Attempting to Survive the Apocalypse: Dimensional Dislocation

[BlessedYetDamned]

Come on man, be positive! This turn asn't as bad as it could have been.

I'm sure nothing bad will come of it at all, and I bet the next turn will have some very shocking rolls.

Click to shrink...

I mean those next turn event rolls in particular were abysmal.

As far as projects to focus on, I'm kinda thinking we might want to prioritize the Heavy Attack Copter?

It will give our squads some much needed firepower in addition to mobility. At the very least, we've yet to see any Elid/Idc that can fly.

 

[Novi]

Nat 100! Great place for it to hit. Looks like any relationship with the Americans is unsalvageable.

 

[Nigerian Duck]

Neutral cloud is just as essential. We don't know when we will lose the ability to draw power from the EU grid. And we don't know if having ELISA look at the ELID and IDC data could damage her in some way. We need to be able to harden ELISA ASAP.

Click to shrink...

Erm, I'm sorry what? I thought that we've already lost connection to the EU grid seeing as the EU no longer supplies our power? Nevermind I just took a look at the Neural Cloud, and though it does seem importnat I don't believe that simple data from the ELID or IDC would damage her, as it seems it was more a measure for if she lost the power to operate for even a second. More like cloud storage. For now I don't see that happening with our current power management, as we're not deep in deficit and the storm of fluid still has at the very least two turns before it reaches us.

Whereas Sorawo's capabilities will be greatly enhanced by educating her. I'm fine with either one, but I feel more focus should go to her, seeing as we've mostly focused on ELISA.

It will give our squads some much needed firepower in addition to mobility. At the very least, we've yet to see any Elid/Idc that can fly.

Click to shrink...

You fool! You've doomed us all by jynxing it!

 

[BlessedYetDamned]

You fool! You've doomed us all by jynxing it!

Click to shrink...

I mean I'm sure there are, or at least ones that are big/tall enough that it functionally makes no difference.

What I really think we need to do is get eyes within the Collapse Fluid Cloud. We have no real idea what's going on in there - for all we know the dimensional breaches are getting wider and wider allowing increasingly large creatures through.

 

[Rukia]

Q3 2026

Resources: 575 + 350
Political Support: 40
Public Confidence: 30/100
Free Dice: 3/3
Operations Dice: 1/1

Economic Factors
Sealed Housing: 158 [+71 (+30)]
Sealed Agriculture: 158 [+71 (+30)]
Decontaminated Water: 133 [+65 (+30)]
Sealed Power: 168 [+71 (+30)]
Sealed Industry: 133 [+65 (+30)]
Radiation Suits: 180 [+74 (+30)]

Future Foundation Economic Status
Housing: Small Deficit(-5)
Food: Small Deficit(-5)
Water: Small Deficit(-5)
Power: Small Deficit (-3)
Labour: Large Surplus (16)

Future Foundation Military Status
Logistics: Small Deficit (-4)
Fuel: Large Deficit (-20)
Ammunition: Substantial Deficit (-35)
Maintenance: Large Deficit (-14)

IDC Presence Estimates
German Breach: Medium Concentration
Swiss/Italian Breach: High Concentration
Slovakia Breach: High Concentration
Kipi Breach: Extremely High Concentration (-5 Public Confidence per Turn)

Known Type D ELID
N/A

Infrastructure

[] Expand Foundation Headquarters (Stage 1)
Small extensions to the central facility can be made to expand capacity, used to supply the staff and soldiers of the Foundation.
(141/75: 15 Resources per Die +3 Housing +3 Food +3 Water -3 Power) (Stage 2) (66/100: 15 Resources per Die +5 Housing +5 Food +5 Water -4 Power)

The sudden and unexpected handover of housing duties to the Foundation has been the kick needed to finally begin further construction of local housing. Under the direct supervision of Elisa and a small cabal of lesser AI, along with the ongoing efforts to automate as much as possible, a furious pace of work began. The initial expansion, an integrated housing, hydroponics and water processing facility similar to the main facility made heavy user of ALR-50 labour, shipments of prefabricated sections being put together faster than they could arrive. Despite the ongoing near-anarchy raging across the Union, a firm military hand meant that the supplies continued arriving at a measured pace.

Such was the pace that significant progress on the next round of construction was made, much of the shell moved into place and connected together, waiting for the critical systems to be put into place. But the toll taken on the ALR units began to show, they'd been run ragged, skipping minor maintenance until they could work no longer. The units were taken down for a total overhaul, putting a stop to further construction this quarter.

90Wish had been following the progress of the project with interest, as it neatly covered all of your specialities, robotics directed by AI in autonomous work. They have more than a few ideas for improvements that could be made in the future.

(Personal Project costs halved, +10 bonus to Robotics and AI dice next turn)


[] Expand Barracks (Stage 1)
Expand the facilities used to house your military force, giving you additional housing capability. The barracks are capable of supporting a sealed environment to live in, but it is a rather grim affair for everyone involved.
(28/50: 5 Resource per Die +1 Operations Dice -1 Housing, -1 Food, -1 Water)

Work began on this project right as the experiment with the housing began and the allocation of resources showed. With almost all logistical transport allocated towards shipping in the parts for the housing expansion and the inconsistent power supply being prioritised elsewhere, only preliminary work was completed on the barracks, the grounds were cleared and the frame of the building was established, but it remained unfurnished and was not a sealed environment. More work would need to be done to complete it next quarter.


[] Maintenance Facility (Stage 2)
At the moment, if you wanted something repaired or had to have work done, it would either need to be sent off for repair or have someone called in. The realities of the incoming collapse make that kind of outside reliance an enormous hindrance. Building a simple facility that contains the tools required to fix everything on base is just good sense. Mostly containing manual and power tools for work around the base, but it does have a large room for working on vehicles.
(109/100: 5 Resources per Die +7 Maintenance -5 Labour) (Stage 3) (9/150: 5 Resources per Die +10 Maintenance -6 Labour)

The finishing touches were made on the existing facility, filling out the missing parts to bring the foundry into operation, finally granting the Foundation the ability to produce replacement parts for various odds and ends without needing to ship them in.

This newfound ability was sorely tested in the past few months as the Foundation's fast pass for maintenance and supply was reduced, meaning weeks or months of delays for simple fixes from other sites. The new staff of the maintenance facility had barely been shown to their -still under construction- housing before they were whisked away to work, much of their days spent swearing at the delicate internals of the ALR-50's as they perform rework after rework on the frames being run to collapse by Elisa and her construction cabal. One of your monitoring programs noted a truly above average number of curses in their weekly reports.


[] Foundation Electrification (Stage 2)
Fuel is expensive, time consuming and difficult to produce unless working on industrial scales. More importantly, after the collapse it will be very difficult to acquire said fuel for what you need it for. The simple answer is to electrify as many things currently using fuel as possible, power is much easier to come about.
(95/100: 15 Resources per Die +20 Fuel -30 Power)

Once again, the loss of priority ordering for the Foundation drastically slowed your progress here. Where previously it was reasonable to expect at least part of an order to be diverted to fill your needs, now you had to wait in the queue like everyone else. Despite the setback, general production of electric vehicles has never been higher, so you managed to acquire a portion of your needs from official channels while letting Elisa snap up any that appeared as second hand sales. The price gouging was atrocious, but you needed what they were supplying and you almost had enough to replace your entire fleet, for now it was just a few remaining.


Industry

[] Low-Upkeep Power (Stage 2)
In the future, the availability of resources and materials for running large power plants will be heavily limited, so establishing a policy of using Low-Upkeep power wherever possible is a good idea. This mostly comes in the form of solar panels wherever they can fit, interspersed with wind turbines.
(93/35: 5 Resources per Die +15 Power) (Stage 3) (58/50: 5 Resources per Die +20 Power) (Stage 4) (8/75: 5 Resources per Die +25 Power)

The previous orders of panels finally arrived in bulk as the myriad of new factories dedicated to producing a standard model of solar panels came online and, thankfully, your back orders still maintained the previous priority that you no longer had. The existing frames were filled and a small forest of panels began sprouting from every roof and empty space nearby, filling out the empty fields around the headquarters. Despite the significant increase in production capacity, the sudden cut from the grid had seen certain areas of the Foundation cut off from power to prioritise need. Possible for now, but in the future it wouldn't be possible to turn off the isolation systems of the housing and work buildings.


[] Munition Foundries (Stage 1)
Now that a calibre had finally been decided upon, local factories can begin supplying the Foundation with their ammunition of choice, 5.56 NATO.
(40/50: 10 Resources per Die -10 Power +10 Ammunition +3 Logistics -5 Labour)

Not being able to rely on having ammunition delivered on demand had sent another backlog project to the front of the pile, yet another building sprouting from the slowly sprawling mass surrounding the main building with equipment dedicated to producing all of the bits and pieces that might be needed for small arms ammunition. Preliminary production runs have just begun, but manufacturing defects haven't seen them be declared safe to use in a firearms just yet.


[] ALR-50 Mass Production (Stage 1)
The previous ALR-50 facility was built for small scale production, but demand for the product has far outstripped your ability to produce it. Thus, a significant section of land has been cleared for the construction of a gigantic factory plant dedicated to producing the ALR-50 in as high a quantity as possible.
(347/200: 15 Resources per Die -15 Power +20 Labour +6 Incremental Increase per Quarter +5 Political Support +50 Resources per Turn)
(Stage 2) (147/300: 15 Resources per Die -15 Power +20 Labour +6 Incremental Increase per Quarter +5 Political Support +50 Resources per Turn)

This was another major area of focus for Elisa and the Construction AI's, directing the massive quantity of resources arriving nearly 24/7 into a building that grows before your eyes. The initial focus had been on streamlining ALR production in your existing factory, increasing output significantly, but to meet the demand you would need another, larger building for production runs. The impossible deadlines required had seen some previously set standards being dropped, most importantly being the requirement for the facility to be human operated.

Making such such a large space remained hermetically sealed drastically increased the costs and time it took to build, so using the existing factory as a template the AI's got to work automating every single step of the process that could be, leaving entire sections of the production line without human habitable sections, only including the spaces where human operators were required for work that the ALR-50 was just too clumsy to manage. It was the first step of what would hopefully become the new standard in the future, the human race finally entering the final stage of the automation era.

The increased supply of units across the Union sees production continue accelerating, work moving at a blistering pace despite the incredible social unrest, so far even the most aggressive rioters had managed to avoid infringing on construction efforts, though you don't know how long that will last.

A small personal victory was achieved this quarter as well, with enough housing and supplies for at least least one million people in place. With the rate of construction only continuing to accelerate it might actually be possible to hit your initial 10 million mark.


Services

[] Automation Intensification
You have built the foundations of your tower, now it's time to climb to the heavens. Focus intensely on increasing efficiency per worker and cutting out the remaining jobs that can be performed by a machine.
-[] Infrastructure (Stage 2) (175/75: 5 Resources per Die +1 Infrastructure Dice +3 Labour -2 Power) (Stage 3) (100/100: 5 Resources per Die +1 Infrastructure Dice +3 Labour -2 Power)
-[] Industry (Stage 2) (101/75: 5 Resources per Die +1 Industry Dice +3 Labour -2 Power) (Stage 3) (26/100: 5 Resources per Die +1 Industry Dice +3 Labour -2 Power)

The ALR-50 features prominently in your automation efforts this quarter, augmenting as many of the construction and work teams with them as possible. Despite their difficulties and drawbacks, they still drastically increase productivity for workers, not quite replacing workers but greatly aiding them in their tasks. The tenancy of people to humanise objects continues strongly, as work teams grow attached to "their" ALR and give them nicknames, some of them even learning a bit about the basic maintenance required to keep them operational.

"Elisa, how are you feeling?" You continue skimming through the report, thinking about your... other project for the Neural Cloud system.

Her report is as you expected, direct and to the point. "I do not have feelings."


[] Personal Assistants
Now that you have a working example, providing assistants to each of your heads of staff should greatly ease the burden of the workload they are suffering under.
(35/100: 5 Resources per Die +1 Free Dice)

A project you thought would be an easy pass has run into a rather unexpected problem, they find the demo helpers uncomfortable. You'd never bothered creating routines for social management, they where certainly capable of interpreting what was being said to them, but they weren't able to reply in the same way. Elisa's starkly mechanical and utilitarian method of communicating had never bothered you all that much, but it was... something of a realisation as to the importance.

An additional issue, admittedly one that you were aware of, was the volatility of the AI's memory. With the ongoing power issues you had always been careful to make sure your office and Elisa's servers had constant power, but you were less able to guarantee that for anyone else. Should their AI lose power for even a moment, it would cause significant damage to the Neural Cloud and completely destroy any semblance of operation, you'd have to wipe it clean and start again.


[] Public Propaganda
While it's not explicitly your role, you could certainly attempt to help public opinion along with a bit from the sidelines.
DC: 50

With a bit of co-ordination via Elisa, you had managed to contact equivalent of a PR team in the Union government and offered a bit of help with emphasising how great the ALR's were to the public and how much they were increasing the pace of life saving construction. They were so busy being run ragged that they could only spare a small team to send over, which besides providing an escort to keep them in the right areas and keep their fingers honest, you just let them do their thing.

The report returned to you by Elisa a few weeks later was... acceptable. It was hardly the greatest work you'd seen put to media, but it took strong influences from WW2 propaganda and somehow managed to extoll just how much construction was getting done without letting slip that nowhere near enough was being done.

(+10 Public Confidence)


[] The American Question
Reach out to your American counterpart for Zieliński and try to sound them out to see if it's possible to bring them into your cozy little conspiracy of friendship.
DC: 11

The response from the American, who's name you never got, was sharp and frosty. Where previously he was somewhat affable in how he couldn't help, this was a complete shutdown of any diplomatic channels, you couldn't get a message to him now even if you wanted to. Zieliński is disappointed, but unsurprised, apparently the two countries had some very long running bad blood involving Collapse Fluid that you weren't privy to.


Military

[] IDCS Network
Establish a loose network of facilities made for housing the new IDC sensors, allowing for notable concentrations of IDC to be detected from a large distance.
(233/100: 15 Resources per Die -5 Power -2 Labour)

The network of sensors sprung up across the Union very quickly, essentially just an upscaled CFR detector with an accordingly larger power draw, the system immediately begins reporting pings just about everywhere. The Union was practically crawling with IDC either in concentrations large enough to be detected or large enough themselves to register. The report you forwarded to the military was answered with a very pointed question at the dismal stage of the Foundation's military arm and your ability to combat the creatures you were founded to fight, some of the enemies you'd made trying to question if the Foundation shouldn't just be folded under the military proper.

(-5 Political Support)

Zieliński would be extremely interested in this technology, but it's not like you can just hand it over to him, eyes would immediately turn to you. Perhaps it would be possible to fabricate an incident, where some of his men happen across the opportunity of attacking an undermanned IDCS station to steal the blueprints.

[] Fabricate an incident (Zieliński gains IDCS technology, increase tension between the Union and Russia)
[] Don't


[] Breach Fortifications
Now that you have identified the locations that IDC are most capable of breaking into our world through, a series of nearby bases and defensive emplacements can be built to provide passive protection against any IDC that may pass through. This would necessitate creating a local guard unit capable of rapid reaction to any breaches in the area, along with the facilities required to sustain them.
-[] Kipi Breach (145/200: 15 Resources per Die)

From the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, a loose network of outposts and and bunkers began to spring up, forming a cordon between Europe proper and the growing mass of ELID's around the Kipi breach to the east. The defensive line isn't made for defending serious assaults from a military power, with tall walls and plentiful firing positions, it's focused entirely on allowing the defenders the ability to output the maximum amount of firepower while remaining out of reach of the claws of the IDC.

These posts are powered by solar and wind for the most part, with fuel generators that can be enabled when all of the defences need to be brought into operation. With a set of small warehouses, they contain enough supplies for away missions to hunt down IDC to resupply or replace damaged equipment.

The majority of the installations are quickly erected and emplaced, but a few remain unfinished and most remain without supply.


Operations

[] Hunt IDC
With the data from your Russian colleagues, you can more accurately estimate the number and location of IDC within the Union, allowing you to finally begin culling their numbers.
-[] German Breach (1/1 +5 Public Confidence on Success) (High Confidence)

The mission here goes fairly well, all things considered. The Breach itself is very quiet, only rousing to action every so often and spitting out very weak IDC that a few parked Prowlers have proven able to handle easily enough. With half of the team remaining to secure the breach, the other half spit off and began following the tracking methods the Russians had shared with them to some limited success. They did indeed find and eliminate over a dozen different IDC over the course of a few months without any casualties, but with the IDCS network coming online at the end of the operation, the sheer number they'd managed to miss made their achievement feel completely redundant.


Dimensional

[] Worldwalker
Your military advisor is a self professed, with extensive evidence proving, dimensional traveller. At the moment, you have no way to strike back at the IDC that cross into your dimension, you have plans to change that. Learn how it works from her and open up the gates to the multiverse, then invade them back.
(569/400: 5 Resources per Die)

The creation of the aptly named Breach Generator was something your research teams had been slaving over for nearly a year at this point and had resulted in a lot of late nights followed by frantic writing of realisations before the caffeine crash. The single unit that had been constructed was quite possible the single most advanced piece of technology on the planet, after your Neural Clouds. You also had no doubt that every other nation knew you'd managed to put it together, it had required a great deal of discussion between the best minds in a lot of fields to bring it together, many of them residents of other countries.

Regardless, the building sized unit would consume an enormous amount of power to briefly alter the state of a unit of Collapse Fluid, changing it into an extremely dense form of matter that would rapidly radiate away it's mass, causing a significant spike of radiation that makes an existing Breach open and allow crossover for a short while.

Plans are already being drawn up on the possibility of establishing a beachhead on the other side of the existing Breaches in the Union and advancing into the world city on the other side.


[] Study Salvaged Technology
It has recently come to your attention that the military had managed to drag back a fair few pieces of technology from the other side of the Kipi breach and decided to spirit them away to some lab somewhere to be poked and prodded at. You want access to them at the very least, if you can't negotiate them into your custody.
DC: 75

A few pointed requests had them send some pieces they hadn't made any progress on your way and after a few weeks of carefully inspecting a dense set of what might just be scrap you made the breakthrough in understanding: It's an AI core. It was only your work with Lycoris that made it click, this OGAS system he was reading about from the Russian records lining up with the ruined circuits before you. The hardware was almost destroyed and if any data remained you wouldn't even know where to begin extracting it, but the architecture of the digital mind was both enlightening and intensely disappointing.

Your Neural Cloud was almost completely incompatible with this OGAS style of operation, the best you could do from it was study the hardware to learn from the layout and the physically superior hardware. Lycoris is practically ecstatic at the find and buries himself into his work, finally having found validation that his schematic of AI was both possible and potentially even superior to yours. Not that you believed that for a moment.

Still, looking at it's operation does give you a few ideas as to how you could improve the Neural Cloud model...

(Personal Action option added)


Personal

[] ELISA Mainframe
Elisa has been incredibly helpful in managing your work, but she's only running off of a fairly small server in your office, constructing a full sized mainframe for her to move into would vastly increase her capabilities.
(141/100: 10 Resources per Die +1 Personal Dice)

Moving Elisa over to her new mainframe home was a very tense affair, without a backup it was impossible to simply turn her off and load her onto the servers, you had to have her actively move each piece of her own data over without disrupting her own runtime and causing a crash, something that would also destroy the Neural Cloud. Over the course of three days you carefully monitor her progress as she splits herself between hardware, noting that even with your careful measures her Neural Cloud begins to sustain damage during the process, enough that the repair functions can't quite keep it all in order.

You spend another two days carefully working with the repair program to patch the damage and restore her Neural Cloud as closely to it's previous state as possible, but the very nature of the architecture prevents you from completely doing so. Elisa is rather... scatterbrained now, some parts of her Neural Cloud referring to another part that no longer exists, or contains different information. The self-repairing and adjusting nature should see the errors slowly correct themselves over time, but it's incredibly interesting and has you thinking on the possibilities of hardening a Neural Cloud against damage.

And finally making the backup system, you should really get around to that soon.


[] Naming Vote
I've been using IDC as a shorthand for Interdimensional Creature, but I feel like it's time for it to have an appropriate name.
-[] Write In...

 

[Imaninjah93]

Why not lean into the spooky of the IDC and call them Ghosts. Classify them by order of Spirit.
Bottom tier is simply a ghost, then go up from size to a Spectre, an apparition, revenant.

Let the Phasmaphobia come to poay

 

[Redhead222]

Really do not want to start sometging between the EU and Russia blok just because.

 

[Dain24601]

Why not lean into the spooky of the IDC and call them Ghosts. Classify them by order of Spirit.
Bottom tier is simply a ghost, then go up from size to a Spectre, an apparition, revenant.

Let the Phasmaphobia come to poay

Click to shrink...

I'm partial to Ghouls myself. Some degree of undead in the naming scheme is expected though I can't say I favor incorporal entities as they're still very killable.

 

[Nigerian Duck]

[X] Fabricate an incident (Zieliński gains IDCS technology, increase tension between the Union and Russia)

[X] Naming Vote
-[X] Ignota Liberi

Ehh, I just went with a more latin name that I like and felt made sense. It roughly translates to "Unknown Children" which I fell describes the IDCs in a sense. And Honestly, the Union's going to dissolve soon somehow, we might as well do our best to build bridges with Russia.

 

[F0lkL0re]

[X] Don't

Now is not a good time to be playing these games.

 

[Unstorpable]

[X] Don't

[X] Naming Vote
-[X] Ghouls

 

[Just Some Guy]

[X] Don't

[X] Naming Vote
-[X] Ghouls

Definitely a bad idea cause odds are we are gonna lose both around at least and political support for doing this.
Remember when the deal to trade robot technology to the Russians went public and it gave us -5 Political Support, -30 Public Confidence.
To fabricate a incident where the Russians take our technology would throw whatever hope the public has in us will be flushed down the toilet.

 

[F0lkL0re]

Definitely a bad idea cause odds are we are gonna lose both around at least and political support for doing this.
Remember when the deal to trade robot technology went public it gave us -5 Political Support, -30 Public Confidence.
To fabricate a incident where the Russians take our technology would throw whatever hope the public has in us will be flushed down the toilet.

Click to shrink...

It's not just about the political support or the public confidence, tensions between Russia and the EU look high enough that combined with the stress from the ongoing apocalypse it could trigger a war which is something we can't afford at all.

 

[Hawkmoon]

[X] Don't

[X] Naming Vote
-[X] IDCs is fine, no need for a new name.

A service action to trade some PS for doing that might be available in the future. But for that we need to stop loosing Political Support or gain a lot of it.
Best option to stop losing it is a massive barracks expansion. Best option to gain is Extreme Nuclear Miniaturisation at 20 progress per 1 PS and ALR-50 Mass Production (Stage 2) at 60 progress per 1 PS. And Stage 2 is almost done.

While +10 AI/Robotics roll is great any plans made next quarter should focus on fixing a major problem first. The lack of power.
We are -3 in the red and it is showing effects since we have been cut off from the grid.
The problem is that we have a chance (with some being rather good) of completing the following projects next turn:
Expand Foundation Headquarters (Stage 2) -4 Power
Foundation Electrification (Stage 2) -20 Power
Munition Foundries (Stage 1) -10 Power
ALR-50 Mass Production (Stage 2) -15 Power
Automation Intensification -4 Power (Minimum if we do 2 dice each of Industry and Military as those are areas needing more dice ASAP)
ACR-H-20 Production -2 Power (A good idea to try it with the +10 Robotics bonus it will be +40 to roll and heavier weapons will give our squads a better chance)
So we might be looking at a need to make good -58 Power deficit.

Stage 4 and 5 of Low-Upkeep Power will only give +55 if Stage 5 is +30 Power at a cost of 175 with only 8 progress in the current stage. We would need a potential Stage 6 to get us into the black which would require 300 Progress.
Stage 1 of Nuclear Proliferation only needs 200 progress for 100 Energy.
Chances of getting Stage 1 depending on number of dice (chance if the +5 bonus is assigned to industry after /):
2D: 0.66%/2.31%
3D: 26.45%/36.69%
4D: 64.65%/76.18%
5D: 88.26%/94.38%
6D: 97.11%/99.10%
So unless a plan doesn't take any options that need power we will need at least 5 dice into Nuclear Proliferation and even then it will be a gamble. It only is safe if the +5 bonus is assigned to Industry.

EDIT: Added the effects of the +5 bonus to my probability calculations.

 

[Simon_Jester]

[X] Don't

[X] Naming Vote
-[X] IDCs is fine, no need for a new name.

 

[Angelform]

A small personal victory was achieved this quarter as well, with enough housing and supplies for at least least one million people in place. With the rate of construction only continuing to accelerate it might actually be possible to hit your initial 10 million mark.

Click to shrink...

Reminder: the initial population was somewhere in the region of 450 million.
Refugee migration has probably increased the total number of people in Europe significantly, despite attrition.

"Elisa, how are you feeling?" You continue skimming through the report, thinking about your... other project for the Neural Cloud system.

Her report is as you expected, direct and to the point. "I do not have feelings."

Click to shrink...

We are working on an app for that.

The response from the American, who's name you never got, was sharp and frosty. Where previously he was somewhat affable in how he couldn't help, this was a complete shutdown of any diplomatic channels, you couldn't get a message to him now even if you wanted to. Zieliński is disappointed, but unsurprised, apparently the two countries had some very long running bad blood involving Collapse Fluid that you weren't privy to.

Click to shrink...

I am increasingly amazed that no one broke out the strategic ordinance. Either in an attempt to nuke the CF cloud away or just as a last act of spite.

The report you forwarded to the military was answered with a very pointed question at the dismal stage of the Foundation's military arm and your ability to combat the creatures you were founded to fight, some of the enemies you'd made trying to question if the Foundation shouldn't just be folded under the military proper.
-
Plans are already being drawn up on the possibility of establishing a beachhead on the other side of the existing Breaches in the Union and advancing into the world city on the other side.

Click to shrink...

So… a couple of an issues I have with the quest.

It is clear from the info we have that of the two 'incidents' (Collapse Fluid expansion and Interdimensional invasion) one is vastly more important than the other. IDCs could slaughter tens of millions of people and still not even come close to the number of people that are guaranteed to die when the radiation cloud rolls over Europe. And yet the NPC bosses seem to think we should be putting equal effort into 'dealing with' both incidents.

Our initial bosses were politicians, who had logical reasons for wanting the Foundation to be an independent paramilitary organisation. And for wanting a civilian scientist in charge of the 'war' against human extinction. However our new bosses are the military… who also apparently want the Foundation to be an independent paramilitary organisation. Why does the military want the Foundation to be doing the military's job?

[] Fabricate an incident (Zieliński gains IDCS technology, increase tension between the Union and Russia)

Click to shrink...

Increased tension could result in significant costs down the road.

Breach Fortifications

Click to shrink...

Why are we doing this? Why is the foundation responsible for large scale military operations?
We took an action earlier on to, essentially, let other organisations Do Their Jobs without our direct oversight. Why was the military not covered by that?

I could see us designing a suitable base. Perhaps even doing an investigating into the optimal density and intervals for such bases over an area. But actually physically building and supplying the bases? WTF is the military doing?!


[X] Don't

[X] Naming Vote
-[X] IDCs is fine, no need for a new name.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Reminder: the initial population was somewhere in the region of 450 million.
Refugee migration has probably increased the total number of people in Europe significantly, despite attrition.

We are working on an app for that.

I am increasingly amazed that no one broke out the strategic ordinance. Either in an attempt to nuke the CF cloud away or just as a last act of spite.

So… a couple of an issues I have with the quest.

It is clear from the info we have that of the two 'incidents' (Collapse Fluid expansion and Interdimensional invasion) one is vastly more important than the other. IDCs could slaughter tens of millions of people and still not even come close to the number of people that are guaranteed to die when the radiation cloud rolls over Europe. And yet the NPC bosses seem to think we should be putting equal effort into 'dealing with' both incidents.

Our initial bosses were politicians, who had logical reasons for wanting the Foundation to be an independent paramilitary organisation. And for wanting a civilian scientist in charge of the 'war' against human extinction. However our new bosses are the military… who also apparently want the Foundation to be an independent paramilitary organisation. Why does the military want the Foundation to be doing the military's job?

Click to shrink...

The military is asking themselves the same question, hence their comments about wanting to fold the Foundation into the military itself. Insofar as they have not already decided to do so, it's probably because they're sort of rationalizing the Foundation as a specialist branch of the military, or something akin to one. Sort of like how you have an air force to fight in the air, you have a Foundation to fight IDCs, or so the reasoning goes.

Why are we doing this? Why is the foundation responsible for large scale military operations?

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Possible answers:

1) Because we control much of the production of IDC detection equipment. Without IDC detection equipment, the bunkers and other defenses are useless, because the monsters will just walk right past them and/or pry them open as tinned rations.

2) Because the military IS responsible for this, and our doing this project is just us making an effort to do our share of the work so that the military isn't literally fighting blind. On the scale of our quite small organization the full project might be hopelessly extensive,* but just the part that only we can do is a significant program in its own right.

3) We're the ones with a robotic labor force that can perform heavy construction work in an area that is increasingly saturated in Collapse Radiation emanating from the breach.
___________________

*(a line of fortifications from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea? That's a lot of frontage!)

WTF is the military doing?!

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Convincing themselves that we're a specialist branch of the military that specializes in fighting IDCs and building Collapse Radiation shelters.

 

[Hawkmoon]

So… a couple of an issues I have with the quest.

It is clear from the info we have that of the two 'incidents' (Collapse Fluid expansion and Interdimensional invasion) one is vastly more important than the other. IDCs could slaughter tens of millions of people and still not even come close to the number of people that are guaranteed to die when the radiation cloud rolls over Europe. And yet the NPC bosses seem to think we should be putting equal effort into 'dealing with' both incidents.

Our initial bosses were politicians, who had logical reasons for wanting the Foundation to be an independent paramilitary organisation. And for wanting a civilian scientist in charge of the 'war' against human extinction. However our new bosses are the military… who also apparently want the Foundation to be an independent paramilitary organisation. Why does the military want the Foundation to be doing the military's job?

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There are a couple of issues here.
The most important is that the military just isn't trained or equipped to deal with IDCs. Equipping a small experimental squad with cutting edge weapons is easy. And we are the only source of that equipment. So they left managing the experimental unit under us since it was already established when they took over. According to them we aren't doing a good enough job in that area and our critics want our forces folded into the military which would give them more control what we do and how our resources are assigned to projects.

On the other hand this is an experimental unit. There is a simple fact that just giving someone a gun does not a good soldier make. You need training for specific situations. And that training needs to be developed with officers trained to respond properly. And their forces don't have that. They already sent their best special operation units to work under us and test the equipment together with developing doctrine. The military hoped we could have done that for them. And due to the limited size of our forces and not showing enough success they think we are failing.

The normal military forces are swamped with tasks and that is the only reason they didn't take over our forces. The refuge crisis, Poland going tits up (with me being from Poland I can unfortunately agree this is a plausible situation), figuring how to stop terrorists from smuggling Collapse Fluid WMD weapons into the Union, dealing with riots, supply issues, etc. Right now they have so many problems to deal with that having someone to point at a problem and saying to fix it is a positive situation. Until they feel we aren't doing enough.

As to ignoring Collapse Fluid and radiation clouds. Our character has already stated that nothing will stop them and we can only prepare. Which the other branches are doing since they are managing the construction. We are just giving them tools to do better. And as for stopping the Collapse Fluid expansion. The IDC are tied to spreading it since they have Collapse Fluid in them if I understand it correctly. And Collapse Fluid summons more Collapse Fluid. So allowing Collapse Fluid concentrations to spread out is a problem they want us to deal with.

Why are we doing this? Why is the foundation responsible for large scale military operations?
We took an action earlier on to, essentially, let other organisations Do Their Jobs without our direct oversight. Why was the military not covered by that?

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From the description of the action it is less about building fortifications in the "big wall from sea to sea" for the use of forces and more about establishing a fortified branch office of our organization with local forces that will provide constant mitigation in the area combined with securing the area to make fighting easier. That would leave our HQ operation groups free for other operations and reinforcing problem zones. Basically setting up the branch offices of our special forces units will allow us to make progress on the IDC problem.

 

[aceraptor]

The upcoming turn we need to focus on building up our resources.

Two dice on HQ, 2 on Barracks, etc.

We need more operations dices and assets to hunt down IDCs.

Edit: ths cost of not having barracks and other Operations support assets also rears its head in that the military is looking at us with disappointment that we aren't better prepared to deal with IDCs.

 

[Hawkmoon]

@Rukia A small question about the interaction between the ACR-UH-30 Development and Extreme Nuclear Miniaturisation projects. Does the miniaturization need to be finished first or will the heavy mech be designed with an option to swap to nuclear power if we complete miniaturization second? And if that swap will be available will it be a cheap project to upgrade the design?

We will need something to deal with bigger ICDs and Type Ds soon. And while designing the attack helicopter is only 200. It doesn't take advantage from the +20 Robotics (Temporary +30 for next turn) bonus. And there will be a need for production facilities which also most likely won't have that bonus for the attack helicopter. So a 600 + production facility with +30/40 per dice vs 200 + production facility at +10.
The heavy mech will also be more useful as it will be available to be taken for Dimensional exploration missions and act as a power source after outfitting it with a nuclear reactor. The attack helicopter will only have a single purpose.

 

[aceraptor]

[X] Don't

[X] Naming Vote
-[X] Phantom

Anyways, here's what I'm looking at for our next turn. The bulk of the plan is to shore up our weaknesses, and ALR-51 development is to future proof ourselves so we can start working on building the 51s ASAP. The upcoming turn we can put 2 dice on the 2nd stage of ALR-50 to finish the 2nd stage.

Infrastructure (6 Dice)
[] Expand Foundation Headquarters (Stage 2) (66/100: 15 Resources per Die +5 Housing +5 Food +5 Water -4 Power) 2 Dice
[] Expand Barracks Stage 1 (28/50: 5 Resource per Die +1 Operations Dice -1 Housing, -1 Food, -1 Water) 2 Dice
[] Foundation Electrification Stage 2 (95/100: 15 Resources per Die +20 Fuel -30 Power) 1 Dice
[] Military Warehouses (Stage 1) (9/50: 10 Resources per Die +3 Logistics +2 Maintenance -1 Labour) 1 Dice

Industry (5 Dice)
[] ALR-51 Development (37/300: 5 Resources per Die) (+3 Incremental Increase per Quarter) 3 Dice + 1 Free
[] Munition Foundries (Stage 1) (40/50: 10 Resources per Die -10 Power +10 Ammunition +3 Logistics -5 Labour) 1 Dice
[] Nuclear Proliferation (Stage 1) (0/200: 20 Resources per Die +100 Power -5 Labour) 2 (1 Industry + 1 Free) Dice

Services (6 Dice)
[] Automation Intensification
-[] Military (Stage 2) (3/75: 5 Resources per Die +1 Services Dice +3 Labour -2 Power) 2 Dice
-[] Industry (Stage 3) (26/100: 5 Resources per Die +1 Services Dice +3 Labour -2 Power) 2 Dice
[] Personal Assistants (35/100: 5 Resources per Die +1 Free Dice) 1 Dice
[] Public Propaganda (Roll 1d100 per dice to attempt to regain Public Confidence. DC 25/50/75/90) 1 Dice

Military (6 Dice)
[] Light Vehicle Acquisition (0/75: 10 Resources per Die) 2 Dice
[] Breach Fortifications
-[] Kipi Breach (145/200: 15 Resources per Die) 2 Dice
[] ACR-H-20 Production (0/100: 15 Resources per Die +5 Maintenance +3 Logistics -2 Power -3 Labour) 2 Dice
[] UHAT-10 Development (0/200: 15 Resources per Die) 1 Dice
[] Powered Exoskeleton (0/50: 5 Resources per Die) 1 Free Dice

Operations (1 Dice)
[] Hunt IDC
-[] Swiss/Italian Breach (0/1 +5 Public Confidence on Success) (Decent Confidence) 1 Dice

Dimensional (4 Dice)
???

Personal (3 Dice)
[] Neural Cloud Backup System (0/200) 2 Dice
[] Social
-[] Sorawo (0/200: Remove Uneducated Trait) 1 Dice

 

[Rukia]

@Rukia A small question about the interaction between the ACR-UH-30 Development and Extreme Nuclear Miniaturisation projects. Does the miniaturization need to be finished first or will the heavy mech be designed with an option to swap to nuclear power if we complete miniaturization second? And if that swap will be available will it be a cheap project to upgrade the design?

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If you finish miniaturisation first, it will be included in the design by default, if you finish it after you will have to complete a project to include it.

 

[LostDeviljho]

[X] Don't
[X] Naming Vote
-[X] Phantom

 

[Hawkmoon]

Anyways, here's what I'm looking at for our next turn. The bulk of the plan is to shore up our weaknesses, and ALR-51 development is to future proof ourselves so we can start working on building the 51s ASAP. The upcoming turn we can put 2 dice on the 2nd stage of ALR-50 to finish the 2nd stage.

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The biggest problem with the plan is that it makes the Power situation worse. Which is not a good thing when we rely heavily on AI and robots. And we lost the power supply from the grid so the bigger the deficit the graeater the chance something important fails. There will most likely be rolls for that chance if we are in the red.

Stage 1 of Nuclear Proliferation only needs 200 progress for 100 Energy.
Chances of getting Stage 1 depending on number of dice (chance if the +5 bonus is assigned to industry after /):
2D: 0.66%/2.31%
3D: 26.45%/36.69%
4D: 64.65%/76.18%
5D: 88.26%/94.38%
6D: 97.11%/99.10%

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2 dice in Nuclear Proliferation only gives you a 0.66%/2.31% chance of completion of Stage 1. With the second number being if we assign the +5 bonus to industry. Foundation Electrification will cost us -30 Power alone.

I'm also working on a plan and here is the current draft. It will most likely change depending on new turn events. Something always goes wrong.

[] Plan: Keep the Lights On
Bonus to AI/Robotics actions +30 (temporary +10 applied due to crit)
Infrastructure 6/6 Dice, 60R, +5 Bonus
-[] Expand Foundation Headquarters (Stage 2) 2D, 30R, 97.47% (13.78% for Stage 3?)
-[] Expand Barracks (Stage 1) 3D, 15R, 100.00% (91.47% for Stage 2 if it is 75 progress)
-[] Foundation Electrification (Stage 2) 1D, 15R, 100.00%
Industry 5/5 Dice + 3/3 Free Dice, 125R, +10 Bonus
-[] Munition Foundries (Stage 1) 1D, 10R, 100%
-[] Nuclear Proliferation (Stage 1) 5D, 100R, 94.38%
-[] ALR-50 Mass Production (Stage 2) 2D, 15R, 74.44%
Services 6/6 Dice, 25R, +5 Bonus
-[] Automation Intensification
--[] Industry (Stage 3) 2D, 10R, 99.97%
--[] Military (Stage 2) 2D, 10R, 100% (49.50% for Stage 3)
-[] Personal Assistants 1D, 5R, 71.00%
-[] Public Propaganda 1D, 0R, 81.00%/56.00%/31.00%/16.00%
Military 6/6 Dice, 110R, +10 Bonus
-[] Breach Fortifications
--[] Kipi Breach 1D, 15R, 56.00%
-[] ACR-H-20 Production 1D, 15R, 41%
-[] ACR-UH-30 Development 4D, 80R, 0% (362/600 at 50.33%)
Operations 1/1 Dice, 0R, +5 Bonus
-[] Hunt IDC
--[] Swiss/Italian Breach 1D, 0R
Dimensional 6/6 Dice, 0R, +5 Bonus
-[] To Do
Personal 3/3 Dice, 0R, +5 Bonus
-[] Neural Cloud Backup System 3D, 0R, 86.60%
+5 Bonus
-[] Industry
Total Cost: 320R

Basically it will finish Foundation Electrification and expand our barracks heavily. We still have time and can survive a turn of housing and life support deficit.
Industry will be the focus with all free dice and the +5 bonus assigned here. 5 dice is needed to keep our lights on unless we are extremely unlucky. 2 dice in ALR-50 production to have a 74% chance of saving 60 000 people extra each quarter. The ALR-51 only saves 30 000 more and needs more work. Also getting the first stage of Munition Factories running to replenish the spent ammo. The chance for Stage 2 is most likely 25%.
Services will be an attempt to get more dice where we need them most (Military and Industry) and a chance at a free dice. Also working on PR if it will be available.
Military is trying to finish the Kipi Breach fortifications. Also an attempt at getting our forces more firepower with the ACR-H-20. Also making progress on the heavy mech while we have +10 extra bonus for a turn. It will make it easier to finish after we have the miniaturized nuclear power plants.
Operation is a PR operation in the Swiss/Italian Breach.
Dimensional I am waiting for what is open.
In Personal I am leaning heavily into using the +10 bonus to AI/Robotics to finish the backup as most of our bonus dice come from AI. If we are unlucky we might need to redo some Automation projects if there are no backups.

Future priorities:
1. Keep Power positive
2. Have a surplus of safe housing by the end of the year
3. After finishing stage 2 of ALR-50 factories design the ALR-51 as the existing factories can most likely be easily upgraded and factories give us a lot more while costing power
4. Do Extreme Nuclear Miniaturisation before finishing ACR-UH-30 Development
5. Prepare for Kipi cleaning
5a. Have at least 3 operation teams.
5b. Have Powered Exoskeleton
5c. Finish Light Vehicle Acquisition
5d. Have positive ammo
5e. Have something to deal with Type D (heavy mech or attack helicopter)

 

[LostDeviljho]

[] Foundation Electrification Stage 2 (95/100: 15 Resources per Die +20 Fuel -30 Power) 1 Dice

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frankly, given our power deficit it might be best to not take this one.