Shepard Quest Mk VI, Technological Revolution
- Thread starter Hoyr
- Start date
Don't we have the skill implants?
With those it should be fairly doable to straight up use the impoverished as colonists on new worlds.
Or we prepare to hire all those soldiers that are no doubt left over after the war ends, depending on how much additional intake they get.
But mid-term, it makes sense to cart off a few billion people to the colonies to break up Earths political power and make sure we don't have all eggs in one basket.
With those it should be fairly doable to straight up use the impoverished as colonists on new worlds.
Or we prepare to hire all those soldiers that are no doubt left over after the war ends, depending on how much additional intake they get.
But mid-term, it makes sense to cart off a few billion people to the colonies to break up Earths political power and make sure we don't have all eggs in one basket.
There are three solutions for this:
1) Aggressive automatization. We are already going down that route, but it is fraught with AI dangers, both political and actual
2) Aggressive transhumanism. Might only be possible with virtual aliens, but forking definitely solves the issue of manpower; plug and play skills also solve many issues with labor forces and definitely lead to an explosion of available workforce, if only because now anyone can have almost any profession quickly and on demand (and did we discuss child labor laws in light of this technology? I think we did at one point)
3) Aggressive uplifting and vassalization. Go out in the great beyond, find new uncontacted aliens, uplift them for labor force.
EDIT:
We are turning Earth into a forge world soon.
- Location
- Leeds
Also
4) Wait for a few decades/centuries.
The current plan however not one that we're going to be picking for Reaper/meta-knowledge reasons.
Actually, are we sure that the Reapers are going to invade around the same time as canon? The way I see it, the reapers might invade earlier or later than canon due to the influence of PI. Most likely earlier, unless the Reapers decide to delay their attack for a few more years for some reason.
We do have some plans there related to offering people 50k, a skill chip with a useful trade, and a ticket, probably on a PI ship, to a colony world to promote immigration. That will certainly help by effectively increasing our GDP per capita, as will stuff like increasing automation, but ultimately the Alliance is constrained by it's comparatively minuscule population and there just isn't anything we can do to solve that in a useful timeframe.
This isn't actually a big deal. As I laid out in this post:
The Alliance has a large pool of retired soldiers to call upon already and there are good odds most of them will go back into whatever their previous line of work was after the war.
I thought the thread might appreciate an update on how things are going on my end. I've finished the first read through. @Auks has already given me his stuff, so big thanks there. I haven't read the thread in it's entirety. On the one hand, there's a lot of good discussion there, on the other, that would probably take a month at minimum, all on it's own.
My next step will be trying to understand the financial document. Dunno how long that's going to take. If someone can talk me through it, that would speed things up and be generally appreciated.
I'm also thinking about the research system. I'm worried that it just doesn't work for the scale we've reached, and how it's going to work out in the future. I'll spent some time on how I want to deal with that. If you have thoughts on the matter, let me hear. Depending on the results of that, I may also take another look at the tech tree, and switch things up there. Still, that whole things is still in it's infancy.
Finally, I'll probably kick out the explicit skills/ratings for Revy. The quest already has enough numbers, and those don't add much. Revy getting into fights personally isn't what the quest is about.
EDIT: Discord servers seem to be the hip new thing for popular quests. Is there enough interest for me to open one?
In game, you don't know for sure the Reapers still exist (though there's no reason to believe they don't, except not being around), and you definitely have no idea when they will come, or that they want to kill everybody.
My next step will be trying to understand the financial document. Dunno how long that's going to take. If someone can talk me through it, that would speed things up and be generally appreciated.
I'm also thinking about the research system. I'm worried that it just doesn't work for the scale we've reached, and how it's going to work out in the future. I'll spent some time on how I want to deal with that. If you have thoughts on the matter, let me hear. Depending on the results of that, I may also take another look at the tech tree, and switch things up there. Still, that whole things is still in it's infancy.
Finally, I'll probably kick out the explicit skills/ratings for Revy. The quest already has enough numbers, and those don't add much. Revy getting into fights personally isn't what the quest is about.
EDIT: Discord servers seem to be the hip new thing for popular quests. Is there enough interest for me to open one?
As QM, I generally consider the source material more of an inspiration than hard and fast canon. I will change things if necessary. So use meta-knowledge at your own risk.
In game, you don't know for sure the Reapers still exist (though there's no reason to believe they don't, except not being around), and you definitely have no idea when they will come, or that they want to kill everybody.
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As the person who created and ran it from pretty much the beginning I'm up for any help you need here.
Also while I never got around to finishing it I did start a compilation of all the WoGs from across the various threads. I only finished the first 4 threads but here it is and compiled the first but here is what I have:
Effect of Power Choices:
What sort of enemies you face will vary depending on your powerset- if you choose the flying brick option, Saren is probably going to end up being your Zod, if you choose Iron Man, the STG and Cerberus will deploy lots of knock offs of your own work against you, and if you choose Nova, I'm almost certainly going to replace the Rachni with Zerg. That sort of thing.
Eezo Exploits:
I'm going to take things on a Case by Case Basis. This is MCU Tony's tech, and while you're going to be able to do crazy stuff with arc reactors and repulsors and such, I'm going to generally assume that people have already tried the various "creative" applications of eezo in the several millenia that the Council has been around, and that there are reasons they are not in general use.
Indoctrination Counters:
Alexandria, Nova, Alex, Seras and Revan all have the potential to no sell Indoctrination and Nova and Revan should be able to detect indoctrination in others as well. Starktech might allow you to do the same thing, but it would require researching Indoctrination, which is going to be somewhat difficult.
Early Reaper Invasion:
Reapers didn't jump the gun for the Protheans who had a militant, galaxy spanning empire, giant superdreadnoughts with particle cannons and were on the very cusp of building their own relays. A Tech revolution won't, in and of itself, bring the Reapers back sooner.
That said, the current cycle is overdue. While Sovereign is somewhat quiescent at the moment, if a good way to get him access to the Citadel falls into his figurative lap, he'll go for it. In canon, Saren got himself indoctrinated and presumably came up with the idea of recruiting the Geth (they refer to him as Prophet). If butterflies were to cause another person to be indoctrinated and stumble upon Sovereign and give him access to a sufficiently large fleet to stalemate the Citadel defense fleet while he does his thing, he might move up his timetable a bit.
But he won't attack early just because you're selling crazy tech toys.
Fun Fact: The Batarians recovered the Leviathan of Dis 7 years ago
What sort of enemies you face will vary depending on your powerset- if you choose the flying brick option, Saren is probably going to end up being your Zod, if you choose Iron Man, the STG and Cerberus will deploy lots of knock offs of your own work against you, and if you choose Nova, I'm almost certainly going to replace the Rachni with Zerg. That sort of thing.
Eezo Exploits:
I'm going to take things on a Case by Case Basis. This is MCU Tony's tech, and while you're going to be able to do crazy stuff with arc reactors and repulsors and such, I'm going to generally assume that people have already tried the various "creative" applications of eezo in the several millenia that the Council has been around, and that there are reasons they are not in general use.
Indoctrination Counters:
Alexandria, Nova, Alex, Seras and Revan all have the potential to no sell Indoctrination and Nova and Revan should be able to detect indoctrination in others as well. Starktech might allow you to do the same thing, but it would require researching Indoctrination, which is going to be somewhat difficult.
Early Reaper Invasion:
Reapers didn't jump the gun for the Protheans who had a militant, galaxy spanning empire, giant superdreadnoughts with particle cannons and were on the very cusp of building their own relays. A Tech revolution won't, in and of itself, bring the Reapers back sooner.
That said, the current cycle is overdue. While Sovereign is somewhat quiescent at the moment, if a good way to get him access to the Citadel falls into his figurative lap, he'll go for it. In canon, Saren got himself indoctrinated and presumably came up with the idea of recruiting the Geth (they refer to him as Prophet). If butterflies were to cause another person to be indoctrinated and stumble upon Sovereign and give him access to a sufficiently large fleet to stalemate the Citadel defense fleet while he does his thing, he might move up his timetable a bit.
But he won't attack early just because you're selling crazy tech toys.
Fun Fact: The Batarians recovered the Leviathan of Dis 7 years ago
Radiation Shielding:
I tend to assume ME has ridculously effective radiations shielding, otherwise someone would have exploited Bremsstrahlung a long time ago. An infantry scale radiation weapon may be quite useful though, if you manage to make everything small enough.
Mako - Main Gun:
I should probably point out the tank"s main gun is in the same general range as the Mako's. Which is a 155mm railgun. Its a bit weaker as we're ~15 years prior to ME1, but they're fairly similar.
I tend to assume ME has ridculously effective radiations shielding, otherwise someone would have exploited Bremsstrahlung a long time ago. An infantry scale radiation weapon may be quite useful though, if you manage to make everything small enough.
Mako - Main Gun:
I should probably point out the tank"s main gun is in the same general range as the Mako's. Which is a 155mm railgun. Its a bit weaker as we're ~15 years prior to ME1, but they're fairly similar.
LungShep - Dreadnought Combat:
Wrestling Dreadnoughts, no, but flying in space would have been possible with sufficient ramp up time. Hell, if Shepard spent a few years anticipating Earth's invasion and not fighting, it's vaguely possible she could have soloed the entire invasion force, provided she managed to avoid orbital fire until she was ramped up enough. Would have been rather difficult though, and running out of opponents while in space would have been rather hazardous. Alas, it is not to be.
Wrestling Dreadnoughts, no, but flying in space would have been possible with sufficient ramp up time. Hell, if Shepard spent a few years anticipating Earth's invasion and not fighting, it's vaguely possible she could have soloed the entire invasion force, provided she managed to avoid orbital fire until she was ramped up enough. Would have been rather difficult though, and running out of opponents while in space would have been rather hazardous. Alas, it is not to be.
Miranda - Recruitment:
Miranda is four years older then Shepard, making her 20 at this point; while the date of her fleeing her father is left vague, it's quite likely that it's already happened. You might be able to get her as a personal assistant/secretary/admin person eventually, but if you do I'd expect more Natalie Rushman and less Pepper Potts.
Jack - Starting Age:
Jack is currently nine years old. She's not going to be working, either as a secretary or otherwise for a while.
Hannah Shepard - Military Training 1:
Hannah Shepard worked primarily on the Navy side of things, but the Systems Alliance is a big believer in cross-training. So no, she's not a Marine, though she is a member of the local militia. She might not be N7 material, but she's fairly competent.
Hannah Shepard - Military Training 2:
Hannah was a Weapons officer on a Dreadnought. She has some infantry cross-training and is certainly wearing something that's much lower profile then what you're wearing, but she has no special training in infiltration. Though she does understand the concept of keeping quiet, and could probably manage to sabotage the Jamming device if she had undisturbed access to it for a few minutes.
Miranda is four years older then Shepard, making her 20 at this point; while the date of her fleeing her father is left vague, it's quite likely that it's already happened. You might be able to get her as a personal assistant/secretary/admin person eventually, but if you do I'd expect more Natalie Rushman and less Pepper Potts.
Jack - Starting Age:
Jack is currently nine years old. She's not going to be working, either as a secretary or otherwise for a while.
Hannah Shepard - Military Training 1:
Hannah Shepard worked primarily on the Navy side of things, but the Systems Alliance is a big believer in cross-training. So no, she's not a Marine, though she is a member of the local militia. She might not be N7 material, but she's fairly competent.
Hannah Shepard - Military Training 2:
Hannah was a Weapons officer on a Dreadnought. She has some infantry cross-training and is certainly wearing something that's much lower profile then what you're wearing, but she has no special training in infiltration. Though she does understand the concept of keeping quiet, and could probably manage to sabotage the Jamming device if she had undisturbed access to it for a few minutes.
Legionary Appearance - Mk1:
The MK 1 is basically this:
Built with ME tech. It has barriers and can fly (because eezo gives cheap anti-gravity), but She hasn't quite got repulsors working yet. Because she's hiding her work from her parents and using partsstolen salvaged from farm equipment.
Legionary Layout - Mk1.5:
On the subject of weapons placement, the Mk 1.5 is modular, as is the various weapons mounts for it. The Autocannon, Micro Missiles and AT rocket can all be mounted on both forearm and shoulder mounts. Micro-missiles can also be mounted on the upper arm as well, as they can engage off axis. Once you've actually built the Suit, you can argue about where to put stuff, but until then it's a bit premature.
And if you really want a Rifle form factor for the Autocannon, I don't really see why not, so sure, if you research the AC you can build a rifle variant as well that draws power from the suit via cable.
Legionary Inbuilt Functions - Mk1.5:
Night Vision comes standard with the 1.5, as does a medi-gel injector tied to a vital signs monitor. More advanced stuff will have to be researched separately.
The MK 1 is basically this:
Built with ME tech. It has barriers and can fly (because eezo gives cheap anti-gravity), but She hasn't quite got repulsors working yet. Because she's hiding her work from her parents and using parts
Legionary Layout - Mk1.5:
On the subject of weapons placement, the Mk 1.5 is modular, as is the various weapons mounts for it. The Autocannon, Micro Missiles and AT rocket can all be mounted on both forearm and shoulder mounts. Micro-missiles can also be mounted on the upper arm as well, as they can engage off axis. Once you've actually built the Suit, you can argue about where to put stuff, but until then it's a bit premature.
And if you really want a Rifle form factor for the Autocannon, I don't really see why not, so sure, if you research the AC you can build a rifle variant as well that draws power from the suit via cable.
Legionary Inbuilt Functions - Mk1.5:
Night Vision comes standard with the 1.5, as does a medi-gel injector tied to a vital signs monitor. More advanced stuff will have to be researched separately.
Perpetual Motion:
The Asari beat her by a few thousand years. Because if a Waterfall generator is workable, I imagine the species that developed on a world with a ton of eezo lying about are going to go about learning the laws of thermodynamics a bit differently. She's not even the first human to do it- that honor goes to a random Grad student (who may or may have been high) about 5 years after Humanity first discovered eezo.
But yes, generally it's not terribly efficient. It requires ridiculous amounts of eezo to generate anything resembling a useful amount of power- the University of Serrice's engineering department maintains the most efficient one in known space, and it uses as much Eezo as a small dreadnought. They use it to run the Engineering Wing of the University.
It's very much a niche thing, usually only used for novelty value (in the cases where a rich CEO wants a tiny perpetual motion machine on their desk) or for deep space probes that are suppose to run forever.
Shepard's was only notable in that it that she built it when she was 12, and that it was more efficient then many undergrads could manage working with equivalent resources.
Electronic Warfare:
Really though, The Basic EW VI is a gateway tech and unlocks lots of other VI research topics. Like the Fire Control VI that lets you use autocannon and micromissiles as PD.
The Asari beat her by a few thousand years. Because if a Waterfall generator is workable, I imagine the species that developed on a world with a ton of eezo lying about are going to go about learning the laws of thermodynamics a bit differently. She's not even the first human to do it- that honor goes to a random Grad student (who may or may have been high) about 5 years after Humanity first discovered eezo.
But yes, generally it's not terribly efficient. It requires ridiculous amounts of eezo to generate anything resembling a useful amount of power- the University of Serrice's engineering department maintains the most efficient one in known space, and it uses as much Eezo as a small dreadnought. They use it to run the Engineering Wing of the University.
It's very much a niche thing, usually only used for novelty value (in the cases where a rich CEO wants a tiny perpetual motion machine on their desk) or for deep space probes that are suppose to run forever.
Shepard's was only notable in that it that she built it when she was 12, and that it was more efficient then many undergrads could manage working with equivalent resources.
Electronic Warfare:
Basically this. It also offers limited comm interception capabilities, but that's not going to work against more elite forces with better encryption. There will be an advanced version you can upgrade to afterwards that is better at that, can do some remote hacking, and has voice mimicing software if you want to do some social engineering, but those features aren't on the most basic version.
Really though, The Basic EW VI is a gateway tech and unlocks lots of other VI research topics. Like the Fire Control VI that lets you use autocannon and micromissiles as PD.
Titanfall Technology:
Eh, there's no reason you can't do crazy shit with pistols akimbo later on. I mean, yes, it would be easier if you'd gone the force user route- you would have been able to do all sorts of crazy gunkata shit with that- but you'll be able to research and build all sorts of interesting things. I haven't finalized the system, but after the Raid is over you'll have some choices for getting equipment and funding, and you'll be able to build lots of cool stuff. Stuff like this:
(Why yes, I have been playing Titanfall.)
Granted, you'll probably use armor for heavy combat, but having a hold out weapon might be useful given how frequently bars turn into shoot outs in ME.
Eh, there's no reason you can't do crazy shit with pistols akimbo later on. I mean, yes, it would be easier if you'd gone the force user route- you would have been able to do all sorts of crazy gunkata shit with that- but you'll be able to research and build all sorts of interesting things. I haven't finalized the system, but after the Raid is over you'll have some choices for getting equipment and funding, and you'll be able to build lots of cool stuff. Stuff like this:
(Why yes, I have been playing Titanfall.)
Granted, you'll probably use armor for heavy combat, but having a hold out weapon might be useful given how frequently bars turn into shoot outs in ME.
Population:
I tend to assume the population of all of Citadel space is ~1 trillion, with the major three each having about 300 billion in population. I don't think this is a poor assumption; they've all been space faring for over a thousand years.
As for humanities colonies being tiny, that's actually far more sensical then the alternative. Humanity really hasn't been colonizing for very long- only a handful of decades- and is not forcing people to move. When people have first world standards of living, most aren't willing to uproot themselves and move to the edge of civilization, oddly enough. And it's not like the SA wants lots of densely populated colonies- it simply wants lots of colonies.
Because the thing about the SA is that it is very aware of how outnumbered it is. It's expanding as fast as it can, because it sees everyone else has dozens, if not hundreds of worlds. It's trying to broaden it's resource base as fast as possible, lay claim to as much as it can, and that doesn't actually require a ton of people, at least in the beginning.
And, yes the Relay 314 incident is sort of screwy, but it's essentially a prolonged border skirmish. Low casualties aren't unsurprising
I tend to assume the population of all of Citadel space is ~1 trillion, with the major three each having about 300 billion in population. I don't think this is a poor assumption; they've all been space faring for over a thousand years.
As for humanities colonies being tiny, that's actually far more sensical then the alternative. Humanity really hasn't been colonizing for very long- only a handful of decades- and is not forcing people to move. When people have first world standards of living, most aren't willing to uproot themselves and move to the edge of civilization, oddly enough. And it's not like the SA wants lots of densely populated colonies- it simply wants lots of colonies.
Because the thing about the SA is that it is very aware of how outnumbered it is. It's expanding as fast as it can, because it sees everyone else has dozens, if not hundreds of worlds. It's trying to broaden it's resource base as fast as possible, lay claim to as much as it can, and that doesn't actually require a ton of people, at least in the beginning.
And, yes the Relay 314 incident is sort of screwy, but it's essentially a prolonged border skirmish. Low casualties aren't unsurprising
Council on AI:
The Citadel generally follows realpolitik, and thus there are plenty of examples of them being dicks. But they generally aren't assholes just because.
For AI, the Council is not going to be terribly enthused to hear you're planning on building an AI and then giving it control of, say, a superheavy tank with ground to orbit capability. If they think you're just going to use it as a Research aid, or to handle the administrative needs of the company, they'll be far more willing to give you a license. But most Asari in positions of power remember the Morning War, and are generally of the opinion that letting an AI control military hardware is a bad idea.
Can you bring them around? Sure. But leading off with Bolos is probably a bad idea.
The Citadel generally follows realpolitik, and thus there are plenty of examples of them being dicks. But they generally aren't assholes just because.
For AI, the Council is not going to be terribly enthused to hear you're planning on building an AI and then giving it control of, say, a superheavy tank with ground to orbit capability. If they think you're just going to use it as a Research aid, or to handle the administrative needs of the company, they'll be far more willing to give you a license. But most Asari in positions of power remember the Morning War, and are generally of the opinion that letting an AI control military hardware is a bad idea.
Can you bring them around? Sure. But leading off with Bolos is probably a bad idea.
Omni-Shields:
You don't have Omni-shields yet.
Legionary Slots - Mk1.5:
Autocannons will not mount to the upper arm slots.
Equipment 1:
The Grenade launcher is a simple 20mm fed by a box magazine. It's not terribly complicated, doesn't take 15 different types of grenades, and doesn't mount anywhere except the wrist as it doesn't have any sort of articulation or advanced targeting software.
Similarly, the Flamers were never meant to be mounted anywhere except the wrist, for much the same reason.
Also worth noting that the upper arm slots were only really meant to mount micro missiles. That said, I can see an argument for being able to put rockets there, so I'll allow it.
Power Armor Competition:
Regarding the competition itself, you'll be traveling to Rio de Janeiro, where you'll be able to showcase your armor for a day or two before getting to demonstrate your suit on a few of the ICT's training courses. And yes, Anderson will be there, as will several other OC N7s. The Illusive Man will not be attending, though he will likely have a few people there to keep an eye on things. It's not exactly an open event, so Terminus Warlords are unlikely to be in attendance, though a few select reporters will be present.
Omni-Tool Legionary Slot:
Omnitools are stupidly small by all indications, so I don't have a problem with them sharing a slot with other wrist mounted weapons.
Grenade Research Options:
If you want to upgrade the grenade laucher to a bigger version with all the articulation needed to be used on the arm and shoulder slots, it won't be too terribly expensive a project; something like ~75 probably. Specialized grenades are a different matter; stuff like Tear Gas or inciendiary is easy, stuff like freeze grenades, not so much.
As for stun rounds and other less then lethal options, it's doable, but very difficult if you want it to work on someone in an hardsuit, and even more difficult if you want it to work on, say, Krogan.
Grenade/Rocket Warhead Compatibility:
There's enough commonality that rockets and grenades could share research for exotic warhead types, sure. How much those research projects cost will vary depending on what they do of course.
Grenade Ammo Box Appearance:
Grenade Creation (Omnigel):
Homing Grenades:
Some degree of homing capability for the 20mm after Micro-missiles is fine, though it's unlikely to be as good as the thing that was purpose built for it is. And it will likely make ammo orders of magnitude more expensive.
Alternative FTL:
There will be no alternate FTL drives. You will eventually be able to improve ME's FTL, possibly eliminating the static issue and reaching the same sort of speed the Reapers manage, but you won't be getting Warp or Slipspace or whatever.
Relay Construction/Deconstruction:
Conduits are definitely doable, though that's going to be a long ways away. As for taking a relay apart, that is both extremely difficult and more then a little dangerous. Also, would piss off the Council to no end- they kind of view Relays as the Irreplaceable foundation upon which all interstellar commerce is built. Which they are, to be fair. And as long sighted as the Asari are, they aren't going to take "it was an uninhabited system" as a good answer. So yeah, expect years of lobbying to get that approved.
Or you can just do it in the Terminus and hope the Council doesn't send a Spectre to show their displeasure.
Alternative FTL 2:
Otherwise, I'll have to look into the matter in more depth; I'm a Mechanical Engineer, not an astrophysicist.
Private Dreadnoughts:
Barrier Strength:
Barrier strength, at least in my head canon, is a product of power, the quantity of eezo, and the efficiency of the architecture. Other Hardsuits use batteries, Tanks use Hydrogen fuel cells, and you use a 5 GW arc reactor. That gives you a bit of an edge, to say the least, and with proper facilities and resources, the 1.5 doesn't lag behind in the latter two the way the Mk 1 did, either.
Nano-lathes:
Ok, the idea I got from EDI's talk upon boarding the SR-2 was that Nano-lathes were simply lathes either on a nano-scale, or with nano-scale precision.
Arc Reactor Power Source:
And to clarify, I never actually said I was treating Arc Reactors as Zero point energy taps, merely that I was tempted to, because their power density is complete bullshit. I still haven't quite decided yet, but since I can't recall any examples of them needing refueling, I'm leaning towards it at the moment.
Cerberus Status:
She very well could be. Cerberus is still part of the Alliance at this point after all.
Major Anna Navarre Mentality:
Old Tax Rate Info:
Revy's not actually a legal expert; there will be upgrades later on (i.e. hiring lawyers) to get you better tax rates, among other things. For the moment, Revy's dad has been handling finances; he's fairly good at it for an amateur, and between everything he's been writing off and the tax incentives designed to get companies to move to the colonies, you'll pay about 20% of what profits you have have after you've spent money on staff, security, products (i.e. armors) and everything else. I have no interest in bankrupting you through taxes. That would be a stupid way to end a quest.
(Pre-Legionary) Hardsuit Costs:
Regarding price in general, for the purpose of this quest, a cheap hardsuit can cost as little as 50,000 credits, but a nice one is more likely to be in the neighborhood of 250K, with really high end ones being 500K+. Bleeding edge tech, the stuff you see on Spectres and the like are sometimes as expensive as a million credits, but not always.
(Pre-Legionary) Alliance Standard Issue Hardsuit:
The general issue Onyx is something like 75,000; that said, that's for everyone, including naval ratings, and Infantry units can and do requisition better armor.
Possible MCU Crossover Elements:
Eh, not sure if the AIM/The Mandarin/HYDRA will actually show up in this. I'm certainly tempted after seeing the Winter Soldier, and even considered having the SA find Cap frozen in the ice as a potential consulting gig for the Alliance option. That said, having Captain America and Hydra in WWII really should have generated quite a few butterflies by this point, especially if the Tesseract was in government hands. So they may or may not show up.
Arc Reactor Fuel/Maintenance:
Arc Reactors don't need refueling; this is not the same thing as not needing maintenance.
500m Mech Details:
Sovereign is over 2 Kilometers long, i.e 4 times the size of a 500 meter mech. Though the Reaper destroyers are only ~160 meters tall. Was going to stop at that size and figured I'd add an extra tier afterwards just because.
And you won't be building it anytime soon, if at all. Base price is 1 trillion credits, the same as a Dreadnought. It's going to be beyond you for quite some time, I'm afraid.
(Old) Economics Data:
While we're on the subject of ship lengths, I should probably say a few words. Talked with Lordsfire about a few things regarding ship numbers, the size of ME economies and the cost to build a ship, and came to a few conclusions.
Short version, Spacefaring economies are big, and ships are expensive. Washinton Naval Treaty IN SPACE! suggests the Council finds an arms race to be a bad idea, likely for the same reason the powers on Earth did- it risks upsetting the balance of power, and risks economic ruin because everyone's spending all their money on ships. Thing is, Council economies are huge- even the SA, which is said to have an economy the size of the Elcor, likely has a GDP in the range of 600 Trillion. All of the council members are likely at least five times that, possibly a good deal more.
So I'm assuming a trillion dollar dreadnought. Scaling cost from that somewhat linearly with volume gives 200 billion for a Heavy cruiser (500m range), 40 billion for a Light Cruiser (300m range) and 7.5 billion for a frigate (150m range).
(Outdated) Tech Buying:
EDIT: Also, certain techs on the tree are buyable- the more conventional ship and tanks, primarily. Researching frigates, cruisers and what not is something you can do to save money, but it isn't actually required.
You don't have Omni-shields yet.
Legionary Slots - Mk1.5:
Autocannons will not mount to the upper arm slots.
Equipment 1:
The Grenade launcher is a simple 20mm fed by a box magazine. It's not terribly complicated, doesn't take 15 different types of grenades, and doesn't mount anywhere except the wrist as it doesn't have any sort of articulation or advanced targeting software.
Similarly, the Flamers were never meant to be mounted anywhere except the wrist, for much the same reason.
Also worth noting that the upper arm slots were only really meant to mount micro missiles. That said, I can see an argument for being able to put rockets there, so I'll allow it.
Power Armor Competition:
Regarding the competition itself, you'll be traveling to Rio de Janeiro, where you'll be able to showcase your armor for a day or two before getting to demonstrate your suit on a few of the ICT's training courses. And yes, Anderson will be there, as will several other OC N7s. The Illusive Man will not be attending, though he will likely have a few people there to keep an eye on things. It's not exactly an open event, so Terminus Warlords are unlikely to be in attendance, though a few select reporters will be present.
Omni-Tool Legionary Slot:
Omnitools are stupidly small by all indications, so I don't have a problem with them sharing a slot with other wrist mounted weapons.
Grenade Research Options:
If you want to upgrade the grenade laucher to a bigger version with all the articulation needed to be used on the arm and shoulder slots, it won't be too terribly expensive a project; something like ~75 probably. Specialized grenades are a different matter; stuff like Tear Gas or inciendiary is easy, stuff like freeze grenades, not so much.
As for stun rounds and other less then lethal options, it's doable, but very difficult if you want it to work on someone in an hardsuit, and even more difficult if you want it to work on, say, Krogan.
Grenade/Rocket Warhead Compatibility:
There's enough commonality that rockets and grenades could share research for exotic warhead types, sure. How much those research projects cost will vary depending on what they do of course.
Grenade Ammo Box Appearance:
To a degree, yes. Current mental image is that the feed looks like a giant P90 mag on the bottom of the arm.Forgothrax said:
Grenade Creation (Omnigel):
Yes. The setting the yield higher will run into recoil and wear issues, but that won't stop some enterprising soldiers from trying it. And lower velocity is trivial to do.
Homing Grenades:
Some degree of homing capability for the 20mm after Micro-missiles is fine, though it's unlikely to be as good as the thing that was purpose built for it is. And it will likely make ammo orders of magnitude more expensive.
Alternative FTL:
There will be no alternate FTL drives. You will eventually be able to improve ME's FTL, possibly eliminating the static issue and reaching the same sort of speed the Reapers manage, but you won't be getting Warp or Slipspace or whatever.
Relay Construction/Deconstruction:
Conduits are definitely doable, though that's going to be a long ways away. As for taking a relay apart, that is both extremely difficult and more then a little dangerous. Also, would piss off the Council to no end- they kind of view Relays as the Irreplaceable foundation upon which all interstellar commerce is built. Which they are, to be fair. And as long sighted as the Asari are, they aren't going to take "it was an uninhabited system" as a good answer. So yeah, expect years of lobbying to get that approved.
Or you can just do it in the Terminus and hope the Council doesn't send a Spectre to show their displeasure.
Alternative FTL 2:
Possibly. I've been giving some consideration to bringing other elements of the MCU in, and if I were to do so, Wormholes would definitely be a thing.Yog said:
Otherwise, I'll have to look into the matter in more depth; I'm a Mechanical Engineer, not an astrophysicist.
Private Dreadnoughts:
I imagine there are plenty of companies that operate both in and out of the Terminus, and keeping a few Warships to protect one's holdings in the Terminus won't really draw much attention. Building a Carrier or Dreadnought will, as most Megacorps don't bother with anything heavier then Cruisers, but it is legal. Technically. Though a great many people may start asking rather pointed questions if you start amassing a fleet.LockedKeye said:
Barrier Strength:
Barrier strength, at least in my head canon, is a product of power, the quantity of eezo, and the efficiency of the architecture. Other Hardsuits use batteries, Tanks use Hydrogen fuel cells, and you use a 5 GW arc reactor. That gives you a bit of an edge, to say the least, and with proper facilities and resources, the 1.5 doesn't lag behind in the latter two the way the Mk 1 did, either.
Nano-lathes:
Ok, the idea I got from EDI's talk upon boarding the SR-2 was that Nano-lathes were simply lathes either on a nano-scale, or with nano-scale precision.
Arc Reactor Power Source:
And to clarify, I never actually said I was treating Arc Reactors as Zero point energy taps, merely that I was tempted to, because their power density is complete bullshit. I still haven't quite decided yet, but since I can't recall any examples of them needing refueling, I'm leaning towards it at the moment.
Cerberus Status:
She very well could be. Cerberus is still part of the Alliance at this point after all.
Major Anna Navarre Mentality:
Oh, she's a complete sociopath, but she's a very professional sociopath.Uxion said:
Old Tax Rate Info:
Revy's not actually a legal expert; there will be upgrades later on (i.e. hiring lawyers) to get you better tax rates, among other things. For the moment, Revy's dad has been handling finances; he's fairly good at it for an amateur, and between everything he's been writing off and the tax incentives designed to get companies to move to the colonies, you'll pay about 20% of what profits you have have after you've spent money on staff, security, products (i.e. armors) and everything else. I have no interest in bankrupting you through taxes. That would be a stupid way to end a quest.
(Pre-Legionary) Hardsuit Costs:
Regarding price in general, for the purpose of this quest, a cheap hardsuit can cost as little as 50,000 credits, but a nice one is more likely to be in the neighborhood of 250K, with really high end ones being 500K+. Bleeding edge tech, the stuff you see on Spectres and the like are sometimes as expensive as a million credits, but not always.
(Pre-Legionary) Alliance Standard Issue Hardsuit:
The general issue Onyx is something like 75,000; that said, that's for everyone, including naval ratings, and Infantry units can and do requisition better armor.
Possible MCU Crossover Elements:
Eh, not sure if the AIM/The Mandarin/HYDRA will actually show up in this. I'm certainly tempted after seeing the Winter Soldier, and even considered having the SA find Cap frozen in the ice as a potential consulting gig for the Alliance option. That said, having Captain America and Hydra in WWII really should have generated quite a few butterflies by this point, especially if the Tesseract was in government hands. So they may or may not show up.
Arc Reactor Fuel/Maintenance:
Arc Reactors don't need refueling; this is not the same thing as not needing maintenance.
500m Mech Details:
Sovereign is over 2 Kilometers long, i.e 4 times the size of a 500 meter mech. Though the Reaper destroyers are only ~160 meters tall. Was going to stop at that size and figured I'd add an extra tier afterwards just because.
And you won't be building it anytime soon, if at all. Base price is 1 trillion credits, the same as a Dreadnought. It's going to be beyond you for quite some time, I'm afraid.
(Old) Economics Data:
While we're on the subject of ship lengths, I should probably say a few words. Talked with Lordsfire about a few things regarding ship numbers, the size of ME economies and the cost to build a ship, and came to a few conclusions.
Short version, Spacefaring economies are big, and ships are expensive. Washinton Naval Treaty IN SPACE! suggests the Council finds an arms race to be a bad idea, likely for the same reason the powers on Earth did- it risks upsetting the balance of power, and risks economic ruin because everyone's spending all their money on ships. Thing is, Council economies are huge- even the SA, which is said to have an economy the size of the Elcor, likely has a GDP in the range of 600 Trillion. All of the council members are likely at least five times that, possibly a good deal more.
So I'm assuming a trillion dollar dreadnought. Scaling cost from that somewhat linearly with volume gives 200 billion for a Heavy cruiser (500m range), 40 billion for a Light Cruiser (300m range) and 7.5 billion for a frigate (150m range).
(Outdated) Tech Buying:
EDIT: Also, certain techs on the tree are buyable- the more conventional ship and tanks, primarily. Researching frigates, cruisers and what not is something you can do to save money, but it isn't actually required.
Laboratories I:
It's somewhat artificial, but I'm not going to let you build a second Lab (I) until you've expanded to another planet. And Researchers in a separate first tier lab will never be able to research tier 2 tech; higher tech tiers will only be researchable at upgraded facilities.
New Classes:
While building something in the Gap between Frigate and Cruiser is certainly possible, and may even be effective with advanced tech, there's the question of why you don't build a Cruiser or Frigate with that tech. And while building a ship with extra PD is certainly doable, heat is an issue.
Research Heroes:
Laboratories II:
You can use Lab I while II is under construction, and you can bring the teams onboard before construction is finished, though they'll work at diminished capacity as their facilities are still being built (-20 to research rolls). The Lab it self will not give it's own rolls until it is completed.
Laboratories III:
Mindoir Defense Fleet:
There's currently a squadron of 4 CLs in orbit above Mindoir, both to deter repeat attacks and as part of an effort to reassure the public that the Government is doing something.
Stealthy Shields:
Shield Belts are indeed a thing here. They're commonly used by police, and are in face what your ex-LEO security teams were using prior to upgrading to Hardsuits. Adding an Arc Reactor would help it of course, though it would make it a bit larger; Arc Reactors are tiny, but they're not that tiny. Might be kind of hard to hide under a cocktail dress.
Of course, Revy is a biotic, and once she has an implant she can maintain a barrier independent of armor pretty much indefinitely. You could even have an Arc Reactor implanted and hooked up to the amp if you wanted to, though there are a few obvious downsides to that.
Paragon Industry Complex Location:
Outskirts. Power plant is in industrial park on the west side of the city. You'll be building everything else there as well if you choose that option.
Peak Human Details:
The Genetic engineering tree is very much a work in progress; given what's in the wiki and what's discussed in that one conversation on Noveria, you aren't going to be able to jump straight to Captain America levels. Or at least not Winter Soldier Cap, at any rate.
400 point tier is going to be something more akin to the performance of the augmented agents in the Bourne Legacy, I think. The tier after that may get into Winter Soldier!Cap or Into Darkness!Khan territory, but again, haven't fully decided.
Cerberus Taco Cart:
Cord-Hislop happens to be one of the premiere starfighter manufacturers in Alliance Space, I'll have you know.
Though oddly enough, the employee cafeteria refuses to sell Tacos. No one ever explains it to the new employees, and everyone always gets a little shifty when the subject comes up. It's very strange.
Transformers - Robots in Disguise:
As long as sizes are roughly comparable and you have both techs, you can manage it. So, yes, you can make a Frigate that transforms into a 150m mech, so long as you have frigate, 150m class mechs and transformation systems researched. Will be a bit expensive though. Tanks are also an option if you have the relevant techs.
Electronic Warfare:
The EW VI could be used on a Tank, though you'll probably have to upgrade it with algorithms before it becomes something special; jamming suites on tanks aren't unheard of, though the Alliance doesn't have them as standard issue.
If you want some sort of Fighter ECM/Jamming, that'll be a different project though. Too different in execution.
Mass Production Research:
There will be some mass production research that unlocks once the factory is done which will make things a bit cheaper/faster, but probably not enough for what you're thinking.
Artificial Biotics I:
Also worth noting that the Biotic armor upgrade can be applied to mechs, though with larger ones it will rapidly become exceedingly expensive.
Artificial Biotics II:
Superalloys:
Benezia:
Eh, Benezia canonically believes that Asari should take a greater role in shaping galactic events, and she believes that unquestionable technological and economic influence is necessary to do so. So yeah, she's putting her nation ahead of all the others, just like every other politician in the history of ever.
Shipyards:
Frigates and all other capital ships must be built in orbital shipyards. Shipyards start at 5 billion, and there may be bigger, more expensive ones for building heavier ships.
Pirate Ships:
Pirate ships and costs- Generally speaking, Used and obsolescent ships are considerably cheaper then current generation Warships by a large degree. Slavers and pirates tend to operate warships inferior to first line militaries (Pressley mentions there was an incredibly lopsided kill ratio over Elysium). The Batarian sponsored raiders and a few of the bigger PMCs are the exception to this, but generally speaking a 1:1 fight between a SA and pirate ship will end unequivocally in the SA's favor.
Extremis:
As for Extremis, it's the MCU version, and you won't be able to research it until certain conditions are met. Still working out specifics.
It's somewhat artificial, but I'm not going to let you build a second Lab (I) until you've expanded to another planet. And Researchers in a separate first tier lab will never be able to research tier 2 tech; higher tech tiers will only be researchable at upgraded facilities.
New Classes:
While building something in the Gap between Frigate and Cruiser is certainly possible, and may even be effective with advanced tech, there's the question of why you don't build a Cruiser or Frigate with that tech. And while building a ship with extra PD is certainly doable, heat is an issue.
Research Heroes:
Yes, though not initially. Shepard will be able to earn certain bonus modifiers a bit further down the road, which may apply to only one category or all of them. "Hero" Researchers will typically have a specialty that they get a bonus to researching as well.
Laboratories II:
You can use Lab I while II is under construction, and you can bring the teams onboard before construction is finished, though they'll work at diminished capacity as their facilities are still being built (-20 to research rolls). The Lab it self will not give it's own rolls until it is completed.
Laboratories III:
Yes. I'm willing to allow you to break ground on the both of them at the same time, in which case Lab 1 would come online in 3 months and Lab 2 3 months after that. I just won't let you jump straight to 2 or build two 1s.
Mindoir Defense Fleet:
There's currently a squadron of 4 CLs in orbit above Mindoir, both to deter repeat attacks and as part of an effort to reassure the public that the Government is doing something.
Stealthy Shields:
Shield Belts are indeed a thing here. They're commonly used by police, and are in face what your ex-LEO security teams were using prior to upgrading to Hardsuits. Adding an Arc Reactor would help it of course, though it would make it a bit larger; Arc Reactors are tiny, but they're not that tiny. Might be kind of hard to hide under a cocktail dress.
Of course, Revy is a biotic, and once she has an implant she can maintain a barrier independent of armor pretty much indefinitely. You could even have an Arc Reactor implanted and hooked up to the amp if you wanted to, though there are a few obvious downsides to that.
Paragon Industry Complex Location:
Outskirts. Power plant is in industrial park on the west side of the city. You'll be building everything else there as well if you choose that option.
Peak Human Details:
The Genetic engineering tree is very much a work in progress; given what's in the wiki and what's discussed in that one conversation on Noveria, you aren't going to be able to jump straight to Captain America levels. Or at least not Winter Soldier Cap, at any rate.
400 point tier is going to be something more akin to the performance of the augmented agents in the Bourne Legacy, I think. The tier after that may get into Winter Soldier!Cap or Into Darkness!Khan territory, but again, haven't fully decided.
Cerberus Taco Cart:
Cord-Hislop happens to be one of the premiere starfighter manufacturers in Alliance Space, I'll have you know.
Though oddly enough, the employee cafeteria refuses to sell Tacos. No one ever explains it to the new employees, and everyone always gets a little shifty when the subject comes up. It's very strange.
Transformers - Robots in Disguise:
As long as sizes are roughly comparable and you have both techs, you can manage it. So, yes, you can make a Frigate that transforms into a 150m mech, so long as you have frigate, 150m class mechs and transformation systems researched. Will be a bit expensive though. Tanks are also an option if you have the relevant techs.
Electronic Warfare:
The EW VI could be used on a Tank, though you'll probably have to upgrade it with algorithms before it becomes something special; jamming suites on tanks aren't unheard of, though the Alliance doesn't have them as standard issue.
If you want some sort of Fighter ECM/Jamming, that'll be a different project though. Too different in execution.
Mass Production Research:
There will be some mass production research that unlocks once the factory is done which will make things a bit cheaper/faster, but probably not enough for what you're thinking.
Artificial Biotics I:
Biotic Armor is pretty much exactly that, though it's rather difficult to use by non-biotics, due to it mimicking biotics completely, i.e. the pilot needs to learn Biotic mnemonics and such from scratch.
Also worth noting that the Biotic armor upgrade can be applied to mechs, though with larger ones it will rapidly become exceedingly expensive.
Artificial Biotics II:
The difficulty curve is about the same, it's just that practice is inherently more difficult, as it requires wearing a multimillion dollar suit and thinking in ways you aren't really used to using your brain. Natural biotics can practice easier, and without as many concerns of accidentally breaking the building. Also, can sync the suit to their own eezo network to get a little extra umph.
Yes
Pretty much, though syncing requires hardware adjustments. The suit's eezo network needs to be adjusted to match the biotic's.
Superalloys:
That sort of thing is under the middle material sciences tier.
Benezia:
Eh, Benezia canonically believes that Asari should take a greater role in shaping galactic events, and she believes that unquestionable technological and economic influence is necessary to do so. So yeah, she's putting her nation ahead of all the others, just like every other politician in the history of ever.
Shipyards:
Frigates and all other capital ships must be built in orbital shipyards. Shipyards start at 5 billion, and there may be bigger, more expensive ones for building heavier ships.
Pirate Ships:
Pirate ships and costs- Generally speaking, Used and obsolescent ships are considerably cheaper then current generation Warships by a large degree. Slavers and pirates tend to operate warships inferior to first line militaries (Pressley mentions there was an incredibly lopsided kill ratio over Elysium). The Batarian sponsored raiders and a few of the bigger PMCs are the exception to this, but generally speaking a 1:1 fight between a SA and pirate ship will end unequivocally in the SA's favor.
Extremis:
As for Extremis, it's the MCU version, and you won't be able to research it until certain conditions are met. Still working out specifics.
Taxes I:
Auks's tax system was that you paid 20% of whatever you had left at the end of the year. My tax system is a 20% income tax. This takes away a great deal of money from you, but adds an incentive to move to places where they're willing to give you tax breaks.
I promise not to abuse the result of this change.
Taxes II:
I pay 37% income tax, due each month, and I'm not a multi million dollar corporation. I think 20% payed every quarter isn't so bad. As for encouraging startups, you've been going for more than a year, and have bulled in several hundred million in contracts. I don't think you need any more cuddling. You may need a stronger finance team, though.
Security Team Size I:
I googled average security guard salary, and it spit 22,000$ back at me, going by the assumption that credits equal dollars, and that you paid your first batch of LEO guards a bit more than average (250,000 credits per quarter in total) is what led me to the 40 guards per team unit. He did say that he had imagined a smaller number, though. I can adjust this number if you'd like.
The necessary number of guards is an entirely different can of worms, and one that I should probably give some thought to. I imagine that the alliance patent office that we're still using will have an opinion on what constitutes acceptable protection of classified objects.
Security Team Size II:
Alright, let's go with 20 people per team then. I did think 40 seemed a bit high.
Research I:
Right, Shepard is her own research team. And thinking of research teams being attached to a "hero" leader (or PI, Principal Investigator as I hear they're calling it) is rather accurate for how things work in some research groups at least. Letting people like Liara or Tali count as Hero researchers, making their associated Team give a bigger bonus is a good mechanic, I'll keep that in mind when you start hiring scientific heroes.
The Holo-Presence we see in ME is pretty much just fancy Skype, and Skype is not a replacement for physical presence. You can tell them what you want them to do, but they can't come to you with issues, and you can't see what they're actually doing in their day-to-day. Plus, you should get diminishing returns on hiring more and more people. As someone said, the tech tree is only available because of Shepard, and all everyone else is doing is just trying their best to help her.
Business Loans:
Arranging a meaningful loan for a company the size of Paragon Industries is not a trivial matter. It's something you do with your legal team and a major interstellar banking service.
But generally; you can almost certainly get a loan up to 80% of your assets at an interest rate of 10% per year. Better terms than that will require negotiating skillz, or selling stock.
Research II:
Regarding basic research
[ ] Start setting up a basic research department. It might not make much money, but it will attract talented and creative people who wouldn't want to work at a weapons development company. Plus, potential for deeper understanding somewhere down the line.
You can build basic research labs in parallel with your regular ones, at the same cost. However, instead of giving you extra dice, for every research die you would have gotten, one (10d10) of your other research dice gets +10. Furthermore, this can potentially let you access research heroes, and give unexpected results.
I should have made explicit the fact that this involves building a new Lab I (20 million, and 1 million/quarter from then on), and hiring two research teams at 400k/quarter.
Brian:
Mindoir:
Mindoir is not big enough to have any decent research universities, sorry. If you want people to come flocking to this place, you'll have to pay for them.
Shepard Family Home I:
Revy's parents house does not currently have any defenses other than what naturally comes to the home of an N5 marine called 'Shepard.'
Patent Law I:
That said, non-exclusive licensing deals are a thing (see the gfx card market), and would probably be a very valuable thing that would also help cover your ass.
Research III:
Once your agreement with CHA has run its course, you'll also be able to build upgraded fighters.
Security I:
They're in charge of keeping your base secure, and your top researchers might have a panic button to call them. But they make sure unauthorized people don't get into your facilities, and that sensitive materials or plans don't get removed from it. It's not their job to do surveillance on your employees. You're running a private company, not Stasi. I may be naïve about the difference.
Security II:
I'm not sure how it is you're planning to have "basic security measures" that stop your researchers from accidentally (or volountarily) spilling company secrets on their own time without having them under (almost) constant survaillance.
Installing something on their omnitools is certainly a lot more discreet, but good people have good reasons to not want to be surveilled, even by a VI for a good part of their life, and for reasons that have nothing to do with company secrets.
I have friends who have R&D positions in international corporations, and my picture of your security measures was based on them. You are obviously free to install what you like on their work computers, and have as much security around your facility as you like, but if you're not giving them complete privacy when they're off the clock, you're running a completely different organization than I expected.
Security III:
You can run your lab and factory like it were the Manhattan Project (a more charitable and reasonable comparison than Stasi), but that's not the mental picture I had. There is a trade off between paranoia and employee happiness, and happy employees tend to be much better, particularly in creative subjects like this. Look at how places like Google or Facebook treat their employees. The Manhatten Project was able to pull in the best and brighest scientists because of nationalism and a common enemy those scientists wanted to fight in a more meaningful way than in the trenches. You have neither of those things going for you at the moment, at least until the Reapers show up, and they don't care about industrial espionage.
No amount of money is going to attract people if they don't have free time to spend it. Interesting projects help, but despite the popular image, very few scientists actually live and breathe for their research, most of them also love their families and have more or less silly hobbies like running Quests on the Internet.
Patent Law II:
I've softened up the former, to only cover unwillingness, if you're producing happily and expanding your facilities as it becomes feasible, the board will go easy on you. This is to a large extent because you have a legal team, and production already going strong. If you had gone this route from the get-go, things would have been different.
The alliance patent only specifies the facilities should be secure at all times, it does not say that you should take strong measures to stop your employees from breaking their NDA's. On that note, you should probably get some more security teams once your Factory 3 goes online, to make sure there are enough of them to cover the larger base 24/7 (or whatever the Mindoir equivalent is).
Patent Law III:
Well, Auks put the apply for citadel patent out there in the spare time activities, so from his PoV, I'm guessing the Citadel patent would override the SA one. Mmmm, I'm guessing there's an application process, which is what you would be starting, to be allowed to make the patent public. The review board will consider how practical it is to keep things secret, and the threat to the Alliance posed by telling the rest of the Galaxy how you've been building it. It is also possible that if you agree to take steps to keep the reactor out of the hands of Earth's enemies, they'll help you with not being forced to licence production.
Short version: "[ ] File patent for Arc Reactor in Citadel Space." means "send an application to the Systems Alliance to be allowed to file for the patent in Citadel Space."
Research IV:
The mining ship/refinery would be a separate tech that would cost you probably 100 or 200 research points (we're after midnight, so if this is unreasonable, it is negotiable). It might even be purchasable tech, not sure what the Alliance already has in that vein.
Research V:
Generally, the entry-level/generic entries will let you make things that already exist, but make them slightly better, or integrate them with your current technology.
In the particular case of biotech, you'll get things like prosthetic limbs that never need to be recharged (yay! Tiny arc reactors), cybernetic eyes with cameras in them, that kinda things.
The Invisible Man:
Spaceship Scale BFGs:
True enough, my point was rather that a kind of cluster-gun might be more effective at tearing things apart, and the resulting not-quite-black-holes would also disappear faster. In the same way as modern nuclear missiles deliver multiple small warheads rather than one big one.
Research VI:
The decision on whether or not to accept a research hero is not meant to be a trivial one. That you're debating the merits of keeping Conrad on is evidence that it's working as intended.
Research VII:
Mmm, there isn't a gunship tech, and it's quite distinct from either ground vehicles or spaceships, so I'm inclined to say that's a new tech. But certainly one you could buy for the low low price of 100,000,000 credits.
Neural Interfaces:
Definite word: Neural interfaces comes in both brain-electrodes and headset versions. The difference is like that of a LAN connection and Internet on your cell phone. For most things, the headset will be fine, but for heavy duty stuff, you want to get inside.
Factories:
Mmmm, I'm inclined to say yes, but on the other hand it is my distinct impression that most companies build several factories rather than one humongous one, so I think I'll limit you to 3 factories per location, not necessarily planet. Thus, you could build new factories near the other cities on Mindoir, but not in Landing. Does that seem fair? This would likely only have minor mechanical impact.
Repulsor:
2) No, the repulsor uses the amount of energy it uses. But see below.
3) N/A
6) N/A
7) Repulsors can be fired continuously.
The problem with giving an answer to the range of the Repulsors is primarily that we have no input on this issue from canon, and that they would probably not actually have a sharp maximum range, but rather diminishing effect the further you were form the source. The secondary concern is keeping things moderately balanced to that lasers and guns/missiles are still useful. To that end, I am hereby decreeing that the repulsors have a maximum effective range of 500 meters. This would be enough for everything Shepard does with the Mako in ME1, and for city-based engagements, but not the kind of thing you want in pitched battles or deserts or the like.
If you feel this is unfair, I'd be open to introducing a new tech building off Repulsors and Miniaturized Lasers which extends this (and possibly improves the repulsors more generally as well).
Capacitors:
5) Yes.
Micro-Missiles:
9) They can be fitted in a rifle and then simply use their thrusters to adjust where they hit, in which case they can have a range around 2km.
Alliance Law:
11) What is QEC?
Quantum Entanglement Communicators:
I actually independently thought of using that for communication before I knew what quantum entanglement really is, that is before I understood that it is complete and utter bullshit. However, being complete and utter bullshit has not stopped any proper scifi hero before. That said, it is unrelated to the basic tech tree, so you'd need a research hero to get it.
Alliance Law II:
Repulsors II:
2) Correct.
Employee Numbers:
Assuming you have as many employees relative to your sales as Lockheed-Martin (4/3 per million dollars), you employ just under 4000 people.
Auks's tax system was that you paid 20% of whatever you had left at the end of the year. My tax system is a 20% income tax. This takes away a great deal of money from you, but adds an incentive to move to places where they're willing to give you tax breaks.
I promise not to abuse the result of this change.
Taxes II:
I pay 37% income tax, due each month, and I'm not a multi million dollar corporation. I think 20% payed every quarter isn't so bad. As for encouraging startups, you've been going for more than a year, and have bulled in several hundred million in contracts. I don't think you need any more cuddling. You may need a stronger finance team, though.
Security Team Size I:
I googled average security guard salary, and it spit 22,000$ back at me, going by the assumption that credits equal dollars, and that you paid your first batch of LEO guards a bit more than average (250,000 credits per quarter in total) is what led me to the 40 guards per team unit. He did say that he had imagined a smaller number, though. I can adjust this number if you'd like.
The necessary number of guards is an entirely different can of worms, and one that I should probably give some thought to. I imagine that the alliance patent office that we're still using will have an opinion on what constitutes acceptable protection of classified objects.
Security Team Size II:
Alright, let's go with 20 people per team then. I did think 40 seemed a bit high.
Research I:
Right, Shepard is her own research team. And thinking of research teams being attached to a "hero" leader (or PI, Principal Investigator as I hear they're calling it) is rather accurate for how things work in some research groups at least. Letting people like Liara or Tali count as Hero researchers, making their associated Team give a bigger bonus is a good mechanic, I'll keep that in mind when you start hiring scientific heroes.
The Holo-Presence we see in ME is pretty much just fancy Skype, and Skype is not a replacement for physical presence. You can tell them what you want them to do, but they can't come to you with issues, and you can't see what they're actually doing in their day-to-day. Plus, you should get diminishing returns on hiring more and more people. As someone said, the tech tree is only available because of Shepard, and all everyone else is doing is just trying their best to help her.
Business Loans:
Arranging a meaningful loan for a company the size of Paragon Industries is not a trivial matter. It's something you do with your legal team and a major interstellar banking service.
But generally; you can almost certainly get a loan up to 80% of your assets at an interest rate of 10% per year. Better terms than that will require negotiating skillz, or selling stock.
Research II:
Regarding basic research
[ ] Start setting up a basic research department. It might not make much money, but it will attract talented and creative people who wouldn't want to work at a weapons development company. Plus, potential for deeper understanding somewhere down the line.
You can build basic research labs in parallel with your regular ones, at the same cost. However, instead of giving you extra dice, for every research die you would have gotten, one (10d10) of your other research dice gets +10. Furthermore, this can potentially let you access research heroes, and give unexpected results.
I should have made explicit the fact that this involves building a new Lab I (20 million, and 1 million/quarter from then on), and hiring two research teams at 400k/quarter.
Brian:
No. Canon!Shepard is a player character, and no NPC can ever replace that. His "where are you in 11 years" dream looks very much like canon!Shepard, though.
Mindoir:
Mindoir is not big enough to have any decent research universities, sorry. If you want people to come flocking to this place, you'll have to pay for them.
Shepard Family Home I:
Revy's parents house does not currently have any defenses other than what naturally comes to the home of an N5 marine called 'Shepard.'
Patent Law I:
Your legal team should be able to swing things so that if you spend at least 50% of your production on Arc Reactors, and take steps to step up your production to meet demands, you won't get into too much trouble. The rule is there to prevent you from sitting on a tech that could be useful to everyone, not to fuck over small companies with good ideas.
That said, non-exclusive licensing deals are a thing (see the gfx card market), and would probably be a very valuable thing that would also help cover your ass.
Research III:
You'll get your own upgraded kind of frigate. Not the Normandy, of course, but your own thing that's certainly different than what everyone else can build. It will also open up shipyards for your producing pleasure.
Once your agreement with CHA has run its course, you'll also be able to build upgraded fighters.
Security I:
They're in charge of keeping your base secure, and your top researchers might have a panic button to call them. But they make sure unauthorized people don't get into your facilities, and that sensitive materials or plans don't get removed from it. It's not their job to do surveillance on your employees. You're running a private company, not Stasi. I may be naïve about the difference.
Security II:
I'm not sure how it is you're planning to have "basic security measures" that stop your researchers from accidentally (or volountarily) spilling company secrets on their own time without having them under (almost) constant survaillance.
Installing something on their omnitools is certainly a lot more discreet, but good people have good reasons to not want to be surveilled, even by a VI for a good part of their life, and for reasons that have nothing to do with company secrets.
I have friends who have R&D positions in international corporations, and my picture of your security measures was based on them. You are obviously free to install what you like on their work computers, and have as much security around your facility as you like, but if you're not giving them complete privacy when they're off the clock, you're running a completely different organization than I expected.
Security III:
You can run your lab and factory like it were the Manhattan Project (a more charitable and reasonable comparison than Stasi), but that's not the mental picture I had. There is a trade off between paranoia and employee happiness, and happy employees tend to be much better, particularly in creative subjects like this. Look at how places like Google or Facebook treat their employees. The Manhatten Project was able to pull in the best and brighest scientists because of nationalism and a common enemy those scientists wanted to fight in a more meaningful way than in the trenches. You have neither of those things going for you at the moment, at least until the Reapers show up, and they don't care about industrial espionage.
No amount of money is going to attract people if they don't have free time to spend it. Interesting projects help, but despite the popular image, very few scientists actually live and breathe for their research, most of them also love their families and have more or less silly hobbies like running Quests on the Internet.
Patent Law II:
I've softened up the former, to only cover unwillingness, if you're producing happily and expanding your facilities as it becomes feasible, the board will go easy on you. This is to a large extent because you have a legal team, and production already going strong. If you had gone this route from the get-go, things would have been different.
The alliance patent only specifies the facilities should be secure at all times, it does not say that you should take strong measures to stop your employees from breaking their NDA's. On that note, you should probably get some more security teams once your Factory 3 goes online, to make sure there are enough of them to cover the larger base 24/7 (or whatever the Mindoir equivalent is).
Patent Law III:
Well, Auks put the apply for citadel patent out there in the spare time activities, so from his PoV, I'm guessing the Citadel patent would override the SA one. Mmmm, I'm guessing there's an application process, which is what you would be starting, to be allowed to make the patent public. The review board will consider how practical it is to keep things secret, and the threat to the Alliance posed by telling the rest of the Galaxy how you've been building it. It is also possible that if you agree to take steps to keep the reactor out of the hands of Earth's enemies, they'll help you with not being forced to licence production.
Short version: "[ ] File patent for Arc Reactor in Citadel Space." means "send an application to the Systems Alliance to be allowed to file for the patent in Citadel Space."
Research IV:
Your vehicle (tanks/ships/mechs) techs give you a working chassis. Adding stuff to that is extra, so if you get basic weapons, you can add the weapons you have developed. For larger chassis, you may be able to scale up your weapons (bigger missiles!), but if you want something that takes advantage of being stuck to a cruiser on a fundamental level, you need to research new (cheap) tech.
The mining ship/refinery would be a separate tech that would cost you probably 100 or 200 research points (we're after midnight, so if this is unreasonable, it is negotiable). It might even be purchasable tech, not sure what the Alliance already has in that vein.
Research V:
Generally, the entry-level/generic entries will let you make things that already exist, but make them slightly better, or integrate them with your current technology.
In the particular case of biotech, you'll get things like prosthetic limbs that never need to be recharged (yay! Tiny arc reactors), cybernetic eyes with cameras in them, that kinda things.
The Invisible Man:
Yes, it's scaleable up to fighter sized crafts, and that includes gunships and weapons turrets.
Spaceship Scale BFGs:
True enough, my point was rather that a kind of cluster-gun might be more effective at tearing things apart, and the resulting not-quite-black-holes would also disappear faster. In the same way as modern nuclear missiles deliver multiple small warheads rather than one big one.
Research VI:
The decision on whether or not to accept a research hero is not meant to be a trivial one. That you're debating the merits of keeping Conrad on is evidence that it's working as intended.
Research VII:
Mmm, there isn't a gunship tech, and it's quite distinct from either ground vehicles or spaceships, so I'm inclined to say that's a new tech. But certainly one you could buy for the low low price of 100,000,000 credits.
Neural Interfaces:
Definite word: Neural interfaces comes in both brain-electrodes and headset versions. The difference is like that of a LAN connection and Internet on your cell phone. For most things, the headset will be fine, but for heavy duty stuff, you want to get inside.
Factories:
Mmmm, I'm inclined to say yes, but on the other hand it is my distinct impression that most companies build several factories rather than one humongous one, so I think I'll limit you to 3 factories per location, not necessarily planet. Thus, you could build new factories near the other cities on Mindoir, but not in Landing. Does that seem fair? This would likely only have minor mechanical impact.
Repulsor:
1) 500m. See below
2) No, the repulsor uses the amount of energy it uses. But see below.
3) N/A
6) N/A
7) Repulsors can be fired continuously.
The problem with giving an answer to the range of the Repulsors is primarily that we have no input on this issue from canon, and that they would probably not actually have a sharp maximum range, but rather diminishing effect the further you were form the source. The secondary concern is keeping things moderately balanced to that lasers and guns/missiles are still useful. To that end, I am hereby decreeing that the repulsors have a maximum effective range of 500 meters. This would be enough for everything Shepard does with the Mako in ME1, and for city-based engagements, but not the kind of thing you want in pitched battles or deserts or the like.
If you feel this is unfair, I'd be open to introducing a new tech building off Repulsors and Miniaturized Lasers which extends this (and possibly improves the repulsors more generally as well).
Capacitors:
4) Pretty damn powerful. I don't want to give hard numbers for tech 150 years in the future.
5) Yes.
Micro-Missiles:
8) They blow up people's heads without blowing up the human shield's head, though some bone and brain spatter may occur.
9) They can be fitted in a rifle and then simply use their thrusters to adjust where they hit, in which case they can have a range around 2km.
Alliance Law:
10) A flat no. They have orbital superiority and they are not OK with anything that could potentially threaten this. That said, if you were to donate some sattelites to them, they could probably be persuaded to have them in orbit over Mindoir.
11) What is QEC?
Quantum Entanglement Communicators:
Ah. Right.
I actually independently thought of using that for communication before I knew what quantum entanglement really is, that is before I understood that it is complete and utter bullshit. However, being complete and utter bullshit has not stopped any proper scifi hero before. That said, it is unrelated to the basic tech tree, so you'd need a research hero to get it.
Alliance Law II:
I'm thinking it's similar to how airspace is handled irl. There are central control towers that handle what you can do in populated areas, but on colony worlds like Mindoir, there are large stretches of land where you can do pretty much whatever you like.
Repulsors II:
1) Yes.
2) Correct.
Employee Numbers:
Assuming you have as many employees relative to your sales as Lockheed-Martin (4/3 per million dollars), you employ just under 4000 people.
Tech Tree I:
You're certainly allowed to make suggestions for an expanded tech tree. I'm not entirely sure how I will handle the actual expansion, so if you have suggestions as to what may branch off what, I would appreciate it.
Patent Law I:
As part of filing the patent, you're releasing the full schematics so that everyone knows how an arc reactor works and can take care not to make anything that works in the same way. As compensation, they have to pay you if they make
Patented Items I:
You're only patenting the Arc Reactor, the rest of your stuff is still blackboxed.
Patent Law II:
I'm actually quite sure it is. You certainly have to tell them enough so that any "it's not an arc reactor, promise" that pops up can be compared to the patent by an independent observer.
As for what's stopping any terminus warlord with an extranet account: expertise and infrastructure.
Patent Law III:
According to the wikipedia article: "A patent (/'pæt?nt/ or /'pe?t?nt/) is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention." I read 'public disclosure' as 'tell people how it's made and how it works.' If anyone knows more than that about patent laws, please enlighten the rest of us
Security Teams I:
Patent Law IV:
Following the patent law discussion, I think the ruling will be that
1) You have to be seen to make a serious effort to meet Citadel Space's demands for your tech. I stand by my previous ruling of at least 50% of your production capabilities. Production capabilities you should be expanding with the profits you get from that.
1b) The price can be higher than what you're charging your current clients, but not massively so. A factor of 2 higher is going to cause grumbling, but no sanctions.
2) The documentation released is not enough to reverse engineer your product on its own, but it will help anyone trying to do so.
3) The Citadel Races have better researchers than Obadiah Stane, but not much better.
FRM Implantation I:
Customers I:
Patent Law V:
I do not find patent law fun. For this reason, we're using some abstracted rules that try to capture the essential part of what the law tries to do.
In this case, that means that if you want protection from other people making arc reactors, you've got to tell the Citadel bureaucracy how it works. I'm not going to screw you over on minutiae regardless of which way you go on this.
Alliance-Citadel Politics I:
As for the Alliance's precise political standing in relation to the Citadel, and their political acumen, canon simply does not give you enough information to make very strong statements. And that's before taking butterflies and me messing things up further into account.
Fusion Technology I:
Gravitational containment of plasma seems inefficient to me. Recall that there 36 orders of magnitude between the strength of the gravitational and electromagnetic forces. Even with Eezo, that's quite the gap.
Colonizing I:
Colonizing the frontier is such a bitch when the other guys aren't dying of disease just from being on the same continent as you.
Starship Design I:
They follow their military counterparts. The complications arising from increased size are significant enough that you can't just scale up the basic designs and expect to get something that works very well.
Starship Design II:
Regarding sizes of warships, one of the crucial things about a fighter is that you can't move around in them, and you can't live in them. As soon as you want to build something to accomplish that, you're looking at a Frigate when going by the tech tree.
Mobile Labs I:
Also, Science vessels are a thing that should happen. You can move Revy's private lab onto a light cruiser (which is really what the Normandy SR-2 was), a Lab I onto a heavy cruiser, a Lab II onto a Dreadnaught and a Lab III onto a superdreadnaught. They still have to be built in succession.
Privateers:
Indeed, privateers (people with letters of marque) are people unaffiliated with the military who do military-style missions for profit. The Alliance Corsairs are military personnel doing missions the military insists is not their style for duty and honor and all those things that military people do things for.
Black Holes I:
It is also closely related to the ring singularities Yog mentioned.
Black Holes II:
It's hard to prove things about about real world objects, but for "stationary" (in this context that means "equilibrium," that is unchanging in time) black holes, the Carter-Robinson theorem (as improved by Hawking and Wald) states that it will always belong to the Kerr family; that is be a rotating (and possibly charged) black hole. Thus, toroidal black holes cannot exist. Note that this proof depends crucially on the number of space dimensions, so in higher dimensional theories, you can imagine (generalized) toroidal black holes and even weirder things.
Black Holes III:
Oh, and on the subject of rotating black holes, you may want to consider the Penrose Process.
You're certainly allowed to make suggestions for an expanded tech tree. I'm not entirely sure how I will handle the actual expansion, so if you have suggestions as to what may branch off what, I would appreciate it.
Patent Law I:
As part of filing the patent, you're releasing the full schematics so that everyone knows how an arc reactor works and can take care not to make anything that works in the same way. As compensation, they have to pay you if they make
Patented Items I:
You're only patenting the Arc Reactor, the rest of your stuff is still blackboxed.
Patent Law II:
I'm actually quite sure it is. You certainly have to tell them enough so that any "it's not an arc reactor, promise" that pops up can be compared to the patent by an independent observer.
As for what's stopping any terminus warlord with an extranet account: expertise and infrastructure.
Patent Law III:
According to the wikipedia article: "A patent (/'pæt?nt/ or /'pe?t?nt/) is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention." I read 'public disclosure' as 'tell people how it's made and how it works.' If anyone knows more than that about patent laws, please enlighten the rest of us
Security Teams I:
I'm gonna pull the number 10 out of my security-recommendation-hat.
Patent Law IV:
Following the patent law discussion, I think the ruling will be that
1) You have to be seen to make a serious effort to meet Citadel Space's demands for your tech. I stand by my previous ruling of at least 50% of your production capabilities. Production capabilities you should be expanding with the profits you get from that.
1b) The price can be higher than what you're charging your current clients, but not massively so. A factor of 2 higher is going to cause grumbling, but no sanctions.
2) The documentation released is not enough to reverse engineer your product on its own, but it will help anyone trying to do so.
3) The Citadel Races have better researchers than Obadiah Stane, but not much better.
FRM Implantation I:
Yes. At least of the designs that are in progress.
Customers I:
Yes, but you won't be able to vet their buyers. There is a beautiful quote about this in the an episode of Yes, Minister (The Whisky Priest, series 3, episode 6), but it sadly does not seem to have made its way to the Internets.
Patent Law V:
I do not find patent law fun. For this reason, we're using some abstracted rules that try to capture the essential part of what the law tries to do.
In this case, that means that if you want protection from other people making arc reactors, you've got to tell the Citadel bureaucracy how it works. I'm not going to screw you over on minutiae regardless of which way you go on this.
Alliance-Citadel Politics I:
As for the Alliance's precise political standing in relation to the Citadel, and their political acumen, canon simply does not give you enough information to make very strong statements. And that's before taking butterflies and me messing things up further into account.
Fusion Technology I:
Gravitational containment of plasma seems inefficient to me. Recall that there 36 orders of magnitude between the strength of the gravitational and electromagnetic forces. Even with Eezo, that's quite the gap.
Colonizing I:
Colonizing the frontier is such a bitch when the other guys aren't dying of disease just from being on the same continent as you.
Starship Design I:
They follow their military counterparts. The complications arising from increased size are significant enough that you can't just scale up the basic designs and expect to get something that works very well.
Starship Design II:
Regarding sizes of warships, one of the crucial things about a fighter is that you can't move around in them, and you can't live in them. As soon as you want to build something to accomplish that, you're looking at a Frigate when going by the tech tree.
Mobile Labs I:
Also, Science vessels are a thing that should happen. You can move Revy's private lab onto a light cruiser (which is really what the Normandy SR-2 was), a Lab I onto a heavy cruiser, a Lab II onto a Dreadnaught and a Lab III onto a superdreadnaught. They still have to be built in succession.
Privateers:
Indeed, privateers (people with letters of marque) are people unaffiliated with the military who do military-style missions for profit. The Alliance Corsairs are military personnel doing missions the military insists is not their style for duty and honor and all those things that military people do things for.
Black Holes I:
Yup, rotating black holes can be traversable. But the space-time you exit into is not the same as the one you entered from.
It is also closely related to the ring singularities Yog mentioned.
Black Holes II:
It's hard to prove things about about real world objects, but for "stationary" (in this context that means "equilibrium," that is unchanging in time) black holes, the Carter-Robinson theorem (as improved by Hawking and Wald) states that it will always belong to the Kerr family; that is be a rotating (and possibly charged) black hole. Thus, toroidal black holes cannot exist. Note that this proof depends crucially on the number of space dimensions, so in higher dimensional theories, you can imagine (generalized) toroidal black holes and even weirder things.
Black Holes III:
Oh, and on the subject of rotating black holes, you may want to consider the Penrose Process.
Oh, this is great. Thank you very much. Seriously, this is really nice.
I'll PM you, once I have questions on the finicals.
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Free the slaves and make them SA citizens? That might help solve the manpower problem?
Which is a good project, but ultimately not going to really move the needle on poverty because PI factory complexes don't really employ all that many people (and, for the moment, only pay good wages to the researchers; security personnel make less than 50K a year salary which is fine for a remote rural community like Mindoir used to be but is a pittance in a city). Project Via's going to be a bigger draw in that regard: by lowering the setup and breakdown costs and time for mining colonies it becomes possible to take on more marginal claims, massively expanding the number of people that can be employed in that sector.
One of the last times we did hear from @Hoyr was when he proposed a new, streamlined, more hero-based research system. It was sort of rough at the time and I'm not quite sure it checks all the boxes you're thinking of, but it's worth a look I think.
On one hand, yeah the full SR4-style character sheet is probably unnecessary. On the other, we probably should see Revy get into fights personally every once in awhile, at the very least because we've already invested a lot of time and mindshare in Peak Human treatments and biotic training. Glorious face-punching isn't a primary focus of the Quest, but we do know that there are a number of very powerful groups who are personally interested in Revy, so it's inevitable she's going to find herself confronted outside of the lab and corporate boardroom.
We can wait, I think, unless this causes you to burn out.
Some thoughts from what i remember (and think of now):
1) It should be (relatively) simple. Complex schemes will be hard to work with for you and players both.
2) Maybe move hero researchers from flat research pools to providing modifiers? Like, Revy gives X10 research speed in material science or something like that.
Hopefully knock-on effects, such as people employed in transporting materials and goods to and from the factories, people employed in sales, etc will help at least a bit.
And when skills of a chip come out, that would certainly shake up the economy.
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- Location
- U.S.
easy solution/use for Earth slum population
a lot of people + skill chips + good pay + vast automation = lots of Naval crew for more ships and drone controllers, Sup Com style.
Every naval soldier armed with mass production model Legionnaire MK II armor for anti boarding actions.
a lot of people + skill chips + good pay + vast automation = lots of Naval crew for more ships and drone controllers, Sup Com style.
Every naval soldier armed with mass production model Legionnaire MK II armor for anti boarding actions.
That is in the direction of what I was thinking.
To elaborate on my ideas for the research system: You have different categories of tech, and different hero levels. So you need Revy to create the amazing super tech. I'd also have creating a new design for a ship/weapon whatever as a research task, which can be handled by less skilled people. I would like to cut down on mostly irrelevant technologies, and have it so you focus on only a few that actually matter each turn.
On the categories: I'd probably would be something like Future Tech, Laboritories, High-tech, Common Use. It would be possible to do research to drop a tech down a level, making it more broadly available/usable/understood.
Ahh, to be clear, I don't intend to complete remove her character sheet. I'll just turn it into a more narrative, trait-based thing. So training and so still matters, I just won't put hard numbers on that.
- Location
- U.S.
something like mazrick's one piece quest character system?
Yeah, though it's not like it's unique to him.
It is worth noting this has kinda always been the case. It's just designs have generally speaking been 50RP projects and omakes, barring other special rewards, generally gave 50RP so player created designs, which could involve a lot of work, were generally treated as omakes towards completing the R&D on the project.
What exactly do you mean by this? We've basically never researched a superfluous technology due to how limited our research budget is. What sort of technologies are you thinking are irrelevant?
Hmm, I had more of the early game in my mind. The current tech tree is pretty much already reduced. Though it doesn't really leave much room before you completely leave the realm of hard scifi. Which I don't have a problem with in principle, it just might screw with the tone.
Good point. I don't want to discourage people from making designs. That said, it feels like putting a dreadnought together should be a lot of work, by sheer size alone, even if the components are well understood. Hmm.
Anyway, I was also thinking stuff like: Ok, you have researched advanced biotechnology. Now actually put it to use. And so you'd have a research task to actually create technology from that. Though that might be a bit boring. You could have that as making the technology more useable, thereby changing it's category, but then I have to keep track of a whole bunch more stuff.
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- Location
- Leeds
I think the thread has heard every opionion from they're on there way in NOW before we derail anything to far, to, if we create or seem that we will create a superior solution to their primary purpose then they just won't. So expect the invasion literally any time between immediately and never.
I personally despise Discords for separating thread discussion between two different places however yes there would probably be enough interest.
Theres a quest in ME1 where you have to talk down an ex batarian slave Talitha remember that slaves may have lived their entire life being abused and broken down by a civilization that has spent millenia perfecting the craft. And also that Batarians don't really use slaves for labor anyway, generally industrialisation (especially in the sci fi future) kinda makes them semi obsolete, so they don't necessarily come with the skills to make themselves useful. The slaves would probably be more of a burden on society in the short or even medium term, this harsh truth is probably why the Batarians get away with it, because no council race wants to go through the process of deprogramming millions or even billions of brainwashed victims.
E:
We dragged this from soft to hard before and we'll do it again. Don't underestimate us!
Separate technology into
a) Researching new 'gateway techs' which are major milestones that require heros to unlock
and
b)progress with minor projects around each gateway that represent making actual saleable projects that don't require heros
Something like that?
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Good to know and I agree with Dark as Silver; we can totally make surprisingly soft stuff hard.
Since you reminded me of it by mentioning dreadnoughts I thought I'd link you to the Starship Designer I put together way back when designing the Pynda. It's not linked anywhere on the front page as far as I can tell for some reason.
I definitely agree that large projects should probably take some heftier research. If we look back to when we were given options to perform block upgrades on the Alliance's existing starships:
Frigates were low enough that just a single omake reward was enough to cover the upgrade, and both Frigates were in fact researched via omake, while the others were more challenging. It seems reasonable to me to keep the current design omake = new design for things of Frigate size/complexity and smaller/simpler while having larger projects, like Cruisers and up or space stations, requiring proper R&D.
Well generally each research item is directly connected to some piece of technology. So requiring us to then research a task is really just making the initial research longer. Besides what is the point in basically researching the same item on the tech tree twice?
- Location
- West Michigan
If you need more ideas for hard scifi, I suggest taking stuff from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It had some of the hardest science (and hardest soft science, for that matter!) in all of 4X gaming.
Well, I guess I'll look forward to that then.
Sounds like a plan.
The idea is that at some point, it won't matter how good a single ship is, if you can't make enough to actually matter, and it doesn't matter if Revy has a totally amazing idea for a weapon, if she's the only one that understands it. This would basically be a measure of how much of the population can actually be mobilized to make use of it. Just PI, just the Mega-Corps or Military, or general use tech. Like the development of computers or even planes.
HanEmpire
Delicious
If so, could PI do a major project to increase the general intelligence of Humanity through its genetherapy clinics? A long-lived race where everyone is born genius would be interesting to play.
When you think about it, both Mass Effect and Iron Man are decidedly soft-SF universes which we in the thread have analyzed, broken down, and rebuilt to be as close to hard-SF universes as the source material allows (see: Mass Effect magic hacking beams and biotics, or, well, basically everything that happens in Marvel). What we've done is essentially make Eezo and Arc Reactor/Repulsor techs into sort of fantasy Macguffins that do what they do "because Science" and built the rest of the world's physics using those as axioms; most of the more out-there stuff on our tech tree like "TIR (Total Internal Reflection) shields" and "Thermal Annihilator" come from people like @Yog working out exactly how those initial axioms would be able to create some spectacular effects.
So, TLDR:
Funnily, you mention two techs that kind of disprove your case. How many people use a computer, or a plane, or a smartphone, as opposed to those who really understand how they work? That's one of the things that differentiates technology from magic: technology is democratized in that you don't have to know the secret rituals that let you manipulate the universe to do your bidding; someone else has done all of that for you.
What normally differentiates technology between widespread use and specialty is usually not inherent in the technology itself, but in the intended use case. The CCD technology used in a digital camera is used by damn near everyone on the planet, despite the fact that very few people even know what the acronym even means (charge-coupled device) because having a digital camera is incredibly useful; on the other hand a GC-MS is basically lab-only technology, despite the fact that both gas chromatography and mas spectrometry are decades older on the technology ladder.
Not to say there can't be exceptions, like my idea for a Unibeam:
but that kind of thing is more of an explicit exception, made because I kind of want Unibeams to be a sort of magic-like effect that requires the presence of one of our Research Heroes to work right for narrative reasons, not because technology actually works that way IRL.