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[X] Plan Breaking The Limits, Restoring Nephor, and Helping Vardona
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I'm just going to very briefly say that, re: the Megacomplex, the best way to address that particular issue is either to make a more dedicated investment in the project to produce a better die result (which in addition to finishing faster tends to produce more efficient and more creative outcomes), or to write an omake on the subject, which if deemed semi-canon or canon could produce related narrative or mechanical benefits in addition to the generic bonus. Not investing in the project isn't really a viable option as far as achieving a good quest outcome goes.
I continue to feel concerned about Simon's plan which dives headfirst towards triggering Mengsk's Paranoia. Are players aware of this potential issue when voting for it? I'm not sure of the overall sentiment since most don't elaborate their votes and why the support something.
I note that you are counting the +5 from every +Paranoia option as though it were a sure thing, and the -10's from two major -Paranoia options as though they do not exist. You will be pleased to note that I have run a somewhat more nuanced analysis and toned back the expected +Paranoia gain greatly.I am highly concerned about Plan Attempting to Expand Our Capabilities. It is currently projected to gain +25 Paranoia with zero reduction since it allocates less dice towards Black Mesa + Fort Horner, the 2 main projects which provide reduction this turn.
@Simon_Jester Do you have any plans on how to mitigate the Paranoia spike your plan is hitting? 45+25 = 70 Paranoia is enough to hit the threshold for Bad Things from Mengsk.
I think voters need to be wary of the Paranoia levels within plans, because most are hitting +10 to +15 Paranoia just from SCVs + Mass Literacy + Truth Committee. We need to account for reduction as well, unless we deliberately want to see how the Paranoia mechanic comes into effect.
I have done a lot to tamp down the Paranoia gains from the plan with relatively minor changes. Even if we do suffer Paranoia increases, then the same argument Laurent is making ("we'll be in a great position to crank Paranoia way down next turn") applies to mine. Even in cases of extraordinary bad luck, we should not be in the range where there is any risk of Mengsk shooting us out of hand.I want to back simons plan but I feel like it needs to lose Imperial university and flip making actual news into a propaganda outlit because I do not want to play games with mengsk deciding to really audit our actions
I do not want to get shot by a magic bullet from Terra Nova
Thank you kindly.Edit: [] Plan Attempting to Expand Our Capabilities, Now With 68% Less Paranoia!
I think you will need to remove the word 'Edit' so that the X in square brackets is the first thing on the line for your vote here to be counted.Edit: [] Plan Attempting to Expand Our Capabilities, Now With 68% Less Paranoia!
Thanks, I'll check that it. I actually like the moral questions and extra levels of complexity this quest raises. If I sound frustrated, it's not because so many of our choices are evil - we work for an evil autocrat, that's to be expected. I'm frustrated because it feels like we're only engaging with the quest on the same level as every other empire quest - make number go up (which is fun in its place). This could be so much more.You know, I could argue with you about the morality of the Megacomplex. I could explain how utilitarianism dictates that this must be done. I could expound on how we tried for a peaceful resolution, but received a closed fist instead of an open hand. I perhaps could even attempt to frame the refugees as the bad guys who are sabotaging our attempts to help so many other refugees for selfish reasons, although that's something of a stretch at best.
I could, but I won't, because, frankly, it doesn't matter. Fact of the matter is that we need to get the Megacomplex done in order to complete the plan goals. We need to complete the plan goals in order to stay Imperial Chancellor, and we need to stay Imperial Chancellor in order to overthrow Mengsk. Otherwise he'll just get someone else to do the job and/or we get eaten/killed/enslaved.
Likewise, we've got a ton of reconstruction projects that need to be done as part of the plan, and we have little to no idea how many phases each reconstruction project has. Until our situation is more stable, we can't really afford to place many free dice on personal actions, if any at all.
Don't get me wrong, it sucks, but that's the way the quest is structured. We need to do bad in order that we can do (hopefully greater) good. If you want a plan quest that has less morally questionable actions as a palette cleanser (not judging, there's a reason I quit the original Soviet plan quest), may I suggest Per Aspera, by Shadows. It's a quest that takes place in a world where WW2 was significantly more bloody than OTL, leading to a successful worldwide popular revolution against the nation states. It's highly enjoyable, and Shadows is quite a good QM.
You play as the head of the newly organized Interplanetary Exploration Cooperative, dedicated to spreading "peace, goodwill, investment, and scientific advances without discrimination or regard to old lines in the sand". Biggest moral debate in that thread from what I can recall was whether or not to give up on a plan goal after a particularly horrific series of dice rolls (4 rolls, only one of which was higher than an 8, and that one was an 18!) meant we had three dice, a +10 bonus, and a single reroll that isn't best of reroll and original roll, to get 275 points of progress done on a plan goal in a single turn. Thankfully, we were given an option to turn resources into progress on that one project. Probably helped that we spent all but one eligible die on the project that budget cycle, and the odd die out was needed so we could safely complete another plan goal.
Making significant progress towards a reconstruction goal seemed worth it to me.As far as it goes, I think a wiser move if you're focused on avoiding paranoia this turn is 1-2 dice in Regreening so that it can be finished next turn along with a bunch more Paranoia-reduction, and then 2-3 dice, depending in one of the /150 projects, such as Yum-Yum since that's not Paranoia boost, or balancing it out by taking the Vardonis, which is still a gain so it depends on priorities elsewhere.
In many cases, the plan targets are things that "help people in real ways." Having food security and an industrial base are helpful to people.We could carefully dole out just enough progress to keep Mengsk and the other department heads off our backs while working to help people in real ways. We could be building grass-roots strength and resiliency in ways that would allow the people of the Dominion to defend themselves not just from external threats like the Zerg and the UED, but from oppressors like Mengsk as well.
The TRUST troops are actually very useful if we are hoping to overthrow Mengsk, and are not more evil than just "existing while in the Dominion." I think you are greatly misreading the situation there.Alternately, if we questers want to be evil - and it can be fun to play the badguy, we could do that. We could play the evil oligarch advisor scheming to grab as big of a piece of the pie as we can. We could be pouring as many resources as we can beg, borrow, or steal, into solidifying our own position. In which case the majority of our turns would likely see our Free dice split between personal actions to reinforce our own position and Bureaucracy to expand the power of our department. We'd leap on opportunities like the almost cartoonishly evil [] Vardona: Treasury Reserve Uniformed Service Troops [NEW] when they show up in other categories.
Well yes, but we're already doing that anyway. It's just a matter of specifically whether we're playing the long game or the speedrun game, and whether we think that reconstructing the Terran industrial base in the wake of the recent civil war is important to the well-being of the people.Either would make for an excellent and novel quest. A quest where we seek to not only sort out the mathematically optimal path, but also one where we strive to navigate the myriad pitfalls of an autocratic dystopia to arrive at a destination of our own choice. Masters of our destiny despite all the odds.
In fairness, we're only just starting to ramp up. We delayed contacting the Raiders for 2 turns to get our house in order, and are spending three dice this turn on ensuring we have the resource income needed to make use of the four personal dice we have. Building up resources (like dice, bonuses, etc.) before embarking on important tasks is a classic plan quest strategy for a reason. Given how quickly paranoia will spike if we repeatedly fail personal goals, it's a wise decision in this case.I'm frustrated because it feels like we're only engaging with the quest on the same level as every other empire quest - make number go up (which is fun). This could be so much more.
It is possible that the situation will shift such that we no longer need to worry about our current plan goals. However it is also possible, and even likely, that we will still need to have the reconstruction projects done before the deadline. They're useful in just about every situation, and Mengsk seems more likely to add more to our plate than remove. Samuel L. Jackson said it best when playing Nick Fury in the first Avengers movie "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on".Our plan goals are 4 years in the future (with two exceptions which you'll note I've not objected to in any way), now 14 turns in the future. By the time we get there, Mengsk could be dead. There could be an all out rebellion and Mengsk will have changed our goals. There could be an invasion by the UED, Zerg, or over-zealous Protoss and Mengsk could change our goals. Mengsk could change his mind and change our goals or the time limit for basically no reason, as he has already done once. Such is an autocrat's prerogative. It is entirely in character for him to continue doing so whenever he pleases; he need explain himself to no-one.
We're already doing this, just slowly for now. Disadvantage of starting with such a sizable malus to all areas.We could be building grass-roots strength and resiliency in ways that would allow the people of the Dominion to defend themselves not just from external threats like the Zerg and the UED, but from oppressors like Mengsk as well.
If we went the evil route, we'd get bad-ended by one of the many forces threatening the Korpalu Sector. Mengsk being at the top of the Dominion is not a survival trait.Alternately, if we questers want to be evil - and it can be fun to play the badguy, we could do that. We could play the evil oligarch advisor scheming to grab as big of a piece of the pie as we can. We could be pouring as many resources as we can beg, borrow, or steal, into solidifying our own position. In which case the majority of our turns would likely see our Free dice split between personal actions to reinforce our own position and Bureaucracy to expand the power of our department. We'd leap on opportunities like the almost cartoonishly evil [] Vardona: Treasury Reserve Uniformed Service Troops [NEW] they show up in other categories.
Some of the moves we have are pretty damn drastic. We're just trying to pace ourselves and take precautions to avoid getting caught, preferably while keeping Paranoia continuously low-to-medium so that Mengsk never sees it coming.[] Plan Attempting to Expand Our Capabilities, Now With 68% Less Paranoia!
This gets the job done and I don't think we are in real danger of getting Mensk to call up his black bag teams. We can only hope as time goes on our boss feels more secure and more drastic moves open up.
If it's safe for us to take that action with one die now, it's safe for us to take that action with one die in the future. We'll have plenty of opportunities to squeeze it in alongside some other Personal action that really, really needs to have three dice assigned to it....also I just realized that the "less paranoia" version abandons the possibility of actually expanding our actions or achieving anything meaningful in Personal by ditching the Personal on the low-DC option that we have a 90-something chance to pass.
Starting with Turn 4, I'd like people formulating plans to use the format in this post. I borrowed it from @Simon_Jester and it's got basically everything I want: projects broken down by category, extant progress, per-category and per-project dice and resource allocations, and nesting. You are also free to include the probability of completion if you like, but it's not necessary on my end.
I'm also going to ask that everyone making a plan stick to a single current plan apiece, and that each person have distinctive names for their plans. This will cut down on confusion all around, I think. I do ask that you iterate your plans rather than editing the original post, though, as that maintains maximum transparency. Please keep the iterations to an absolute minimum, and try not to make new ones after the moratorium unless you're coming up with an entirely new plan.
For example, User A has Plan Great Plan. If they decide to change it, they should make a new post with Plan Great Plan mk2 rather than edit the original PGP. If User B wants to riff off of Plan Great Plan, they should come up with a new name like Plan Awesome Idea, rather than something like Plan Great Plan Version B, and post their new PAI separately.
Please note that these are guidelines intended to promote clarity and make things easier for people (mostly me), not rules that people should be calling each other out on. They're based mostly on my own preferences and do not constitute anything but me wanting to keep things easy to understand.
Also, please do not change anything for the current voting period, as that'll just mess everything up. I'll link to these guidelines again when Turn 4 drops.
[] Plan Attempting to Extinguish the Dumpster Fires
-[] Infrastructure (4/4 dice + 1 Free, 60R)
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) 0/400 (2 dice, 30R)
--[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) 0/600 (3 dice, 30R)
-[] Heavy Industry (3/3 dice, 35R)
--[] Korhal: Keresh Mining Complex (Phase 1) 0/200 (3 dice, 30R)
-[] Light Industry (3/3 dice, 60R)
--[] Korhal: Canis Chemical Refinery (Phase 1) 0/400 (3 dice, 60R)
-[] Environmental (3/3 dice, 30R)
--[] Tyrador IX: Establish Farmsteads (Phase 1) 0/400 (3 dice, 30R)
-[] Services (3/3 dice, 0R)
--[] Obligatory National Service (3 dice, 0R)
-[] Military (4/4 dice, 40R)
--[] Korhal: Eastcliff Military Academy 0/200 (2 dice, 20R)
--[] Tyrador IX: Military Recruitment Offices 0/200 (2 dice, 20R)
-[] Research (3/3 dice, 20R)
--[] Supply Bunkers 0/50 (1 die, 10R)
--[] Integrated Protective Ensemble 0/100 (2 dice, 10R)
-[] Bureaucracy (2/2 dice, 10R)
--[] Appoint a Vice-Chancellor (2 dice, 10R)
-[] Personal (1/1 + 1 Free, 0R)
--[] Hire an Executive Assistant (2 dice, 0R)