I think that sounds about right currently.
IIRC Poulticeplants are a stepping stone to Quest!medi-gel, and given the amount of gene-engineering ME!medi-gel apparently had, I wouldn't be surprised if genelabs were too.
With that said, I think we need to recognize that the current generation of poulticeplants is unlikely to solve complex medical problems
within the current generation, as distinct from just some general broadening of access to well-understood medications we already have a lot of. Which by definition includes the survival of the Qatarites.
On raiders in the Med:
Yeah, a bit of an issue, however, if the navy put hydrofoil bases at YZ-15 and YZ-13N (after we put the hubs in), then much of the Nod controlled YZ coast is within hydrofoil range. A hydrofoil base at Nador in North Africa and Almeria (I think that's about where the GZ border is?) in Spain would then cover the rest of the coastline. Toss in some frigates and/or escort carriers to go the entire route in case of subs, and heavier escorts could largely just pick up convoys coming west at a designated point for the last bit of the trip, and drop off convoys heading east at that same general point.
Who knows? Maybe the military will use some Islands in the future to take the Balles Balears, making it easier to lock down the Spanish coast.
Well yes, but the problem is that you're also worrying about shit like land-based antiship launchers and airstrikes. Escort is very much possible, but you are still running a gauntlet. Also, there is at least some risk of one of the Nod warlords involved going nuclear at the threats and effective loss of that much of their strategic territory.
All things considered, for the foreseeable future I think the route around Africa is going to remain best for cargoes that are not urgent and just need to get where they're going in a reasonable degree of safety. Not that I don't care about the Suez route or don't think it matters or anything like that, just that there's a complex issue of military and territorial control entangled with opening Suez.
On a semi-related note, how confused would the Bannerjees get if we slammed out the YZ-1 trio of hubs, then immediately slapped down the Inhibitor and ignored India again?
Very, but it might be a good idea to consult them first. I wish we had stable diplomatic contact with them so we could be reasonably confident they wouldn't go nuclear over it. I
hope they wouldn't go nuclear, because it sounds to me like a subcontinent-wide inhibitor grid would be very much "don't threaten me with a good time" territory for the Bannerjees.
Your exact words were:
"Just as important to me if not more so, is where the abatement is, not just the amount. We could push back kilometres of red zone in north america, south america, europe, australia and it would likely not get us much other than mostly blank featureless wasteland."
Now,
theoretically, your point of concern is that the Caravanserai might get a lock on the Red Sea coastline in its entirety without our input. However, given realistic rates of Red Zone abatement, that cannot happen any time soon; all the Caravanserai can gain
soon are slices of "mostly blank featureless wasteland" much like the slices of mostly blank featureless wasteland they already have. We're not six months, or even twelve, from clearing Suez directly.
Thus, I perceive an inconsistency, in that you seem greatly concerned with what the Caravanserai might take over in the short term, even though "what the Caravanserai might take over in the short term" is basically "blank featureless wasteland" of the sort that isn't very important when it's us capturing it.
Pending anyone objecting, I may flip those, too, which also allows bumping a PEV die over to microfusion.
I don't see how it allows that; it doesn't save any money to transfer a die from one 10 R/die Service project to another.
Unless you're talking about canceling the Light Industry project, which... is not what I want to do.
No, seriously, I was talking about the orbital cleanup project. You've definitely clearly explained why you want it in the general sense, but not why you want it done so quickly and so much that you're willing to court a 50% or greater chance of waiting an Orbital die on overspending on the project.
The obvious reason to do that would be if you had a specific project in mind that itself urgently needed to be started in 2062Q2 and that actually benefits from the cleanup, but since you already know the stations aren't on that list, I'm not sure what you think qualifies, leaving us back at the level of "I want this, therefore I pile dice onto it."
It's not that you haven't tried to explain yourself, it's that the explanations don't connect to the actions you're taking. It's like saying "I don't want to get rained on, therefore I will lift a rock."
If you can't see why activating all dice is valuable I don't know what to tell you.
Actually let's flip this around.
1) only 13% chance to complete.
2) only 26% chance to complete
3) Does not spend all dice
4) Low chance of completing
5) Why don't you move dice from here?
Activating all dice is valuable if we have plenty of resources to do both essential and optional things at once. If we do not have enough to do that, then it is necessary to prioritize, which may mean doing nothing with dice that are not
critically required, to free up resources for projects that are. To address your concerns, though:
1) The tenth phase of the project has a 13% chance to complete. The ninth has a near-100% chance. We don't need the extra +6 Housing on top of the first +6 urgently enough to justify overspending dice on the tenth phase. Furthermore, the other Infrastructure dice are in use on other valued housing projects that will hopefully help scratch some of the same itches the apartments would.
2) Yes. This is called "slow-walking" and is a good way to complete projects that are important but not urgent. It doesn't really matter that much whether the electric car factories come online in Q1 or Q2, so I want to spend the minimum number of dice to give them a reasonable chance of completion now, then one more next turn if necessary. This also frees up the fourth Heavy Industry die to complete the
Advanced Alloys project.
3) Yes. Because in Light Industry we have far, far fewer Plan commitments than we have dice to spend on them, so
locally, in Light Industry, there is no shortage of dice. Thus, resources suggest that leaving two Light Industry dice fallow to conserve funds for other, more critical projects.
4) Yes. Because I only have so many Military dice and so many funds to go around. If I had less restrictive limits to operate under, you may be assured I would give both projects a higher chance of success.
5) Because two of those projects are Plan commitments and the railgun munition factories are not, making it inadvisable to transfer dice from one to the other. Because I consider the GD-3 project important enough to be co-equal in priority with the railgun munition factories. And because I do not consider the Zone Armor factory
quite critical enough to spend an additional +10 R activating a third die to increase the probability of getting one factory in Q1 and probably one in Q2 instead of potentially failing to complete it in Q1 and probably getting two at once with an aggressive dice surge in Q2, as I would intend to do in the event that the New Sevastopol plant doesn't finish.
Not
quite.
