What do you mean indoctrination is not deep?
It took the entire game for Paragon Shepherd to talk down Saren in mass effect 1 and to talk down the illusive man in mass effect 3.
And we failed to do so with Dr. Kenson.
Indoctrination can not be broken, it can only be resisted for short periods of time.
Benezia was only able to resist for short periods of time, and she only free for a short time because of her desire to help her daughter.
For those wondering: it's mathematically better to process it
Spending one million production for 500 billion credits come out to 500,000 credits per production. A gain of 240,000cr/pr over our standard income. It's quite literally the most profitable thing we can do with our production outside of selling Arc Reactors to the Citadel.
The only problem is that it's around half next quarter's unused production so we might run into issues with getting it done and producing all the stuff for the military build up ParSec and the Alliance is about to go through.
Welcome to the thread, I've spotted your like bombings. And good idea however as UberJJk said its too game breaking. Don't fear though. Soon we will have Earthfall and then we'll brute force our way to infinite production.
Sorry, just asking now before I forget in the next dozens of pages, but what are our current thoughts on gravity wave sensors?
It seems people don't think it's important but if we're looking for relays, anomalies and ships/people under stealth it's a game changer.
I think it's pretty important to get soonish if not asap, and I'm not sure what makes the other Tech choices more important and urgent because I haven't read every discussion in this massive thread, so please bear with me.
And what about Xeno-biology and Brain-shielding? Both are big milestones for the quest; one gives us a massive leg-up in politics and cooperation (providing big benefits in industry, research and getting people to do what we want them to) and the other is a corner-store against the Reapers, being the beginning of what we need to counter indoctrination, which just leaves fire-power and mobility as one of their major advantages after that.
What's the basic plan right now? I'm hopelessly lost on the topic and where the relevant posts are. I'd appreciate a summary as well.
For those wondering: it's mathematically better to process it
Spending one million production for 500 billion credits come out to 500,000 credits per production. A gain of 240,000cr/pr over our standard income. It's quite literally the most profitable thing we can do with our production outside of selling Arc Reactors to the Citadel.
The only problem is that it's around half next quarter's unused production so we might run into issues with getting it done and producing all the stuff for the military build up ParSec and the Alliance is about to go through.
Another option is to delegate: broker a contract with a company with significant experience with refining eezo. Then the eezo should be refined fairly quickly without impacting our production, and we can either:
a) sell the refined eezo at lower profit margins due to contracted company (compared to refining it ourselves)
b) keep the refined eezo while paying a fee to contracted company
c) combination of above
Another option is to delegate: broker a contract with a company with significant experience with refining eezo. Then the eezo should be refined fairly quickly without impacting our production, and we can either:
a) sell the refined eezo at lower profit margins due to contracted company (compared to refining it ourselves)
b) keep the refined eezo while paying a fee to contracted company
c) combination of above
That reminds me
Should we start reconsidering researching artificial eezo?
I know people have said it is likely too expensive but I just see the benefits of having the ability to produce artificial eezo too beneficial when the reapers eventually attack.
It a source of eezo that is not limited by access to certain eezo deposits or be blocked by a blockade of certain relays.
but that is just my opinion.
Sorry, just asking now before I forget in the next dozens of pages, but what are our current thoughts on gravity wave sensors?
It seems people don't think it's important but if we're looking for relays, anomalies and ships/people under stealth it's a game changer.
I think it's pretty important to get soonish if not asap, and I'm not sure what makes the other Tech choices more important and urgent because I haven't read every discussion in this massive thread, so please bear with me.
And what about Xeno-biology and Brain-shielding? Both are big milestones for the quest; one gives us a massive leg-up in politics and cooperation (providing big benefits in industry, research and getting people to do what we want them to) and the other is a corner-store against the Reapers, being the beginning of what we need to counter indoctrination, which just leaves fire-power and mobility as one of their major advantages after that.
What's the basic plan right now? I'm hopelessly lost on the topic and where the relevant posts are. I'd appreciate a summary as well.
Well for brain shielding I believe that people were a little nervous supporting it because
it may make the reapers too nervous and thus begin their invasion early. We already have one reaper paying us close attention.
For xeno-biology, people were wondering if it was better to invest in other tech.
remember that indoctrination has many different settings and even at it's most subtle once it's set in the only permanent means of resistance is suicide.
What do you mean indoctrination is not deep?
It took the entire game for Paragon Shepherd to talk down Saren in mass effect 1 and to talk down the illusive man in mass effect 3.
And we failed to do so with Dr. Kenson.
Indoctrination can not be broken, it can only be resisted for short periods of time.
Benezia was only able to resist for short periods of time, and she only free for a short time because of her desire to help her daughter.
Saren was in Sovereign's shipbody for the whole of ME1 and even before then, with Sovereign actively working on him. And even then he could be talked into acting directly against Reaper interests even when he had tons of cybernetics in his body already. I find it hard to believe that a one-time exposure of a one man in a whole compartmentalized organization (even if he is the leader) means that the organization as a whole is working, and was always working, for Reapers.
Well for brain shielding I believe that people were a little nervous supporting it because
it may make the reapers too nervous and thus begin their invasion early. We already have one reaper paying us close attention.
For xeno-biology, people were wondering if it was better to invest in other tech.
Well, what are the big priorities right now and why?
Aside from the base PR boost and opened doors that Xenobiology gives us, each race we help after that gives us big benefits in their specializations:
The Quarians would be the people to consult with anything space related (Space stations, ships, possibly comm-buys, major bonus to any attempts to create live ships), AIs (especially swarm-AIs) and how to avoid provoking them (and possibly give us inroads with the Geth, which has several benefits, as shown in cannon) and engineering in general.
The Asari 'path' is almost certain to 'give us' Samara, and aside from the progress in biotics research/training and cultural proliferation the incredible PR coup will give us a lot of influence with The Council.
The Drell thing will further cement us with the Hanar and possibly help make them into or closer to a major power which would also be incredibly loyal to us.
It just never stops. I think people are really underestimating how much impact the Xeno-biology branch is going to have. Humanity does not live in a vacuum. The way to the heart of most races is through their civilians!
As a final mention, regardless of whether we spread the technology around it's a good idea to protect Shepard from indoctrination. Considering that Reaper!Mech indicated their primary-secondary goal right now is to do just that to her we should be more worried...
Edit: Not to mention, if we might learn how to reverse or at least detect indoctrination it would really help us talk Benezia (and possibly Saren) down. And I kind of like Benezia. And she has a lot of influence with her race and is also the main reason we aren't including Liara more, so... that cuts into that Gordian Knot quite a bit.
Well, what are the big priorities right now and why?
Aside from the base PR boost and opened doors that Xenobiology gives us, each race we help after that gives us big benefits in their specializations:
The Quarians would be the people to consult with anything space related (Space stations, ships, possibly comm-buys, major bonus to any attempts to create live ships), AIs (especially swarm-AIs) and how to avoid provoking them (and possibly give us inroads with the Geth, which has several benefits, as shown in cannon) and engineering in general.
The Asari 'path' is almost certain to 'give us' Samara, and aside from the progress in biotics research/training and cultural proliferation the incredible PR coup will give us a lot of influence with The Council.
The Drell thing will further cement us with the Hanar and possibly help make them into or closer to a major power which would also be incredibly loyal to us.
It just never stops. I think people are really underestimating how much impact the Xeno-biology branch is going to have. Humanity does not live in a vacuum. The way to the heart of most races is through their civilians!
As a final mention, regardless of whether we spread the technology around it's a good idea to protect Shepard from indoctrination. Considering that Reaper!Mech indicated their primary-secondary goal right now is to do just that to her we should be more worried...
Saren was in Sovereign's shipbody for the whole of ME1 and even before then, with Sovereign actively working on him. And even then he could be talked into acting directly against Reaper interests even when he had tons of cybernetics in his body already. I find it hard to believe that a one-time exposure of a one man in a whole compartmentalized organization (even if he is the leader) means that the organization as a whole is working, and was always working, for Reapers.
None of them were working for the Reapers, at least not consciously. Even in ME3, TIM always believed he was working in the best interests of humanity. All the Indoctrination did was twist his thought processes a little to ensure that the way he acted in humanity's best interests was by creating a secret xenophobic black ops section of the Systems Alliance that had the net effect of souring relations between the Alliance and the Council races. And then after that he acted in humanity's best interests by splitting off to create a network of xenophobic terrorist cells that sowed chaos across the galaxy. And then after that he acted in humanity's best interests by spending billions of credits sending research teams all over the galaxy in order to research the Reapers, later on implanting bits of Reapertech into tens of thousands of terrorists.
(Also, regardless of whether we spread the technology around it's a good idea to protect Shepard from indoctrination. Considering that Reaper!Mech indicated their primary-secondary goal right now is to do just that to her we should be more worried...)
Bullshit. If we can get RP by soliciting research assistance from other races a varying part of what we spend we'll recoup simply by playing our cards right.
Besides, better PR means more likely military assistance as well, and we might be able to do both regardless because XB is only 800 RP.
I was just thinking that, if the Labs we can build are limited and heroes cost personal actions (why can't we send our employees to look for them instead, by the way?), then what remains is international cooperation and, well... considering the theme of Mass Effect? It fits really well.
Just like in ME3; it's important not to fight alone.
That reminds me
Should we start reconsidering researching artificial eezo?
I know people have said it is likely too expensive but I just see the benefits of having the ability to produce artificial eezo too beneficial when the reapers eventually attack.
It a source of eezo that is not limited by access to certain eezo deposits or be blocked by a blockade of certain relays.
but that is just my opinion.
The problem with artificial eezo is the opportunity cost. For 8,000RP would could get:
Perfectly secure communications (QECs) - 1,600RP
Unlimited FTL Range (Multi-Core Drives) - 800Rp
Immortality (Eternal Youth) - 1,600RP
Infantry scale lasers (Miniaturized Energy Weapons) - 400RP
Over six fold increase to laser range (UV lasers) - 400RP
Between ten and a hundred times increase in laser power (High Gigawatt Lasers) - 800RP
Indoctrination Defenses (Brain Shields) - 400RP
Production of light cruisers (Light Cruisers) - 600RP
Peak Alien and Immortal Aliens (Advanced Xenobiology) - 800RP
Invisible fighters (The Invisible Fighter) - 400RP
Invisible vehicles (The Invisible Tank) - 200RP
So you can see why big RP budget items like Eezo production are not a high priority. There are just so many revolutionary low handing fruit that it's just not worth it right now.
Plus we're already set to break the Eezo market since Repulsors, improved FTL drives, and Multi-Core Drives means we can exploit supernova remnants that would normally be out of reach. If we grab Stasis Plates it will make mining a lot safer since they would be great radiation shields but even without that our advanced material sciences have probably cooked up super effective radiation shields. Plus our more advanced VIs should make the automated parts easier
All the projects you're talking about are extra research projects though, each costing hundreds or thousands of RPs per. Right now we have a logistical disadvantage to overcome (we need QEComms and multi-core eezo drives to counteract the Batarians' access to the Alpha Relay) and a war with the Batarians to win; after that we can certainly start looking into helping other races, and I agree that Kerpal's Syndrome is definitely the one to start with because the Drell and the Hanar will love us forever.
More game balance, basically. Research heroes are worth ~125 RP per quarter (though they do grow the tech tree too so we won't run out of techs to buy); if we could just hire a dozen of them with company actions that sort of throws game balance out the window.
Well that was a lot of stuff. And several repetitive discussions I missed. Kinda glad I did.
Anyway long over due responses. Oh and I have made some small changes to the next update... but I'm pretty sure some people won't like somethings. And those people had some valid points, though I don't entirely argee with them... well this will be interesting.
On another note, @Hoyr, if we were to, say, try to hire a bodyguard next quarter, how high is the chance that a certain elite ninja drell will be on the list ?
Let's see, Extremis, lots of biotech from the furry bio-weapon nuts. Sufficiently powerful arc-reactor/thermal Compensators and a energy to matter (and back again) transmuter?
@Hoyr: is there really only one level of Repulsor engines that we can research? We can never accelerate faster or have a max speed higher than we can right now without using a Relay?
I'm thinking of mass-producing warm bodies to fight the Reapers using a more mature version of the Plug & Play skills (maybe a follow-up tech to research?) to 'rush' adult to being able to assume adult responsibilities.
The argument I'm seeing against this is that it'd make people more vulnerable to the Reapers, but if I understand it correctly Dr. Solus' Brain Shield tech prevents that as well, correct?
Generally VI get about idiot savant level in their field, but that's not universally true. The more pattern centric a thing is the better a Vi can get at it. Generally assume that VI's are good at number/analysis things and less good at people things. If you want good examples go look at modern AI research.
Also possible. Key thing is help. It takes a pretty good VI to talk some one out of suicide and even then it won't be able to help with the actual problem.
...what would it take to make Krogan Powered Armor? Will that happen on its own, or would a Krogan scientist need to be willing to make that for their peers? I ask because Urdnot Wrex. (Not sure how to monopolize the Krogan Science Council yet, though I remember a thermonuclear grenade launcher being one of their pet projects)
I was wondering if we could include new tech involving long range artillery or perhaps plasma weapons
I know that the us military had experimented with plasma space weapon called the MARAUDER but had difficulty with accuracy. But I am not great at science so this is just a suggestion
Eh Artilary is mostly under the "Aim a Mass Driver in a parabolic arc" category. There are special shells and stuff, but it seems a little niche to put on the tech tree also there's the ammo mods techs on the tree. As for plasma, atmospheric plasma weapons are totally a thing. Space based ones don't work or are really just particle guns with a different name.
-I saw this as an attempt to work within the system's inherent RP restraints than working around them. Sort of an expensive bid for a hero scientist/research team rather than "lol, buy planets build labs". Have I erred in making this assumption?
We have discussed and (unless Hoyr speaks up to tell me that I am wrong) I shall assume we are using ferrofluids in magnetic fields to provide a focusing lens that can be adapted and altered to provide the perfect lens for each shot.
Edit: Oh and I've started on that WoG repository. So far I've made it through Thread 1. Unfortunately that was probably the easiest of the lot since it's only 99 pages...
Hm, so under this idea the case for large tanks is basically to make them combination MCVs and mobile theater shields? Okay, I/m starting to like that idea, provided we can figure out a way to make mobile bombard-grade shields in a reasonable amount of time. OTOH, I doubt that we can project a regional or even city-sized shield from a single point; in fact I doubt that you can get anything larger than a building-sized shield from medium armor, campus-sized shielding from mammoth tanks, and city-sized shields from PSUs. Maybe we can combine mammoth tank/PSU technology with swarm networking to upgrade the size of the shield? What do you say, @Hoyr?
The Protheans used one once. The Reapers caused a bunch of AI-Organic symbionts to go nuts and the Protheans went fuck it blow up the star. It doesn't say how so I imagined it was a thing you fire at the star.
On one hand, the Terminus are not going to be any happier about the Batarians deploying WMDs offensively then the Citadel is, meaning that the Hegemony just lost a great deal of support from that side.
The Batarians didn't ruin any Garden worlds or try to. That's ME's requirement for being a WMD that everyone has issues with. The Batarians could have; they have the weapons. The Batarians could have done a lot of far worse thing but they didn't. The Batarians didn't even equip their attack fleets with fuck you WMDs in case they lost. The Batarians are playing by the rules for the most part. Everyone would like to keep it that way.
On yet another note, god, the grammar and punctuation in a lot of these updates makes me cringe. Especially in the conversation parts- there's this thing called pacing, and it's usually controlled with periods, commas, dashes, semicolons, and the occasional ellipses. I can tell that the current GM is the sort that specializes in technical details- those such people tend to be rather less gifted with loquaciousness, or just plain description and dialogue.
That said, it's still a pretty good quest- it's just that it can be presented so much better.
Sorry feel free to correct me. I'm a CS guy not an English expert. Happy to learn though. Sadly this goes though far less editing then a proper text would have.
Actually, I don't think member nations do have their own starship fleets; we certainly haven't heard anything about a Chinese fleet or Russian fleet or American fleet in any of the Mass Effect games.
I headcanoned that some ships are sponsored by member nations (sort of a national pride thing), but no none are under direct control of anyone other than the SA.
The only problem is that it's around half next quarter's unused production so we might run into issues with getting it done and producing all the stuff for the military build up ParSec and the Alliance is about to go through.
I'd note that selling it basically free money. As in it's money in addition to production. Also it may be hard to refine as the SA is going to order all the Pyndas you can build.
I actually though of that and then promptly choose to not think of it as perpetual motion devices are evil. In game Revy never really bothered to tell people. It's been done before and Revy merely proved she could do it to. Oh, and if she put it in for a science fair the judge might not quite have understood. Mass effect systems engineers ain't common.
You need to refine it to use it. You could substitute the eezo in on ships you make but ironically that would math out the same as selling it on the commodities market.
To be fair there's absolutely no reason we couldn't sit on the Eezo for a quarter or two while we engage in a crash production run of Pydnas for the SA. I'm not one of the spreadsheet gurus but we don't necessarily have any immediate need for the money do we? I'm sure it would come in handy our next major expansion, but there's little reason we'd be expanding in the next few quarters right?
To be fair there's absolutely no reason we couldn't sit on the Eezo for a quarter or two while we engage in a crash production run of Pydnas for the SA. I'm not one of the spreadsheet gurus but we don't necessarily have any immediate need for the money do we? I'm sure it would come in handy our next major expansion, but there's little reason we'd be expanding in the next few quarters right?
I'd note that selling it basically free money. As in it's money in addition to produc Also it may be hard to refine as the SA is going to order all the Pyndas you can build.
anyway. Ignoring the production earmarked for our legally required to sell Arc Reactors, we've already got word on the Alliance understanding our need to fulfill that, leaves 2,400,000 production among our shipyards. That's enough to produce 39 Pyndas per quarter. Each Pynda generates a profit of 16,560,671,000cr for a total profit of ~645.8 billion credits.
To be fair there's absolutely no reason we couldn't sit on the Eezo for a quarter or two while we engage in a crash production run of Pydnas for the SA.
Having a reserve is always nice. No reason not to have said reserve in a big chunk of metal. On one hand, someone might go "But earth needs the eezo!" ...on the other hand, the answer of "Sorry, slightly delayed, we're busy building warships for SA" kind of trumps any such worries, politically speaking, when the SA is actually at war, and Sol has been attacked.
It's also a useful resource for business deals and expansion into mining & melting - we want a mining company or department, don't we? And we kind of have the perfect thing for said mining company to start smelting down right here...
It should also be noted that this is a good time to put down factories more or less wherever we want inside of human space. More work + wartime footing + nationalism + known to be extremely profitable = It will get fasttracked.
War with the Batarians (News, Updates, ParSec) 2174-Q3
News: Batarian Hegemony Declares Wars on Systems Alliance
The Batarian Hegemony has declared war on the Systems Alliance. The declaration arrived at the same time as a large fleet of Batarian warships arrived in the Systems Alliance capital system of Arcturus. Several Terminus governments allied with the Hegemony followed their larger partner to war. In addition many pirates and warlords hit by the SA's anti-piracy actions have made declarations themselves.
The Citadel's response has been complicated. The Turian councilor raised a toast to the SA and encouraged them to "kick those sorry four-eyed bastard's asses". While the Asari councilor condemned the Hegemony's attacks, she expressed a desire to end this conflict with minimal violence. The Asari Republics are split on how to respond with several of them declaring war on the Hegemony. Matriarch Benezia speaking for the faction said, "It is high time we put a final nail in the Hegemony's coffin. They have long proven an inability to be a positive player on the galactic stage. We must of course do so with wisdom and foresight. War can go so very wrong if one is not careful." The Salarian councilor merely said that at the current time the Salarian Union had no desire to be involved in the conflict.
The Terminus has warned the Citadel that it will not accept the Citadel using this as an opportunity to expand its influence in the Terminus. Citadel ambassadors have assured that they have no plans to do so.
While the Systems Alliance's progressive faction has welcomed what assistance has been offered, the Terra Firm party has released a statement much more in keeping with their party line, "We don't need any alien help. We don't want any alien help. This situation shows why Humanity must be strong enough to stand on its own and it will. We will rise to the occasion and prove to the entire Galaxy that we do have what it takes. So please stay out of it. We'll deal with this." It should be noted that the Terra Firm party is substantial force in human affairs and along with other Earth first factions controls 40% of the seats in the Systems Alliance Parliament. A number likely to grow in the future.
Battle Review with Grakos: Battle of Arcturus
Instead of historical battle it's time for a recent one. The Battle of Arcturus with Admiral Hackett commanding elements of the Systems Alliance 3rd, 4th, and 5th Fleets, against an unknown Batarian Admiral commanding elements of the Hegemony Grand Fleet.
The battle begins with the Hegemony forces arriving though the Beta-Alpha-Alpha secondary relay. The arrival is without warning as it would seem that the Batarians have found an unknown connection. Leadership falls to Hackett has he is the commander of the Fifth Fleet whose primary duty is the defense of Arcturus.
Hackett chooses to arrange his force in a dreadnought-spear formation. This formation is usually considered a poor one as it put one's dreadnoughts up front increasing the odds of losing one of these valuable ships. The standard fleet formation is FCDC, or Frigate-Crusier-Dreadnought-Carrier, for good reason. However, the Systems Alliance's Dreadnoughts were refitted with new equipment vastly improving their shield capacity.
The attacking Batarian forces arranged themselves in the standard FCDC formation and moved to attack Arcturus Station capital of the Alliance. Hackett choose to forgo reinforcements from the Systems Alliance 1st fleet citing concerns about the Batarians having backdoor access to Sol as well. A prescient choice as later events proved.
Hackett choice of formation proved brilliant as well the upgraded dreadnoughts were able to cover their weaker brothern during the advance until the enemy was in optimal range of the SA's cruiser's main weapons. At this point the SA's dreadnoughts faded back and the cruisers advanced. Part way though the battle contact was lost with Sol. After several attempts and losing many frigates, cruisers and of course fighters the Hegemony forces choose to retreat. The SA suffered much lower losses.
Now lets getting to the finer points of the battle...
Asari Simstim Epic All is One Released
If you haven't seen it yet you should. Put aside a several hours and get ready to have you mind blown. Like many Asari epics it's been divided into subsections for easier viewing. So those of you with less time can still enjoy the story without getting lost.
The story covers the life of Nanda the founder of the dominant Asari faith Siari. The story is well composed with the first act covering Nanda's travels as a Maiden, then her experiences as a Matron, and finally as a Matriarch seeking to end a war. The composition is excellent and thanks to new technology the simstim conveys the senses of the actor better than ever.
Of course that would explain why the simstim is good. What makes experiencing it literally a religious experience is hidden in the new tech. Many tricks have been used in the past to emulate Asari melding in the past and they've gotten so good that for most of the film you don't realize that the Simstim uses the live recording of the actors' melds. It isn't until then end were the actor playing Nanda declares, "All is one" and ends a battle by partially melding both side that you get it. All is one.
Ten out of ten, have changed religions. Spread the word, no preaching required just watch a good simstim.
4th Fleet Rebased
The Systems Alliance 4th Fleet has been rebased to Mindoir. We should all feel much more secure with a newly upgraded Dreadnought overhead. This move is no doubt in response to the recent attack on Landing by Batarians forces. With this the SA has secured a key supply line. However, Mindoir is a poor hub world meaning that the 4th fleet is a full day away from the relay network. In addition, Mindoir lacks the proper support infrastructure. The SA has released plans to construct a large space station in the Mindoir system to serve as the 4th fleet's base of operations.
Treaty of Farixen Negotiations
The Citadel has begun efforts to renegotiate the Treaty of Farixen to account for recent changes in military technology. "It's a sadly out dated document that needs some reconsideration." Said the Turian Councilor. No formal details have been released but insiders have suggested that weapon energy levels maybe considered over spinal weapon length. More radical suggestion such as an economic basis have also been mentioned.
Mindoir Memberhood Convention Scheduled for Next Year
Mindoir has reached the required population to be an SA member state. While we'll only have one seat we'll be able to have a great voice in SA politics and affect the laws that effect us. Next year will be several events before the big membership convention. Remember every adult resident has a vote!
Politics (Laurence Freeman): Terminus
Ironically the war may have made things better for the Terminus. Many of the pirates and warlords are attacking the SA at the moment so that has helped. Several Batarian Puppets have joined the war. Ultimately we should just try to avoid any situation that could upset the rest of the Terminus we don't need the war to grow larger.
Citadel
It's going to take a while for them to figure out what they want to do. The Turians support the SA but aren't quite willing to fight for us and the more xenophobic members of the SA wouldn't let that fly. That said one of my contact said that there are some talks going on. Not sure about what bu they are war related.
The Salarians say they aren't doing anything, but as any one with any commons sense knows that is a lie. They just any doing anything the public will know about.
The Asari are split. Many of them are not interested in get involved militarily and are probably going to attempt to resolve this peacefully. However, Asari have long memories and plenty of them have grudges. This has lead several of the Asari republics to declare war on the Batarians. They are on the other side of the galaxy and will have to mobilize.
You should also be aware that Benezia, Liara's mother, is one of the leaders of the anti-Batarians faction. As an Asari matriarch I would not put it past her to be using this for multiple ends.
On a different front the Treat of Farixen is being reviewed and we are one of the main causes. We'd be well served lobbying on this. Either directly or via the Systems Alliance.
Systems Alliance
The Systems Alliance is still trying to figure out the fine details of it's response. Terra Firma has released a pretty clear we've go this message. One that our technology rather reinforces. It's quite likely that they'll block any cooperative efforts if they can. Nothing like a war to remind you that a large number of humans are xenophobic assholes. Though I can rather see how having Turian warships moving though SA space would make people rather unhappy. We still have problems will the Citadel border fleets. There's a reason all the ones over here are Asari.
Mindoir
With Mindoir possibly becoming a member state of the SA we'll have the opportunity to meddle in local politics. I'll keep you informed.
Litinana
They wanted to know if we were interested in weapons. I told then no for now. Getting weapons from them would not be a good idea, since it would be some sort of horrific bio-weapon.
Alliance-Hegemony War:
The Hegemony's surprise attack has put the SA on the back foot. Pirate raid on outlying colonies along with the threat of direct attack on the Alliance's core worlds has prevented any offensive action. However time is on the Alliance's side. As time passes the alliance will have new superior ships and before long will be able to go on the offensive. For now though the Alliance will have to weather the attacks.
ParSec (Andrew Nicolas): Status:
Commander: Andrew Nicolas
Secondary Commanders: Jelica Eveliina, Ithix
375 Troops in Legionary Powered Armor
39 Tiger IFVs
3,550 Accipiter "Atmospheric Edition" Drones
45 Gladius (Type C) Fighters and pilots and crew to match
74 Small Anti-ship Missiles
9 Standard Anti-ship Missiles
6 Large Anti-ship Missiles
208 Hydra Cluster Missiles
1 Upgraded Troop Transport "Dragon Lady"
125 Troops in Legionary Powered Armor
192 Un-manned Legionaries
12 Tiger IFVs
1,335 Accipiter "Atmospheric Edition" Drones
15 Gladius (Type C) Fighters and pilots and crew to match
46 Small Anti-ship Missiles
23 Standard Anti-ship Missiles
2 Large Anti-ship Missiles
267 Hydra Cluster Missiles
5 Lite Laser Pyndas
4992 Tribulus Drones
1 Quadriga Troop Transport
991 Sagittarius Drones
790 Aspidai Drones
Reputation:
High Tech
Quick Results
Powerful
Morally Good
The SA has called in our contract. Which basically means that the SA has control over a section of our forces. The SA has agreed to pay a 20% profit on costs for now. However, they've only asked for the Pyndas, everything else we're still free to use as we wish.
Anhur is basically won, but we could help with clean up.
Oh and on purely military terms we could successfully rebel against the government. Which by some definitions makes us a Megacorp. Congrats I guess. Though that'd be a really dumb idea. Most of our armed forces are more loyal to the Systems Alliance than us.
We could use more gear and people as always, but I can't think of any major issues.
PI (Lindsey Bradley):
A new larger space factory comes online this quarter. It opens the doors to massive profits. I would suggest we invest in developing more production facilities.
The Citadel has reviewed the situation with our arc-reactor patent and required output. They have concluded that we not longer need to meet any quotas. We, like ever other patent holder, merely need to offer reasonable amounts of our product at reasonable prices. Frankly I see no reason not to just keep doing what we were.
The SA has sent us an order. We are to produce as many Pyndas for them as we can without violating existing contracts. They have agreed to pay in accordance to the prices negotiated last quarter. As the SA is at war and the price was previously negotiated we really don't have any room to object. With the Citadel removing mandatory arc-reactor quotas we could drop production there and produce more ships though that would affect the budget numbers I have sent you.
ParSec Deployment 2174-Q3:
As noted we're split between Anhur and Mindoir at the moment. I see four main options to pursue at the moment. As usual I can't deploy more troops than I have and anything not deployed will stay home and guard/train.
Anhur Clean Up: Anhur has been won, but that doesn't mean that everything is over. While the Hegemony is unlike to act there are still Na'hesit forces that haven't surrendered. Staying for a while would make finishing this less costly for the Abolitionists. It'd also help give us a reputation for seeing things though. On the other hand we can leave without breaching contract and do other things with our forces. [ ] Stay (Low Risk, Low Profit)
-[ ] All forces stay (~75% of total ground forces) 672 Million
-[ ] Two-thirds of forces stay (~50% of total ground forces) 448 Million
-[ ] One-third of forces stay (~25% of total ground forces) 224 Million
[ ] Leave
Systems Alliance Contract: As we are a licensed SA PMC they can call us in to serve during times of war. Our Pyndas are definitely going. The SA would also welcome any other forces though. Sending some of our commanders along might be helpful. Obviously they are going into combat and considering the quality of what we have to offer are going to be used a lot. The SA has agreed to pay a 20% profit on costs. [ ] Just the Pyndas (High Risk, 20% Costs as Profit)
[ ] Send other forces (High Risk, 20% Costs as Profit)
-[ ] What?
Colony Guarding: Pirates and slavers have been using the war as an opportunity to raid many of the SA's colonies. We could do a lot of good having our ground forces act as colony guards. They'll almost certainly see combat. However I expect that once raiders find out that our forces are there that they won't want to hit the same spot a second time. Medium risk, medium profit. We'll probably scattered over a few planets so we might be relying on lower ranked commanders. [ ] Guard Colonies (Medium Risk, Medium Profit)
-[ ] All Free Forces 1.50 billion/quarter
-[ ] Deploy Three-Quarters (75%) of ParSec's forces 1.125 billion/quarter.
-[ ] Deploy Half (50%) of ParSec's forces 750 million/quarter.
-[ ] Deploy One-Quarter (25%) of ParSec's forces 375 million/quarter.
Raiding: I admit this idea is a bit crazy, but I figured I might as well added it in. We could send our free forces to Raid Batarian worlds. No one is paying us to do this, though we could see about claiming some bounties on Batarians. Pretty much no profit and rather risky. But we might see some benefit or find something interesting. We do require a troop transport and some fighters to do this. [ ] Raid Batarian Worlds (High Risk, ? Profit)
-[ ] All Free Forces
-[ ] Deploy Three-Quarters (75%) of ParSec's forces.
-[ ] Deploy Half (50%) of ParSec's forces.
-[ ] Deploy One-Quarter (25%) of ParSec's forces.
Something Else: Got an operation I need to plan? Or something I should look for when finding paying ops? [ ] Look for (Write-in)
[ ] We need to do this mission (Write-in)
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GM's notes: ParSec numbers maybe a little off I recomputed them from my posts but the don't match the tallies in the finance docs. @UberJJK may have added some extra production to cancel out losses which is fine. Or the stuff was given to you company security, which is fine to. Just let me know so I can edit the numbers.
Other then that... well I know at least one person is going to want to say stuff.
*Eye Twitch* Damn it formatting... Hope that fixed everything.
Anhur Clean Up:
[ ] Stay (Low Risk, Low Profit)
-[ ] All forces stay (~75% of total ground forces) 672 Million
-[ ] Two-thirds of forces stay (~50% of total ground forces) 448 Million
-[ ] One-third of forces stay (~25% of total ground forces) 224 Million
[ ] Leave
Systems Alliance Contract:
[ ] Just the Pyndas (High Risk, 20% Costs as Profit)
[ ] Send other forces (High Risk, 20% Costs as Profit)
-[ ] What?
Colony Guarding:
[ ] Guard Colonies (Medium Risk, Medium Profit)
-[ ] All Free Forces 1.50 billion/quarter
-[ ] Deploy Three-Quarters (75%) of ParSec's forces 1.125 billion/quarter.
-[ ] Deploy Half (50%) of ParSec's forces 750 million/quarter.
-[ ] Deploy One-Quarter (25%) of ParSec's forces 375 million/quarter.
Raiding:
[ ] Raid Batarian Worlds (High Risk, ? Profit)
-[ ] All Free Forces
-[ ] Deploy Three-Quarters (75%) of ParSec's forces.
-[ ] Deploy Half (50%) of ParSec's forces.
-[ ] Deploy One-Quarter (25%) of ParSec's forces.
Something Else:
[ ] Look for (Write-in)
[ ] We need to do this mission (Write-in)
So, if you want to give your powered armour dudes some sort of heavy support unit that's almost as manoeuvrable as them, but capable of carrying heavier weapons and armour, one option is to take the basic powered armour design and scale it up just enough so the pilot's entire body fits into the chest, thus freeing the limbs to be scaled however you like.
Actually there's another option; making the control interfaces stretch to the mech's elbows and knees. In mech design you're going to see basically three levels of mech; Power Armour, basically human sized and worn, Battlemovers (to borrow from Bubblegum Crisis) which have a tiny cockpit in the torso and an inbetween construction that places the operators feet and hands at the mech's knees and elbows and has the limbs operated through control sticks and limb placement.
One-time pads are literally unbreakable. Not just 'effectively' unbreakable, not just impractical to break, but literally, mathematically unbreakable. If you intercept a one-time encrypted message, and somebody claims to know what it says, you cannot even tell if they are right, because, for every possible message of the right length, there is a key that such that encrypting it results in the message you received.
Flashpoint shields. I guess the best way to describe this would be shields that flash on when needed and the entirety of the shield is focused on a single point meaning a theoreticaly massive boost in defence (If ME shields arn't allready this.
Ships. I may be a bit closed minded but apart from general tech upgrades the only sort of usfull idea i can think of is the Q.L. control i mention in previous comments
The IQ assessment rated her as above average, and "Most Likely to Conquer the Galaxy" which we dismissed as a glitch from the latest patch.
We may have been to hasty dismissing that result...
Gravity waves are not FTL. It's a nice idea and probably worthwhile, but it's not inherently much better than what we've got except telling ships equipped with GVS systems that it'd be a good idea to look closer.
The Quarians would be the people to consult with anything space related (Space stations, ships, possibly comm-buys, major bonus to any attempts to create live ships)
Not really. Samara is a Justicar, Justicars try to avoid getting into non-asari territory due to a number of factors, most of which boil down to 'political shitstorm.'
and aside from the progress in biotics research/training and cultural proliferation the incredible PR coup will give us a lot of influence with The Council.
The Drell thing will further cement us with the Hanar and possibly help make them into or closer to a major power which would also be incredibly loyal to us.
To be fair there's absolutely no reason we couldn't sit on the Eezo for a quarter or two while we engage in a crash production run of Pydnas for the SA. I'm not one of the spreadsheet gurus but we don't necessarily have any immediate need for the money do we? I'm sure it would come in handy our next major expansion, but there's little reason we'd be expanding in the next few quarters right?
Asari Simstim Epic All is One Released
If you haven't seen it yet you should. Put aside a several hours and get ready to have you mind blown. Like many Asari epics it's been divided into subsections for easier viewing. So those of you with less time can still enjoy the story without getting lost.
The story covers the life of Nanda the founder of the dominant Asari faith Siari. The story is well composed with the first act covering Nanda's travels as a Maiden, then her experiences as a Matron, and finally as a Matriarch seeking to end a war. The composition is excellent and thanks to new technology the simstim conveys the senses of the actor better than ever.
Of course that would explain why the simstim is good. What makes experiencing it literally a religious experience is hidden in the new tech. Many tricks have been used in the past to emulate Asari melding in the past and they've gotten so good that for most of the film you don't realize that the Simstim uses the live recording of the actors' melds. It isn't until then end were the actor playing Nanda declares, "All is one" and ends a battle by partially melding both side that you get it. All is one.
Ten out of ten, have changed religions. Spread the word, no preaching required just watch a good simstim.
Anhur Clean Up:
[X] Stay (Low Risk, Low Profit)
-[X] One-third of forces stay (~25% of total ground forces) 224 Million
We do need our biggest chunk of forces elsewhere, but the PR bonus of staying and helping the abolitionists clean up can't be underestimated, especially when the abolitionists themselves know that the Alliance is at war with the Batarians and our contract is subject to Alliance command.
Systems Alliance Contract:
[X] Just the Pyndas (High Risk, 20% Costs as Profit)
For now there's no need to strike at the Batarians except to destroy their ships and infrastructure, and the Alliance is more than capable of doing that without our ground forces. It's a pity we won't have our own Pyndas to work with though.
Colony Guarding:
[X] Guard Colonies (Medium Risk, Medium Profit)
-[X] Deploy Three-Quarters (75%) of ParSec's forces 1.125 billion/quarter.
Everything we don't need on Anhur basically. The pirates and warlords of the Terminus helping the Batarians are actually the biggest problem for the Alliance right now, they can strike everywhere and drain Alliance forces by requiring extensive garrisoning. Letting ParSec shoulder at least part of that burden and let the Alliance strike back at the source (which they're good at) while the colonies end up far too expensive to raid to be profitable for the pirates would be helpful.
...we'd probably win hands-down as long as we didn't pull a Trump (might even win then), but it would take time away from SCIENCE! so...probably best not to.
still it's the sort of thing that if it has a significant level of causing people to convert, i'd want to dissect the code in a lab and check whether it's doing anything dodgy.
