More voters have reached the first milestone, and are eligible to upgrade to an Elder Tree.
At base, all Elder Trees gain an additional 'base' die. That is, every action you vote for gets two dice applied instead of one. In addition, most Elder Trees apply an additional bonus to their field of expertise, much like standard Trees.
The specific type of Elder Tree is determined first by your current type of tree, and second by your voting record.
This does not 'count' as a vote for the purposes of future Tree upgrades, but please put an [x] in the brackets if you are one of the people called upon. If you are not, study it anyway - keep voting and you'll be faced with this choice, too.
Heart Trees
The following Heart Tree is eligible for one of the following Elder Tree types: Althero
[ ] Elder Heart Tree
-The Elder Heart Tree gains an additional bonus die to all Defense and Survival based actions, for a total of two bonus dice.
+4d6 to Defense and Survival, +2d6 to all others.
[ ] Protective Tree
-The Protective Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Defensive actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Survival actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Defense, +2d6 to all others
[ ] Scavenging Tree
-The Scavenging Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Survival actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Defensive actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Survival, +2d6 to all others
Mind Trees
The following Mind Trees are eligible for one of the following Elder Tree types: Mortis, Enthusiast#117
[ ] Elder Mind Tree
-The Elder Mind Tree gains an additional bonus die to all Communication and Research based actions, for a total of two bonus dice.
+4d6 to Communication and Research, +2d6 to all others.
[ ] Communication Tree
-The Communication Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Communication actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Research actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Communication, +2d6 to all others
[ ] Research Tree
-The Research Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Research actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Communication actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Research, +2d6 to all others
Root Trees
The following Root Tree is eligible for one of the following Elder Tree types: Random Member
[ ] Elder Root Tree
-The Elder Root Tree gains an additional bonus die to all Growth and Offense actions, for a total of two bonus dice.
+4d6 to Growth and Offense, +2d6 to all others
[ ] Growth Tree
-The Growth Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Growth actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Offensive actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Growth, +2d6 to all others
[ ] Assault Tree
-The Assault Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Offensive actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Growth actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Offense, +2d6 to all others
Due to voting for a near-even split of Survival and Growth actions, they have unlocked the following additional choice:
[ ] Hungry Tree
-The Hungry Tree has two bonus dice to all Survival and Growth actions, for a total of two bonus dice.
+4d6 to Survival and Growth, +2d6 to others
*-*-*-*
Hmm, this has slowed down to a trickle, but it's a trickle that won't stop anytime soon.
Please get your choices back to me by Sunday evening PST so I can update my spreadsheets! Thanks.
The following Root Tree is eligible for one of the following Elder Tree types: @Random Member
[ ] Elder Root Tree
-The Elder Root Tree gains an additional bonus die to all Growth and Offense actions, for a total of two bonus dice.
+4d6 to Growth and Offense, +2d6 to all others
[ ] Growth Tree
-The Growth Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Growth actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Offensive actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Growth, +2d6 to all others
[ ] Assault Tree
-The Assault Tree gains two additional bonus dice to all Offensive actions at the cost of the bonus dice to Growth actions, for a total of three bonus dice.
+5d6 to Offense, +2d6 to all others
Due to voting for a near-even split of Survival and Growth actions, they have unlocked the following additional choice:
[ ] Hungry Tree
-The Hungry Tree has two bonus dice to all Survival and Growth actions, for a total of two bonus dice.
+4d6 to Survival and Growth, +2d6 to others
The upgrade paths work like this: you can get 5d6 in a single action type and 2d6 in everything else, 4d6 in two action types and 2d6 in everything else, or 3d6 in all action types. That last is called an Eldest Tree and you become eligible for it by picking actions from all over the place as a regular tree.
Neat to see this quest is back. Excited to keep on feeding the Worm and for the Ingaba's sudden but inevitable betrayal. Ingaba having enemy, compromised, not yet enemy, and ally is hilarious.
No SV You Are the Forest
A Riot Quest
Turn 09 Results
The Forest could feel the tiny vessels, the 'missiles', approaching from the wormhole creep ever closer. They moved fast, blindingly, brilliantly quickly, even compared to the ships of the Ingaba, but not faster than the Predators.
Unfortunately, the Predators did not respond to the Forest's call to action, instead huddling around their weakened members as best they could within their den.
A single Tree of the Forest attempted to raise the Empty Veil, a potent power that would have forced many of the missiles to lose their locks, but the missiles – and their drone minders – found the gaps in the skein of the Void and continued on.
Several Trees attempted to twist the space around the Forest, aiming to alter it enough that the missiles would think they were aiming for the Forest when instead they were not. This, too, failed, as insufficient power was brought to bear.
Then a Shard Volley hurled out. Sleek and narrow, the crystalline shards prepared from the trunks of the Forest Itself in cycles past found and destroyed dozens of missiles, leaving clouds of wreckage gleaming in the void.
A stand of Trees reached out to the missiles with tendrils formed of coiling magnetic fields and wrapped around them. Some stalled and exploded when the engines registered as not moving, leaving glaring pinpricks of nuclear fire behind. The electronics on others failed, and they began drifting along.
Most continued on, but not enough.
The Forest was distant from the Wormhole. More than nine light-minutes away. Some missiles were distracted by the particle feeds coming from out-system, and turned ever-so-slightly in that direction. Others suffered targeting malfunctions, and simply slammed into the Shield without detonating.
But for the rest, oh, the rest. The fury of stars detonated against the Shield of the Forest in a staccato beat, brilliant pinpricks that washed out the light of other stars and briefly twisted magnetic fields, blinding the Forest for several long moments.
In the end, the Forest remained unbowed and unbroken, and crystal leaves rustled in the stellar winds.
*-*-*-*
Senior Scientist Oragles was in a room. It had an immense number of displays up and running, crunching numbers and revealing the results.
The Forest had shown a great deal of its capabilities, but Oragles knew, he just knew, that it had more tricks up its metaphorical sleeves. Hidden in its roots? What was the right phrase he should use in his reports?
No matter.
The Forest had proven to have a reasonably sophisticated multi-layered defense system, if one that the Forest hadn't pushed to its fullest capabilities.
The ECM – that all-devouring field through which light did not pass – was little more than a thin skein around the Forest. The research base's systems couldn't figure out how it was done, either. That was a wash.
Something else tried to happen, but the Forest must not have allocated enough power to that subsystem or technique or tree or whatever it was, because there was no effect that could be noticed.
Then the Forest proved that it had an equivalent to point-defense in the form of c-fractional crystalline shards. They wouldn't do much to a proper warship, but anything much smaller would get shredded.
And lastly, the Shields that had so intrigued Oragles when he first arrived in the system had spooled up to a strength and density greater than any the Forest had shown off before.
None of that accounted for whatever durability the Forest itself had. He sat back, mostly content. The only thorn that remained in his paw was the simple unknown of whatever was on the other side of the wormhole, and there was little enough he could do about that.
*-*-*-*
The Forest's borders expanded substantially more slowly this cycle, its focus instead upon improving its Collector Trees. Half a dozen of them, some of which had been soaking in the light of the local star for countless cycles, grew and expanded. They grew taller and broader, their leaves somehow darkening yet further into an impossibly deep black, while their trunks and branches lightened to a very deep gray.
Magnetic fields spooled up and reached out, channeled through the Hoop Tree, allowing the Forest to weave a net across a wider part of space, ensuring that further growth would have ample resources.
Two new Magnetic Trees grew from some of the recently claimed expanse of the Forest. The shield these trees empowered had served the Forest well, and more could only help it continue to survive whatever may come.
Upgrades progressed for several trees, including a Magnetic Tree and an Empty Tree, but work did not complete on either of them.
The resources fed to the Worm disappeared as they approached, and soon a contented sigh swept through the Forest. The Worm, fed, became quiescent, though its touch still wound through the Forest its attentions seemed to have faded, somewhat.
Perhaps the Worm believed that the Forest was not yet ready to truly advance in their dealings, but it laid out the path to doing so. Glimpses of knowledge were available, if even a single Tree of the Forest was willing to look.
As the Worm turned its attentions elsewhere, a new Tree grew within the Forest. It represented the Loop of the Worm, without being the Worm.
This Loop Tree is a part of the Forest in a way that the Worm is not. Resources are drawn into it, and resources flow out of it, in equal measure, as though it uses nothing.
And yet, the Forest is aware that things have changed. What was once certain no longer is, but if it works the strength that can be expected is greatly magnified.
//~~
All non-automatic successes are doubled, multiplicative with all other sources.
All automatic successes are now rolled for, but successes there are tripled instead of doubled. As a result of no longer being automatic, these rolls now benefit from other multipliers.
~~//
In conjunction with the Ingaba research teams, the Forest has finally deciphered how to focus 'light' sufficiently to utilize it as a weapon, a true method to reach out and touch someone from a noticable distance.
If whatever is on the other side of the wormhole pokes its head in again, it will surely regret the experience.
With this accomplished, the research teams and the stand of the Forest doing the work moved on, attempting to discern something else. They made some progress, mostly in eliminating paths that wouldn't work, but they don't even have a name for what they're up to, and no real way of following up on it. Yet.
Progress was made on other key projects, including discerning how to pull resources from a Wormhole – the stand in question felt that they were close – streamlining the Forest's root systems, embedding magnetic materials into the forest's Roots to better utilize magnetic powers, utilizing Hyperspace travel for the Forest and how to grow Shaping trees.
The last research project of note actually managed to finish, and the first shoots of a Reflecting Tree stood up from the Forest's grounds. It would likely not be ready in time for the next attack, but the one after that would have quite a surprise.
*-*-*-*
"Sirs, Admirals, Senior Scientist," the young lieutenant bowed, ears kept calm through sheer force of will. Fleet Admiral Monagles had been rushed to the system well ahead of other reinforcements, and only a skeletal staff was with him – but that included several lesser Admirals of various sorts. The sort of Admirals that commanded squadrons of Battleships and their associated escorts. But that wasn't all.
He was in the same room as Senior Scientist Oragles, the primary source of the energy shields that were entering service, among other technological enhancements. Yaranae Yllarat, Envoy of the Clairvoyants, was present in mind and image if not in body. Most importantly, the Secretary of the Navy, Gorales, was present, having rushed here on a courier himself as the news spread.
Admiral Gonagles, his own Admiral, was in the other room.
"Admiral Gonagles awaits your pleasure," he finished saying, his mind somewhat distant from his actions at the sheer amount of high-ranking people in the room.
"Send him in," Gorales said gruffly, tail-tip twitching.
"Sir." The lieutenant left, and the room was silent but for the shuffling of papers as reports were read.
The door opened again. Admiral Gonagles walked in with his head held high, his ears perked, and his tail steady.
"Secretary Gorales, Admirals, Senior Scientist," he said, standing at attention.
"Admiral Gonagles, this is not an official fact-finding mission for proof of fault or leading to a courts-martial. We've all read your reports. No, this is a briefing," Monagles said, his voice even.
"So you say," Gorales huffed.
"So I say," Monagles countered flatly. "We don't have enough admirals capable of leading entire Fleets, Gorales. We don't have enough ships for them to lead, either. Killing an Admiral who has done everything right is not the way to engender the loyalty of the rest."
Admiral Gonagles blinked. Everything right? He'd lost nearly all of the escorts he had. Several of his battleships were wrecks. The remnants of the Precursor Mobile Shipyard were so full of holes it was doubtful they were the least bit salvageable, though the surveyors had high hopes.
Gorales frowned in displeased surprise. At least Gonagles wasn't the only one surprised by Monagles' far too frank description.
"You don't understand, do you," Monagles said. "You don't understand that, when presented with information that you didn't believe or understand, you still acted on the advice of the person doing the presenting. You actually asked for reinforcements, mentioned and listed why you were doing so in the request, and I granted them, taking them away from other positions and patrols.
"I granted those extra escorts that we lost here because we don't have any practical understanding of wormhole assaults, and because we could afford to lose them."
"Fleet Admiral..." Gorales growled.
"Their systems were incompatible with the refits required for the new shield generators, Secretary," Monagles' smile was a predatory thing. "Whomever is on the other side has no idea."
Gonagles allowed his eyes to widen, a carefully controlled expression of surprise.
"We'll be playing a shell game in other areas to improve our defenses here for a few months – the ships are already on their way – and as our new Escorts come off the line, they'll be directed here. Unfortunately our next generation of Cruisers and Battleships likely won't be ready in time for any hypothetical assault, but whomever they are, they will not find our claws dull."
"The Galactic Council is interested in these occurances, and has granted access to a number of documents detailing the specifics of wormholes in particular. These documents have been provided to the Ingaba Directorate as a whole, in the interests of galactic security, and Senior Scientist Oragles in particular, due to his closeness to the event in question," the Clairvoyant representative said, interrupting a budding cheer – ensuring that the relevent topics were dealt with seriously, and not cast aside. "Senior Scientist?"
"Of course, Clairvoyant," Oragles took a deep breath. "According to the documents provided, the first thing to note about Wormholes is the transit limit – only so much mass can transfer through at once, generating a window afterwards in which transitions cannot occur, depending upon the mass of the transfer..."
*-*-*-*
The mysterious presence on the other side of... whatever it was... could not be reached, yet. Brushes had been made between minds, but that was all that had occurred. So far.
Resources were prepared for reaching out to the Research Base, inquiring about the machines that were commonly used by the Ingaba – more specifically, how to control other, hostile machines, like the missiles that had been deflected recently.
Particles were stockpiled, adding to the amount the Forest had gathered over time. A small fraction was released to the Ingaba, the material ballooning into a position where it was easy to acquire but not dangerous to the research station or the routine supply ships.
Crystals were carefully fractured, generating pre-planned faults for use against future waves of missiles, or other things.
The Cycle was spent moving closer to the local Star, closer to that point of heat and light, the source of the energy and particles the Forest used to grow.
Assist the Ingaba Research Base. 6 voters, 2 Mind Trees, 1 Elder Mind Tree, 3 Research Trees, 23 dice = 23 auto-successes applied to highest voted-for * research. Added to the Laser Power.
Research the Laser Power*, 74/100. 7 voters, 4 Mind Trees, 2 Elder Mind Trees, 1 Research Tree. 21 dice, +23 auto-successes. 11 successes, *1.3 *2 = 28.6, 102.6/100, laser power researched. 2.6 + 23 added to follow-on research, not yet unlocked.
Research the Shaping Tree, 2/20. 1 voter, 1 Research Tree, 5 dice. 3 successes, *1.3 *2 = 7.8. 9.8/20
Research the Hyper Tree, 63.2/100. 1 voter, 1 Elder Mind Tree, 4 dice. 2 successes *1.3 *2 = 5.2, 68.4/100
Store resources against future need: Collated with above action.
Reach Out to the Research Base: "How to communicate with technology". 0/5, 1 voter, 1 Mind Tree, 2 dice. Very likely nothing comes of this. 1 success, *2, 2/5.
Well the shield held for this round, the next attack remains to be seen. Also oh boy the change to the worm makes things interesting. No longer auto successes but a x3 multiplier and our other multipliers now apply. Also laser power is a go!
Everyone, if this is the first you're seeing this be sure to give yourself a round of applause because we just managed to hit the second breakpoint for collector trees grown by player action successes! That makes the rest of the path to mag6 much easier.
Exact plans of action are premature before the turnpost itself goes up since the situation might change, but in broad strokes here's what lies ahead with the Mag6 plan:
Focus actions and root tree actions should by default be on Growing The Forest.
We may divert up to two focus actionsfrom Growing The Forest over the next two turns and still plausibly reach magnitude 6.
For instance, if we want to shoot lasers at somebody. With a 7/7 collector/elder collector tree split, we get a whopping ~100 estimated offense successes per focus! Use them wisely though, because those two shots are all we've got until turn 12.
If two out of four focus actions are used on Growing The Forest next turn, we will need at least 17 player successes on Growing The Forest this turn, and at least 46 player successes total over the next two.
If all focus actions are used on growing the forest for both turns, we don't need any player action successes on growing the forest next turn, and only 4 player successes total over the next two turns.
If any of you have questions, be sure to let me know.
Unrelated to The Plan, I haven't run the numbers on it exactly, but I believe that Ingaba research assistance is once again the most efficient way of producing research successes - at least for what they apply towards.
That was fun. I was worried a bit there at the beginning but hearing about the shield was good!
I didn't entirely understand the bit about the other side having no idea and the shielding bit.
Unrelated to The Plan, I haven't run the numbers on it exactly, but I believe that Ingaba research assistance is once again the most efficient way of producing research successes - at least for what they apply towards.
It was something I hatched back when High Sun Activity was revealed - I realized that, with it effectively doubling the output of Collector Tree focus actions over 4 turns, we had an opportunity in that timespan to upgrade a lot of those collector trees and use them to grow the forest really fucking fast. Enough so that we could, by the end of it, go from magnitude 3 to magnitude 6.
After running a bunch of numbers, I found that for the first two turns we wanted to put as much into growing collector trees as we could while still growing the forest enough to buy Magnitude 4 on the first turn - and then, for the last two turns, we just plow everything into growing the forest directly leading to getting mag5 on the third turn, and mag6 on the fourth.
There were also a bunch of side goals to increase growth rate like completing the worm, a few research upgrades, moving closer to the forest, etc, but the above was the core idea.
We're now entering the second half of the plan, so for the most part all that remains to be done is to just grow the forest a bunch. As mentioned earlier, we did well enough in the first half that we can spare two focus actions on other things over these two turns and still hit our goal.
If you're unfamiliar with the magnitude mechanic, it represents the size of the forest as a whole. Each magnitude upgrade gives us 10 more specialty tree slots, expands our cap for the heavily limited "multiplier" trees, provides us another focus action per turn, and gives those focus actions an additional bonus success each before multipliers.
