This also sort of invites a final ruling on the question of how many people go into a security team. I've put forward my argument in favor of 12-man teams, as they subdivide very well and give us wiggle room for benefits, uniform allowances, equipment maintenance, etc, but I gather you and @UberJJK were sort of assuming 20-man teams all along. Any new thoughts in this area?
I'm not really attached to any number. 12 man teams however maths out to a rather large expenditure per employee (133k) vs the smaller 80k per employee for 20 which is the only oddity to me. Which would you guys rather have?
Right now my tech plan has us getting the Mark II in time for 2175-Q1, but frankly if Gaven Dor's shielding techs prove to be interesting and/or inexpensive I'd be willing to kick the can even further down the road.
Well for the techs Warp Barriers (400)=Fuck you impacting missiles, as the ship is surrounded by a omni-directional offensive defense. Works fine as semi-normal barrier as well as it can repel shots and shreds the one that get though. Stasis Plate (800) is surrounding a ship's armor plates in a stasis field (ala the biotic power). Which makes them really hard to damage at all. Can't use FTL with it on though. Both also apply for the one shield at a time rule.
Well for the techs Warp Barriers (400)=Fuck you impacting missiles, as the ship is surrounded by a omni-directional offensive defense. Works fine as semi-normal barrier as well as it can repel shots and shreds the one that get though. Stasis Plate (800) is surrounding a ship's armor plates in a stasis field (ala the biotic power). Which makes them really hard to damage at all. Can't use FTL with it on though. Both also apply for the one shield at a time rule.
Yeah, about that: I notice that on the opening page you are planning to split this quarter update into three parts. So the tech stuff will be in the final part, I would assume? Are you going to do this with every update? Is it because the ever increasing amount of stuff to vote for?
Yeah, about that: I notice that on the opening page you are planning to split this quarter update into three parts. So the tech stuff will be in the final part, I would assume? Are you going to do this with every update? Is it because the ever increasing amount of stuff to vote for?
That's the theory. Also because the update was so long.
As for the future it more of a see how this works out and try make things work better kinda deal. You guy are increasing the amount of stuff dealt with, so some changes may have to be made to account for that.
Paragon Security Solution or ParSec is now licensed with the Systems Alliance. You may sell the services of units employed by ParSec to individuals, groups companies and governments in Systems Alliance space, Citadel space, and else where if they'll hire you. Remember that such companies often live or die on their reputation. Contracts to defend sites are far less likely to bring bad PR as long as you do a good job.
Also acquiring a commander of some sort might be good idea.
So, who do we want commanding our PMC? Any canon characters jump to mind? I thought of Zaeed but given his reputation I'm not sure we want the potential PR hit from having him in command.
@Hoyr Any ideas how you'll handle contracts for ParSec? Just give us a list of available contracts each quarter?
"You've got you head screwed on straight, Doctor Shepard. I think I can work with you", Gaven Dor says, "Just an advanced notice I tend to toss a fair bit of my earnings toward the Krogan Science Council. Closest thing Krogans have left to a university, and with no taxes all the money comes from donations and the occasional patent."
Heh. Doctor Shepard. That will never grow old. I can't actually think of any game characters on SB/SV that have earned a Doctorate or the like in the course of the game.
Hmm. Krogan Science Council. Definitely something to remember. Once we're richer then god, I'm tentatively estimating 2174-Q4 or 2175-Q1, we should consider setting up a regular donation to them. Making the sciences more attractive to Krogans is an important part of actually turning them into a civilization rather then a bunch of roving murderhobos.
Gaven Dor, Research Hero
Specialization:
High Power ME Effects.
Well for the techs Warp Barriers (400)=Fuck you impacting missiles, as the ship is surrounded by a omni-directional offensive defense. Works fine as semi-normal barrier as well as it can repel shots and shreds the one that get though. Stasis Plate (800) is surrounding a ship's armor plates in a stasis field (ala the biotic power). Which makes them really hard to damage at all. Can't use FTL with it on though. Both also apply for the one shield at a time rule.
Ah. Good to know. Stasis Plate is pretty awesome. Especially when combined with Repulsors since a ship with Repulsors can easily just outpace an enemy ship and then drop their shields and jump to FTL once outside their weapons range.
I'm not so sure about Warp Barriers. They are great for missile and drone defense but that seems to come at the cost of MAC defense. Shredding a lump of metal is just going to spread the damage over a larger area rather then letting it over-penetrate.
As a researcher:
+5d10 (counts as a full 10d10 for bonuses)
Improves to 10d10 if working on a tech that primarily involves the Mass Effect/Eezo/Dark Energy
Heh. Conrad is a better scientist then this guy. Admittedly the -40RP productivity penalty means that overall Gaven contributes more (15RP vs 27.5RP) but in general scientific work Conrad is better and equal to Gaven in Gaven's specialty. But then Conrad is pretty insane since he can match an entire team of scientists, not quite Revy's four teams but still pretty impressive.
"Well I think we've clearly announced our intentions to the galaxy that we'll be making warships soon." Lindesy observes, "Question will be how soon we can build them and find buyers. Alliance has been using longer running contracts in the ship building industry to promote stability."
We buy a bunch the tech for warship grade MACs and people think we're planning on building warships. What astounding insight!
"So we can't just step in with vastly better ships and have them buy from us?" you ask.
"We've been fairly lucky with the Alliance choosing to upgrade when it did, letting us come in with a new product. This time it'll most likely be us with a new product first. Stability in he ship building industry saves the Alliance billions, if not trillions of credits. Not to mention any back door dealing going on. If we show a far superior product we'll probably get the new contracts, but it may take a few years for all the old ones to run their course."
Hmm. We should consider covertly informing some key players as to what we have planned for the Alliance's newest frigate. Two or three years is enough prep time for them to clear a number of contracts and be ready to order a large number.
The Cabira will be a game changer and not like the Arc Reactor or Legionary. We're talking Manhattan Project levels here. With a range limited by only life support (air/food/water/etc), going by Submarines we're looking at easily 12,000LY, and the ability to cross distances normally requiring Secondary Relays in days the Cabira can come out of nowhere to strike. Throw in TIR stealth making her completely invisible and her stealth abilities become insane.
Now remember that we're talking about a frigate sized ship that can outrun any other ship out there with it's 4x faster engines and is equipped with Dreadnaught class weapons. It's very much capable of popping into a system undetected, killing everyone, and leaving again. If done right it even do so without anyone ever knowing what was responsible.
At the same time the sheer terror this would introduce should foreign governments find out mean we might want to consider keeping it secret until the reveal. By the time we are ready to start building them we should have the production to pump them out at a rate of 1 per day and the cash to afford doing so.
It's also around that point that PI could theoretically declare itself a sovereign power and back that claim. But that's not an idea I support.
"The longer contracts are good for us in the long run, right? Its guaranteed income as long as we can deliver and more value for the company."
"Quite right, though with the sums of money involved the politics are going to be... fun. We may want to consider our political ties." Lindsey advises, "Billions and trillions of credits don't get spent without Parliament and the various budget committees debating them to death."
Lindsey pauses thinking, "We may see more success selling upgrade packages for existing ships at first. Most warships have an expected service life measured in decades, the ships that fought in the First Contract War will most likely serve for another twenty or more years, although upgraded far beyond their original abilities. In addition, upgrade packages are cheaper and thus far more palatable politically."
Hm. We'll probably end up using our Space Factory (Starships) for this. Arcane Blur + Repulsors + Arc Reactors sounds good. Would provide a pretty good upgrade package without releasing anything that isn't already known and is already patented.
Given the distance from the capital you are allowed to enforce your own airspace, so long as you keep with in the laws of Elysium and the Systems Alliance.
Excellent. Can we get some detail on these laws? How do they feel about privately owned GARDIAN towers?
As for defenses at the capital the would welcome an investment into their defenses. The capital and the other major cities already have a GARDIAN system, but the are open to the idea of strengthening it or adding a barrier system. Of course the leads to the fun part of figuring out who pays what and who owes what.
As it stands Elysium can only afford about 100 million credits per quarter for both repayment and upkeep on any new equipment.
Is that 100m spread across all four cities, 100m per city, or just for the capital?
Well it's your call. If you need information I'm at your service. Just recall that knowledge is power and power is never cheap. Especially when we are being offered money not to sell things.
As @TheEyes (I think) said; this tells us all we need to know. We now have confirmation that there are people after us and that they are been willing to pay good money to keep it a secret. We also know that the Broker will accept payment to keep things secret, hopefully that is something they offer rather then us having to request it, and that you can only trust them as far as you pay them, well we already knew that.
I also see what Ribbon's doing here. By giving us this free bit of info Ribbon is enticing us to deal with him rather then some other agent of the Broker when need be.
"I'd rather not be selling to the Turians to be honest." Lindsey says.
Your fancy new CASIE implant reminds you that her father died in the First Contact War, there's some blood split here.
"Well based on the current political climate they'll pay it back. Turians as a species are fairly straight forward about things like that. Mind they might pay back any debt in creative or unusual ways, people can be complicated like that." Laurence observes, "They dislike the Batarians more than any of the other Citadel races. They could be a useful ally if thing go hot with them."
That's something I like about Lindsey. She seems willing to move past, or at least ignore, her prejudice against the Turians in favor of opposing a common enemy.
Part of you wishes it would have been proper to wear you wizard hat, but that would be a bit too silly.
Actually if you do it properly you likely can get things to cook faster with the proper combination of pressure and heat. It would just require a lot of trial and error to determine the various temperatures and pressure combinations at which the countless chemical reactions in which cooking involve occur best.
Ah Deathbots! There is something about them that just seems right. More of them would be good. Fly my pretties fly!
"Of course there aren't any chainsaw katanas, those go on the people shaped deathbost! The small flying ones just need to fly around an go pew pew! You're a silly mad scientist. You'd be lost if it wasn't for my advice!"
Bah! Kasumi just doesn't know true flying deathbots. There are plenty of them that have bladed weapons, like these:
Technically not chainsword katanas but then their not as good mad scientists designers as we are.
Of note here is upgrading the L2s to the Magi Implant. The SA military has gone ahead and payed for all of the soldiers who have them and are willing. However a political argument has started over whether the government should pay for others.
You could get involved with this some how or pay for them yourself out of the billion credit you put aside.
It's only ~218m and we did allocate a billion to spend on this if needed. I say we go for it! I really like the direction PI is heading in. On one hand we provide the most powerful/deadly weapons known to exist. On the other hand we perform massive humanitarian efforts like providing at cost genetic treatments, donating 60m in reactors to helping reduce scarcity, and now paying for the treatment of the government's screwups.
Eldfell-Ashland Energy is very interested in acquiring more arc-reactors. What sort of long term arrangement would Paragon industries be interested in?
EAE would like 50 150GW arc-reactors. Then maybe 3-4 per year after that.
[ ] Deal? (Write -in)
We could manage 50 reactors this quarter but probably should wait until next quarter if we can manage it. I'm thinking something along the lines of:
[] 50 150GW Arc Reactors in 2174-Q1 then an additional 1 every quarter afterwards until they no longer require them.
You patent the Repulsor with the Systems Alliance. They however, say that you are to make no civilian sales of this technology at the current time. (They also would like it if you didn't sell any IFV lasers or advanced combat VI to civilians either).
Going to the Citadel might be a harder sell this time.
Hm. Irritating. I have no issues with using keeping IFV lasers and advanced combat VIs outside of civilian hands. Frankly that's not hardware we really want in their hands anyway.
We're going to have to have Laurence do an investigation into the various representatives in the Parliament to find out who is most aligned with our goals. Keeping Repulsors limited to SAM only just won't work. We'll probably follow this up with detailed investigation into those we are interested in. We should try and push for Mindoir to receive a seat since we'd have a significant influence there.
@Hoyr How many seats are we looking at been in the SA parliament?
There is plenty of demand for all sorts of PMC services. A lot of it comes down to the force you have to offer and the type of job you are looking for. In the near future your most likely to see site protection contracts (most likely for colonies), event security contracts, and raiding or assault contracts in the Traverse and Terminus of varying moral and legal quality.
So for ParSec I'm think that all our current security should remain with PI. They didn't signup for joining a PMC, even in name only. We might make it a standard rule that anyone in either ParSec or PI can request a transfer from one to the other for those who are interested in a more active role and for those who want something more peaceful.
We can make 495 Legionary suits with our excess production this quarter. Right now we have 1200 security personnel but only 100 have suits. So we're probably better off just waiting until next quarter to produce the suits and acquire new personnel.
When we do hire for our PMC I'm thinking we should aim for a full battalion's worth to start with. I'm thinking our PMC battalions would be divided into 5 companies each of which is made up of 5 Platoons (teams) of 20. So an initial hire of around 500 soldiers.
I'm also thinking we should be looking at a full squadron of Gladius fighters and the associated pilots and support staff. We'll probably have squadrons of 24 fighters broken down into 6 flights of 4 fighters. We'll also likely go for Gladius-B (Repulsors rather then conventional engines) since there isn't really any reason not to (@Hoyr I'll think of some price details for the B version later).
So all in all we're looking at:
1,100x Legionaries for PI Security
500x Legionaries for PMC Soldiers
24x Gladius-B
That comes to about ~19,200 production and 5,320,000,000cr. Both of which should be easily affordable next quarter.
The Post-Scarcity Society do not expect their need for power sources diminishing anytime soon and welcomes your donations. The Society sends you a nice plaque acknowledging your donations and also extends an invitation for you to attend their yearly convention where the society and other charitable groups discuss issues, project and such things (occurs 2174-Q2).
There's nothing really stopping you from forming a construction company other than filling out the paper work and getting its stamped (or e-signed or whatever needs to be done). The main issue is that most construction companies are either local or owned by big companies. PI may wind up shipping stuff around and that costs credits and hiring a local company or using a branch of a larger one may be cheaper in the short run and possibly in the long run. On the other hand it works out okay for EAE, but then they build entire colonies.
Feel free to take a corporate action to form a construction company and tell me how you plan to use it!
@TheEyes have any plans for how you plan on doing this? Because it seems like it's just not worth the trouble. At least for now.
There are a lot of ex-marines, and plenty that can be hired for security. On the other hand expanding your hiring pool might be good and an academy for your PMC would make the PMC far more organized.
I'll add in some academy buildings. Now to figure out how to price that too!
Good to know about the ex-marines. Makes sense since IIRC I estimated something like three million soldiers retiring each year after their contract ends. If only 1% of those are marines that's still 30k per year. If we ever hit that level of recruitment something has either gone terribly wrong or terribly right.
Most new colonies would be fine places to expand. New colonies rarely have a reason to deny one access. Terra Nova has cheaper raw materials which should make goods cheaper to produce there. Beckenstein on the other hand is close to the Citadel and is protected in part by the Citadel Fleets due to its location. Neither would have reason to prevent your expansion there. The question becomes what do you want? (In the OP there is a link to some SA colonies of note.)
Heh. I wonder if you've thought about how I'm going to have to try and account for that. I recommend Beckenstein!
The legal ins and outs of the situation are many and varied, but your legal team summarizes the restrictions as, "Nothing that can bombard the planet in close orbit,and don't interfere with the flight paths for ships." (The armed space factory/station variants are fine.)
Well. In that case they shouldn't have anything wrong with gigawatt, or even terrawatt, range GRASERs been mounted on our space stations. After all they would be absorbed by the atmosphere so they aren't useful for planetary bombardment!
[X] Arrange for a 12 month Corporate Loan of 35 billion credits assist in financing our expansion.
Getting a loan is surprisingly simple. For some reason you had though the process would be more complicated. Oh well you now have a 35 billion credit loan for 12 months with a 3.9% interest rate, compounded continuously. You can pay the loan or part of it off early, but the full amount is due at the end of 2174-Q3.
Four new Space Stations begin to grow over Mindoir. Each a clear sign of Mindoir's transition from farming world to a major industrial center. Mindoir's future looks bright.
That's a pretty big thing. A lot of artifacts that were previously discarded as worthless are now going to have to be examined to determine if they can be reactivated and who knows what could be found by doing so.
Activating your nodes is just the first step. After that you have to learn to activate them together in complex patterns. The Magi implant and amp help with both. You observe the changes to both your nervous system and the Magi's VI as the learn and grow together refining your biotic abilities. The data is very interesting, and properly visualized produces an interesting holographic image for you lab.
Huh. The Magi implant has it's own VI? I thought that required having an ANI? I'm guessing with this change having an ANI doesn't effect your biotics now? Also we're recording and keeping all this data right? I imagine it would be a big help when they set up the Ascension Project in 2176.
Your rate of biotic development is incredibility fast, no doubt due to the Magi and your own awesome brain. Rahna again recommend getting a biotics trainer from another race. You're fast reaching the point where she won't have much more to teach you.
You know. At this rate of growth Revy might be invited to be an instructor, or at least guest lecturer, for the Ascension Project. Assuming it starts in 2176-Q1 then there are 9 quarters between now and then. If we get 2 omakes each quarter spent on Biotics then we could theoretically pull off the equivalent of seven and a half years of training in 2.
Also since Rahna brought it up; who should we approach for Biotic training? If we go Asari then they would almost certainly be a spy. We might get a good Turian trainer but they definitely wouldn't be as good an an Asari.
Actually... how about a Krogan biotic trainer? Gaven Dor is probably more interested in research then training but even if he's not interested he could likely point us towards someone who would be. Krogan might not have an Asari's natural control over their nervous system but that is likely a good thing, since we don't have it either. Krogan live just as long as Asari and their harsh lifestyles means that odds are they would have more combat experience with biotics. Then there is the fact that their redundant systems and insane regeneration means they could more easily experiment since any failures that would kill or cripple an Asari would only temporarily inconvenience a Krogan.
Were is your mansion home anyway?
[ ] At the farm
[ ] In the city limits
[ ] In the PI complex
Zaeed would be a bad choice to command our PMC. Remember all those stories of his? Exactly how many of these didn't end up with 'things went wrong and now I'm the only survivor' or similar?
If we want a major name we'll probably have to go for a different series for inspiration, or we'll just have to accept an OC for it.
Actually... how about a Krogan biotic trainer? Gaven Dor is probably more interested in research then training but even if he's not interested he could likely point us towards someone who would be. Krogan might not have an Asari's natural control over their nervous system but that is likely a good thing, since we don't have it either. Krogan live just as long as Asari and their harsh lifestyles means that odds are they would have more combat experience with biotics. Then there is the fact that their redundant systems and insane regeneration means they could more easily experiment since any failures that would kill or cripple an Asari would only temporarily inconvenience a Krogan.
So, who do we want commanding our PMC? Any canon characters jump to mind? I thought of Zaeed but given his reputation I'm not sure we want the potential PR hit from having him in command.
Zaeed is also too renegade for me to want him in charge.
Garrus is either too young or too cowboy.
Wrex would be perfect if we could swing him, but at this point in time he's very much a lone wolf type. Still worth it to try.
I don't think any of the other canon characters would be suited for it (since Revy isn't doing it).
We could also promote from our security teams.
Notes:
On Breaking into Ship production: Actualy, given what being discussed... we might be able to break in imidiatly. this is sounding less like a ship to replace an existing ship role, and more like something utterly new. we could easily aim for an entirely new contract, one not competing with other contracts the navy has for ships (other then for cash).
Heck, get cheeky, and make an anachronism for it's roll makeing up SUB or SUBS, marketing as the spiritual space born successor to the old wet navy submarines.
Rough plans for an NI tournament. this is just rough thoughts in salarian style, and is in no way meant to be coherent.
There are roughly 3 divides Limited and unlimited, casual and profesional, Bound and unbound.
1 million or so for setup of a local Mindor Tournament, perhaps another 4 million set aside for prizes if other planets wants to set up their own tournament.
Casual uses the cheaper commercial headbands, while professional uses the more expensive and responsive ones, ether rented out to the users or them having bought their own. Both would had a hand-held device holding all the information from them playing, and their settings for using the NI's with the model/doll they are using. This would be built larger then actually necessary, only a small display screen and something like a USB stick needed really, and built more for the cool of cool to appeal to the users sense of flair. would allow them to interchange NI's at a level, and not be committed to using a single NI. People running tournament can also use standardizes NI's if needed to prevent cheating(if that is possible).
Limited and unlimited are basicy what the models are allowed to use in combat during the tournament. Limited is pure hand-to hand. no weapons and no environmental manipulation outside the users doll/model itself. this would be like the fights in angelic layer. Unlimited allows the use of weapons, along some manipulation of the environment by the doll/model. these would require a specially prepared playing field, with holograms and mass-effect fields to simulate the effects of ranged weapons. This would basically be like Gumpla battles form Gundam Build Fighters.
Bound and unbound is more about field effects. bound is basically fighting under current conditions, with no outside manipulation. Unbound is using ME fields, holograms, and stuff like the omni-tool programs to simulate various hostile conditions. form fighting in space to under water, to other strange scenarios.
1) We may want to contact Krogan space council. Their only source of funding is donations. We might as well expand there. Putting out a grunt for study of enviromental sicence and a generational ship might be quite interesting and beneficial. Because if you want to do generational ships, krogans and/or asari are your best bet.
2) Ok, Gaven Dor is interesting and good. I wonder what he will think of Conrad.
3) We could triple Elysium security budget, I think, without much trouble.
4) We should probably do at least one more interview
[X] You'll pay, it's tax deductible and thus the government is paying anyway.
--[X] Imply, privately, and deniably, that it's your opinion that if government isn't willing to help its people then, as the person who discovered the way to help, it's your moral obligation to do so.
And I think we should try and use the biotic assets somehow. Not sure how, though.
5) I'll leave the deal on the reactors to others, but I'll point out that our goal is to push out as many of them as possible, to make them spread through the galaxy. At least mine is.
6) We need to maintain absolute moral high ground with our PMCs, I think. Prioritize protection contracts even if they pay less, don't go anywhere where the morality of the situation is arguable. No stuff like raiding batarian colonies (except for getting out the slaves maybe). And, speaking of... We might want to develop some non-lethal weaponry. Probably as an omake, so as not to waste research points.
7) We need to attend that post-scarcity society meeting. Ideally, we should probably release eternal youth there, I think. It'd be appropriate. Shame that there's virtually no chance of doing so - I don't think we have enough time to get it done.
8) Hmm, hopefully someone (maybe even in our research and development) comes up with an idea of full body remote controlled dolls for paralyzed people. It'd require life-support pods too, but it would still be viable. Also, an adorable piece with the girl
9) For VIs, if we want to lower the feers of AI, we could make partner VIs, sorta "virtual friends" and such. Also, of course, VI-making assistant VI, for programmers
10) We should start looking into designing first modular city (and no, I'm not calling it Tokyo-3). Perhaps for when we expand to Earth. Maybe a floating one? We could call it Atlantis (and then we'll install shields and an FTL drive on it)
11) We should look into expanding to Earth (or at least Solar system - Mars, underground bases on Venus maybe?, Jupiter's satellites). If nothing else, it'd be a statement on how big we became and are becoming.
12) Returning a bit to the ship thing. I think we need to hold off on making / trying to sell ships until our super-design is ready. Because those ships? Yeah, they are a qualitative leap, they'll be competing with themselves, really, not with anything else.
13) We should start selling optical computers, perhaps donate some to scientific institutions around the galaxy (including the Krogan one)
14) We should start pushing hyper-modularity. I wonder how much it would cost us to try and make it a standard everyone uses
15) On prothean tech - publish a paper with Liara, or a series of papers? On archeology and on physics, and on engineering. Maybe it'll be enough for Asari to be able to properly activate their beacon.
16) Biotic tournament - we could start setting it up.
[X] In the PI complex
I don't see why not, PI complex is a good place to set up, I think.
Also, I lost track a bit - how many research points do we have now? I want to be able to argue for what to research based on what we have chances of getting.
Hmm. We should consider covertly informing some key players as to what we have planned for the Alliance's newest frigate. Two or three years is enough prep time for them to clear a number of contracts and be ready to order a large number.
The Cabira will be a game changer and not like the Arc Reactor or Legionary. We're talking Manhattan Project levels here. With a range limited by only life support (air/food/water/etc), going by Submarines we're looking at easily 12,000LY, and the ability to cross distances normally requiring Secondary Relays in days the Cabira can come out of nowhere to strike. Throw in TIR stealth making her completely invisible and her stealth abilities become insane.
Now remember that we're talking about a frigate sized ship that can outrun any other ship out there with it's 4x faster engines and is equipped with Dreadnaught class weapons. It's very much capable of popping into a system undetected, killing everyone, and leaving again. If done right it even do so without anyone ever knowing what was responsible.
At the same time the sheer terror this would introduce should foreign governments find out mean we might want to consider keeping it secret until the reveal. By the time we are ready to start building them we should have the production to pump them out at a rate of 1 per day and the cash to afford doing so.
It's also around that point that PI could theoretically declare itself a sovereign power and back that claim. But that's not an idea I support.
Don't forget that we could also replace its normal shields with either Warp Barrier or Stasis Plate, making it almost unkillable. While the "can't use FTL while Stasis Plate -shielding is on" is somewhat annoying, maybe we could overcome the issue with additional research?
On Cabira : don't forget untraceable instantaneous communications that can't be jammed. That's also a big game changer. And as to the limits of how long it can stay autonomous - I'm pretty sure that it'll be months to years. Submarine analogy is very apt, I think. We should probably involve and inform someone, but I don't want to risk tipping our hand.
As I understand it, all decent amps have their own VI - it's part of what makes a good amp better than a shitty one. Fluff from the biotic upgrades in ME2:
By tracking neural activity and recognizing the individual patterns of the user, the amp can better interpret the kind of field the biotic wishes to generate.
Well, our parents spend a fair part of their day at the farm - I'd think having the mansion (and its security) there would be a good call.
As I understand it, all decent amps have their own VI - it's part of what makes a good amp better than a shitty one. Fluff from the biotic upgrades in ME2:
Wasn't the whole thing about upgrades being the VI attuning to the user?
That and 'tricking' the amp/VI into thinking that the user is capable of performing biotics again in a shorter time by recording 'at rest' neural information and feeding it to the amp/VI when the user approached baseline.
It was just fluff to explain why you could shave off a few seconds here and there off your biotic cooldown rate.
Something like that? There will probably be defense contracts and offense contracts, the former for X troops, while that latter would be your or your commander's call on the number to send. Probably the commander's.
Heh. Conrad is a better scientist then this guy. Admittedly the -40RP productivity penalty means that overall Gaven contributes more (15RP vs 27.5RP) but in general scientific work Conrad is better and equal to Gaven in Gaven's specialty. But then Conrad is pretty insane since he can match an entire team of scientists, not quite Revy's four teams but still pretty impressive.
Conrad doesn't have to deal with psychopathic murder rage 24/7. But yes, Conrad is the right kind of person to work for PI his ideas are just insane enough, but still grounded.
I figure most "normal" specialist hero scientists will wind up around this level.
@Yog actually I was thinking about this again. Doesn't the effect turn the ship into a near perfect mirror? I'm not sure how that effects detectability, but it would seem that close to a source of detectible radiation that the ship would stand out a bit.
No WMDs, no banned weapons, respond to maydays, that kinda stuff. Privately owned GARDIANS are fine, just don't shoot at thing outside of what is yours (well barring states of emergency).
Huh. The Magi implant has it's own VI? I thought that required having an ANI? I'm guessing with this change having an ANI doesn't effect your biotics now? Also we're recording and keeping all this data right? I imagine it would be a big help when they set up the Ascension Project in 2176.
Eh it's complicated. VI means just about any expert system. The ANI is more of a full brain-VI link. The biotic implant has a VI layer that handles the signal and does interpreting work. The Magi's VI is set to self optimize with in limits. an ANI is a better interface so it'll work better. Making different "macros" as it were than a implant normally allows is also an option. It also allow a biotic's biotics to be more... mentally integrated?
One thing wandering around my idea file is the idea that some biotics are for a lack of a better term "naturals". Growing up they use their abilities and for them they might as well have extra hands and have variable mass naturally. Their kinesthetic sense includes their biotic ability. For a lot of biotics their abilities are sort of distinct skills they use. The naturals are far more fluid. Having an ANI would push one more into the later category.
8) Hmm, hopefully someone (maybe even in our research and development) comes up with an idea of full body remote controlled dolls for paralyzed people. It'd require life-support pods too, but it would still be viable. Also, an adorable piece with the girl
The material from the update was sort of a classic result of implementation lag. Make toy=easy. Toy gets made first. Make remote doll for disabled people=bit harder. Helper dolls get made later.
Also glad people liked that bit. Doing "consequences of tech" bits are fun.
10) We should start looking into designing first modular city (and no, I'm not calling it Tokyo-3). Perhaps for when we expand to Earth. Maybe a floating one? We could call it Atlantis (and then we'll install shields and an FTL drive on it)
15) On prothean tech - publish a paper with Liara, or a series of papers? On archeology and on physics, and on engineering. Maybe it'll be enough for Asari to be able to properly activate their beacon.
Also, I lost track a bit - how many research points do we have now? I want to be able to argue for what to research based on what we have chances of getting.
I've got 250d10+810 for an average of 2185, if Gaven Dor is at max. 245d10+810 avg. 2,157.5 other wise. That might be right*. Research voting is later though.
Right now we don't know Wrex from a particularly aggressive hole in the ground. It is entirely plausible for Wrex to come up in a general search for suitable candidates for being the Commander of our PMC, just like it's entirely plausible for him to come up in the context of Biotics tutoring.
That's something I like about Lindsey. She seems willing to move past, or at least ignore, her prejudice against the Turians in favor of opposing a common enemy.
He's any annoying idiot that's good at his job? Conrad is a good example of someone that can do amazing things if he's managed. Dor would be more impressed by Revy's ability to use Conrad productively and not strangle him.
The problem is that to work stasis needs to vastly reduce the speed of light in an area, FTL needs to do the opposite. Ironically then the slower you go relative to the light you emit the better stasis plate works.
Trying to go FTL with the stuff would have it rip off as it refused to go faster then what it thinks the speed of light is. So probably not. Its not like you couldn't install it and some other shields and use one at a time (Better not to switch in combat though).
Umm... well.... *tries to think of a good way to say this*... ME appears to have quantum effect detectors? Or at least that was a thing in 2185 during the alpha relay incident. The scientists hand detected "something similar to" QEC operating and the direction it was sending in IIRC.
Possible... well yes. Probable/reasonable? No not really. Wrex at the time really isn't interested in being responsible for anything other than himself because it sucks. Canon side he get inspired by Shepard and chooses to give his people another chance.
Eh its a reasonable enough question. Wrex changes a lot after ME1. He just has some mental hang up before that. And unending psychopathic murder rage, but that's normal for a Krogan.
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