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Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest

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I definitely don't want to build a toothless law enforcement agency. Don't pick up Space Cops until we have the military industrial capacity. I'd want to pick up Power is Power and Social Programs first. Otherwise I agree. We'll need to take those worlds from the Rachni properly eventually though, and I'm not confident cooling our heels on the issue for too long. I think we should pick that up as soon as we've got a spare Martial action.

HanEmpire said:
Kurik's lover is an option on a timer. We should give serious thought to taking that action this turn.
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The other two vital options are on something of a timer as well. We can't let foreign spies have the run of our embassies, and we can't leave the Ardat-Yakshi be when we've made our hunt for them official and they're about to go to ground. Next year.
 
TaliesinSkye said:
It might be a good idea to hold off on space cops for a year so that they can be armed when we do build their ships. It'd probably help with anti-piracy operations and they could serve as a defense fleet of last resort.
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I agree with this reasoning. It would probably be easier to wait until the yards are expanded, and then stand them up with all necessary equipment. It would also give us the slot to integrate the new power systems, which may have unexpected benefits.
 
Dermon said:
I agree with this reasoning. It would probably be easier to wait until the yards are expanded, and then stand them up with all necessary equipment. It would also give us the slot to integrate the new power systems, which may have unexpected benefits.
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I like the idea of the improved power systems, presumably it'd give them better kinetic barriers, but it's a three year delay for those.
 
Can we give military surplus gear to our space cops? It's not something to do long-term, but in the meantime it would help get them started.
 
TaliesinSkye said:
I agree with your analysis; we should put the hero unit in AY hunting, I think. I'd put Mira too with personal attention, but her Intrigue score is terrible.

It might be a good idea to hold off on space cops for a year so that they can be armed when we do build their ships. It'd probably help with anti-piracy operations and they could serve as a defense fleet of last resort.
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Fezzes said:
I definitely don't want to build a toothless law enforcement agency. Don't pick up Space Cops until we have the military industrial capacity. I'd want to pick up Power is Power and Social Programs first. Otherwise I agree. We'll need to take those worlds from the Rachni properly eventually though, and I'm not confident cooling our heels on the issue for too long. I think we should pick that up as soon as we've got a spare Martial action.
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Dermon said:
I agree with this reasoning. It would probably be easier to wait until the yards are expanded, and then stand them up with all necessary equipment. It would also give us the slot to integrate the new power systems, which may have unexpected benefits.
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maybe, but waiting means we're left with no space cops for even longer. I suppose it depends on whether we'd need another action to arm them later, or if that would happen automatically.

IF it would require another action in the future I'd definitely be convinced to delay it and hope for the best.
 
Oh my god, so many options, so little time!

EDIT: Some changes have been made to the plan based on feedback and info by Poptart.

[ ] Plan Implementation and Expansion
Military:
-[ ] Expand Military Shipbuilding: Time: 2 years. Cost: 47,000 credits. Chance of Success: 80%. Effect: Subsidize or purchase expansions to your various shipbuilders' ability to produce the weapons of a naval war, allowing you to withstand a higher rate of production.
Diplomacy:
-[ ] Embassy Exchange: Time: 1 year. Cost: 38,000 credits. Chance of Success: 60%. Effect: Negotiate an exchange of formally embassies between yourself and the infamously isolationist Republic of Rannoch.
-[ ] Alliance Allies: Time: 1 year. Cost: 40,000 credits. Chance of Success: N/A, leads to further votes and rolls. Effect: Have Councilor Shereel get to know her counterparts on the Terminus Council and start sounding out the factions for their specific agendas in the near future, and how the Commonwealth might fight into them. With Kurik's information in hand, she should be able to cut somewhat directly to the heart of things.
Stewardship:
-[ ] Power Is Power: Time: 3 years. Cost: 75,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. Effect: Better warships, +40,000 yearly income.
-[ ] Social Programs: Time: 2 years. Cost: -32,000 yearly income (under present conditions). Effect: Expand and fund your unemployment benefits, undercutting the SP's opposition to your policies. With the Crash in living memory, this is not a difficult sell, and even the Prosperity Party won't complain too hard.
Intrigue:
-[ ] Establish An Spy Academy: Time: 3 years. Cost: -35,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 70%. Effect: Establish an academy for the training of new intelligence personnel, ensuring a steady flow of new recruits.
-[ ] Go Hunting: Time: 1 year. Cost: 15,000 credits. Chance of Success: 45%. Effect: Find the ardat-yakshi coven before they finish covering their tracks and going fully underground.
Learning:
-[ ] Curriculum Review: Time: 3 years locked, 7 years to completion. Cost: -15,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 75%. Effect: Finish the process of integrating your new reforms to Virmire's new school system, instilling the desired overall martial tendency and giving staff the tools they need to identify promising military candidates early.
-[ ] Destructive Testing: Time: 2 years. Cost: 1d10 anarchy spheres, 26,000 credits. Chance of Success: Progress, [52/???]. Effect: Significantly advance understanding of the anarchy spheres. Slightly increased risk of containment breaches.
Personal:
-[ ] PA: Embassy Exchange
-[ ] Take a Break: Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: Free. Effect: Take a step back from work, clear your schedule, and take a Goddess-damned vacation. Possible stat or trait gain; possible relationship gain with advisers or people of importance. Trait gain/stat growth for Loreia.
-[ ] Visit Li'Sai [Personally]: Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 85% for personal safety, 35% for actionable intelligence. Cost: Risk. Effect: Try to use Li'Sai to try and find out what the others are doing. The person selected as the subject of the vote is the one to conduct the questioning, and their primary stat will be the one that modifies the roll.

Credit Reserves: 342,500.
Yearly Income: 489,000.
Available Spending: 831,500.
Cost: About 323,000.

Explanation:
Military: While improving our land army's capabilities is important, I fell that we should lock down our ability to defend the newly conquered space that we're in possession of. Part of doing so is to improve our ability to replace losses.

Diplomacy: We should seek to establish ourselves and learn about the political landscape before making requests. That rules out the option to call for aid. Next up, it seems to me that legislative maneuvers are unimportant since the senators themselves are unimportant figureheads. Finally, the Frontier Confederacy and the Remnant are pawns in the game rather than the actual players. While it might be a good idea to eventually get them on our side, I'd rather learn what the actual movers and shakers in the Alliance plan on doing and what their motivations are. That leaves us with establishing embassies, which should be done sooner rather than later to capitalize on the good-will we gained fom saving the Quarian Fleet, and figuring out what the political landscape of the Alliance is actually like.

Stewardship: My heart bleeds for Space Cops. It really is a wonderful option but there always seems to be something more pressing coming up. This is the case again with the important implementation of new power generation techniques for our ships, which could be the difference between victory and defeat and thus save countless lives, and enacting some long-needed social programs to aid the poor and disadvantaged in Virmirean society. Aside from the obvious moral arguments to be made, it would also undercut any potential unrest and resistance to our enlightened dictatorsh- I mean totally democratic rule!

Intrigue: Both of these options seem like no-brainers to me. We absolutely need to hunt down the coven and expand our recruitment and training of intelligence personnel. The fact that Shurna failed so fundamentally in this regard is frankly enough to make me want to fire her if she wasn't otherwise extremely competent at her job.

Learning: I want to learn more about the Anarchy Spheres before we go anywhere near the Yulair homeworld. That does admittedly involve a bit of risk but the technological advancements from the spheres and whatever we find on Xibek Sha Prime more than makes up for that in my mind. On the education front, the implementation of the reforms to the education system has been long overdue. Let's get it underway.

Personal: I admit that the PA on Embassy Exchange might be just as much due to my desire to see Mira interact with the Quarian isolationists as it is due to mechanical necessity. However, it does provide us with a boost on a difficult and long-term important roll. I'm honestly not quite sure on the prisoner interrogation but if it comes down to just the primary stat, Mira is the best qualified. Finally spending time with family requires no explanation.

EDIT: I'm more than open on changing the PA to something else and I've not decided where to use expedite/double down so suggestions are welcome.
 
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Versharl said:
Oh my god, so many options, so little time!

[ ] Plan Implementation and Expansion
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I agree with most of your plan, but I think we should focus on shoring up our vulnerabilities at home. I.e., Legislative Maneuvers instead of Embassy Exchange, Purge the Embassies instead of Spy Academy, and Space Cops instead of Power is Power.

Legislative Maneuvers + Social Programs will hopefully quiet the domestic situation down long enough to invest in longer-term projects next turn. While getting the Quarians on our team would be awesome, I think that's a slower process, and it's more important right now to make sure we're covered politically.

Power is Power is a no-brainer, but Space Cops is only one year, and now that we're reconnected to the greater galaxy, we have to be ready for the criminal element to start trying to move in. Our battlecruisers put us a step ahead of other fleets, so I think we have breathing room to delay a year before upgrading the fleet.

Spy Academy is another no-brainer. But I think we need to get our embassies secured first, so we don't have delays or hiccups with our first few steps into galactic politics.

With Embassy Exchange removed, PA can be swapped for Commit Hero Unit and get Kurik involved in The Hunt. Double-down on it as well, and chances become decent the coven is either swept up, or swept out.
 
TaliesinSkye said:
It might be a good idea to hold off on space cops for a year so that they can be armed when we do build their ships. It'd probably help with anti-piracy operations and they could serve as a defense fleet of last resort.
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Dermon said:
I agree with this reasoning. It would probably be easier to wait until the yards are expanded, and then stand them up with all necessary equipment. It would also give us the slot to integrate the new power systems, which may have unexpected benefits.
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One of the things about Space Cops is that if I remember it right this is a chain action. The first step we have is just organising the ideas and selecting the core staff to run it. It will most likely require actions to integrate it with other services and our allies (so they don't ask why our brand new space cops are stopping their merchants for inspection in our territory), etc. I think it was stated that if we expand this enough we might even take over policing for the Terminus Alliance but that will require many actions.
We need to start it now to have any effect and we already pushed it back while commercial traffic is picking up. If we don't take this it will be our limited military forces that will end up tied up with policing actions or we take a hit to our income and most likely need special actions to root out piracy.
 
Versharl said:
Next up, it seems to me that legislative maneuvers are unimportant since the senators themselves are unimportant figureheads.
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They're not. It's something of an open secret that the senators are the true power actually. Kurik's intel discovered it for us.

Councilors get veto power (you only need ONE councilor to veto a proposal to stop everything) and they can bring matters to the attention of the senators for them to plan about, but it's the senators that write the detailed proposals, and it's there that most of the diplomatic talks between the different factions actually happen.

They're both important and controlling the councilor means that we can always stop policies we dislike, but if we want to establish our own proposal and actually have them be effective we need collaboration from the senators.

Generally speaking both positions need to work together to be truly effective.
 
New update!
D'awww. Welcome to the quest Loreia. There are interesting ramifications on our planning and potential choices, given Mira's current parenthood, and the recent assassination attempt. I'll come around to comment more comprehensive and propose a plan a little later.

After I get some shit done.
TaliesinSkye said:
It might be a good idea to hold off on space cops for a year so that they can be armed when we do build their ships. It'd probably help with anti-piracy operations and they could serve as a defense fleet of last resort.
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Cops can call on military backup when necessary.
A lot of what law enforcement does is deterrence and intelligence gathering. That function does not require armed ships, just presence, and letting people know that stuff will have consequences.

Most people are law abiding.
Most criminals do not shoot at police as a matter of principle, and Mira's administration has a reputation for using anvils to crush eggs.
 
tryrar said:
Well, an expedite on Military Shipbuilding is a must, since that would probably also knock off a year or two on occupation patrols(and we can't actually take any more ship options without it!). Actually, huh. @PoptartProdigy if we expedite more shipyards at the same time we do Space cops, will we actually be able to arm them?
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Bear in mind that, just as in previous years, this is only the initial action to a longer chain of actions. The action to equip this police force will be step two. Now, if you expand shipyards before you take the option to equip this police force, that police force will be able to be equipped to paramilitary standards.
EBR said:
Can we give military surplus gear to our space cops? It's not something to do long-term, but in the meantime it would help get them started.
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Military surplus is ordinarily what you would give to a paramilitary force. However, in these circumstances, your military surplus has just recently and suddenly become your front line military equipment.
Versharl said:
Learning: I want to learn more about the Anarchy Spheres before we go anywhere near the Yulair homeworld. That does admittedly involve a bit of risk but the technological advancements from the spheres and whatever we find on Xibek Sha Prime more than makes up for that in my mind.
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To clarify, you already have several research teams on Xibek Sha Prime. The research option relating to it is to authorize additional funding for them so that they can speed up their progress. However, they are already on the planet and actively engaging with it, and in terms of the safety of caution, there is very little to be gained by not taking the research option.
 
carterhall said:
I agree with most of your plan, but I think we should focus on shoring up our vulnerabilities at home. I.e., Legislative Maneuvers instead of Embassy Exchange, Purge the Embassies instead of Spy Academy, and Space Cops instead of Power is Power.

Legislative Maneuvers + Social Programs will hopefully quiet the domestic situation down long enough to invest in longer-term projects next turn. While getting the Quarians on our team would be awesome, I think that's a slower process, and it's more important right now to make sure we're covered politically.

Power is Power is a no-brainer, but Space Cops is only one year, and now that we're reconnected to the greater galaxy, we have to be ready for the criminal element to start trying to move in. Our battlecruisers put us a step ahead of other fleets, so I think we have breathing room to delay a year before upgrading the fleet.

Spy Academy is another no-brainer. But I think we need to get our embassies secured first, so we don't have delays or hiccups with our first few steps into galactic politics.

With Embassy Exchange removed, PA can be swapped for Commit Hero Unit and get Kurik involved in The Hunt. Double-down on it as well, and chances become decent the coven is either swept up, or swept out.
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The domestic political situation is not really an issue to be honest. The militarist-socialist coalition commands less than a third of the Assembly and our recent expansion + the proposed social programs is likely to see that drop even further. I don't see how they could seriously undermine our political position or force our decision-making when the militarists that make up most of the coalition is "largely aligned with our interests." In terms of senator picks, it's much more likely that the Prosperity Party and Loyalist Party are going to split the senator picks between them since they have an absolute majority in the Assembly. Of course, I didn't want the Assembly to have any say on the pick of Senators or Councillor for precisely this reason but that's another issue entirely.

Now, the Quarians are a lon term and slower process but that doesn't mean that waiting to start the process won't hurt us. They are isolationist in nature and the fact that they've reached out to us tentatively for embassy exchange is pretty big. Waiting a turn or two is probably not an issue but we don't know what critical issue will come up in the coming turns that require our attention, so I'd rather begin the process now while the memories of cooperation is still fresh.

On Space Cops, you're probably right. Spending one year on establishing basic law enforcement in space is worth postponing the new power generation, as much as it hurts. The same is true for purging our embassies. I'll change them in my final plan.

Pittauro said:
They're not. It's something of an open secret that the senators are the true power actually. Kurik's intel discovered it for us.

Councilors get veto power (you only need ONE councilor to veto a proposal to stop everything) and they can bring matters to the attention of the senators for them to plan about, but it's the senators that write the detailed proposals, and it's there that most of the diplomatic talks between the different factions actually happen.

They're both important and controlling the councilor means that we can always stop policies we dislike, but if we want to establish our own proposal and actually have them be effective we need collaboration from the senators.

Generally speaking both positions need to work together to be truly effective.
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I don't really buy the argument that the Senate is somehow more powerful than the Council. Sure, the Senate is the day-to-day executors and that grants them some ability to interpret orders and follow their own agenda. That is until they do something egregious enough for the Council to step in and force them in line. See, the power that the Senate holds to make independent decisions is largely based on the Council's continued non-interference in their business. Something that only happens because of the newness of the two bodies and the Senate still toeing the line relatively well.

In terms of "writing the detailed proposals", that's a misunderstanding of how proposals come into being. Looking at the EU as an example, while it's true that the European Commission is responsible for proposing all legislation, they are in reality in a trilogue with the Parliament and the Council in order to pass laws. After all, the fact that you are the only one who can propose legislation doesn't mean anything if that legislation can't be passed in other legislative bodies.

All that aside, the people picking the Senators are our political allies, since they hold a majority in the Virmirean Assembly so even if you disagree with my interpretation, I still don't see the problem.
PoptartProdigy said:
To clarify, you already have several research teams on Xibek Sha Prime. The research option relating to it is to authorize additional funding for them so that they can speed up their progress. However, they are already on the planet and actively engaging with it, and in terms of the safety of caution, there is very little to be gained by not taking the research option.
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Ah, thank you. It's been a while since I read the relevant parts. I'll edit my plan to reflect this.
 
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[ ] Power Is Power: You have recently cracked power generation principles from Yulair technology offering a staggering improvement in gains. You, quite frankly, cannot afford not to roll it out as widely as possible. Time: 3 years. Cost: 75,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. Effect: Better warships, +40,000 yearly income.

This is a must have to me. The sooner we implement the sooner we get better ships and the rachini are rebuilding and they will outnumber us. Last time was a very near thing so best to stack the deck early so we can hit them before they recover if at all possible to do more damage.
 
Hm. Some preliminary list-thinking.

MARTIAL

I don't want to start Army Mechanization right now simply because the project is massive and we already have a Martial action locked down for the next three years or so. Maybe start with something simpler?

[ ] Evacuation Procedures
(Occupation Fleet is already locked in)

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DIPLOMACY

The Commonwealth Calls For Aid has a negligible chance of success. Legislature Maneuvers is a bit time-critical because that affects an event that happens this year. Of the other three actions, Good Fences strikes me as best. It lays useful groundwork for future attempts at Alliance Allies. We can then take Embassy Exchange when we're not quite so swamped.

[ ] Legislature Maneuvers
[ ] Good Fences

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STEWARDSHIP

Taking Military Production Expansion prior to Army Mechanization sounds like a very good idea; it's going to boost overall action economy and probably have other direct benefits rolling into the future.

I think we need to take Space Cops now, simply because so many of the other possible options are long-term things and if we lock down our Stewardship options for 2-3 years on them, by the end of that time we may have actual emergencies blowing up due to lack of space police. I also want to have the Yulair power generators ready before we build our next major tranche of warships, which will be AFTER construction of the current occupation fleet. So that's a priority. I'm going to be pushing for Social Programs next year, and Military Production Expansion in three years' time when an action concludes.

[ ] Space Cops
[ ] Power Is Power

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INTRIGUE

Our spy agency is crippled by how tiny Shurna's kept it. Fixing that is a priority. On the other hand, just ignoring the ardat-yakshi is a very bad idea, even if the others aren't as likely to make decapitation strikes against leadership targets. And getting the embassies secured is, regrettably, kind of time critical. :(

[ ] Purge the Embassies
[ ] Go Hunting: (prime candidate for a double-down since it's cheap and has a lower success probability than I'd like)

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LEARNING

The education options are important but I want to wait one more turn. Destructive Testing appeals to me because we have seventy-four Anarchy Spheres (!) and that is arguably too many as it is so destroying some sounds pretty good. An expedition to the Yulair homeworld is something that's paying off significantly, and it looks like we've finally found a civilization that wasn't systematically eradicated by the Reapers but rather by something else, so that's... likely to be important.

[ ] Destructive Testing
[ ] The Home of the Yulair

We can start the education options next turn; I want to get short-term low-hanging fruit out of the way.

I'm not sure what to do for personal actions, though I suspect that "visit the ardat-yakshi we already have in jail" should be on the list.


TaliesinSkye said:
It might be a good idea to hold off on space cops for a year so that they can be armed when we do build their ships. It'd probably help with anti-piracy operations and they could serve as a defense fleet of last resort.
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Remember that every year we have no space police is a year when people from the outside galaxy can infiltrate our space fairly freely. We can build better armed space patrol ships later; we need to get the organization itself up and running.

HanEmpire said:
Kurik's lover is an option on a timer. We should give serious thought to taking that action this turn.
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The problem is that there are three options on timers for Intrigue:
1) Hunt down the ardat-yakshi before they cover their tracks and/or cause more high-profile terrorism.
2) Close the intelligence leaks in our embassies.
3) Follow up on the lead Kurik got us on Omega.

Fezzes said:
I definitely don't want to build a toothless law enforcement agency. Don't pick up Space Cops until we have the military industrial capacity.
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The consequences of having lightly armed police who have to call the military to handle well armed threats are much less bad than the consequences of having no police whatsoever, which is the status quo we have now.

Versharl said:
Diplomacy: We should seek to establish ourselves and learn about the political landscape before making requests. That rules out the option to call for aid. Next up, it seems to me that legislative maneuvers are unimportant since the senators themselves are unimportant figureheads. Finally, the Frontier Confederacy and the Remnant are pawns in the game rather than the actual players. While it might be a good idea to eventually get them on our side, I'd rather learn what the actual movers and shakers in the Alliance plan on doing and what their motivations are. That leaves us with establishing embassies, which should be done sooner rather than later to capitalize on the good-will we gained fom saving the Quarian Fleet, and figuring out what the political landscape of the Alliance is actually like.
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As noted, I don't think the senators are as unimportant as all that, plus I think that's actually a DOMESTIC political option, not a Terminus Alliance one. Remember that domestic politics is filed under "Diplomacy" actions in this game.

I disagree with the logic on Good Fences. Firstly, we are in an excellent position to flip the Remnant and Frontier Confederacy from being someone else's pawns to being our pawns. Secondly, even if they are pawns, they are pawns with pre-existing connections to the chessmasters. Good relations with them give us inroads on the related Alliance Allies action that gets us more properly integrated into Terminus Alliance politics.

I do support the Quarian embassy action, but remember that these Diplomacy actions are one-year things. We'll have time to complete it very soon. The goodwill from saving the Quarian fleet won't fade that fast.

Stewardship: My heart bleeds for Space Cops. It really is a wonderful option but there always seems to be something more pressing coming up. This is the case again with the important implementation of new power generation techniques for our ships, which could be the difference between victory and defeat and thus save countless lives, and enacting some long-needed social programs to aid the poor and disadvantaged in Virmirean society. Aside from the obvious moral arguments to be made, it would also undercut any potential unrest and resistance to our enlightened dictatorsh- I mean totally democratic rule!
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I'm going to be blunt. The longer we ignore the space cops, the greater the risk that we'll have a serious problem on our hands, like a pirate squadron setting up a base somewhere along Kurik's Traverse and harassing our commerce to the outside galaxy in ways we cannot counter. Or random wildcat 'pirate' colonies starting up and squatting on star systems we control.

We cannot afford to just have literally no interstellar law enforcement for another 2-3 years while waiting for other options to clear.

Intrigue: Both of these options seem like no-brainers to me. We absolutely need to hunt down the coven and expand our recruitment and training of intelligence personnel. The fact that Shurna failed so fundamentally in this regard is frankly enough to make me want to fire her if she wasn't otherwise extremely competent at her job.
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Do we prioritize expanding recruitment, or plugging existing leaks? It's a tough question.

Learning: I want to learn more about the Anarchy Spheres before we go anywhere near the Yulair homeworld. That does admittedly involve a bit of risk but the technological advancements from the spheres and whatever we find on Xibek Sha Prime more than makes up for that in my mind. On the education front, the implementation of the reforms to the education system has been long overdue. Let's get it underway.
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We've already cleared the Anarchy Spheres from the planet. They're not there anymore.

carterhall said:
Power is Power is a no-brainer, but Space Cops is only one year, and now that we're reconnected to the greater galaxy, we have to be ready for the criminal element to start trying to move in. Our battlecruisers put us a step ahead of other fleets, so I think we have breathing room to delay a year before upgrading the fleet.
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Our battlecruisers don't really give us technical superiority and the rachni have already gained what advantage they can from the class. If we want good tech, we're going to need to actually invest effort into it; we didn't already have it when we resumed contact.
 
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I want a plan with us expanding the shipyards and getting space cops everything else is fine with me. But Expanding the Shipyards and Space Cops are priority 1 to me. With hunting the Ardat Yakshi a close second
 
Hm. Let's see. I'm persuaded on taking an education option. The Anarchy Spheres, in and of themselves, will keep for a while. Still want to strip-mine Yulair for tech as quickly as possible. Among other things because when we begin rollout of that tech the outside galaxy will start showing interest in where we got it from.

@PoptartProdigy , is the lost yearly income permanent, or are we only charged for it during the 3-year lock period, or during the 7-year to completion period? Also, is that "3 years to of Learning actions, 7 more years to finish" or "3 years of Learning actions, 4 more years to finish?
 
agumentic said:
Well, that was a direct statement by our intelligence, and I don't see any reason to doubt it. Sure, the Senate is technically subordinate, but if the Council tries to enforce that, it may very well just fail.
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Our intelligence apparatus is far from infallible and I have plenty of reason to disbelieve their statement considering basic observation of IRL political systems. I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate on how the Council could fail to enforce their will upon the Senate since I don't really see a way for that to happen?
Simon_Jester said:
As noted, I don't think the senators are as unimportant as all that, plus I think that's actually a DOMESTIC political option, not a Terminus Alliance one. Remember that domestic politics is filed under "Diplomacy" actions in this game.

I disagree with the logic on Good Fences. Firstly, we are in an excellent position to flip the Remnant and Frontier Confederacy from being someone else's pawns to being our pawns. Secondly, even if they are pawns, they are pawns with pre-existing connections to the chessmasters. Good relations with them give us inroads on the related Alliance Allies action that gets us more properly integrated into Terminus Alliance politics.
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I'm aware that it's both a domestic and external option. That doesn't really change the calculus for me. We think we're in an excellent position to flip the two but until we understand the political landscape of the Alliance, we won't know for sure. Even if we are and we do flip them, we don't know what unintended consequences it may have on the political situation. We may alienate the previous controllers of the two or otherwise damage our position before we've even started. That's why I want to understand the situation better.
I do support the Quarian embassy action, but remember that these Diplomacy actions are one-year things. We'll have time to complete it very soon. The goodwill from saving the Quarian fleet won't fade that fast.
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I don't know the precise decay of "gratefulness" among the Quarians is but it's already been 3 years since they came home. You might be surprised about how quickly people forget but I can tell you from reading research on voter behavior that people in general only really care about what's happened in the last 2 year when electing politicians. The point is, pushing it off is a bad idea if we want to achieve the optimal outcome on a already fairly difficult option.
 
PoptartProdigy said:
[ ] Take a Break: You are a parent, now, and your daughter is perfect. You want to spend all the time with her you can, and with Ilena -- the two of you are formally bonded now, after all. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: Free. Effect: Take a step back from work, clear your schedule, and take a Goddess-damned vacation. Possible stat or trait gain; possible relationship gain with advisers or people of importance. Trait gain/stat growth for Loreia.
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Will this result in the thread getting baby pictures? If so that's a must-have, IMO.

I feel somewhat overwhelmed by the resumption of proper mechanics, so I will let other people hash out plans and pop up again when it is time to vote.
 
Versharl said:
I'm aware that it's both a domestic and external option. That doesn't really change the calculus for me. We think we're in an excellent position to flip the two but until we understand the political landscape of the Alliance, we won't know for sure. Even if we are and we do flip them, we don't know what unintended consequences it may have on the political situation. We may alienate the previous controllers of the two or otherwise damage our position before we've even started. That's why I want to understand the situation better.
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Fair. Personally, I think we have good enough cover to do outreach (as distinct from 'flipping') in safety, but it's a reasonable point of disagreement.

I don't know the precise decay of "gratefulness" among the Quarians is but it's already been 3 years since they came home. You might be surprised about how quickly people forget but I can tell you from reading research on voter behavior that people in general only really care about what's happened in the last 2 year when electing politicians. The point is, pushing it off is a bad idea if we want to achieve the optimal outcome on a already fairly difficult option.
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Possibly. On the other hand, we're doing it at a time when we have some pressing problems that attract Double Down attention. I accept that this is a limited-time offer, but it's one of multiple such offers, and the time limit on it strikes me as relatively soft and medium-term rather than short-term.


Anyway. My plan.

"Ardat-Yakshi Hunt" is of course literal in this case (I'm taking it and doubling down to give Shurna the maximum chance to succeed). However, it is also used by at least some asari as a metonym for ferreting out spies or criminals of other kinds (appropriately, equivalent to "witch hunt" in English). As such, I'm using this for a plan title.

My priorities are:

1) Expand shipbuilding, which is important though only moderately urgent given that everyone in the galaxy busy rebuilding right now, not just us.

2) Diplomatically, construct a stable powerbase within the Terminus Alliance as preparation for future actions, by making sure we have the right kind of senators who won't work at cross purposes with us, and by making approaches to some of the minor factions within the Alliance that are most likely to align with us. We'll try to play with the big boys next turn, as well as hopefully making outreach to the quarians.

3) Getting the space police up and running as an organization so that we have SOME law enforcement presence outside Virmire proper, especially since we've claimed six clusters along Kurik's Traverse and have effectively no presence there aside from refueling stations. Athame only knows who or what might creep into that space.

4) Getting the power upgrades started, so that they're ready BEFORE we begin full-scale construction of our next round of combat fleets. Delaying on that, especially if we hasten construction of the shipyards, means a larger proportion of our future (read: available as of Turn 40 or so) fleet will still be using the current-generation power systems and not the next-gen ones. Also it's an income boost, and we'll need those to offset the ongoing costs of the stuff we'll want to implement soon.

5) For Intrigue, I prioritize plugging leaks. Dealing with the embassies is important and will rapidly grow more so the longer they are allowed to remain compromised. This is especially true given how undertrained our diplomatic staff is/was. Hunting the ardat-yakshi gets a Double Down, which is enough to push the likelihood of success to 91%. I don't want them free to make trouble.

6) For Learning, start the curriculum review (as a teacher I intone this much as I would say "RELEASE THE HOUNDS") while also (metaphorically) doubling down on the efforts to salvage tech from the Yulair homeworld, since we've already seen how many benefits that can have.


This plan does not dip too heavily into our cash reserves and indeed they will (if I've done the math right) slightly increase, while our income remains fairly high and stable.

Starting Credit Reserves: 342,500.
Yearly Income: 489,000.

Costs (in Thousands) 47+30+32+30+75+31+(15*2)+38 = 313
Costs: 313,000 credits
Income Loss: -15k hit to yearly income from Curriculum Review


[] Plan Ardat-Yakshi Hunt (Draft)
-[] Expand Military Shipbuilding: (Time: 2 years. Cost: 47,000 credits. Chance of Success: 80%+11% = 91%)
-[] Legislature Maneuvers: (Time: 1 year. Cost: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 65%+10% = 75%)
-[] Good Fences (Time: 1 year. Cost: 32,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%+10% = 80%)
-[] Space Cops (Time: 1 year. Cost: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%+11% = 81%)
-[] Power Is Power (Time: 3 years. Cost: 75,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%+11% = 81%)
-[] Purge the Embassies (Time: 1 year. Cost: 31,000 credits. Chance of Success: 65%+11% = 76%)
-[] Go Hunting: (Time: 1 year. Cost: 15,000 credits. Chance of Success: 45%+46% = 91%)
--[] Double Down
-[] The Home of the Yulair (Time: 1 year. Cost: 38,000 credits. Chance of Success: 65%+9% = 74%)
-[] Curriculum Review: (Time: 3 years locked, 7 years to completion. Cost: -15,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 75%+9% = 84%)
--Free Expedite courtesy of Asari Republics
-[] Personal Attention: ??? (adds Mira's full stat in relevant category, Martial 26, Diplomacy 16, Stewardship 19, Intrigue 8, Learning 17. Still thinking about this, open to suggestions.)
-[] Take a Break
-[] Visit Li'Sai [Kirai]: (Chance of Success: 85%+26% = 111% for personal safety, 35%+26% = 61% for actionable intelligence, modified +26% for Kirai's Diplomacy
 
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