an explaination of the plot of a sci-fi series is the opposite of letting you know if you can actually bear watching it in my experience.
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
Basically the most important thing is for QM to like and feel comfortably in a setting he runs, otherwise game usually dies, so choosing what you feel most comfortable in is probably the best idea. Trying to interest the QM into running a certain setting more often than not just leads to stress and backfires.
This said, when the question becomes more relevant you can still think of a list of settings you would like to run and make the final decision.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Actually Stargate could work as well - through I prefer it less because it had a tendency to be all over the place with tech-of-the-week and inconsistent technobabble. All 5 seasons of B5 are available on PirateBay through. I'll try to track down the RPG material or a streaming version of the show.
There's also a really good quest on SV called Copilots that's set in B5 and covers basically the whole show at this point, through it's from an OC's point of view. You can also look at the long, long, looooong dead (but very good) Circle No Longer on SB, which was also a civ quest.
edit: But don't feel pressured to run a setting you're not comfortable with! I'm making suggestions in case you're on the fence, but if you're not digging it that's fine.
edit 2: Also apparently the B5 show-runner really didn't like the RPGs, so I think you can skip those?
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- Location
- Mobile, Alabama
Important thing is. You pick what's fun for you. Like by the time you get to what you consider the switch over point? You'll have put a long time into this. No reason to torture yourself. Your fun matters.
Gotcha. Yeah that make sense. People would be hightailing it from earth to juke possible Scrin following. Just was curious.
Sure GDI will get right on it.
/Looks back at at least the last 4 Tiberium wars.
/Nod does something wrong.
Aliens: How do you handle this?
GDI: Tanks usually.
Aliens: Does that work?
GDI: For at least 20 years. Then you have to apply it again.
I mean I'm sure GDI will.
/Council meeting
Aliens: This Kane guy is causing us issues.
GDI: Did you say Kane?
Aliens: Yes.. Why are you putting on armor?
/Act on Instinct intensifies.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Well, another issue with B5 is that we probably wouldn't be covering the timeline when canon takes place in. We'd be covering something like say, the early 2100s. Humanity might make contact with the larger galaxy before the Centauri have even conquered the Narn, literally half a century before the canon B5 First Contact.
And that makes things a lot rougher if you're only just now diving into the lore and need to figure out what'd be going on that far in the past.
And that makes things a lot rougher if you're only just now diving into the lore and need to figure out what'd be going on that far in the past.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
The good thing about Solarmovies is that it's free, it's a safe enough site that it gets a lot of traffic and is my current source for Loki, Star Wars shows and Rick & Morty. I wouldn't exactly turn off my adblock but I never turn it off anyway. It's what DS9 copied from.
Before any other Trekkies jump me on this, I love DS9 but it's a fact that J Micael Straczynski approached CBS with the series bible for Bab5 before DS9 was thought up. Yes, he had all 5 seasons written up in advance (except most of the scripts). When he was given the greenlight to produce it CBS turned around worried he'd take viewers from them and started making DS9. The two diverge fairly quickly but are still somewhat similar.
I love both of them and Stargate and the 2003 BSG. I feel that Bab5 deserves its moniker as a novel written for tv in a good way. It is a very well written and fleshed out universe with a slow first season as with many shows but once it gets going it gets going. I would skip the pilot if I were you, it does introduce things that come up again a bit later but those things it brings up are explained later for the most part. Plus the PPGs (Plasma Pulse Guns) in it are very obviously apeing phasers unlike later PPGs which are more distinct in appearance. The CGI does look dated but I feel it lends to the charm and the prosthetics are done well for the various races even if most are very human in appearance there a more than a few that diverge from that.
I would very much recommend watching it though as with Star Trek don't judge it solely off season 1, let it show you its chops. Season 3 is perhaps my favourite season but then that's also based around the Shadow War.
As always though, do what setting you feel comfortable with. If you need a hand with the lore there seem to be enough of us nerds without a life in this thread and on the discord to give you a hand.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A'ight, I got the preliminary array update ready. Go ahead and plan away. As always, please point out any errors or omissions you see. And here's this turn's unfinished/updated projects:
-[] Tidal Power Plants (Phase 2) 278/450 2 dice 20R 28%, 3 dice 30R 78%, 4 dice 40R 97%
-[] Chicago Planned City (Phase 3) 107/320 2 Tib dice 40R 27%, 3 Tib dice 60R 87%, 4 Tib dice 80R 99%
-[] Kure Machine Works 78/280 2 dice 30R 15%, 3 dice 45R 68%, 4 dice 60R 95%
-[] Chemical Precursor Plants 115/200 1 die 15R 46%, 2 dice 30R 93%
-[] Johannesburg Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 3?) 4/360? 4 dice 80R 9%, 5 dice 100R 42%, 6 dice 120R 77%, 7 dice 140R 94%
-[] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 3) 183/385 2 dice 40R+ 10%, 3 dice 60R+ 57%, 4 dice 80R+ 90%
-[] Orbital Cleanup (Phase 3) 44/90 1 die 10R+ 85%, 2 dice 20R+ 100%
-[] Orbital Cleanup (Phase 3+4) 44/180 2 dice 20R+ 60%, 3 dice 30R+ 93%
-[-] Asteroid Belt Survey Probes 16/90 1 die 15R 57%, 2 dice 30R 96%
-[] Fashion development houses 89/225 1 die 10R 10% (Req. omake), 2 dice 20R 82%, 3 dice 30R 99%
-[] Game Development Studios 232/300 1 die 5R 78%, 2 dice 10R 100%
-[] Vaccine Development Programs 59/150 1 die 25R 55%, 2 dice 50R 99%
-[] Reclamator Hub Red Zone 7-South? 51/105? 1 die 20R 77%, 2 dice 40R 99%
-Note: Expected roll-over from RZ 7-North.
-[] Super MARV Reclaimator Fleet (YZ-5a) 159/210 1 die 20R 80%, 2 dice 40R 99%
-[] Ablat Plating Deployment (Phase 3) 91/200? 1 die 10R 22%, 2 dice 20R 88%, 3 dice 30R 98%
-[] Chicago Planned City (Phase 3) 107/320 2 Tib dice 40R 27%, 3 Tib dice 60R 87%, 4 Tib dice 80R 99%
-[] Kure Machine Works 78/280 2 dice 30R 15%, 3 dice 45R 68%, 4 dice 60R 95%
-[] Chemical Precursor Plants 115/200 1 die 15R 46%, 2 dice 30R 93%
-[] Johannesburg Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 3?) 4/360? 4 dice 80R 9%, 5 dice 100R 42%, 6 dice 120R 77%, 7 dice 140R 94%
-[] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 3) 183/385 2 dice 40R+ 10%, 3 dice 60R+ 57%, 4 dice 80R+ 90%
-[] Orbital Cleanup (Phase 3) 44/90 1 die 10R+ 85%, 2 dice 20R+ 100%
-[] Orbital Cleanup (Phase 3+4) 44/180 2 dice 20R+ 60%, 3 dice 30R+ 93%
-[-] Asteroid Belt Survey Probes 16/90 1 die 15R 57%, 2 dice 30R 96%
-[] Fashion development houses 89/225 1 die 10R 10% (Req. omake), 2 dice 20R 82%, 3 dice 30R 99%
-[] Game Development Studios 232/300 1 die 5R 78%, 2 dice 10R 100%
-[] Vaccine Development Programs 59/150 1 die 25R 55%, 2 dice 50R 99%
-[] Reclamator Hub Red Zone 7-South? 51/105? 1 die 20R 77%, 2 dice 40R 99%
-Note: Expected roll-over from RZ 7-North.
-[] Super MARV Reclaimator Fleet (YZ-5a) 159/210 1 die 20R 80%, 2 dice 40R 99%
-[] Ablat Plating Deployment (Phase 3) 91/200? 1 die 10R 22%, 2 dice 20R 88%, 3 dice 30R 98%
- Infrastructure 5 dice +15
- Heavy Industry 5 dice +20
- Light and Chemical Industry 4 dice +15
- Agriculture 3 dice +15
- Tiberium 5 dice +35
- Orbital Industry 3 dice +15
- Services 4 dice +30
- Military 5 dice +15
- Bureaucracy 3 dice +15
- Last Security Review
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I like it, and I struggle to do better myself. I have a few different preferences myself, though.
In the interests of not overkilling any single Light Industry project, I'm tempted to take one of the dice off Chemical Precursors, which we don't NEED this turn, we have +1 Capital Goods to finish the next Governor yard anyway. Of course, to keep the move resource-neutral we'd need to shift it to another project we actually intend to pursue that costs 15 R/die or less. Johannesburg Personal Robotics Factory might not be a bad choice; we could use the +Logistics and we do need to keep up the consumer goods flow. Or Chemical Fertilizer Plants is particularly attractive in that area, because it's +Food and +Consumer Goods.
Likewise, I don't want to overkill the Titan Mk III deployment roll if it turns out to go well, especially if Johannesburg Phase 1+2 has lowered the Progress requirement (2d100+30 is unlikely to hit a target of 175, but has a reasonable chance to hit a target of 160 or 150). I recommend we put two dice on the Titan upgrades, prepared to put a third on next turn if we need to, and use the freed-up Military die to manufacture more ablatives since the troops love 'em and we'll want at least three phases of ablatives before we can turn to the next big Ground Forces project like Shell Plants or RWS-Predator.
Aside from that... Well, I like it. I'd support the plan as-is, but I really do want to avoid overkill on non-phased projects, and happily, nothing we're doing this turn is a must-complete.
On which note, I think when we get a second or third Governor yard built, we should think about slowing down to two dice per turn. We'll probably still be able to get two yards built every three turns that way, which is enough to have five or six done by the end of the Plan and gives us more freedom of action elsewhere. It does mean a slight delay in the rollout of the cruiser production wave, but it also means we have more Resource and dice breathing room to address other priorities, including naval priorities.
Personally I'm a fan. Also, we may find that having a huge Water surplus in the Yellow Zones gives us interesting options, or makes our 'Green Zone' controlled areas more attractive to refugees.
"Join the Light Side! We have hot showers!"
[grunts]
Yeah, I can get behind that. Chicago Phase 3 is 213 Progress away (minus omakes to surge it), so we'd have to get fairly lucky to hit the target with only two dice. Not as lucky as you'd think, because between a +15 omake bonus and a +70 on the dice, though, so we'd only need to roll... 128 or lower on 2d100. Even then, though, that phase of Chicago gives us only slightly more mitigation in its own right, and that's spread across Yellow and Red Zones, and we don't urgently need the increase to our refining cap. So yeah, I can get behind Red Zone Containment Lines for this turn, with the understanding that we go back to planned cities next turn probably.
Yeah, that's a good idea and in line with my own ideas about what to do this turn, modified by how helpful it was to get +115 progress on Enterprise Phase 3 out of a single die.
I am definitely a fan of slow-rolling such actions, especially the expensive ones.
See my above comments. I approve of your choices here, mostly. Finishing the Colombian Yellow Zone fleet gives us a near-guaranteed income boost next turn even if it's only +15, which makes things considerably less tight, especially when combined with the resource surge from orbital cleanup. If we roll well on Red Zone Lines, we might even hit 600 RpT for the Q3 budget with this plan!
I'm envisioning putting two MARV dice on the Chicago Red Zone fleet next turn, personally- I know I've been coming across as anti-MARV but I don't want to drop below an average of 1.5 dice/turn until we've at least fulfilled our promises to Major Stavrakis to build her five land battleship armadas. And I do genuinely want that fleet finished sooner, rather than later; the draw of the greater income makes me tempted to argue for three dice next turn- but that's next turn... when we're setting ourselves up to be resource-rich with Orbital Cleanup.
@Ithillid , do we know how many phases of Orbital Cleanup there are? I don't want to overinvest in the last one...
- Location
- The Underdark
A fairly large number.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The only thing easy-access about Tiberium is that if you're not coming to it it by and large comes to you and then kills you horribly.
It is easily the most dangerous substance to work with in a world with chloride triflouride, yellowcake, and Kane, and if/when we switch back to more conventional modes of mineral extraction I think it'll be a net positive with some speedbumps along the way.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
I'd like to keep some level of slack in the system, just in case we get unlucky and roll low for Chemical Precursors. Then again, I suppose between it and Kure, we should be safe...
Titan Mk III I can see an argument for only 2 dice instead of 3, but given the issues with the Wolverine Mk III, I'd rather risk overkilling it than underkilling it. If Macrospinner Phase 2 reduced the Progress Required though, I'd be happy to push it down to 2 dice.
- Location
- USA
Did we get a 5 progress discount on all stations from that nat 100?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Shifting the timeline is a piece of cake tho? Just adjust it by authorial fiat.
Speaking of the macrospinner, if it gave us at least 2 points of capital goods we can do the strategic planning apparatus next turn as long as we put 2 dice into the chemical plants to make sure we have the 5 spare capital goods to do a cruiser shipyard and strategic planning together.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
As said above this can be done by fiat, also we don't have WW3 to claw back from. We have WW6 on the way but it's unlikely to be as damaging to us as WW3 was to Bab5 Earth.
whut. Did Bab5 Earth knock themselves down to 100 million people and destroy the biosphere?
- Location
- The Underdark
Yes. You made some breakthroughs on the methods of space construction, giving you an extra 5 point discount on stations.
- Location
- USA
Oh can we get the full effects of the nat 1 and nat 100?
- Location
- The Underdark
I am still figuring out what effect the Nat 1 will have precisely, but it will be a smallish construction project.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Looking at my draft again... if I reduce Titan Dice to 2, then I could take it and get rid of Orca Refits to swap over to 2 dice on RWS. Which... won't complete unless we're extremely lucky, but has a decent chance of getting us halfway there. And it leaves me with a 5 Resource surplus.
Which I could then use to turn a Chemical Precursor die into a Macrospinner die if people want. Or well, actually I imagine people would rather I save those 5 Resources to turn a Boston die into whatever Fusion project becomes available next turn (if one does.)
Chemical die could either go for Johannesburg or Chemical Fertilizer. Chemical Fertilizer + YZ Aquaponics Stage 4 + Entari + Perennials rolling out would complete our food requirement (and at 1 less Energy upkeep than Vertical Farms for example), but it requires us spending LCI dice on another /200 Progress Project instead of on, say, the Macrospinner.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Stargate does cross over interestingly with the question of Kane's origins, though. Because of all the associations between ancient Earth mythology and various real precursor/elder spacefaring species.
I mean, yes and no. Tiberium is insidious, and because it's self-replicating it's got an incredibly low lethal dose from a toxicity point of view.
But it's nowhere near as volatile as chlorine trifluoride or other 'too kaboomy for your rocket propellant' compounds like that, and lower volatility covers a multitude of sins.
I dunno, I suspect there's a reason the Scrin still work with the stuff.
That's the point. It doesn't matter if we roll low on Chemical Precursors and roll OK/well on the Governor yard. We just go back down to (=) Capital Goods for a turn, or +2 if we finish Kure.
By @Derpmind 's math, we have a 46% chance of finishing Chemical Precursors with one die, and if that doesn't do the job then the second die almost certainly will. Good enough, I say.
Keeping the line suspended for one turn doesn't really count as "too long," from the looks of it- it triggers grumbling but the Talons will grumble anyway.
Also, frankly, we can't really afford to average more than about 1 die/turn on Talons funding with everything else we need, anyway. In the admittedly likely event that two dice don't complete the rollout of the Mark III, at least we'll know what we're spending our 1-2 dice on next turn.
I think we were told that it would.
Last time we rolled out a Talon deployment project the assembly line stopped and we needed to do it fast to avoid negative consequences.
2 dice only give a 26% chance to finish it in one turn vs. 76% with 3 dice, so we might do it, but in case of bad rolls next round it could become a problem.
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Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
[ ] Plan Curse You Tiberium Dice Mk II
Infrastructure (5 dice)
-[ ] Tidal Power Plants (Phase 2), 5 dice (50 Resources)
Heavy Industry (5 dice)
-[ ] Whatever Nuclear Fusion Project Shows Up, 1 die (20 Resources)
-[ ] North Boston Chip Fabricator (Phase 4), 1 die (15 Resources)
-[ ] Kure Machine Works, 3 dice (45 Resources)
Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice)
-[ ] Chemical Precursor Plants, 1 die (15 Resources)
-[ ] Personal Pharmaceuticals Plants, 2 dice (30 Resources)
-[ ] Chemical Fertilizer Plants, 1 die (15 Resources)
Agriculture (3 dice)
-[ ] Yellow Zone Purification Facilities, 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Entari Deployment, 1 die (20 Resources)
Tiberium (5 dice)
-[ ] Tiberium Prospecting Expeditions, 3 dice (15 Resources)
-[ ] Red Zone Containment Lines (Phase 3), 2 dice (50 Resources)
Orbital (3 dice +1 Free)
-[ ] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 3), 2 dice (2 Fusion) (40 Resources)
-[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Phase 3), 2 die (2 Fusion) (20 Resources)
Services (4 dice)
-[ ] Fashion development houses, 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Game Development Studios, 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Vaccine Development Programs, 1 die (25 Resources)
Military (5 dice +5 Free)
-[ ] Reclamator Fleet YZ-5a (Super MARVs), 1 die (20 Resources)
-[ ] Remote Weapons System Deployment Predator, 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Ablat Plating Deployment (phase 3), 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Governor Class Cruiser Shipyards (Durban), 3 dice (60 Resources)
-[ ] Titan Mark 3 Deployment, 2 dice (20 Resources)
Bureaucracy (3 dice)
-[ ] Cooperative Focus, 3 dice
Resources Available: 545
Resources Used: 545
Resources Remaining: 0
Alright, Mk II Plan. Titans reduced to 2 dice and Orca taken out for 2 dice on RWS. The saved 5 Resources go towards making a Boston die go for whatever Fusion options shows up. And one Chemical Precursors die has instead been put towards Chemical Fertilizers for the +++Food, which gives us more ability to fulfill our Food Promise.
Infrastructure (5 dice)
-[ ] Tidal Power Plants (Phase 2), 5 dice (50 Resources)
Heavy Industry (5 dice)
-[ ] Whatever Nuclear Fusion Project Shows Up, 1 die (20 Resources)
-[ ] North Boston Chip Fabricator (Phase 4), 1 die (15 Resources)
-[ ] Kure Machine Works, 3 dice (45 Resources)
Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice)
-[ ] Chemical Precursor Plants, 1 die (15 Resources)
-[ ] Personal Pharmaceuticals Plants, 2 dice (30 Resources)
-[ ] Chemical Fertilizer Plants, 1 die (15 Resources)
Agriculture (3 dice)
-[ ] Yellow Zone Purification Facilities, 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Entari Deployment, 1 die (20 Resources)
Tiberium (5 dice)
-[ ] Tiberium Prospecting Expeditions, 3 dice (15 Resources)
-[ ] Red Zone Containment Lines (Phase 3), 2 dice (50 Resources)
Orbital (3 dice +1 Free)
-[ ] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 3), 2 dice (2 Fusion) (40 Resources)
-[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Phase 3), 2 die (2 Fusion) (20 Resources)
Services (4 dice)
-[ ] Fashion development houses, 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Game Development Studios, 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Vaccine Development Programs, 1 die (25 Resources)
Military (5 dice +5 Free)
-[ ] Reclamator Fleet YZ-5a (Super MARVs), 1 die (20 Resources)
-[ ] Remote Weapons System Deployment Predator, 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Ablat Plating Deployment (phase 3), 2 dice (20 Resources)
-[ ] Governor Class Cruiser Shipyards (Durban), 3 dice (60 Resources)
-[ ] Titan Mark 3 Deployment, 2 dice (20 Resources)
Bureaucracy (3 dice)
-[ ] Cooperative Focus, 3 dice
Resources Available: 545
Resources Used: 545
Resources Remaining: 0
Alright, Mk II Plan. Titans reduced to 2 dice and Orca taken out for 2 dice on RWS. The saved 5 Resources go towards making a Boston die go for whatever Fusion options shows up. And one Chemical Precursors die has instead been put towards Chemical Fertilizers for the +++Food, which gives us more ability to fulfill our Food Promise.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Not quite such a low number I think and the biosphere was still kind of intact. Earthdome is named such for a reason, it's actually hinted that the major citied are either domed or used to be domed. I know they did have to spend a lot of time rebuilding and recovering the planetary environment before they returned to space.
I mean, at least it's not like the bit where we see years into the future and they'd nuked themselves back into the stone age.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
That's an interesting alternative option I'm willing to explore, though personally I'd rather have the capital goods cash-in-hand before undertaking the strategic planning apparatus project, rather than relying on just-in-time delivery of projects. Using resources and dice efficiently, and avoiding overkill on unphased projects, is important.
The strategic planning upgrade is desirable but not urgent in that we're not really hurting that badly for the lack of it. We have plenty of things we can do just fine without it for another turn or two, so I'd rather not take chances.
Ohhh, that's interesting and tempting in its own right.
A few caveats, though.
1) I think I heard that the next fusion project is gated behind the Kure Machine Works.
2) I'd rather work on Shell Plants Phase 4 instead of RWS-Predator. It's listed as a higher or equal priority, it's explicitly something we need to do if we want to do a fortress town expansion in the Yellow Zones, and it's phased so overkill isn't a problem if we roll well.
3) If we do broadly as you discuss, though, we should totally do the Orca refit project next turn. Air Force needs some love.
Light Industry dice aren't so much the problem. The really sexy Light Industry projects are Resource-expensive, so it's very hard to scrape up the funds to throw all four dice at them at once anyway. We're not going to be putting more than 1-2 dice on the superconductor foundry or more than 2-3 dice on the macrospinner any time soon, realistically.
If two dice disappoint us badly in Turn T, we just throw two more dice at it in Turn T+1 instead of one. @Derpmind ran the numbers and I seem to recall her saying we have a 96% chance of clearing the project with four dice, even without any reduced Progress costs from the macrospinner. That's only going to get more favorable in the future.
The deployment dice are cheap in resources, 1 or 2 dice per turn represents a reasonable non-surge level of funding for the Talons, and in the unlikely event of a bad combination of rolls stretching out the production freeze into a third turn despite us throwing two-and-two dice at the problem, it's likely that the problem is a fuckup on the Talons' end (e.g. they get so distracted throwing modifications onto their latest Wunderwaffe that they never get around to unfucking the production problems and the line is still only turning out hand-built prototypes six months later
)Again, recommending Shell Plants instead of RWS, and I strongly suspect there won't actually be a fusion option next turn, just someone yelling at us to finish Kure already.
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