Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest

Simon_Jester · May 4, 2020

Mr Tebbs said:
True... but the Go Hunting option is likely to outright fail which will have the coven go to ground... likely until the Krogan rebellions at the worst possible moment when it turns out they cultivated a pseudo shadow broker faction and have thrown in with a few warlords and go haring off the network along Kurik's Run.

I mean. We can still try to track any unexpected or unexplained murders, or follow up on leads. If the action fails even with the Double Down, it won't fail by a margin of more than about nine points... which usually means "you fail but can try again."

It's if we don't take the action that they're likely to escape us entirely like that, because then we're not even trying to find them and their tracks will be very very cold in a year's time.

Mr Tebbs said:
i don't think we're allowed to put both PA and a hero on the same task? Putting Kirai on the AY in prison should have the same % chance as putting Mira on it due to max stats for both being 26

Yes, and frankly putting Kirai on it makes more in-character sense IMO... but the bulk of the boost already being provided to the Hunt Them Down action comes from giving San Shurna a Double Down. I didn't assign a hero unit to it, so we COULD still assign Kurik to the task to make it effectively sure to succeed. As opposed to, say, assigning Mira to Space Cops or Legislature Maneuvers to make those actions nigh-impossible and very unlikely (respectively) to fail.

pbluekan said:
@Simon_Jester I like the plan you've got going there, with the sole exception of "Purge The Embassies". Yes we definitely need to do it, but we have been operating at shit capacity for too long. We will always have something that needs doing right this turn, especially for Intrigue. We need to build up the agency so these things actually get done properly.

I count two things that need doing right this turn, and oh hey we have two Intrigue actions.

We did just do a major round of recruitment for the spy ministry; that extra manpower is still flowing into the system. And Intrigue-flavored emergencies don't crop up THAT often- they do, but not literally every year. Given that setting up a spy academy will lock down our Intrigue actions for three years, I'd rather not postpone either of our existing crises until then.

If we wait on Go Hunting, the trail goes cold. If we wait on Purge the Embassies, our embassies get milked for intel for another year. These are fairly urgent problems and I'd rather settle them before starting a long-term project.

Pittauro said:
there was also that random chance of a hero intervening in a compatible action of its own initiative. I'd have to check the rules, but I think it was if we get at least double the DC?

I mean... maybe? I don't know? I'm not saying heroes are useless, I'm just saying I don't think that deliberately trying to 'mine' heroes by seeking booming successes on low-DC actions ought to be a primary factor informing our decision-making. Not unless we have no pressing crises to deal with that turn.

An intrigue hero would be really valuable by the way. That's Mira's weak spot, which means it's usually not a good idea to use personal attention for intrigue actions.

Kurik is an Intrigue hero. Not a great one, but a decent one.

Pittauro · May 4, 2020

Simon_Jester said:
I mean... maybe? I don't know? I'm not saying heroes are useless, I'm just saying I don't think that deliberately trying to 'mine' heroes by seeking booming successes on low-DC actions ought to be a primary factor informing our decision-making. Not unless we have no pressing crises to deal with that turn.

that's fair. I'll just point our, even if it's obvious, that a very high success would not only result in an extra hero, but also in other rewards.

For example if it happened on the yulair power system we'd likely get an hero scientist and some extra upgrade to the developed power systems.

The heroes are only one part of the reward. Of course making sure low-chance actions don't fail can be (and often IS) more important.

Simon_Jester said:
Kurik is an Intrigue hero. Not a great one, but a decent one.

Taylor classes. So forgettable

To be fair Kurik is more of a martial hero than an intrigue one with his martial 19, learning 16, intrigue 15.

Simon_Jester · May 4, 2020

Pittauro said:
that's fair. I'll just point our, even if it's obvious, that a very high success would not only result in an extra hero, but also in other rewards.

I don't think we can rely on getting a hero every time we supercrit something. Can we? We've had like... something approaching 200 action rolls, there should be a dataset to see on the issue.

To be fair Kurik is more of a martial hero than an intrigue one with his martial 19, learning 16, intrigue 15.

Yes, but Mira can flex on him effortlessly in Martial and roughly match him in Learning. It's Intrigue where she actually falls down hard enough to need the help.

uju32 · May 4, 2020

PoptartProdigy said:
Year 34: 513 GS

-Mira's a parent! D'aww....

You stare at him, gulping, before glancing Kirai's way one last time. She smiles back. "-as long as you don't forget to try."

Welp. There goes one of our Personal Actions permanently until she's 18

-It bears noting that if we ever get around to making that propaganda film/miniseries of Virmire's survival(probably as a Diplomacy project instead of Stewardship if the object is PR not money), bookending it with Mira fighting off an assassination attempt and then welcoming a child would be absurdly cinematic.

-That said, this also kinda makes the whole Ardat Yakshi attack on Ilena (and Loreia) doubly personal.
It adds a personal dimensions to the pragmatic one where Mira's administration doesn't want or need a societal bombshell in the shape of superbiotic sex vampires walking free and reaping people's lives in the society while they fight an interstellar war.

And if one of them was sociopathic enough to attempt a solo assassination like a koolaid woman, nothing to say that the others may not be as sociopathic but more competent.

-Kirai has really grown on me. Like a fungus, just more welcome. I wonder if those are secret Asari matriarch skills.
Or just common to all grandmothers.
Does Kirai have any kids, btw?

-Leaving both our Heroes free increases the chance they will trigger on applicable options.

- Mira survived an assassination attempt. And is about to oversee the selection/election of the whole first batch of Senators to the TA senate.
Those are both good reasons to talk to the general population to reassure them as to the governments stability (and reassuring the nervous that Mira won't take unnecessary risks like confronting an assassin lightly), and to sell them on your preferred type of Senators.

Additionally, if the apprehension of the AY coven goes bad, or even just unduly public, Mira needs to be out there talking to people.

Yes, I named the plan after a major antagonist in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sue me

VOTE
[]Plan Glorificus
-[][Martial]Occupation Patrols: 1 of 4 years complete. Cost: 85,000 credits, -43,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 75%.LOCKED AND PAID FOR.
-[][Martial]Expand Military Shipbuilding: 2 years: 47,000 credits. Chance of Success: 80%. +11 =91%
-[][Diplomacy]Alliance Allies: 1 year. Cost: 40,000 credits. Chance of Success: N/A. +11
-[][Diplomacy]Legislature Maneuvers: 1 year. Cost: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 65%. +11 =76%
-[][Stewardship]Space Cops: 1 year. Cost: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. +12 = 82%
-[][Stewardship]Power Is Power: 3 years. Cost: 75,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. +12 = 82%
-[][Intrigue]Go Hunting: 1 year. Cost: 15,000 credits. Chance of Success: 45%.
--[][DOUBLE DOWN + PERSONAL ATTENTION] Doubles costs, doubles Minister bonus: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 45 + 46 +8 =99%
-[][Intrigue] Following Up: 2 years. Cost: 22,500 credits. Chance of Success: 60%. +12 =72%
-[][Learning]The Home of the Yulair: Time: 1 year. Cost: 38,000 credits. Chance of Success: 65%. +10 =75%
-[][Learning]Military Schools: 4 years. Cost: -40,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 80%. +10 = 92%
-[][Personal]Take a Break: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: Free
-[][Personal]Personal Attention: Go Hunting. +8 to Go Hunting.
-[][Personal]Speak To the People: 1 year. Cost: 1,000 credits. Chance of Success: 50%.

Beginning Income(x): 489,000 credits
Beginning Reserves(a): 342,500 credits
==================================================================
BUDGET(b): Martial(47,000) + Diplomacy(40,000 +30,000) + Stewardship(30,000+75,000) + Intrigue(30,000+22,500) + Learning(38,000) + Personal(1,000) = 313,500 credits
INCOME DEDUCTIONS(y): Learning(-40,000)
==================================================================
Ending Income(z)= x+y = 489,000 + -40,000 = 449,000 credits
Ending Reserves(n)= (a+b)+(x+y)= (342,500 - 313,500) + (489,000 - 40,000) = 478,000 credits

RATIONALE

Military
Occupation Patrols is LOCKED for 3 more years.
Expand Military Shipbuilding increases our ability to sustain an increased shipbuilding tempo.

Diplomacy
Legislature Maneuvers is necessary; we are going to be sending people into the Alliance senate, and it helps that the first set of senators put our best foot forward. It helps prevent future problems that we'd have to spend time and political capital addressing.

Alliance Allies allows us to scope out the political environment before making any additional commitments one way or the other.
Look before you leap.

Stewardship
Space Cops because smugglers are costing us money. And acting as a possible conduit for covert agents.

Power Is Power is an increase in combat power as well as an increase in industrial output.
If we start it now, it finishes at the same time as Occupation Patrols, and before we can build any new fleets.
GET.

Intrigue
Following Up is time limited. And as an intelligence op, doesn't actually have to be run out of the Embassy.
Go Hunting is also time limited; we have a limited window before they go to ground. And the AY secret has the potential to splinter Virmirean society.
We need to prioritize solving this.

If we double down on Go Hunting, Shurna's Intrigue 23 is doubled to 46, which means that it not has a chance of (45+46=91%) chance of success. Add Mira's Intrigue 8, and it becomes 99% chance of success.
Only if we critfail do we fail that task.

Learning
Home of the Yulair has the chance of throwing up additional tech secrets or speeding up the integration of Yulair power plants. GET.
Military Schools if started now, finishes one year after Occupation Patrols, which provides a pipeline of trained naval officers and soldiers for the expanding armed forces.

Leave Curriculum Review alone till next turn.
We can use the Asari expedite on it then, plus an additional paid expedite, reducing the duration from 10 years to 3 years.

I don't even want to go near the Anarchy Spheres without at least a DD, and preferably also a PA for good measure.
Mind control devices are nothing to fuck with casually.

Personal
Take A Break is obligatory now any year we're not running active military operations. We got a kid.

Personal Attention goes on Go Hunting; we can get the chance of success up to 99% that way, and IC Mira has previous experience with AY hunts that Shurna can draw on. It's thematic that she's involved.

Speak To The People is more or less obligatory this year; we survived an assassination attempt, parented a kid, and are about to be involved in nominating the first set of Senators to the Terminus Alliance. It strongly synergizes with Legislative Maneuvers and Go Hunting both, especially if the AY coven is being pursued as associates of the assassin.

Talking to the captive AY has a 15% chance of putting the envoy at risk, and even if we send one of our best or Mira herself, we only get maybe a 50% chance of getting her to spill something useful. I don't really want to risk one of our NPCs for so low a payoff.
It's a better chance to spend that PA on hunting down the rest of the coven and putting them all in custody, and only then interrogating them.

We can trust Shurna to secure the prison in the meantime without our personal intervention.

Pittauro · May 4, 2020

I have an apology to make. I called Kurik a Taylor class, but he's actually an Anderson class.

Calling an Anderson "Taylor" is obviously an horrible insult, and I'm deeply ashamed of my mistake.

Mr Tebbs · May 4, 2020

I've wanted to write about a Virmirean soldier rising through the ranks to make it into special forces... this is my attempt as a series of letters home

Journey of Naekane Lorixi, asari born of Salarian father, taking her father's clan name; and Pask Dhekbanrek her step-father. She remains close to her Salarian clan and deeply loves her step-dad despite a rocky start. These are her letters home.

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.05.10
Dear Pask and Mom

Made it to basic safe and sound. Oh, I got shipped to a different base than we were told, I'm actually at Fort Cof'fogar on Ihe Puhh. Kinda pissed at the misdirection, but can't complain about the scenery. A salarian recruit told me Ihe Puhh means 'beautiful coast' in a particular salarian language, and I believe it. About 1k of us were dropped off and got screamed at by DIs for a couple hours. I didn't quite understand what you were trying to tell me before Pask, but I feel like I get it now... If I didn't know better I'd say some of those DIs were standup comics. Well, the red weeks are officially in---

recruit Naekane Shalaya 481.05.11
Sorry, I didn't close the dictation app correctly. Uh... it turns out one of the batarian recruits died of dehydration. Or maybe heatstroke? It's humid as all get out here, and apparently he'd passed out right as his area was getting screamed at, so his battle buddy put him in the lee of an old brick retaining wall after trying and failing to get a DI's attention? Or something? Rumor mill is butchering this all to hell and yesterday because DI came in and said we need to drink lots of water, and that if we're feeling faint to let a DI know immediately. Not exactly forthcoming with the details. Some of the recruits from military families were kinda freaking out a bit, but said those DIs were probably kept up all night getting yelled at, and hoped it wouldn't bite us on our drills.

Love
Nae

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.05.15
Dear Mom and Pask

I am so glad I went on those runs with you Pask. You taught me how to run downhill without tripping over myself and conserving speed. We did our first ruck marches two days ago, and while I'd never run 10km before I was in the middle of the pack, which kept me from getting DI attention for 'lolly-gagging' YAY! Instead I got DI attention for doing well despite not practicing before hand, and I'm now much farther up in the platoon on runs... Boo... Like everyone else in the platoon I could squeegee a waterbottle's worth of sweat out of my clothes by the time we were done.

Love you all
Nae

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.05.21
Dear Pask and mom

So... Last week I got lost looking for the latrine in the mess hall and ended up going in the unofficial officer's latrine. You know how it is, when you gotta go you don't really pay attention to where you're going... so I find a nice empty and remarkably clean place to do my thing, and when I'm leaving the stall I see an officer washing up... who gives me a sideways glance and hurries out. I didn't think anything of it until I leave, and there are two smokies present to ask if I enjoyed the superior facilities that was afforded to offficers, and whether I ought'nt to have studied harder in school to enjoy them... Then I remembered your brother Pack, and said it could have used a hand washing servant to add to the ambiance.... I ended up wall sitting for about 5 minutes for that. I probably should have paid attention to what happened to your brother when he got smart with his DIs.

We also started learning hand-to-hand this week, as well as getting familiar with our rifles. We haven't been to the range yet, but we're getting good at field stripping and identifying parts without context.

Love
Kane

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.06.10
Dear Pask and Mom

Fire and forget weapons are absolutely terrifying and fun as anything I've ever done. Also, sorry I forgot to message last week. I mean, I'm still a good shot with a rifle, now I can prove it.... and calibrate the targets because seriously.. maintenance people! But, yeah... FnF rockets... they go boom in the best way. Also, I've gotta say, it's nice being out of the red weeks. It's nice being able to sleep in my bed instead of on it, waiting for the inevitable 0400 firedrill... hopefully my mail isn't monitored so they can pull a gotcha on the platoon. Anywho, in celebration for making it this far they've given us all exfoliating creme so we can really, really wash all the ruck marches off us. We'll still be doing the marches of course, but it won't be a twice daily thing. Too much to learn about soldiering, don'cha'know.

love
Kane

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.06.11
THOSE FUCKERS. They exposed us to tear-gas TODAY, while we'd rubbed our pores raw.. That, was one of the most uniquely awful experiences of my life. Anyway, we're starting field exercises tomorrow.

Kane

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.06.14
Dear Mom and Pask

Field exercises are like... the best thing ever. It's a camping trip with both of you mixed with paintball and mountain climbing. I was the 2nd for our platoon, and the Ell Tee for the exercise was a good friend of mine, and I correctly guessed where the ambush was going to be, and we were able to countercharge with 5 casualties. So me, Ell Tee and our four worst shooters walked into the killzone, I actually lead with my barrier up, and as soon as one of us was hit I screamed bloody murder and the other 2 elements countercharged the OppFor. We had five casualties to their TPK. I'm still kinda mad that I can't get my barrier to be more translucent. If I could We'd have had just the one casualty.

Hope to actually get a chance to lead one of these exercises.

love
Kane

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.06.21
Mom and Pack

Well, I've graduated to OppFor. My first opponent was my first CO, oddly enough (or maybe not so oddly). It turns out... I might be better as OppFor than BluFor. I set up the obvious killzone, took some potshots at her force, and promptly retreated when her countercharge came... right into my second killzone, rolled up her counter charge with my counter-counter charge and took her command prisoner. Also I've been absolutely killing it on the range and consistently in the top five in PT. Pack, I owe you so much for doing that conditioning before I enlisted. Also we really need to go mountain climbing again, that was a lot of fun.

Love
Kane

PS. I realize I might not have translated my abreviations: OppFor is opposing force, BluFor is the so called "blue force" better known as the good guys. Ell Tee is lieutenant, or the CO of a platoon. CO is commanding officer. PT is physical training

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.07.04
Pack and Mom

We're learning heavy equipment now. A good friend of mine, salarian, is learning how to use a 'wrecker' though a normal person would call it an armomred tow-truck. The DIs want me to specialize in a scout role. I'm not sure how I feel about that; on the one hand I get to cause all kinds of merry mayhem as I'm able. On the other, if I'm overexposed I'll find out at the worst possible time. As is, I'm still going for line infantry and opting for more range time.

Also, I talked about how you're my step-dad Pack, and how we first met. Kinda awkward to have a 30 year old crying and running from the dinner table, but I'm mature enough to admit I was a little shit back then. And now. And probably a few decades from now too, but I'd like to think you taught me how to carry myself with dignity and how to tell people to go to hell and be thanked for the directions :*

Much Love
Kane

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.07.09
We're starting our 'finals' in less than an hour. We're going to be assaulting a position, defending a position, and storming a beach. Apparently there's a live-fire version of things going on, and they're giving us ear protection/communicators so this'll be interesting..

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.07.12

HOLY SHIT THAT WAS INTENSE. They launched airburst grenades over our heads and had heavy guns firing over our heads the entire time. I'm glad this is dictation, because there's no way I'd be able to type this.. wow. The DIs are coming around tomorrow to tell us how we did over basic and any medals we may have earned or ranks gained, et cetera.

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.07.13
I got a letter from Special Forces! They're inviting me to apply for basic airborne! They say this is the first step for the Special forces, and depending on how I try out I could even make it as far as the Void Marines! I'm absolutely flabbergasted.. Its, this is heavy.. I want to say yes right now, but I really ought to take at least a few minutes to think about this, right? right.. Whew.. On the one hand, it'll make this all look like a picnic. Even if I pass, I'll probably just be on base defense or maybe part of a search and rescue when the yearly hurican season hits this area... on the other hand... Void Marine... whoooo...

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.07.11

I'm going to accept the invitation. Love you both

recruit Naekane Lorixi 481.07.13

Pack
The grapevine is shit. So, I finally talked with a DI about what happened with that batarian kid. Apparently he didn't die, but ended up in a coma for a day, then invalidated out. The court-martial revealed that... Apparently, he has a rare condition where he just never feels thirsty and hadn't had more than a 1/2 liter that day. Given the high humidity, and the unseasonably high temperature that day meant everyone would easily sweat through 1.5 to 2 L of water in the confined spaces we were relegated to on the buses. Add to that he was earth cast and his battle-buddy was apparently a practicing air cast, and his buddy wasn't really his buddy. Said buddy is apparently on trial for negligence and obstruction (he tried to hide the kid or something? Goddess that's fucked, glad he won't have my back).

Luckily, the tracking chips that were in the collars of our uniforms the entire time alerted the DIs to a non-moving recruit in time and they got him to an infirmary. Apparently something like this happened semi-frequently 10 years ago, and cheap trackers have been effective for finding people who collapse for one reason or another. DI said I could tell you guys as it's not exactly a secret... but try not to make a huge deal out of it, or some stupid will try to cut the thing out for some reason.

Kane

*AN
I'm following the GST from
as my base, they ran the numbers to being that a GST year is 260 days 3 hours and 44 mintues, with a day being 20 GST hours. dates are in YYY.MM.DD format with the assumption that there are 12 months in a year.. broken up in 21, 22, 22, 21(leap), 22, 22, 21, 22, 22, 21, 22, 22 day increments as using a prime number for a cyclic cycle is incredibly problematic it turns out.
(quarterly reports are at semirandom times, half year contracts equally opaque... basically there's a reason ancient humans chose base 12 and base 60 for units of measure... you get a lot of fractionals without needing decimals)

Mr Tebbs · May 4, 2020

uju32 said:
Yes, I named the plan after a major antagonist in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sue me

I'll probably vote for this when vote opens once approval voting is allowed, but if you're going to do a PA on the Go Hunting option.. I'd recommend activating Kurik instead, as that would make the success chance above 100

uju32 · May 4, 2020

Mr Tebbs said:
I'll probably vote for this when vote opens once approval voting is allowed, but if you're going to do a PA on the Go Hunting option.. I'd recommend activating Kurik instead, as that would make the success chance above 100

Mira's PA takes the chances up to 99%.
I'm reasonably comfortable with her bonus there, both mechanically and for thematic reasons; the new parent in Mira would want to be really sure the AYs are all in custody or otherwise neutralized after one came after her spouse and kid.

I'm deliberately leaving Kurik floating, on the off-chance he triggers on Following Up(his lady friend), Space Cops(linked to Survey) or Home of the Yulair(Survey). Sentra might trigger on Military Shipbuilding(he's an admiral, he knows what the navy wants) or Military Schools.

Mr Tebbs · May 4, 2020

uju32 said:
I'm deliberately leaving Kurik floating

eh... he's only triggered randomly a handful of times thus far. also, what do you think of my 'letters home' thingy above the post of mine you quoted?

Mr Tebbs said:
Journey of Naekane Lorixi

uju32 · May 4, 2020

Mr Tebbs said:
eh... he's only triggered randomly a handful of times thus far. also, what do you think of my 'letters home' thingy above the post of mine you quoted?

Death of a trainee for any reason is a pretty big deal in a democracy.
Death from dehydration points to a degree of negligence on the part of the instructors and camp crew that's criminal. Even in wartime.
Especially in wartime. You'd be getting inquiries and courtmartials.

Youd be much better served having your designated redshirt suffer a training injury and get shipped out to a medical facility for treatment.
Other than that, it's pretty good.

Thors_Alumni · May 4, 2020

Mr Tebbs said:
eh... he's only triggered randomly a handful of times thus far. also, what do you think of my 'letters home' thingy above the post of mine you quoted?

uju32 said:
Death of a trainee for any reason is a pretty big deal in a democracy.
Death from dehydration points to a degree of negligence on the part of the instructors and camp crew that's criminal. Even in wartime.
Especially in wartime. You'd be getting inquiries and courtmartials.

Youd be much better served having your designated redshirt suffer a training injury and get shipped out to a medical facility for treatment.
Other than that, it's pretty good.

If you want an example of a real life one than the Jason Rother incident is a big one. Point is that the death of the Trainee should have been dealt with more severely than the DI's getting chewed out.

Mr Tebbs · May 4, 2020

uju32 said:
Death of a trainee for any reason is a pretty big deal in a democracy.
Death from dehydration points to a degree of negligence on the part of the instructors and camp crew that's criminal. Even in wartime.
Especially in wartime. You'd be getting inquiries and courtmartials

I took that directly from my little brother's bootcamp experience. His first day there a trainee died from either dehydration or heat exhaustion. He's not sure what happened to the DIs or if there was a loop hole that they were able to skate thru based on the fact that, technically, they hadn't reported for duty yet

Edit, please keep in mind this is the POV of a recruit, not 3rd omnicient who knows the consequences of a death of a recruit on their first day of basic

Simon_Jester · May 4, 2020

uju32 said:
-Leaving both our Heroes free increases the chance they will trigger on applicable options.

Yes, but putting Mira on the ardat-yakshi hunt is a bad choice because her Intrigue is her weakest stat.

- Mira survived an assassination attempt. And is about to oversee the selection/election of the whole first batch of Senators to the TA senate.
Those are both good reasons to talk to the general population to reassure them as to the governments stability (and reassuring the nervous that Mira won't take unnecessary risks like confronting an assassin lightly), and to sell them on your preferred type of Senators.

Additionally, if the apprehension of the AY coven goes bad, or even just unduly public, Mira needs to be out there talking to people.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the average citizen is all like "Mira just took down an improbably strong asari commando killer like a badass because she is ALSO an improbably strong asari commando killer OO-RAH!" not worried.

And the Senator selection is no more momentous than many other decisions Mira's made without a big public address, plus members of our own legislature will have no trouble taking the credit.

[]Plan Glorificus
-[][Martial]Occupation Patrols: 1 of 4 years complete. Cost: 85,000 credits, -43,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 75%.LOCKED AND PAID FOR.
-[][Martial]Expand Military Shipbuilding: 2 years: 47,000 credits. Chance of Success: 80%. +11 =91%
-[][Diplomacy]Alliance Allies: 1 year. Cost: 40,000 credits. Chance of Success: N/A. +11
-[][Diplomacy]Legislature Maneuvers: 1 year. Cost: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 65%. +11 =76%
-[][Stewardship]Space Cops: 1 year. Cost: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. +12 = 82%
-[][Stewardship]Power Is Power: 3 years. Cost: 75,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. +12 = 82%
-[][Intrigue]Go Hunting: 1 year. Cost: 15,000 credits. Chance of Success: 45%.
--[][DOUBLE DOWN] Doubles costs, doubles Minister bonus: 30,000 credits. Chance of Success: 45 + 46 +8 =99%
-[][Intrigue] Following Up: 2 years. Cost: 22,500 credits. Chance of Success: 60%. +12 =72%
-[][Learning]The Home of the Yulair: Time: 1 year. Cost: 38,000 credits. Chance of Success: 65%. +10 =75%
-[][Learning]Military Schools: 4 years. Cost: -40,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 80%. +10 = 92%
-[][Personal]Take a Break: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: Free
-[][Personal]Personal Attention: Go Hunting. +8 to Go Hunting.
-[][Personal]Speak To the People: 1 year. Cost: 1,000 credits. Chance of Success: 50%.

OK, so the key differences between this plan and mine:

1) Alliance Allies instead of Good Fences. This is mostly a matter of opinion and I won't debate it.

2) Following Up instead of plugging the embassy leaks. I think this is a bad idea because letting all the intelligence agencies in the galaxy (including STG) penetrate our security for a year (or two years!) is almost certainly worse than failing to make our own efforts to penetrate Omega's security.

3) Putting Mira on Go Hunting. Firstly, this doesn't have very large benefits. Secondly, Mira's actively less effective in this role than Kurik. You say "this way Kurik might fire to benefit something else" but that rarely happens and even if it DID happen there wouldn't be much more benefit than just putting Kurik on the Go Hunting action directly.

4) Military Schools instead of Curriculum Review. This is a matter of personal preference, though note that I'm pretty sure we still get the free Expedite on the action. I'm not going to argue the point.

5) Spending an action on a public address (which is kind of a crapshoot what with the 50/50 chance of success), and NOT taking action to interview the imprisoned ardat-yakshi we already have in custody (which, if successful which is admittedly not a certainty, would probably make it a lot easier to catch the rest of the ardat-yakshi).

uju32 · May 4, 2020

Mr Tebbs said:
I took that directly from my little brother's bootcamp experience. His first day there a trainee died from either dehydration or heat exhaustion. He's not sure what happened to the DIs or if there was a loop hole that they were able to skate thru based on the fact that, technically, they hadn't reported for duty yet

Edit, please keep in mind this is the POV of a recruit, not 3rd omnicient who knows the consequences of a death of a recruit on their first day of basic

-Dropping off a trainee under your command and they die is the sort of thing that ends careers and gets you prison time.
In the case of the Jason Rother incident mentioned above, the Lt was sentenced to prison and was dishonorably discharged, the two sergeants were demoted to lance corporal and their careers ended, and both the battalion commander and his executive officer were relieved of command.

-I am keeping that in mind.
Grunts know way more than many people give them credit for. If court martials are being thrown around and NCOs are being relieved, recruits would know. Keep in mind, I have no military experience, but I did do national service in a civilian capacity.

I know how the scuttlebutt works in a camp with several thousand young people.

Simon_Jester said:
Yes, but putting Mira on the ardat-yakshi hunt is a bad choice because her Intrigue is her weakest stat.

It is sufficient here, for this particular option.
Chance of Success 45% + Double Down Shurna 46% + Mira Intrigue 8 = 99%.

Simon_Jester said:
I mean, I'm pretty sure the average citizen is all like "Mira just took down an improbably strong asari commando killer like a badass because she is ALSO an improbably strong asari commando killer OO-RAH!" not worried.

And the Senator selection is no more momentous than many other decisions Mira's made without a big public address, plus members of our own legislature will have no trouble taking the credit.

-Not all citizens are quite that blase. Note the reaction of elements of our own inner circle. Given as part of our maneuvering during our Citadel trip has been to pull draw on outside financial and intellectual capital from places like the Volus nation, an impression of stability is imperative. Which is not helped by scenes of the PM shooting it out with an assassin on the streets of Virmire's capital.

I don't regret it, and I am sure that a plurality of citizens will applaud it.
But many people will be equally unsettled, and it behooves us to smooth ruffled feathers ahead of time in order to pre-empt problems at inconvenient times.

-The Senate selection is pretty important.
That's why it's being explicitly mentioned as a reason to address the realignments of power in the legislature before they come up. We aren't worried for nothing's sake; our strongest supporters are Militarists, after all.

We do not want to be stuck with some faction of arseholes running their mouth and dragging us into shit; we don't need a Steve King or Bolsonaro analogue representing us to the galaxy. Or short-sightedly aligning with certain factions for personal or factional gain, like how the NY State Senate's Independent Democratic Conference ran as Democrats, then caucused with the Republicans for 7 years, screwing the Democratic Party.

Which is why both direct and indirect pressure with regards to Senator suitability has to be addressed.
We're sending Prosperity into the same senate as the Jondam Corporate Nation, after all.

Simon_Jester said:
2) Following Up instead of plugging the embassy leaks. I think this is a bad idea because letting all the intelligence agencies in the galaxy (including STG) penetrate our security for a year (or two years!) is almost certainly worse than failing to make our own efforts to penetrate Omega's security.

I do not agree.

The embassies are not currently critical outposts; we literally just set them up and they're still finding their feet. Important business isn't moving through them yet. We haven't sent the Senators to Omega, even. Any intelligence leaks would not be potential existential threats.
It can wait a year for fumigation.

OTOH, the Omega lead is strictly time limited. It takes two years.
We start it today and we finish next turn, at the same time we are Purging the Embassies.

Simon_Jester said:
3) Putting Mira on Go Hunting. Firstly, this doesn't have very large benefits. Secondly, Mira's actively less effective in this role than Kurik. You say "this way Kurik might fire to benefit something else" but that rarely happens and even if it DID happen there wouldn't be much more benefit than just putting Kurik on the Go Hunting action directly.

Already addressed above.
It's a ~9% increase in the chance of success, raising the chances of success from 91% to 99%, and requiring a natural 1 to fail.
AND it leaves Kurik free to possibly trigger for any one of three different options.

PoptartProdigy · May 4, 2020

Courtesy of @Versharl, once again!

Miner249er · May 4, 2020

ah the Brishak Expanse is cut off

tryrar · May 4, 2020

Miner249er said:
ah the Brishak Expanse is cut off

Which is both a good and bad thing. Good in that we just collapsed a hell of a lot of fronts by taking Caleston, and cutting off their supply to boot, bad in that Brishnak is gonna get desperate real quick, and we just took a hell of a licking taking Caleston. This means If we're not careful we can get a sudden rachni fleet or two to the face, which might be enough for them to at least temporarily contest our gains. Even that would be bad as that is yet MORE ships we have to repair/preplace

uju32 · May 4, 2020

tryrar said:
Which is both a good and bad thing. Good in that we just collapsed a hell of a lot of fronts by taking Caleston, and cutting off their supply to boot, bad in that Brishnak is gonna get desperate real quick, and we just took a hell of a licking taking Caleston. This means If we're not careful we can get a sudden rachni fleet or two to the face, which might be enough for them to at least temporarily contest our gains. Even that would be bad as that is yet MORE ships we have to repair/preplace

Caleston is held by the collective Terminus Fleets. With fortifications.

I doubt there is very much that a cutoff cluster and it's remaining ships can do.Depends on if there's a backdoor to the Rachni home cluster there.
If there isn't, we'll probably crush them at leisure as whatever ships they have either deteriorate from lack of shipyard maintenance or YOLO into emplaced fortifications; given as Caleston was next door, there probably was no shipyard there.

If there is a secondary cluster linking it to the rest of Rachni space? Then things get tricky.
Some brave soul should go look.

EDIT
Speaking of which, we should probably be thinking of trading/gifting the Yulair power tech to the rest of the Terminus. And to the Citadel.
No cost for military use, payment for civilian use.
Because the better armed everyone is, the more hurt we can put on the Rachni faster.

Simon_Jester · May 4, 2020

I need to go back and reread the part where the Caleston Rift base fell.

uju32 said:
It is sufficient here, for this particular option.
Chance of Success 45% + Double Down Shurna 46% + Mira Intrigue 8 = 99%.

Yes- but Kurik would do better, and it's rare for him to show up when unassigned. We might as well assign him to the highest priority of the available actions, and spend the "address the people" action on interacting with the ardat-yakshi already in our jail cells. The combined benefit would be far more likely to give us a greater crit... AND it would keep the prime minister out of personal interaction with the ardat-yakshi, reducing the risk of us getting caught in a fight with yet another one.

I don't regret it, and I am sure that a plurality of citizens will applaud it.
But many people will be equally unsettled, and it behooves us to smooth ruffled feathers ahead of time in order to pre-empt problems at inconvenient times.

A public address is a total crapshoot as a way of doing that, though. 50% chance of success. We'd do better to reassure the public by just having Mira be shown to do normal Mira things like run the government, with less commando-ness.

-The Senate selection is pretty important.
That's why it's being explicitly mentioned as a reason to address the realignments of power in the legislature before they come up. We aren't worried for nothing's sake; our strongest supporters are Militarists, after all.

I agree that the Senate selection is important, but with that being the case, why not put Mira on it? I'd rather have her give a +16% or so chance of success to that, than a +8% to running down the ardat-yakshi.

Moreover, you're conflating two things. One is how important the choice of Senators is for our long term policy and public image. The other is the need to specifically give a public speech related to that or because of that topic. I agree about the former- that's why the action is in my plan too. I disagree about the latter, which is why I don't have us giving a crapshoot speech with a 50% chance of failing to accomplish anything or worse yet backfiring.

I do not agree.

The embassies are not currently critical outposts; we literally just set them up and they're still finding their feet. Important business isn't moving through them yet. We haven't sent the Senators to Omega, even. Any intelligence leaks would not be potential existential threats.
It can wait a year for fumigation.

Not existential threats, no, but neither are the consequences of a lot of other action failures.

Furthermore, I think you're underestimating the scope of the problem.

Enemy infiltrators in our embassies, free to act unopposed, create all sorts of problems. Construction workers accessing the embassy can plant bugs. Lots of bugs. Bugs it'll take years to dig out. Enemy hackers with physical access to embassy systems can plant malware and spyware in our systems. Or use access to forge identities and papers for OTHER spies infiltrating our own territory, who in turn go to ground and build networks and access.

The longer foreign intelligence agencies have to play around unopposed with our "just set up" inexperienced and unsecured embassies, the more problems like this we'll have... and these are exponentiating problems, problems that actively create more problems or have the potential to do so.

The Omega lead is time limited but that doesn't mean it evaporates if we take one more year. And leaving our embassies unsecured for another year may very well cost us more than losing that lead would.

Already addressed above.
It's a ~9% increase in the chance of success, raising the chances of success from 91% to 99%, and requiring a natural 1 to fail.
AND it leaves Kurik free to possibly trigger for any one of three different options.

I don't think the odds of Kurik triggering thusly are high enough to justify NOT putting him on the action where his contribution is most likely to swing the odds in our favor, if we're bothering with that kind of mindset and pushing to optimize the odds for the ardat-yakshi hunt.

MTB · May 5, 2020

uju32 said:
Welp. There goes one of our Personal Actions permanently until she's 18

Asari - 18? Or 118?

Thors_Alumni · May 5, 2020

Would the Terminus Alliance complain if we started sending fleets into the Brishak Expanse to clear it of Rachni ships and orbital fortifications and yards?

Hawkmoon · May 5, 2020

Thors_Alumni said:
Would the Terminus Alliance complain if we started sending fleets into the Brishak Expanse to clear it of Rachni ships and orbital fortifications and yards?

What fleets? I thought we are still repairing/rebuilding our own and are building Occupation Patrols so we can free up our Raiding Fleets. If you remember our admiral was firmly against taking Maroon Sea. Sending fleets into Brishak would lead to mutiny due to our commanders deciding we are mentally compromised. Not to mention that is an Alliance job right now and us sending ships there would not gain us any advantage right now. In contrast holding the front of Attican Beta-Maroon Sea is a lot more important.
If you remember after joining the Alliance all members have to agree to give a cluster to a polity. If anyone disagrees it will be an Alliance managed cluster.

agumentic · May 5, 2020

Hawkmoon said:
If you remember after joining the Alliance all members have to agree to give a cluster to a polity. If anyone disagrees it will be an Alliance managed cluster.

Technically, if you conquer the cluster on your own, without the help from federal fleets, you get to keep it without negotiation. We are in no state to be conquering anything, though.

Thors_Alumni · May 5, 2020

Hawkmoon said:
What fleets? I thought we are still repairing/rebuilding our own and are building Occupation Patrols so we can free up our Raiding Fleets. If you remember our admiral was firmly against taking Maroon Sea. Sending fleets into Brishak would lead to mutiny due to our commanders deciding we are mentally compromised. Not to mention that is an Alliance job right now and us sending ships there would not gain us any advantage right now. In contrast holding the front of Attican Beta-Maroon Sea is a lot more important.
If you remember after joining the Alliance all members have to agree to give a cluster to a polity. If anyone disagrees it will be an Alliance managed cluster.

agumentic said:
Technically, if you conquer the cluster on your own, without the help from federal fleets, you get to keep it without negotiation. We are in no state to be conquering anything, though.

Actually I don't want the Brishak expanse. I was more thinking that sending in some fleets to clear it out of Rachni forces would close that front and let the Alliance move the ships posted to that front elsewhere. So even if we took it I would rather the Alliance keep it and not us. Quite frankly I think we have too much clay since we now have 5 Clusters in total. One cluster of which i did not want.

Simon_Jester · May 5, 2020

MTB said:
Asari - 18? Or 118?

I think that we'll be able to make exceptions in super-crisis years. But this isn't one of them, and this is Ilena and Loreia's first year. So, way more important.

agumentic said:
Technically, if you conquer the cluster on your own, without the help from federal fleets, you get to keep it without negotiation.

I'd like a citation on that, because it may become relevant, but...

We are in no state to be conquering anything, though.

This is true. More generally, if any member polity could solo-capture a cluster from the Rachni, it'd be us. After all, we have done literally that exact thing twice in the past, though we have yet to clear the planets themselves. With the Brishak Expanse cut off entirely, in the long run it would probably be within our power... if only we had the fleet assets handy.

Thors_Alumni said:
Actually I don't want the Brishak expanse. I was more thinking that sending in some fleets to clear it out of Rachni forces would close that front and let the Alliance move the ships posted to that front elsewhere. So even if we took it I would rather the Alliance keep it and not us. Quite frankly I think we have too much clay since we now have 5 Clusters in total. One cluster of which i did not want.

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but...

We have eleven clusters. @PoptartProdigy and @Versharl haven't put a representation of them on the map, but there are twelve clusters along Kurik's Traverse, the route that Kurik charted using secondary relays to hop between our home in Sentry Omega and the Alliance-held Phoenix Massing cluster. The Alliance and us negotiated a six-and-six split of the new clusters.

The good news is, the Kurik's Traverse clusters appear to be entirely empty of rachni or other major threats, so the forces required to secure them are limited.

On the other hand, this reality makes me totally uninterested in claiming more clay, simply because fully exploiting the resources of eleven freaking star clusters is probably going to take millennia anyway, and will be more than enough resources to turn us into a superpower, and we are very overextended for garrisoning capability right now.

Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest

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Lawful Evil

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