maybe if we'd doubled down to get it above 100 over the DC, not just over 100. but between our greater crit and bringing in outside help methinks we've got a comprehensive, multifaceted plan to halt our current spiral with another plan to help us expand the econ while also expanding the mil.... oh god we're turning into space!USA
Going to note that our Hero Kurik's specialty (scouting, skirmishing, survey missions and covert ops) apply to Logistics II, Intelligence Quarantine and Big Sister. So if he makes his rolls on all of those, he will raise the results of Logistics II from Success to Greater Critical Success(84 to 103), and Intelligence Quarantine from Success to Greater Success (75 to 90) .
true, but we've only gotten one ultra critical success (only, HA). it was more of a what if, and honestly I didn't do the math for it so i could be wrong.
[X]Plan Shady Aftermath
-[X]Martial 1: Logistics II: 57,000*2: 3 years: DC21 - Minister 11 = DC10 [EXPEDITE]
-[X]Diplomacy 1: Consolidating Gains: 1 year: -20,000 Income: DC36 - Minister 11 = DC25
-[X]Diplomacy 2: Knowledge Exchange : 1 year: 35,000: DC66 - Minister 11 = DC55
-[X]Stewardship 1: Impending Crisis: 36,000: 2 years: DC46 - Minister 12 - Personal Attention 18 = DC16
-[X]Intrigue 1: Big Sister Is Watching You: 100,000: 1 year: DC6 - Minister 12= DC -6
-[X]Intrigue 2: Intelligence Quarantine: 42,000: 2 years: DC26 - Minister 12= DC14
-[X]Learning 1: Reporting Standards: 28,000: 1 year: DC36 - Minister 11= DC25
-[X]Personal 1: Personal Attention: Impending Crisis
-[X]Personal 2: Recruit Opposition: -20,000 Income : DC21
-[X]Personal 3: Take A Break
Year 18 Results: 497 GS
Martial: Integrating Reforms
Frustratingly, teachers are conservative about their curriculums.
On a more positive note, a visit to your shipyards showed you that they're starting to adjust to their new workload. Shouldn't be long before things stabilize.
Often, the matter of attending to improvements is just to study what other people have done. After all, why not lessen your workload? What a lot of people forget is that Virmire is responsible of 100% of your naval education; your people's shortfalls are your shortfalls.
Your people, who until recently had never fielded naval forces anywhere other than a relay thirty minutes' drive from the nearest starbase.
Thus it is, thumbing through an ancient book on salarian wet-water navies, that you come across the concept of a, "oiler," for the first time.
Seven minutes later, you re-encounter the concept in a more modern form, in a salarian treatise dated fifty years ago.
Thirty-seven hundredths of a second later, your fist happens across the wall of your office, violently, and your voice, full of curse words, happens across the ears of your bodyguards outside.
It's the start of a wonderful day.
That greater success last year went towards the thorough correction of some of Virmire's most embarrassing shortfalls in naval doctrine. Mira punched a wall. One year remaining. -104,000 credits.
You stare at the line in your Special Representatives report. The thing is far longer than just that, of course, but that alone is enough to give you the gist.
They're skeptical. You suppose that you can't blame them.
Your man on the spot is doing his best to wage the hearts and minds campaign that any long-term cooperation with the conquered people will require, but that doesn't get around the simple fact of the distrust that remains after the war. Apparently, the man did his best to start with a blitz addressing that -- that the war was not Virmire's responsibility, that the old Dalatrass acted unwisely, that her successor shall be better, that Virmire is here to be an ally -- but.
They're skeptical.
Work is beginning, and your man on the spot has resources. But his initial blitz only made the populace willing to wait and see. They've given you the benefit of the doubt, but scars from a war are slow to heal. That said, going forward, you have the in, and can work to affect the Lystheni populace's worldview. -20,000 yearly income.
* * *
Diplomacy: Knowledge Exchange
Rolled: 18+11(Minister)=29. Needed: 66. Failure.
Prime Minister T'Vael,
While I acknowledge the extraordinary nature of the situation in which we find ourselves, it would be against my oaths as a member of the Republican Admiralty to divulge classified information to a foreign power. Again, I do acknowledge the realities of our situation -- to a significant extent, you engineers cannot work to maintain our vessels without some information, and that I have provided.
However, the data you have requested is far in excess of what your shipyards require to keep the 3rd Rannoch War Fleet in combat-ready condition. While I understand Virmire's interest in this kind of information, it is not information which I am at liberty to divulge.
I appreciate your openness on this matter, but must request that you cease this line of questioning.
Sincerely,
Fleet Admiral Kassa'Malan
He said no. You probably should not ask again. -35,000 credits.
* * *
Stewardship: Colony Equipment
Well, it's done. The equipment is all ready to go, the colonists are all ready to go...
It's time.
You are prepared, and presently paying upkeep on a bunch of unproductive equipment. For more than one reason, Lissa is snapping at the leash to get this stuff offworld. -30,000 yearly income.
Economics has never given you the same sense of cold dread that staring down a Rachni fleet has.
Until now.
Because your economy is about to collapse.
Starved for fuel, the fires of industry are flickering. The flow of resources is asphyxiating. The thriving heartbeat of your nation is fluttering on empty veins and arteries.
The finding of Virmire's Executive Commission On the Economy is that, due to the swelling numbers of unemployed citizens, there is a growing crisis of confidence in Virmire's economy, and even employed citizens increasingly are unable to purchase for themselves even basic products. Virmire has cut the civilian market to the bone for this war.
It is failing.
Option concludes in one year thanks to greater critical success. There will be an economic crash next year. Forewarned, the government will be able to ride through the initial blow without losses for some time thanks to preemptive measures by the Ministry of Finance. You have not informed the people; to do so would cause the crash early, as a panic starts.
Instead, you are ready to react, and should be able to be the first responder to many of the obvious crisis zones. This allows you to present an organized and effective response to what's about to happen. In the future, economic historians will doubtlessly argue that this crisis started many years ago and went unnoticed until it was all but too late, but for this, the crash that makes it public, you will be ready to react. -36,000 credits.
* * *
FDO Report
In all the chaos following the findings of the Commission, you barely have time to glance at the FDO's usual report, but it has good news.
Virani spent every credit in her coffers this year, and with it settled SO 29 as Sorek, a productive mining colony. Furthermore, she established a research base around the precursor extraction facility in SO 26, letting Durrahe know in good enough time to find a team for the site. Finally, she started setting up the infrastructure in Nimal Pak, formerly SO 28, beginning the work of turning the place into a true hub for mining and extraction work.
And that alone has put yet more people into work, with orbital facilities churning out refined ore for shipment back to Virmire and demanding able-bodied workers.
Goddess. You're going to be hearing that concern bouncing around your head for the next several years, aren't you?
+40,000 yearly income.
* * *
Intrigue: Big Sister Is Watching You
Rolled: 11+12(Minister)=23. Needed: 6. Success.
In the wake of the Commission's report on the impending crash, you are kicking yourself that this -- this! -- was your priority. So many credits down the drain, that could be going to other things...
The Lystheni didn't even have the good grace to make it worth it. They've done nothing that justifies this expense. You're going to be grinding your teeth every time you have to see a report from these listening posts.
Still, you didn't know how close the crash was when you ordered it. You suppose that that's all you can do to console yourself.
Network established. -100,000 credits.
* * *
Intrigue: Intelligence Quarantine
Rolled: 63+12(Minister)=75. Needed: 26. Success.
This, on the other hand, you're still glad to have done, even with the fact that it hasn't yet caught anything. Shereel and the Lystheni are docile for now, but their military was never the sphere in which they were most dangerous. Intelligence was, and you'd be a fool to forget that they pulled off some impressive things before you called them out. If things sour again in the future, you'd like to be locked down to them.
Shurna tried explaining what she was doing, but it got a bit technical for you. Suffice to say, it seems to be going well.
Work in progress; one year remaining. -42,000 credits.
* * *
Explorer Corps Survey Report
This noting the entry into the records of seven (7) systems surveyed in full and to military and scientific satisfaction.
With the sudden acquisition of the former border zone surrounding Lystheni space, Virmire possesses a great number of systems for which we lack charts. Ordinarily, the response would be to ask the Lystheni, but the former Dalatrass's government apparently managed to destroy all of their star charts in the course of various attempts to spite the victorious Virmirean forces. Dalatrass Shereel's government is apparently reeling, with how much data has been lost. Therefore, the EC devoted expanded resources to mapping this new territory. We have encountered no immediate threats to the security of Virmirean space.
In summary:
SO 17 has nothing of note. Expected in most of the galaxy, in Sentry Omega it is a somewhat disturbing find. Despite repeated sweeps, the system admits of no particular exploitable resources.
Saemor and Samvhait both possess mining prospects.
Sunatal was the site of the only Lystheni offensive during the Two-Day War. Lystheni forces entered the system, having crossed elements of the 3rd RWF en route, only to run into the picket force left behind. They were destroyed in detail. The battle took place in the same orbit as the system's asteroid belt, which is rich with mining potential; the combined salvage and mining opportunities are extremely promising.
Carrovai possesses a large gas giant with cloud rich with valuable substances. It could easily be mined.
Mereet contains nothing of value, and contained only void-borne anti-ship explosives left by the Lystheni several decades ago, which were cleared. Its only use might be as a way station en route to Sikel.
Sikel was confirmed cleared of anything but what we learned as of the last scan.
Mapped one salvage field/high-quality mining system, 3 mining systems, 2 empty systems, and confirmed Sikel's contents.
* * *
Learning: Quarian Tech Adoption
This year, the teams working through the data apparently moved onto sorting out what things you can practically implement.
1 year left until you have to come up with an excuse for knowing this stuff in order to do anything with it.
* * *
Learning: Reporting Standards
Rolled: 60+11(Minister)=71. Needed: 36. Success.
And there was a great wailing; a cry of anguish that spread from the lowest halls of learning to the highest. All who heard the Prime Minister's degree wept and tore at their clothes, and some say the skies themselves darkened in grief at the terror she imposed. Old scholars, tired and wrinkled in their years, found new vigor in swearing themselves to vengeance against this reckless tyranny, and the young found themselves inspired by the efforts of their elders. Thus did a great host assemble, and ready itself to march upon the very seat of this latest corruption, until Jorek just had to mutter a little too loud about how the new standards wouldn't really impact Shura's research, the reductionist idiot, so why was she even here, to which Shura naturally replied that the center of Precursor civilization was obviously within SO 24, Jorek, you don't have to start fights just because the board said your theory lacked founding, and- hey, I'm talking here-!
Whereupon the great assemblage fell upon itself in a great upheaval between those who mere moments before had been united, its common struggle forgotten.
And thus did the new measures pass without challenge.
Nobody bitches like academics, but happily they tend to find it impossible to organize among themselves. Standards in place. -28,000 credits.
* * *
Personal: Recruit Opposition
Rolled: 49. Needed: 21. Success.
"Prime Minister."
You look at Sugoma Damnir, and he looks back. After a moment, you nod to him. "Delegate Sugoma. Please, have a seat."
He nods stiffly and slides into the chair. The awkward silence resumes.
At long last, he sighs. "I assume you decided to listen to what I had to say?"
You lean back. "I wasn't ignoring your concerns. I simply had others. Nonetheless: yes, we've seen the signs. We predict a crash next year."
His jaw works. He swallows his first response to that. "...and my presence here?"
"Help," you say. "You saw this coming. Earlier than I did, I'll admit. I should have offered you a place in my administration. But I didn't. Now I need to react. You saw this coming, Sugoma. I want you to help us to find a way clear of it."
He lets out another sigh. "...in what capacity?"
You slide him a datapad. "I have my commission still going. Now I want something on the Legislative side. The purpose of the Assembly is to carry the voice of the people to my ears in a comprehensible format." You gesture to the pad. "Find that voice. Hear what it has to say. Put it all together. Give me diagnoses of what I have to fix. Carry the voice to my ears, so that I can react."
He stares at you for a long moment, expression unreadable.
Then he picks up the datapad.
Sugoma Damnir recruited as head of the Assembly's Commission On the Economy, reporting directly to you. He will work to identify and diagnose specific problem areas in your economy, allowing you to better target fixes when the crash hits. -20,000 yearly income in Commission budget.
Personal: Take A Break
Rolled: 14. Needed: 51. Failure.
Elcor food is nice. Ilena was glad to spend some time with you.
Unfortunately, you weren't able to spend much time away from work. Ilena understands, though.
No special gains.
Credit Reserves: 299,000 credits.
Yearly Income: 319,000 credits.
I don't remember who -- and would really prefer that people not make the effort to call them out, if any of you do -- but I recall somebody mentioning, during the voting prior to this update, with a lot of confidence, that the economy wasn't going to crash anytime soon.
Oh, no. It is.
You won't be losing income from this...at first. Lissa is battening down the hatches to keep the government stable through the first wave. You have forewarning on this.
But unless this resolves with impressive speed, you will feel the pinch, same as everybody else.
No interludes are due this year, so I'll be moving onto the Year 19 post as soon as I get out my update for my other quest. Hope you enjoyed, folks! Have fun chatting!
I have finally updated both the Status Screen and the Cluster Star Map. Was pretty late, but at least it happened.
And there was a great wailing; a cry of anguish that spread from the lowest halls of learning to the highest. All who heard the Prime Minister's degree wept and tore at their clothes, and some say the skies themselves darkened in grief at the terror she imposed. Old scholars, tired and wrinkled in their years, found new vigor in swearing themselves to vengeance against this reckless tyranny, and the young found themselves inspired by the efforts of their elders. Thus did a great host assemble, and ready itself to march upon the very seat of this latest corruption, until Jorek just had to mutter a little too loud about how the new standards wouldn't really impact Shura's research, the reductionist idiot, so why was she even here, to which Shura naturally replied that the center of Precursor civilization was obviously within SO 24, Jorek, you don't have to start fights just because the board said your theory lacked founding, and- hey, I'm talking here-!
Whereupon the great assemblage fell upon itself in a great upheaval between those who mere moments before had been united, its common struggle forgotten.
And thus did the new measures pass without challenge.
Good thing Malan said no, otherwise he's going to be on the business end of a firing squad once he goes back. Relationship is colder now unfortunately.
I increasing think we need to find that back way out of the blockade. Seriously we need to get in touch with the rest of the galaxy for trade. It is the quickest way to get over the economic disaster we are about to enter.
I increasing think we need to find that back way out of the blockade. Seriously we need to get in touch with the rest of the galaxy for trade. It is the quickest way to get over the economic disaster we are about to enter.
Our issue is unemployment and demand collapse due to an overtaxed civilian market. Too many resources are being directed to the war, leaving the civilian markets unable to meet demand despite the large amount of laborers available. As prices rise, demand collapses further and fewer and fewer people are able to afford basic necessities.
As such, we can not hope for export to resolve our issues, we simply don't have the resources to export.
Import is also not a solution. Because the voyage to us is pretty dangerous, any imports will be small high value units; rather than bulk resources. What little remains of our civilian economy will be outcompeted.
That's an option. The issue with that explanation would be: the Lystheni still managed to penetrate your security that thoroughly, and instead of turning over the data immediately, you instead opted to use it.
2. I wrote many papers on many stories. My college's main-track English focus was on the field of literary criticism, so to a significant extent we were engaging with the main field of English academia. Protip: if you want to fit in with the academics, Marxism is sexy at the moment.
I increasing think we need to find that back way out of the blockade. Seriously we need to get in touch with the rest of the galaxy for trade. It is the quickest way to get over the economic disaster we are about to enter.
That seems like the "fastest" way. We should revisit our options on those Relays, though maybe as little stop-gags we can implement our colonisation efforts. After all colonies need qualitative people to be self-sufficient AND useful.
Little mistake with Lystheni surveillance.
• Disagree with blaming them for Quarian tech. Let's be practical, once we get what we can and cannot use THEN we find logical ways how we could "evolve" our tech in a way it does NOT look like stealing.
That's an option. The issue with that explanation would be: the Lystheni still managed to penetrate your security that thoroughly, and instead of turning over the data immediately, you instead opted to use it.
We can always claim that we just found it very recently and we brought it to them as soon as we learned that we had it. Of course we are going to need some proof to back up our claims. Luckily for us the Dalatrass erased a lot of her records but fortunately for us the Quarian info survived but unfortunately the information on how she got it was erased. Of course we will then promise that we are going to do a full thorough review of our security department to find the leak and prosecute them if we find them.
It was not the format I specified, so I missed it, but no, not invalid. I'll go back and edit to reflect that it has only one year remaining, and to update how much money you have in the bank.
2. I wrote many papers on many stories. My colleges main-track English focus was on the field of literary criticism, so to a significant extent we were engaging with the main field of English academia. Protip: if you want to fit in with the academics, Marxism is sexy at the moment.
That's good we didn't choose to declare independence this year.
At least historians will not write "Virmire officially declared its independence... and its economy immediately crashed".
