Build A Better Salvager: an XCOM:LW Development Quest
- Thread starter 7734
- Start date
-
- Tags
- xcom xcom long war open voting
- Location
- CT
[X] Plan Surety
Why is developing a grenade launcher an engineering option, not just something for procurement? The Milkor MGL has been around since the 80's, and the USMC uses it a lot, and has since the early 2000's, I believe. XCOM should be able to buy it outright, and quickly issue it to combat engineers.
I get that a lot of stuff is complicated because we're in the business of autonomous vehicle development, so we can't just bolt a TOW launcher to a SHIV and expect it to work, but grenade launchers are common as dirt, and are standard infantry equipment.
Why is developing a grenade launcher an engineering option, not just something for procurement? The Milkor MGL has been around since the 80's, and the USMC uses it a lot, and has since the early 2000's, I believe. XCOM should be able to buy it outright, and quickly issue it to combat engineers.
I get that a lot of stuff is complicated because we're in the business of autonomous vehicle development, so we can't just bolt a TOW launcher to a SHIV and expect it to work, but grenade launchers are common as dirt, and are standard infantry equipment.
Last edited:
August 2014
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
This month, you were finally secure enough in your current work flow to finally start branching out and getting to the meat and potatoes of development work. With your hordes of engineers working all the other projects, you got down to brass tacks and started work on Project Surety.
Project Surety was, well, a containment effort. Your plan was to basically take the Pattern 00 SHIV, and beat it with the quality stick until something good fell out. This meant fixing the armor problems, fixing the feed issues, finally going through and ripping into the software development side, fixing the rampant C3 issues, and just general bugfixes for days.
It wasn't ambitious. It really wasn't. This was just cleaning up and getting a final product to the doors so that you didn't have to worry about your things shitting the bed on you for no damn reason. Hopefully, that made things go easier- because your SHIV production was going to have to go up now that Strike 3 had adopted using SHIVs.
PROJECT
--[X] Project Surety.
--[X] Project Surety's goal is to update the SHIV from the prototype Version 00 to the LRIP Version 01 Project goals include:
--- Correct the software issues with the target acquisition and fire control suites WRT bipedal X-rays. If time allows, improve C3 interface.
--- Solve the ammunition feed issues.
--- Enhance protection via applique armor and liquid ablative packs.
--- Work to better integrate existing and in-development modules with the base chassis
--- General bugfixes and QoL improvements
Roll: 4. TN: 4. Check passess.
Breaking the problem down, you had four things to fix.
Problem one: software. Nobody, and you mean nobody, liked software work. You'd need to buckle down and actually dedicate your personal time to making sure it got done. It sucked, but that was what you were a department head for: the ability to get people to do that.
(Correcting Software is now added as a vote option at TN: 5)
Problem two: Ammo feed issues. Fortunately, now that you actually had, y'know, working data, those were an easy fix: it only required completely re-designing the top side of the SHIV system. Luckily for you, since you were already doing module development and an armor rework, those were getting redesigned anyway, so beating out the feed issue would be something you could hit up along the way without any major issues.
(Ammo Feed Issue will be solved when Project completes.)
Problem three: Enhanced protection. This one was actually going to be a bit of a bear, because you had to redesign a lot of the SHIV's outer systems. Since currently your best protective mechanisms were thin, fast-degrading armor systems to catch plasma and keep it off the important bits, that meant moving away from the extant monobloc homogenous armor scheme in a fast, definitive way. On the upside, however, spaced armor was notably lighter; on the downside ablative water cells were more awkward. This would be a challenge to engineer, but one that would be worth the work.
(Improved Armor is now added as a vote option at TN: 10)
Point four, general QoL stuff, would be addressed as you found it.
Thus, you had set the terms of Project Surety.
DEVELOPMENT
-[X] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 9)
Roll: 4. New TN: 5
The autocannon was an interesting system to work on. While you'd previously done a lot of work in just 'general autocannon things', it was time to specialize into something. After some fairly significant work, you managed to get a good autocannon for the SHIVs though: a contract for a limited run of HS.820 guns that were originally Bundwehrser pieces that had been rebuilt. Aside from a mandatory "bought new, fired once," joke, they'd be perfect for the weapons systems you were developing except for one very specific problem: barrel length.
See, the issue was simple: the thing had a 172cm barrel. Your SHIVs had a roughly 135x135cm footprint. That meant a good 40mm of overhang, which meant that you'd need to adjust storage on the Skyranger so nobody ended up with the muzzle of a SHIV's autocannon in their lap. It took about four days of wasted time before you finally admitted defeat, and designed the gun module to detach out of the cradle so it could be laid centerline in the SHIV. In field use, though, the gun and mantlet would be suprisingly far aft on the SHIV, and crews would absolutely have to manually change the ammo boxes on it: the best you could rig the autoloader to do was eject spent ammo cases and pop the top on new ones. Getting a continual 20x139mm shell feed through the entire magazine? Literally impossible.
Well, the crews would determine if they liked it or not.
-[X] Develop New Module: As much as you wish the SHIV was capable of taking all its cues from software-side systems, a number of physical modifications need to be integrated into the chassis to get expanded capabilities. Time to develop some. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Ancillary Machine Gun: While the SHIV wasn't originally designed to use multiple separate weapons systems, a lot of options you're coming up with are either limited-ammunition or limited-range systems. Figuring out how to mount up an ancillary coaxial gun fixes that problem so it's not useless outside of melee range or some pathetically small number of shots.
---[X] High-Caliber Coax: A standard 12.7mm coaxial machine gun might be a bit on the large side, but the added cover-punching is going to be useful- and those aliens are very good at hiding behind cover. (TN: 3)0
Roll: 6. Project Complete.
Smirking at your work, you grinned. The new coaxial 12.7mm machine gun mounts were finally fully integrated into your standard weapons cradles, and as a bonus you'd also managed to get complete integration into the 20mm gun cradles too. Your SHIVs now had both a reliable way to punch out lighter Aliens, and for the minigun-armed SHIVs ignore light cover to drill a Thin Man through a brick wall.
Of course, it wasn't just 'snap your fingers' easy. One of the things you had to work on here too was actually a surprisingly large amount of weapons cradle redesign: now that you had the 12.7mm coaxial guns, you were slapping those on everything and making sure they were correctly integrated was critical. Data busses and power? Easy part. Keeping ballance correct so that the mount didn't have torque issues, now that was when things got interesting.
Still, interesting or not, you could scratch this project off your to-do list.
PRODUCTION
-[X] Refurbish a batch of SHIV units
--[X] 4.
Roll: 7. Cash rebate activates: +6 funds.
Bring the Pattern 00 SHIVs in, pull all the armor, replace some bits, put the armor back on, and out the door and away they went. Simple, easy, and clean. Even better though was the chance to start passing yet more updates to their OS systems and read their logs: several bits of important information were in there you could use later.
-[X] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
--[X] 3
Roll: 6.
Three more SHIV Pattern 00 units pulled off the line in record time, before quickly getting put in the pool. That was good: with the addition of Strike 3 using SHIVs, they'd appreciate getting a batch of SHIVs that were fresh off the production lines. That sort of appreciation was more valuable than money, sometimes.
AFTER ACTION REPORTS
STRIKE 1: Not SHIV equipped. 5 fatalities last month, 185% casualty rate. Strike Lead is looking for additional sensors or engineering assets. Central is pleased.
STRIKE 2: Not SHIV equipped. 6 fatalities last month, 200% casualty rate. Strike Lead is looking for heavy automatic weapons and anti-armor assets to counter Muton units. Central is ambivalent.
STRIKE 3: Operates 3x Pattern 00 SHIVs. 2 fatalities last month, 85% casualty rate. Opinions are high: easy access to a large base of fire was found to be very effective in suppressing enemy units and conducting opposed door breeches on UFOs. Strike Lead is interested in additional heavy weapons or technology to increase SHIV use per squad. Central is ecstatic.
STRIKE 4: Operates 3x Pattern 00 SHIVs. 2 fatalities last month, 85% casualty rate. Opinions are stabilizing, and the addition of the coaxial guns makes weapons malfunctions in the field a non-issue. Strike Lead still wants more durable SHIV units though. Central is ecstatic.
STRIKE 5: Operates 3x Pattern 00 SHIVs. 2 fatalities last month, 85% casualty rate. Opinions are still cooled, since current SHIV improvements have not mitigated past issues with the AI. Strike Lead is still requesting better C3 infrastructure for the SHIV units. Central is ecstatic.
CENTRAL NOTES: This was a good month, and demonstrates why we want every unit to be SHIV-equipped. Keep this up, and we'll be in very good hands for the next time the Aliens pull something out of their hats.
Current Resources
-34 Budget
-12x Pattern 00 SHIV
-9x Light Miniguns
-9x Engineers
-0x Alien Alloys
-0x MELD
-0x Elerium
VOTES
Politics (Choose 1)
[] Expand Your Department: You've got people here, hard working people. That said, you need more resources to make everything shine: be that money, MELD, or manpower. (Select a resource, rolling 1d10. On success (TN:6), gain resources. On fail, spend another resource to gain the selected resource. Political Capital is always the first resource spent this way.)
-[] More money
-[] More Alloys
-[] More Manpower
-[] More Elerium
-[] More MELD
[] Support Another Department: Sometimes you need to grease the wheels to get things going. Spending some time trading horses with various people, and see what you can get. (Roll 1d10, TN: 6. On success, gain Political Capitol, which lasts 3 months. On fail, gain nothing.)
[] Interact with Strike Teams: Go down into the Barracks and see what the Soldiers of XCOM think. May involve drinking. So, so so so much drinking. (No roll; takes the temperament of the base and soldiers, grants more information on Central/Strike Leaders)
[] Establish a New Project (Roll 1d10, TN: 4. On success, GM presents an answer to the presented RFI, with attached quote for the project. Vague projects may )
-[] Write-in Project Name
-[] Write-in Project Goal
-[] Select Project Type (SHIV, MEC, Solo Operator, Crew Served)
[] Borrow Production time (Costs Political Capital, vote an additional Production option)
Development (Choose two separate options. The same option cannot be chosen twice.)
[] Work on Project SURETY...
-[] ...to build the Pattern 01 SHIV Chassis (TN:25, all upgrades automatically integrated)
-[] ...to integrate systems that correct the issues of the Pattern 00 SHIV Chassis (TN: 5, taken once per tech with the (PROJECT) tag completed, Finishes when all techs integrated.)
[] Research New Theory: Sometimes you need to know more about things, and you need to do it sooner than Vahlen and her team are willing to look into it. (Costs 20 Budget, grants bonus to XCOM research speed for a turn. If a new tech unlocks, restore 1d20 Budget.)
[] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
-[] Heavy Minigun: It's another minigun, but this one is better equipped to handle armor. (TN 10)
-[] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[] TOW Missile: Really more of an anti-vehicle weapon in traditional use, this weapon will allow equipped strike teams to punch through any Alien infantry armor, or any UFO's deployable cover. (TN 20)
-[] Flamethrower: The classic liquid napalm dispenser system. It's crude, it's ugly, and it'll damn well explode if plasma gets near it, but it will also handle most engineering needs at making the Aliens leave protective cover. (TN 10)
-[] Thermobaric Rocket Launcher: An option brought to you by the Russian engineers, a thermobaric warhead offers an excellent room or trench clearing engineering weapon to the troops. The issue is, however, taking the TOS-1 example warhead and packaging it into your SHIVs. (TN: 20)
[] Develop New Module: As much as you wish the SHIV was capable of taking all its cues from software-side systems, a number of physical modifications need to be integrated into the chassis to get expanded capabilities. Time to develop some. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
-[] SCOPE: A general secondary fire computer, just like the ones the troops use. They might figure it out themselves if you don't work on it, though. (TN: 20)
-[] Marksman Scope: An improved optical system to extend engagement ranges off all SHIV platforms (TN: 15)
-[] Advanced Suppression Module: You can create a reliable, if small, zone of beaten ground with current systems. Time to improve that. (TN: 10)
-[] (PROJECT) Corrected Software Module: A general do-all, see-all patch to revise the many, many computer issues you've been having with the Pattern 00 SHIV systems. (TN: 5)
-[] (PROJECT) Improved Armor: A massive applique armor package, this seeks to add ablative water packs and spaced armor to your SHIVs in order to bring the durability under fire up immensely (TN: 10)
[] Develop Infantry Kit: Sometimes you need to cross the fence and help out the Foundry Team develop answers to questions you never knew the Grunts had. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit. When tech unlocks, refunds any Budget equal to remainder after TN. Grants Political Capital)
-[] Grenade Launchers: Whatever secret sauce the XCOM grenade suppliers were drinking means you don't have a 40mm grenade launcher to enhance your (combat) Engineers with. Fix that. (TN: 10)
-[] Improved Rocket Launchers: See complaints about sidearms, really. This degree of slop is unacceptable: there has to be a way to accurize this somehow. (TN: 15)
-[] Develop Solo Heavy Weapon: XCOM's stash of light machine guns and general-purpose machine guns is impressive, but you can do better. Build a man-portable heavy weapon that'll knock everyone's socks off (TN: 20, Bonus Political Capital)
-[] Develop Crew Served Weapon: XCOM has a proud tradition of mobile warfare stretching back one whole month. Throw that shit out the window, right here right now: you need more firepower, and you know the solution is to slap a big gun on a tripod. (TN: 15, Bonus Political Capital)
-[] NEW Holotargeter: A small handheld 'pistol' hooked up to a laser designator, optics suite, and radio module, this system automatically serves both as a way for SHIVs to correlate their fire control systems off the holder's additional sensors- which, critically, can be used to override the overly conservative IFF suite while granting a hefty accuracy boost. (TN: 15)
[] Develop Facilities: You're supposed to get your own section of the Fortress-Anthill at some point, but that's obviously not happening this month unless you pour some of your own sweat, blood, and man-hours into it to get that excavation moving at a decent clip. (15 Budget, 1d10/turn, TN: 20. Grants Foundry, adding Tier 2 actions)(Will auto-unlock in November)
[] Develop Aerospace Capabilities: not unlocked at present
[] Develop Spaceborn Capabilities: not unlocked at present
[] Support Genetic Operations: not unlocked at present
[] Support Psionic Operations: not unlocked at present
Production (Choose two)
[] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
-[] How Many? (Cost: 10/unit)
[] Produce a batch of SHIV weapons
-[] Light Minigun
--[] How Many? (Cost: 3/unit)
[] Refurbish a batch of SHIV units
-[] How many? (Cost: 2/unit, 1x SHIV corpse)
[] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital)
Project Surety was, well, a containment effort. Your plan was to basically take the Pattern 00 SHIV, and beat it with the quality stick until something good fell out. This meant fixing the armor problems, fixing the feed issues, finally going through and ripping into the software development side, fixing the rampant C3 issues, and just general bugfixes for days.
It wasn't ambitious. It really wasn't. This was just cleaning up and getting a final product to the doors so that you didn't have to worry about your things shitting the bed on you for no damn reason. Hopefully, that made things go easier- because your SHIV production was going to have to go up now that Strike 3 had adopted using SHIVs.
PROJECT
--[X] Project Surety.
--[X] Project Surety's goal is to update the SHIV from the prototype Version 00 to the LRIP Version 01 Project goals include:
--- Correct the software issues with the target acquisition and fire control suites WRT bipedal X-rays. If time allows, improve C3 interface.
--- Solve the ammunition feed issues.
--- Enhance protection via applique armor and liquid ablative packs.
--- Work to better integrate existing and in-development modules with the base chassis
--- General bugfixes and QoL improvements
Roll: 4. TN: 4. Check passess.
Breaking the problem down, you had four things to fix.
Problem one: software. Nobody, and you mean nobody, liked software work. You'd need to buckle down and actually dedicate your personal time to making sure it got done. It sucked, but that was what you were a department head for: the ability to get people to do that.
(Correcting Software is now added as a vote option at TN: 5)
Problem two: Ammo feed issues. Fortunately, now that you actually had, y'know, working data, those were an easy fix: it only required completely re-designing the top side of the SHIV system. Luckily for you, since you were already doing module development and an armor rework, those were getting redesigned anyway, so beating out the feed issue would be something you could hit up along the way without any major issues.
(Ammo Feed Issue will be solved when Project completes.)
Problem three: Enhanced protection. This one was actually going to be a bit of a bear, because you had to redesign a lot of the SHIV's outer systems. Since currently your best protective mechanisms were thin, fast-degrading armor systems to catch plasma and keep it off the important bits, that meant moving away from the extant monobloc homogenous armor scheme in a fast, definitive way. On the upside, however, spaced armor was notably lighter; on the downside ablative water cells were more awkward. This would be a challenge to engineer, but one that would be worth the work.
(Improved Armor is now added as a vote option at TN: 10)
Point four, general QoL stuff, would be addressed as you found it.
Thus, you had set the terms of Project Surety.
DEVELOPMENT
-[X] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 9)
Roll: 4. New TN: 5
The autocannon was an interesting system to work on. While you'd previously done a lot of work in just 'general autocannon things', it was time to specialize into something. After some fairly significant work, you managed to get a good autocannon for the SHIVs though: a contract for a limited run of HS.820 guns that were originally Bundwehrser pieces that had been rebuilt. Aside from a mandatory "bought new, fired once," joke, they'd be perfect for the weapons systems you were developing except for one very specific problem: barrel length.
See, the issue was simple: the thing had a 172cm barrel. Your SHIVs had a roughly 135x135cm footprint. That meant a good 40mm of overhang, which meant that you'd need to adjust storage on the Skyranger so nobody ended up with the muzzle of a SHIV's autocannon in their lap. It took about four days of wasted time before you finally admitted defeat, and designed the gun module to detach out of the cradle so it could be laid centerline in the SHIV. In field use, though, the gun and mantlet would be suprisingly far aft on the SHIV, and crews would absolutely have to manually change the ammo boxes on it: the best you could rig the autoloader to do was eject spent ammo cases and pop the top on new ones. Getting a continual 20x139mm shell feed through the entire magazine? Literally impossible.
Well, the crews would determine if they liked it or not.
-[X] Develop New Module: As much as you wish the SHIV was capable of taking all its cues from software-side systems, a number of physical modifications need to be integrated into the chassis to get expanded capabilities. Time to develop some. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Ancillary Machine Gun: While the SHIV wasn't originally designed to use multiple separate weapons systems, a lot of options you're coming up with are either limited-ammunition or limited-range systems. Figuring out how to mount up an ancillary coaxial gun fixes that problem so it's not useless outside of melee range or some pathetically small number of shots.
---[X] High-Caliber Coax: A standard 12.7mm coaxial machine gun might be a bit on the large side, but the added cover-punching is going to be useful- and those aliens are very good at hiding behind cover. (TN: 3)0
Roll: 6. Project Complete.
Smirking at your work, you grinned. The new coaxial 12.7mm machine gun mounts were finally fully integrated into your standard weapons cradles, and as a bonus you'd also managed to get complete integration into the 20mm gun cradles too. Your SHIVs now had both a reliable way to punch out lighter Aliens, and for the minigun-armed SHIVs ignore light cover to drill a Thin Man through a brick wall.
Of course, it wasn't just 'snap your fingers' easy. One of the things you had to work on here too was actually a surprisingly large amount of weapons cradle redesign: now that you had the 12.7mm coaxial guns, you were slapping those on everything and making sure they were correctly integrated was critical. Data busses and power? Easy part. Keeping ballance correct so that the mount didn't have torque issues, now that was when things got interesting.
Still, interesting or not, you could scratch this project off your to-do list.
PRODUCTION
-[X] Refurbish a batch of SHIV units
--[X] 4.
Roll: 7. Cash rebate activates: +6 funds.
Bring the Pattern 00 SHIVs in, pull all the armor, replace some bits, put the armor back on, and out the door and away they went. Simple, easy, and clean. Even better though was the chance to start passing yet more updates to their OS systems and read their logs: several bits of important information were in there you could use later.
-[X] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
--[X] 3
Roll: 6.
Three more SHIV Pattern 00 units pulled off the line in record time, before quickly getting put in the pool. That was good: with the addition of Strike 3 using SHIVs, they'd appreciate getting a batch of SHIVs that were fresh off the production lines. That sort of appreciation was more valuable than money, sometimes.
AFTER ACTION REPORTS
STRIKE 1: Not SHIV equipped. 5 fatalities last month, 185% casualty rate. Strike Lead is looking for additional sensors or engineering assets. Central is pleased.
STRIKE 2: Not SHIV equipped. 6 fatalities last month, 200% casualty rate. Strike Lead is looking for heavy automatic weapons and anti-armor assets to counter Muton units. Central is ambivalent.
STRIKE 3: Operates 3x Pattern 00 SHIVs. 2 fatalities last month, 85% casualty rate. Opinions are high: easy access to a large base of fire was found to be very effective in suppressing enemy units and conducting opposed door breeches on UFOs. Strike Lead is interested in additional heavy weapons or technology to increase SHIV use per squad. Central is ecstatic.
STRIKE 4: Operates 3x Pattern 00 SHIVs. 2 fatalities last month, 85% casualty rate. Opinions are stabilizing, and the addition of the coaxial guns makes weapons malfunctions in the field a non-issue. Strike Lead still wants more durable SHIV units though. Central is ecstatic.
STRIKE 5: Operates 3x Pattern 00 SHIVs. 2 fatalities last month, 85% casualty rate. Opinions are still cooled, since current SHIV improvements have not mitigated past issues with the AI. Strike Lead is still requesting better C3 infrastructure for the SHIV units. Central is ecstatic.
CENTRAL NOTES: This was a good month, and demonstrates why we want every unit to be SHIV-equipped. Keep this up, and we'll be in very good hands for the next time the Aliens pull something out of their hats.
Current Resources
-34 Budget
-12x Pattern 00 SHIV
-9x Light Miniguns
-9x Engineers
-0x Alien Alloys
-0x MELD
-0x Elerium
VOTES
Politics (Choose 1)
[] Expand Your Department: You've got people here, hard working people. That said, you need more resources to make everything shine: be that money, MELD, or manpower. (Select a resource, rolling 1d10. On success (TN:6), gain resources. On fail, spend another resource to gain the selected resource. Political Capital is always the first resource spent this way.)
-[] More money
-[] More Alloys
-[] More Manpower
-[] More Elerium
-[] More MELD
[] Support Another Department: Sometimes you need to grease the wheels to get things going. Spending some time trading horses with various people, and see what you can get. (Roll 1d10, TN: 6. On success, gain Political Capitol, which lasts 3 months. On fail, gain nothing.)
[] Interact with Strike Teams: Go down into the Barracks and see what the Soldiers of XCOM think. May involve drinking. So, so so so much drinking. (No roll; takes the temperament of the base and soldiers, grants more information on Central/Strike Leaders)
[] Establish a New Project (Roll 1d10, TN: 4. On success, GM presents an answer to the presented RFI, with attached quote for the project. Vague projects may )
-[] Write-in Project Name
-[] Write-in Project Goal
-[] Select Project Type (SHIV, MEC, Solo Operator, Crew Served)
[] Borrow Production time (Costs Political Capital, vote an additional Production option)
Development (Choose two separate options. The same option cannot be chosen twice.)
[] Work on Project SURETY...
-[] ...to build the Pattern 01 SHIV Chassis (TN:25, all upgrades automatically integrated)
-[] ...to integrate systems that correct the issues of the Pattern 00 SHIV Chassis (TN: 5, taken once per tech with the (PROJECT) tag completed, Finishes when all techs integrated.)
[] Research New Theory: Sometimes you need to know more about things, and you need to do it sooner than Vahlen and her team are willing to look into it. (Costs 20 Budget, grants bonus to XCOM research speed for a turn. If a new tech unlocks, restore 1d20 Budget.)
[] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
-[] Heavy Minigun: It's another minigun, but this one is better equipped to handle armor. (TN 10)
-[] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[] TOW Missile: Really more of an anti-vehicle weapon in traditional use, this weapon will allow equipped strike teams to punch through any Alien infantry armor, or any UFO's deployable cover. (TN 20)
-[] Flamethrower: The classic liquid napalm dispenser system. It's crude, it's ugly, and it'll damn well explode if plasma gets near it, but it will also handle most engineering needs at making the Aliens leave protective cover. (TN 10)
-[] Thermobaric Rocket Launcher: An option brought to you by the Russian engineers, a thermobaric warhead offers an excellent room or trench clearing engineering weapon to the troops. The issue is, however, taking the TOS-1 example warhead and packaging it into your SHIVs. (TN: 20)
[] Develop New Module: As much as you wish the SHIV was capable of taking all its cues from software-side systems, a number of physical modifications need to be integrated into the chassis to get expanded capabilities. Time to develop some. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
-[] SCOPE: A general secondary fire computer, just like the ones the troops use. They might figure it out themselves if you don't work on it, though. (TN: 20)
-[] Marksman Scope: An improved optical system to extend engagement ranges off all SHIV platforms (TN: 15)
-[] Advanced Suppression Module: You can create a reliable, if small, zone of beaten ground with current systems. Time to improve that. (TN: 10)
-[] (PROJECT) Corrected Software Module: A general do-all, see-all patch to revise the many, many computer issues you've been having with the Pattern 00 SHIV systems. (TN: 5)
-[] (PROJECT) Improved Armor: A massive applique armor package, this seeks to add ablative water packs and spaced armor to your SHIVs in order to bring the durability under fire up immensely (TN: 10)
[] Develop Infantry Kit: Sometimes you need to cross the fence and help out the Foundry Team develop answers to questions you never knew the Grunts had. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit. When tech unlocks, refunds any Budget equal to remainder after TN. Grants Political Capital)
-[] Grenade Launchers: Whatever secret sauce the XCOM grenade suppliers were drinking means you don't have a 40mm grenade launcher to enhance your (combat) Engineers with. Fix that. (TN: 10)
-[] Improved Rocket Launchers: See complaints about sidearms, really. This degree of slop is unacceptable: there has to be a way to accurize this somehow. (TN: 15)
-[] Develop Solo Heavy Weapon: XCOM's stash of light machine guns and general-purpose machine guns is impressive, but you can do better. Build a man-portable heavy weapon that'll knock everyone's socks off (TN: 20, Bonus Political Capital)
-[] Develop Crew Served Weapon: XCOM has a proud tradition of mobile warfare stretching back one whole month. Throw that shit out the window, right here right now: you need more firepower, and you know the solution is to slap a big gun on a tripod. (TN: 15, Bonus Political Capital)
-[] NEW Holotargeter: A small handheld 'pistol' hooked up to a laser designator, optics suite, and radio module, this system automatically serves both as a way for SHIVs to correlate their fire control systems off the holder's additional sensors- which, critically, can be used to override the overly conservative IFF suite while granting a hefty accuracy boost. (TN: 15)
[] Develop Facilities: You're supposed to get your own section of the Fortress-Anthill at some point, but that's obviously not happening this month unless you pour some of your own sweat, blood, and man-hours into it to get that excavation moving at a decent clip. (15 Budget, 1d10/turn, TN: 20. Grants Foundry, adding Tier 2 actions)(Will auto-unlock in November)
[] Develop Aerospace Capabilities: not unlocked at present
[] Develop Spaceborn Capabilities: not unlocked at present
[] Support Genetic Operations: not unlocked at present
[] Support Psionic Operations: not unlocked at present
Production (Choose two)
[] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
-[] How Many? (Cost: 10/unit)
[] Produce a batch of SHIV weapons
-[] Light Minigun
--[] How Many? (Cost: 3/unit)
[] Refurbish a batch of SHIV units
-[] How many? (Cost: 2/unit, 1x SHIV corpse)
[] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital)
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Legion0047
Retired Shadowrunner.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- God Emperor
The holo targeter looks juicy. Also, do shiv00 upgrades discount shiv01 development at least partially?
- Pronouns
- He
Should be TN 5 now. Looks like we're going to have to start building some more SHIV 00s for now, if Team 1 and 2 are eyeing them.
More money is critical we will spend almost all of it this turn and need it do something during the next.
I think we should do a pair of easy project this month to get improvements out in the field.
The light Autocannon might also help with the mutons that are starting to appear.
[] Plan easy projects
-[] More money
-[] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[] (PROJECT) Corrected Software Module: A general do-all, see-all patch to revise the many, many computer issues you've been having with the Pattern 00 SHIV systems. (TN: 5)
-[] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital) x2
20 of 34 Budget spend
The second one is do a Project and then a 5 point project to integrate it will need more dice in total but some of the work could be done in parrallel if we want to.
I think we should do a pair of easy project this month to get improvements out in the field.
The light Autocannon might also help with the mutons that are starting to appear.
[] Plan easy projects
-[] More money
-[] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[] (PROJECT) Corrected Software Module: A general do-all, see-all patch to revise the many, many computer issues you've been having with the Pattern 00 SHIV systems. (TN: 5)
-[] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital) x2
20 of 34 Budget spend
I think there are two way we can do the project one is just do the 25 point project and be done but probaly takes more time due only one die per turn being allowed to be spend on it
The second one is do a Project and then a 5 point project to integrate it will need more dice in total but some of the work could be done in parrallel if we want to.
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Legion0047
Retired Shadowrunner.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- God Emperor
Thing is that some of the things we learn upgrading 00 should be able to be applied wholesale to 01 and I'd like to hear the QM weighing in on how that would go.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Nope. Both are ballanced by being a sum TN: 25 project- the difference is whether you want to pay into one fund for it, or spread it out. There are soft benefits with going for the 01 over the 00 project, but in terms of playerside mechanics the only difference is how you spend the actions.
[] Plan: Ground Up Revamp
-[] Expand Your Department
--[] More money
-[] Work on Project SURETY...
--[] ...to build the Pattern 01 SHIV Chassis (TN:25, all upgrades automatically integrated)
-[] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
--[] How Many? 1 (Cost: 10)
-[] Produce a batch of SHIV weapons
--[] Light Minigun
---[] How Many? 3 (Cost: 9)
I'm more in favor of eating the big project myself. Beyond that, putting out 3 new Light Miniguns is enough for us to equip an additional squad with 3 SHIVs, and then I was considering putting out one more just in case the squads get some poor luck next time so we don't have to pay to refurbish as many. I'd be willing to swap that one for Cede Production though too.
Would directly working on Project SURETY cost budget since it contains the other two development actions that cost budget? Or is that free?
-[] Expand Your Department
--[] More money
-[] Work on Project SURETY...
--[] ...to build the Pattern 01 SHIV Chassis (TN:25, all upgrades automatically integrated)
-[] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
--[] How Many? 1 (Cost: 10)
-[] Produce a batch of SHIV weapons
--[] Light Minigun
---[] How Many? 3 (Cost: 9)
I'm more in favor of eating the big project myself. Beyond that, putting out 3 new Light Miniguns is enough for us to equip an additional squad with 3 SHIVs, and then I was considering putting out one more just in case the squads get some poor luck next time so we don't have to pay to refurbish as many. I'd be willing to swap that one for Cede Production though too.
Would directly working on Project SURETY cost budget since it contains the other two development actions that cost budget? Or is that free?
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7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
It's free to make up for the fact you don't get anything until it finishes.
Legion0047
Retired Shadowrunner.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- God Emperor
I say we go for 01, will take longer than parralel work on 00A but we can tackle some support gear in the meantime.
[X] Plan - Money, AC, Software, Minigun + Ceding.
-[X] Expand Your Department: You've got people here, hard working people. That said, you need more resources to make everything shine: be that money, MELD, or manpower. (Select a resource, rolling 1d10. On success (TN:6), gain resources. On fail, spend another resource to gain the selected resource. Political Capital is always the first resource spent this way.)
--[X] More money
-[X] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[X] Develop New Module: As much as you wish the SHIV was capable of taking all its cues from software-side systems, a number of physical modifications need to be integrated into the chassis to get expanded capabilities. Time to develop some. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] (PROJECT) Corrected Software Module: A general do-all, see-all patch to revise the many, many computer issues you've been having with the Pattern 00 SHIV systems. (TN: 5)
-[X] Produce a batch of SHIV weapons
--[X] Light Minigun
---[X] 3. (9 Budget)
-[X] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital)
We really need to get our next action point and send it to Production so that we have a point in ceding it for Political Capital every turn which generates Resources (if we fail to hit the TN for it) or use it for something else. .-. Either that or Research but point still stands. (Said Research Order will go to making Infantry Kits which helps our Strike Teams and gives us Political Capital, but it's not guaranteed every turn...)
EDIT: Corrections, and quote.
-[X] Expand Your Department: You've got people here, hard working people. That said, you need more resources to make everything shine: be that money, MELD, or manpower. (Select a resource, rolling 1d10. On success (TN:6), gain resources. On fail, spend another resource to gain the selected resource. Political Capital is always the first resource spent this way.)
--[X] More money
-[X] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[X] Develop New Module: As much as you wish the SHIV was capable of taking all its cues from software-side systems, a number of physical modifications need to be integrated into the chassis to get expanded capabilities. Time to develop some. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] (PROJECT) Corrected Software Module: A general do-all, see-all patch to revise the many, many computer issues you've been having with the Pattern 00 SHIV systems. (TN: 5)
-[X] Produce a batch of SHIV weapons
--[X] Light Minigun
---[X] 3. (9 Budget)
-[X] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital)
We really need to get our next action point and send it to Production so that we have a point in ceding it for Political Capital every turn which generates Resources (if we fail to hit the TN for it) or use it for something else. .-. Either that or Research but point still stands. (Said Research Order will go to making Infantry Kits which helps our Strike Teams and gives us Political Capital, but it's not guaranteed every turn...)
EDIT: Corrections, and quote.
We'll need to finish the Surety stuff Projects in Research though before we bother on 01. I say we at least fix the Software Problem and integrate it to 00 and do the other parts of Project Surety and implement that to 01.
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7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
No, you need to finish that to get 00A units. 001 is a single whole self-contained research.
Decim
On again, off again lurker.
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
Question, can we put both Dev dice onto it or is it capped at 1 dice?
[X] Plan: Ground Up Revamp
-[X] Expand Your Department
--[X] More money
-[X] Work on Project SURETY...
--[X] ...to build the Pattern 01 SHIV Chassis (TN:25, all upgrades automatically integrated)
-[X] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[X] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
--[X] Light Minigun
---[X] How Many? 3 (Cost: 9)
-[X] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital)
Swapping to Cede Production, we don't have a political capital to spare if we fail the More Money roll.
-[X] Expand Your Department
--[X] More money
-[X] Work on Project SURETY...
--[X] ...to build the Pattern 01 SHIV Chassis (TN:25, all upgrades automatically integrated)
-[X] Develop New Weapon: Your vics need more/better firepower. (Costs 10 Budget, roll 1d10/turn until TN hit.)
--[X] Light Autocannon: Miniguns solve your accuracy problems by using more bullet. Autocannons solve that problem by adding explosive fill to the mix, which can ignore a lot of cover. (TN 5)
-[X] Produce a batch of SHIV Pattern 00 units.
--[X] Light Minigun
---[X] How Many? 3 (Cost: 9)
-[X] Cede Production time (Gains Political Capital)
Swapping to Cede Production, we don't have a political capital to spare if we fail the More Money roll.
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Now that we are seeing SHIV deployed more frequently and quantity per mission, it would be good to create software focused on coordination between them in missions, a kind of hive mind drone network would be good.
One thing to think about for the future
One thing to think about for the future
..ah. I see. Thanks for the quick clarification!
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
You are capped at one die. This is an intentional balance point.
[X] Plan: Ground Up Revamp
- Location
- New England
[X] Plan - Money, AC, Software, Minigun + Ceding.
I like this one because it actually takes advantage of the easier extra projects we developed last turn.
I'm kind of tempted, once we take care of the current batch of small stuff, to go nuts and take the "Research New Theory" option for a turn or two just to see what shakes out.
I like this one because it actually takes advantage of the easier extra projects we developed last turn.
I'm kind of tempted, once we take care of the current batch of small stuff, to go nuts and take the "Research New Theory" option for a turn or two just to see what shakes out.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Ground Up Revamp
[X] Plan - Money, AC, Software, Minigun + Ceding.
I was writing a plan to do exactly this, but got beaten to it.
On the question of whether we go for the 001 or 00A. I would point out that once we finish the 00A projects it applies to all our current SHIVs. While the 001 pattern will require us to build a new stock. I would prefer to just keep upgrading the 00 pattern until we get alloy SHIVs or we run into something we actually need a completely new chassis for.
I was writing a plan to do exactly this, but got beaten to it.
On the question of whether we go for the 001 or 00A. I would point out that once we finish the 00A projects it applies to all our current SHIVs. While the 001 pattern will require us to build a new stock. I would prefer to just keep upgrading the 00 pattern until we get alloy SHIVs or we run into something we actually need a completely new chassis for.
I mean, the projects aren't exactly easier overall? It's still a total TN of 25, it's just broken up into blocks of 5, 10, 5, and 5 rather than a single project.
The differences are:
00A can theoretically come a bit faster if we're willing to develop absolutely nothing else besides it, because we can take two of the individual development actions at once.
00A can be applied to the corpses of dead 00 SHIVs.
00A individual upgrades can be applied as they finish rather than having to wait for the whole project to complete.
00A upgrades will cost budget.
00A has a much greater chance of wasting progress since rolling over the small TNs does not give any bonuses.
01 can only take 1 action max, but that means we will always have an action to develop other equipment alongside it.
01 does not cost budget
01 has a much lower chance of significantly overrunning the TN and wasting progress.
01 has some soft benefits over going for 00A.
01 gives us nothing until we complete the full 25 TN.
01 can not be applied to 00 units and must be newly built.