Initiative, Light and Chemical Industry Recruitment Drive, and Technology Codevelopment Programs? That would be a bit of a gamble, but I haven't done the math for how big of one.
Using a single dice on options that costs PS sounds like a terrible gamble. If PS must be used, then at least enough dices should be used to ensure a high chance of success so the costs are at least guaranteed with certain returns on benefits gained. Because when it's not DC 60-50 per dice, but per action, and it doesn't preserve the value of spent PS for a completion value, then using a singular dice that has an unacceptably high chance of failure is essentially wasting the PS and not just gambling.
 
A 67% chance to save 10 PS compared to spending 2 dice is not at all a waste. It's definitely a gamble, I explicitly call it that much, but the entire point of a gamble is that if you win it's way better and 67% chance of success is high enough that I personally at least would be willing to roll the dice on it. Casinos wouldn't be in business if every bet was a safe one, but people also wouldn't come in the doors if bets never paid off either.
 
I personally voted for the Lofty Ideals plan specifically for the bureaucracy section.

I just find this (ironically) a safer bet, right now before the elections, and just worth the dice and risk.
 
A 67% chance to save 10 PS compared to spending 2 dice is not at all a waste. It's definitely a gamble, I explicitly call it that much, but the entire point of a gamble is that if you win it's way better and 67% chance of success is high enough that I personally at least would be willing to roll the dice on it. Casinos wouldn't be in business if every bet was a safe one, but people also wouldn't come in the doors if bets never paid off either.
If.

PS is not income, and those actions do not have progress the used up PS can contribute to in case of failure.

You can have your own opinions on what value PS is and how easily you want to gamble with an extremely limited and hard-earned resource. But when it comes to using PS with an action that has to be rolled for against a DC, then I only trust success rates above 90% at a minimum. Because if the gamble fails, then trying again wouldn't be any easier. So rather than trying twice with risking failure at the same rate, it's better to go for a near-certain result at a known and acceptable cost only once.
 
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then I only trust success rates above 90% at a minimum.
Good news, the chances of failing two 1-die attempts in a row is right about 10%, meaning it has a 90% chance to succeed at least one of the two rolls. Doing two 1-die rolls back to back instead of a single 2-die roll is trading off ~8-9% chance of overall success for a 67% chance to save 10 PS. If PS is so precious and needs to be hoarded then I think those numbers suggest taking the small downgrade in overall success chance in exchange for a large chance to save PS is the right choice.
 
I like the focus on slowing and reversing tiberium.
eventually, we might try to get at least one mech in the future. something to deal with places boats, treads, tires, and planes cannot go, but were a walker can.

Walkers are not a optional research. We need to get the Steel Talons stuff if we want to see tech like Rapid fire railguns be a thing for the GDI at large.
 
Good news, the chances of failing two 1-die attempts in a row is right about 10%, meaning it has a 90% chance to succeed at least one of the two rolls. Doing two 1-die rolls back to back instead of a single 2-die roll is trading off ~8-9% chance of overall success for a 67% chance to save 10 PS. If PS is so precious and needs to be hoarded then I think those numbers suggest taking the small downgrade in overall success chance in exchange for a large chance to save PS is the right choice.
That only applies when each action the risk and cost are spent on are valued the same, which is not true here. The codevelopment is the most important one by far to roll out ASAP as to speed up Abatement and stabilization of the mutation rate. That's essentially the future of the planet you plan to gamble with, and it shows you don't care which specific one succeeds at this time.
 
That only applies when each action the risk and cost are spent on are valued the same, which is not true here. The codevelopment is the most important one by far to roll out ASAP as to speed up Abatement and stabilization of the mutation rate. That's essentially the future of the planet you plan to gamble with, and it shows you don't care which specific one succeeds at this time.
What? Yeah, I am willing to gamble with the chances of getting the technology program in exchange for potentially saving 10 PS. That is explicitly what I am saying and asking people about, that's not some kinda gotcha. I'm laying out the statistics that make me think it might be a good idea and asking what people think of the numbers, not trying to pull some nefarious plot where I sabotage the future of the planet because ???
 
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ok listing things that give us PS which we can invest in right now

Civilian Air Travel 0/250: 15 Resources per die for 5 ps
Perennial Aquaponics Bays 106/350: 10 resources per die for 5ps
GDSS Philadelphia II 92/180: 30 resources per die for 5 ps
GDSS Shala Progress 0/90: 30 resources per die for 5 PS

so 4 projects with max 20 ps open right now there 1 more project but we would need clean up space more to unlock that
so we could spend that 20 ps but we have to focouse on these before election right now just a bad time to spend PS

also this makes me want to take Interdepartmental Communication Initiative as they would be a good chance to gain more PS in the long run when one of your friends points to a project and says his boss wants that done badly
 
What? Yeah, I am willing to gamble with the chances of getting the technology program in exchange for potentially saving 10 PS. That is explicitly what I am saying and asking people about, that's not some kinda gotcha. I'm laying out the statistics that make me think it might be a good idea and asking what people think of the numbers, not trying to pull some nefarious plot where I sabotage the future of the planet because ???
Ah right, I forgot your plan basically ignores Abatement and saving Earth in favor of Space. How silly of me to have expected anything less.
 
It... does exactly as much abatement as all the other plans with any chance of winning right now? The only real difference in the Tib sector between my plan and the competition is quibbles over the minor income generator that doesn't provide abatement, the number of expected abatement points is exactly the same (and comes from SMARVs, not Tib dice, in every plan).

Edit: Actually to be fair the other plans have 2 dice on Chicago instead of 1 which does have a ~30% chance to complete Stage 2. We don't know for sure what Stage 2 Chicago gets us but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a point or two of RZ abatement, so I guess technically if I want to be generous there's a viable plan with 0.3-0.6 more expected abatement points than mine. That's hardly "basically ignoring" though.
 
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[X] Plan Lofty Ideals
[X] Plan Better Living Through Chemistry

I would say don't gamble but I'm known to be risk-adverse.

The worst that happens is we spend 20 PS and 2 Bureaucracy dice for nothing. The PS would smart but it's not necessarily fatal, I think?

Although there will definitely be non-mechanical consequences on election day if that happens. Even losing the first die might be troublesome.

I'd...still say no? But it's not a deal-breaker.
 
It... does exactly as much abatement as all the other plans with any chance of winning right now? The only real difference in the Tib sector between my plan and the competition is quibbles over the minor income generator that doesn't provide abatement, the number of expected abatement points is exactly the same (and comes from SMARVs, not Tib dice, in every plan).
Your posts implied you would be fine with risking the codevelopment action, which is for Abatement.

Your plan has both less dice for Chicago, and less dice for building new MARV fleet Hubs, which is required to be built to allow continued building of more MARV fleets at the next turn, and both of which directly contributes to abatement.

The Tiberium dice on the other hand wasn't even mentioned by me in the argument specifically against the reduced effort against abatement.

Abatement isn't only the number gained every turn, it's also the actions that allows for continued action on increasing Abatement levels in the first place.
 
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The worst that happens is we spend 20 PS and 2 Bureaucracy dice for nothing. The PS would smart but it's not necessarily fatal, I think?
Two dice in one turn is basically guaranteed to pass (unless we get a nat 1 but that qualifier exists on every roll we ever make). The question is whether or not we want to risk potential failure in exchange for saving PS, if we want to burn 20 PS at once and just eat the cost it'll definitely pass. But saving 10 PS is juicy enough that I felt like I should at least mention the option.
 
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It... does exactly as much abatement as all the other plans with any chance of winning right now? The only real difference in the Tib sector between my plan and the competition is quibbles over the minor income generator that doesn't provide abatement, the number of expected abatement points is exactly the same (and comes from SMARVs, not Tib dice, in every plan).

Edit: Actually to be fair the other plans have 2 dice on Chicago instead of 1 which does have a ~30% chance to complete Stage 2. We don't know for sure what Stage 2 Chicago gets us but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a point or two of RZ abatement, so I guess technically if I want to be generous there's a viable plan with 0.3-0.6 more expected abatement points than mine. That's hardly "basically ignoring" though.
I would like to point out that the income from tiberium prospecting is not the only, or even the main benefit we can get from it. We'll need to do it to discover the longer term threats that tiberium poses, in particular how far and how fast it is spreading underground. So think of it less as a income option and more of a tiberium research option.
 
Two dice in one turn at least is basically guaranteed to pass (unless we get a nat 1 but that qualifier exists on every roll we ever make). The question is whether or not we want to risk potential failure in exchange for saving PS, if we want to burn 20 PS and just eat the cost it'll definitely pass. But saving 10 PS is juicy enough that I felt like I should at least mention the option.
I'm referring to the worse case scenario you postulated, which is two 1-dice rolls fail in a row.

Additionally, given the timing a quarter-long debacle setting up TC might cost us in non-mechanical ways--it would hand the FMP free ammo on the eve of the election.

EDIT: This would be in the case the first 1-dice roll fails, not necessarily the second.

I say eat the cost.
 
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I would like to point out that the income from tiberium prospecting is not the only, or even the main benefit we can get from it. We'll need to do it to discover the longer term threats that tiberium poses, in particular how far and how fast it is spreading underground. So think of it less as a income option and more of a tiberium research option.
There's also a Health aspect to it, since purging the Tiberium present in Blue Zones will prevent it from being a future issue.

Should've mentioned that sooner, but it's another reason I'd much rather delay Durable Goods Libraries so that we can get started on Tiberium Prospecting Expeditions right away.
 
I just don't think Durable Goods Libraries is worth the opportunity cost. We have plenty of cheap projects in Services that don't cost Energy and we can gradually roll out simply by tossing cheap dice at them over time.
And me, I don't think leaving three of our five Tiberium dice idle is worth the opportunity cost.

So to get from the end of Philadelphia stage 2 (using this as a baseline due to most plans going for it) to stage 5, we'll need:
90*(2^3) + 90*(2^4) + 90 * (2^5) = 5040 progress
With +13 to Orbital rolls, that will require ~80 dice.
I think you miscalculated. We have reason to think Phase 2 costs 180, Phase 3 costs 360, Phase 4 costs 720, and Phase 5 costs 1440, or at least something in that general range. You've doubled the costs for all the phases, having Phase 3 cost 720, and so on.

So the Philadelphia probably costs less than you think. Also, we can open up further cost efficiencies and income sources in space to defray the expenses of building up the final phases of the station.

I considered it, but like other people have said ultimately decided that leaving the military hung out to dry would be kind of a dick move. They've got boots on the ground holding a loose perimeter right now and are counting on being able to construct actual fortifications before NOD figures out they've got a bunch of GDI assets hanging out in the middle of nowhere begging to get hammered. I don't want to suddenly cut off their funding halfway through establishing the initial presence.

Downgrading the durable goods libraries to something else is slightly more feasible, but nothing else in the sector (besides the VR arcades but they take capital goods we don't have right now) can compete with it in terms of consumer goods per progress point, and I want to pack in as many consumer goods over these last two turns as possible.
Okay, and I respect that, but "only activate two Tiberium dice" is kind of a hard 'nope' for me. So while I'm not saying it's ideal in every aspect, Imma vote

[X] Plan Consumer Slam

I like the focus on slowing and reversing tiberium.
eventually, we might try to get at least one mech in the future. something to deal with places boats, treads, tires, and planes cannot go, but were a walker can.
The big motivation behind walker development isn't specifically the walkers, it's that the Steel Talons are the guys who work on the prototype land warfare vehicle technology for all of our other everything. Ignoring them means we get bottlenecked on a lot of opportunities for military research, plus it means we don't have a lot of opportunities to keep our promise to do a bunch of 'Deployment' keyword projects.

Yet that would take multiple phases to be completed, and none of those extra dice would even have the funding to be activated and usable without more income to support them.

Space might be deemed to be the final answer by the QM one way or another, but the journey to get there still needs to be built with resources mined on the ground first.
Your bitterness aside, our budget is roughly 500 Resources/turn now and is going to be gradually increasing further even if we don't madlad maximize it.

As a simple matter of cold, hard, objective fact, we can afford and have afforded to fund all or nearly all of our dice every turn for the last several turns, as long as we don't do anything super-expensive. And even if we do, we still fund the vast majority of them. It's not hard for us to find 10 R/die projects that we can easily afford to fund.

We routinely manage to be free-dice capped AND resource-capped in the same turn, to the point where we could easily use more free dice on the most important, highest-priority projects even as we struggle to find the resources to activate that last Infrastructure die or whatever.

ok listing things that give us PS which we can invest in right now

Civilian Air Travel 0/250: 15 Resources per die for 5 ps
Perennial Aquaponics Bays 106/350: 10 resources per die for 5ps
GDSS Philadelphia II 92/180: 30 resources per die for 5 ps
GDSS Shala Progress 0/90: 30 resources per die for 5 PS

so 4 projects with max 20 ps open right now there 1 more project but we would need clean up space more to unlock that
so we could spend that 20 ps but we have to focouse on these before election right now just a bad time to spend PS

also this makes me want to take Interdepartmental Communication Initiative as they would be a good chance to gain more PS in the long run when one of your friends points to a project and says his boss wants that done badly
Notably, Civilian Air Travel costs a boatload of Logistics, so realistically we're probably not gonna be able to do it before the election. Maybe after. Just saying.

It... does exactly as much abatement as all the other plans with any chance of winning right now? The only real difference in the Tib sector between my plan and the competition is quibbles over the minor income generator that doesn't provide abatement, the number of expected abatement points is exactly the same (and comes from SMARVs, not Tib dice, in every plan).
I'm pretty sure that in the long run, the Blue Zone tiberium prospecting operations DO contribute to abatement, or unlock an attractive option that itself contributes to abatement.

Think about the cause and effect- this was mentioned in the Q2 result posts by, I dunno, some shitposting tiberiumologist or something. The Blue Zones actually have veins and deposits of tiberium underground, we can't see them from a casual survey but they're there. Presumably they're not actively contaminating groundwater or anything or they wouldn't be Blue Zones, but the tiberium is still a problem. Eventually, it'll either grow out to the surface and start causing even more trouble, or it'll grow underground until it intersects something important, or it'll get into the groundwater or something.

So in the long run, if we just leave things as they are, the Blue Zones are fucked (and this is probably a big part of how canon GDI lost its Blue Zones and they turned Yellow). Even if we're munching up all the surface tiberium now, eventually this new threat literally arises under our feet and BAM we're losing ground. Or, to avoid losing ground, we have to constantly rush guys to new tiberium upwellings in the Blue Zones whenever one of these underground veins surfaces, which in turn consumes resources that cannot be used to push the Blue Zones forward and reclaim land from the Yellow Zones.

Either way, in the long run, being able to get out in front of these underground tiberium veins and mine them out or otherwise destroy them will contribute to our overarching efforts towards "Yellow Zone mitigation" (that is, simultaneously seeking to keep tiberium out of Blue Zones and to clear it from the border regions of the Yellow Zones so that we can turn Yellow Zones back to Blue).

So while I'm not saying that the prospecting action directly leads to abatement, I'm pretty sure it'll help with abatement in the long run. It's better than nothing, and nothing is what we get from Tiberium dice we don't somehow activate.

[] Plan Lofty Ideals
[] Plan Better Living Through Chemistry
I'm flattered that you are like the only person voting for my plan, which even I had kinda given up on.
 
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