It's a bit clunky compared to regeneration, but New Body, Brain Missing would cover for the issue where we needed to re-attach Cia's original hand.
(It seems like we don't need them for organ sources particularly - I had forgotten that we actually got our cybernetic organ replacements up to parity. It never mattered for Vita though it probably did for some people on Denva Secundus.
Cloning, in Warhammer, always seems to have extreme problems. Mindless sleeves to transplant individuals into or replacement organs should be fine, but the metaphysics of the setting, as I recall, pretty much have it out for any individual created as a direct copy of someone who already exists or once existed, and correspondingly hits them with a massive dose of bad luck to shuffle them out of the realm of the living.
Cloning as in vat-growing truly new individuals by mixing and matching donor material from a vast repository of genetic samples should be alright. Unless, again, we want meatsleeves or bitzbuckets for emergency kitbashing, then it shouldn't matter.
Cloning, in Warhammer, always seems to have extreme problems. Mindless sleeves to transplant individuals into or replacement organs should be fine, but the metaphysics of the setting, as I recall, pretty much have it out for any individual created as a direct copy of someone who already exists or once existed, and correspondingly hits them with a massive dose of bad luck to shuffle them out of the realm of the living.
Cloning as in vat-growing truly new individuals by mixing and matching donor material from a vast repository of genetic samples should be alright. Unless, again, we want meatsleeves or bitzbuckets for emergency kitbashing, then it shouldn't matter.
You have it backwards. The Afriel Strain is made up of clones that are modified to be super-soldiers by first being clones of Imperium's Heroes and then on top of that being genetically modified with traits that someone determined were that of super-soldier which for some reason has them be completely white in complexion and eye color. They look like bleached humans and are considered unlucky by their makers because to do otherwise would be to admit that the albinism is creeping the rest of the Imperial forces on the battlefield out and resulting in fragging incidents.
You have it backwards. The Afriel Strain is made up of clones that are modified to be super-soldiers by first being clones of Imperium's Heroes and then on top of that being genetically modified with traits that someone determined were that of super-soldier which for some reason has them be completely white in complexion and eye color. They look like bleached humans and are considered unlucky by their makers because to do otherwise would be to admit that the albinism is creeping the rest of the Imperial forces on the battlefield out and resulting in fragging incidents.
The entire point is for them to prove their superiority over regular people, concealing armor on the battlefield happens yes its even noted in the article that the first few deployments are successful, but you can't wear concealing armor 24/7 and be a regular guardsman.
I was thinking with the sanity model regenerative personal psy shields and the emotinal control filter we could make the eldar safe against chaos wich is a interesting prospect since it allow we have a elf clone psy trooper squadron.
I was thinking with the sanity model regenerative personal psy shields and the emotinal control filter we could make the eldar safe against chaos wich is a interesting prospect since it allow we have a elf clone psy trooper squadron.
On the other hand it'd be pretty funny if we were able to sell reincarnation services to the Eldar. Designer bodies for reviving your VIPs, with optional extras like cognition filters and internal psy shields!
And for the budget conscious, we can put on our used car salesman hat and offer our premium refurbished drukhari pirate bodies. Don't worry, those meltagun wounds will buff right out.
Knowing the current religions on 40K blasphemy is good.
On a more interesting tone is this method would be the best salvation we could offer to the elves, even if you are squeamish about the clone army idea.
I was thinking with the sanity model regenerative personal psy shields and the emotinal control filter we could make the eldar safe against chaos wich is a interesting prospect since it allow we have a elf clone psy trooper squadron.
That is unlikely as our cybernetic modules and designed for humans not eldar. We would have to have the redesign them to even have a chance of what you are suggesting, and that is still contingent on the eldar consenting. The eldar are proud race, exceedingly so, so unless what you are suggesting offers a provably significant amount of protection for them, when compared to their current methods, they are going to almost certainly refuse.
That is unlikely as our cybernetic modules and designed for humans not eldar. We would have to have the redesign them to even have a chance of what you are suggesting, and that is still contingent on the eldar consenting. The eldar are proud race, exceedingly so, so unless what you are suggesting offers a provably significant amount of protection for them, when compared to their current methods, they are going to almost certainly refuse.
We can pretty explicitly builddevelop something like "cortical stack" style resurrection. Eldar tech includes means to make sure the soul isn't misplaced in the process too, if that's a concern.
But I suspect that for their own Eldar reasons they're not that into major cybernetics or fixing their population decline with clone creches. They almost certainly could do the clone part without our help if they wanted to.
We do have the dark eldar bodies we got a while back, The technology description for that autopsy mentions that it could lead to making our cybernetics aeldari compatible, so sticking our implants in elves isnt that unaproachable. Between the space marine autopsy, our synthetic organ techs, advanced genetic enhancements, vat-born, and our cybernetics and implants, we also have a lot of available techs for going full on mass transhumanism with our populations, with adapting those enhancements for other friendly species seemly being very much possible.
Tally
[X] [Denva Military] Casual
[X] [Necron] Plan: An AI And An Ancient Alien Robot Walk Into A Bar...
-[X] Aetherion
-[X] If they attack Aethrion, try to destroy them. If they go for something else, move to defend it and try to destroy the Necrons. If they just sit silent where they are without answering our hails, let them be for a reasonable amount of time. Only go after them with the intent to chase them off if they don't seem to be willing to leave on their own.
-[X] Diplomacy: ...Something about the stance of that ship reminds you of that eery feeling you had when interacting with Aeldari Dominion sometimes. Mostly opaque in their alien mindset, except for the utter surety of their supremancy. Quickly go over the first-contact package and the following message with Victan with that in mind, the tone formal but firm. Claim to be a Dark Age explorer like you have before. Ask them to identify themselves and reveal their intentions here. Make your stance clear on being willing to defend Denva and the Vellkar if it comes down to it. If talks are opened, offer the known positions of Chaos, Orks, Dark Eldar in return for similar information on dangers in the surrounding Sector. Don't tell about the Necrons you have, give them away if revealed only if it seems like it would actually prevent future hostilities.
Everybody reacts differently to the arrival of the Necrons. Victan's brow is scrunched in thought, his focus on the highlighted dot that represents the trespassing ship. Anexa is tapping her chin thoughtfully, eyes likewise glued to the spec. But her feeling through the noosphere is much closer to excitement rather than Victan's exasperated pragmatism.
Gwen's posture is filled with tension, and she's wringing her hands together in her lap. She hasn't learned to control the emotions spilling through her implant yet, and the tide of anxiety spilling out from her is palpable.
Contrasting with her is Cia, who is totally calm. She reached over and pats Gwen on the shoulder. "It'll be ok. We have the tools for this."
"To fight them? We don't even know what they can do," Gwen answers. "I'm not ready." There's an edge of panic in her voice.
"We'll talk first. But we need to figure out the parameters and our priorities," Victan says firmly, pulling the focus away from Gwen as he looks to you. "Priorities? We need to move the Spark of the Ancients. Where? What are our priorities? Are we treating this as a hostile encounter or a friendlier one?"
You're thinking quickly yourself. "It's just one ship, and as far as we know it's the first time they're in the system. It's most likely a scouting mission, but depending on their intentions they might be happy to take out targets of opportunity. That means we're going to go to Aetherion to defend the industry there. It's the most obvious target in the system, and the most vulnerable place. Devna Primus doesn't have any obvious targets, half of Denva Secundus is defended by anti-orbit weaponry, and Klyssar's Nest is frankly unimportant compared to the other locations.
"As for our visitors themselves... Let's warm up the first-contact protocols again. We're ready to assume the worst of the new arrivals, but that's based on Imperial files. Maybe they'll be less belligerent if we don't connect ourselves too closely with the Imperium."
"What about our 'samples'?" Anexa asks. "We have a dozen examples of their technology in the brig. Should we offer them up?"
"Only if they show any indication that they know about them," you answer. "I'd prefer to keep them around for research."
Victan frowns but nods. "Then let's get started."
You work together to draft up the initial package. The Federation first-contact package is designed to be malleable to fit with what's already known of a species and has several presets. You choose the one for "arrogant peer power," go over it in a few ways, add gothic as a language option, and then send it over. It boils down to several communication guides and a polite request to speak and establish formal diplomatic communications.
There's an entire military section that is entirely optional and ranges from "You're trespassing on our territory, get the hell out or be fired upon" to "Please don't advance further," to "Please, welcome." You choose the second, and further designate all of the planets of Denva as under your protection, as well as all of the infrastructure of the system, including the infrastructure in Aetherion and Klyssar's nest.
Then the package is sent winging off into the ether, and TheSpark of the Ancients turns ponderously towards Aetherion and starts accelerating while you wait to see the Necron's next move. You're worried. Their ship is significantly smaller than yours, but their technology is more advanced. You're not sure you can take them in a fight, but you're almost certain they're significantly faster than you. It's almost certain that you won't be able to catch them, and it's even possible that they'll be able to beat you to Aetherion, despite you having the shorter distance to travel.
But they don't. They stay unmoving at the edge of the system, floating in exactly the same place for hours. If they wanted to exploit your positioning when they arrived they've failed.
"Maybe they're taking the time to fully digest the first-contact package?" Victan says, hours later. The silence is starting to get unnerving, and at this point, you're half-expecting them to just turn around and leave the same way they arrived.
But that's not what happens. The Necron ship starts to accelerate into the system, though at a speed that must be far below its maximum. At the same time, you receive a communication. It's using Imperial protocols, but the image that appears before you is most definitely not Imperial. It's a robot in much the same style as those in your brig, but most definitely not as inactive as those are. The head bears some kind of headdress, though it quite obviously does not go so far as to approach anything that could be described as a "crown." Though the seat it's on could easily be described as a throne of tarnished metal.
The accent lights glow dully on the Necron and in the space around it, and camera pickup is also mounted at a low angle. Combined with the partially slitted robotic eyes, the overall effect is of supreme condescension.
"Beware of your claims, mortal. This system, and every system in this sector, are the rightful and true property of the Thonakh dynasty of the Sunless Tomb. Your true overlord is Tazekhet, the Shadowed King."
The eyes flare a moment, though the rest of the face remains entirely motionless. "But you would not acknowledge that truth, and even if you would, I would not trust you to honor any deal you made. So I offer this truth as a warning. Do not seek to impede us. Acknowledge your place in reality, and make peace with your station. Prepare yourselves to be absorbed into the Thonakh dynasty in the fullness of time."
With that, the message cuts off, and you share a meaningful look at Victan. "So. Do we respond?"
He frowns. "That seemed pretty definitive. I think any further communication isn't likely to get us anything and very well might piss them off."
Diplomacy roll - 36+28=64. Success, insofar as possible.
He continues. "Gwen, what does their course tell us?"
"Uh," she replied elegantly, glancing around as if he could be talking to somebody else. Victan gives her an encouraging smile, and she furrowed her brows and pulled up the vector data.
"I - don't think they want to engage us. If they did, they'd be accelerating faster. I think that they're interested in getting closer and seeing what we're covering in Aetherion orbit. If we give them a chance they'll ransack any targets of opportunity. Like the warp lab." She highlighted the relevant facility, which is in far orbits of the gas giant.
"Or a crucible," you continue thoughtfully. "Ok. I think there's a course we can take that'll give us options and let us cut the inside line on them. Victan, send a message to the Crucibles to get out of the way."
It's easy enough to make the alterations, and soon enough The Spark of the Ancients is gliding into a far orbit of its own. It's not exactly protecting the gas giant, but it's placed such that you'll be able to intercept any attempt to break for one of the orbital facilities.
Excepting a course at about twenty gravities. But if a ship that size is capable of that kind of acceleration then we might as well be a floating brick for our chances to force an engagement.
The Necron ship seems to follow Gwen's predictions over the next several hours. It's not quite aimed at Aetherion so much as entering the general area, but it decelerates to a stop at extreme range. It would be at the very edge of the distance your new nova cannons could shoot - if you had any - and you're wary of any long-ranged weapons on the enemy craft. But your sensors aren't able to pick out anything distinctive, and they just sit there for a while. As if waiting for you to move. Or daring you to.
Then, they simply turn to leave, accelerating much faster than they had when they entered. They're not headed in the same way they came in, but they're definitely headed out-system.
You turn to a rather exhausted-looking Gwen. "I think you were right. Good call."
She has barely left the room since the Necrons entered the system, and seems to glow at your praise. "It was a guess."
Then the Necrons divert slightly, and you frown. There's nothing in that direction - except the asteroid belt.
And a bunch of Crucibles
There's nothing you can do. The little manufactory ships see the threat coming and scatter into the belt. The Necron can only chase one of them - and it does, hounding down a single lone crucible that sends out a distress signal the whole time. Then the enemy ship draws within close range, and there's some kind of strange warp signature. It bears some vague resemblance to teleportation, but a whole lot more continuous. Shortly thereafter the signals from the crucible in question cease. You're too far away to see much details, but you think some small craft dock to the crucible, then detach.
Soon enough the Necron ship well and truly is on its way, leaving behind the drifting hulk of the crucible, which they annihilate with strange beams of green energy as they depart. You follow their course until the ship goes FTL with a pulse of exotic radiation. Assuming they don't change course, they're headed for Kethraxis, and have more intelligence on Denva than you're probably happy with.
Joy.
Still, there's nothing you can do about it except get back to your regularly scheduled programming.
[X] Plan: Nova cannons go boom. Boonhunting edition. Warp comms and Navibean alternative.
-[X] Idea: Boons! Hunt boons. Earn three boons with this plan. Also get Nova Cannons, warp comm prep and navigator prep.
-[X] Diplomacy: Ensure that the Vellkar & the Stellar Ascendency come to a profitable arrangement for both of them. Stretch Goal: get basing rights for yourself on Denva Primus. Put all the tech you gave the Stellar Ascendency on the table as long as there aren't any obvious red flags coming up during the negotiation (e.g. chaos involvement with the Vellkar)
-[X] Diplomacy: Build the Stellar Ascendency a military academy with Victan's result from last turn
-[X] Research x2 (400 + 85 (Anexa) + 60 (Anexa staff) = 545 RP) --[X] Improved Large-scale Machine spirits (100 RP)
---[X] Annexa assist
--[X] Improved Organic-Machine control (75 RP)
--[X] Nova Cannon! (100 RP)
--[X] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP)
--[X] Does in vitro have something to do with wine? (100 RP) --[X] Intelligence Coding (20 RP Overflow)
-[X][Free] Turn over Improved Large-scale Machine spirits and Improved Organic-Machine control to the Stellar Ascendency
-[X][Boon] Expanded Technology Focus/sharing (write-in two tech trees: Ship Design, Biology)
-[X][Free] Construction (1,500 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 1500 BP / 1000[666.6 refit BP] BP Repair Bay / 500 Lift Capacity):
--[X] Refit the Spark of the Ancients [122.5 Cramming free after partial refit => one additional slot]:
---[X] Add to Non-Combat Equipment (reduce left cramming from 70 BP to 2.5 BP:
----[X] Troop compartment (50*1.5=75 BP, 45 Cramming)
----[X] Medical bay (25*1.5=37.5 BP, 22.5 Cramming)
---[X] Replace Troop compartment modular slot and Medical facility modular slot with 2x Juvenat Production Facility (750 BP)
---[X] High Maneuverability Thrusters, refit to only take 1080 BP cramming space (1200 BP)
--[X] 104 BP left, give to Victan to help with Diplomacy (product samples?)
-[X] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[X] Victan: active action: Diplomat-Spy: Assist with the Vellkar diplomacy
-[X] Cia Passive Psyker improvement
-[X] Gwendolyn Passive learning action
At least you kept the warp research lab intact - it would have been somewhat troublesome to do this next piece of research without it. It's much easier for you to design new kinds of psychic shielding if you have a complex lab set up to interact with active warp effects.
Still, this is very much going out on a limb. Your shielding is ancient, and the people who first discovered it seem to have stumbled upon the circuit that meant "no" semi-accidentally. You've iterated on that work and have a much better understanding of it than they did, but it's still quite a leap to discover entirely new foundational circuits that mean something different to the warp.
Your initial model of psychic shielding was that it simulated neural circuitry and said "no" really loudly, denying warp effects. That's about as accurate as the Bohr model of the atom, which is not very. The shielding doesn't have a soul, doesn't have any real cognition to leave a trace in the warp. But it does so regardless, specific patterns of information flow leaving a trace of denial that can be reinforced and fed back on itself until you achieve a powerful effect.
Changing that effect is difficult, but you're able to start to permute in your warp lab. You don't understand the underlying effects well enough to simulate it, but every time you get a hit, your model grows a little more accurate, and soon enough, your search space shrinks enough for you to start fishing for specific effects and not patterns that leave confused twists in the warp.
The relation of a given circuit to the word it generates is unclear, and you're not sure if they're working through symbolism or simply an objective meaning of certain kinds of information flows. But your pattern-recognition algorithms are starting to gain traction, and in the future, you'll be able to direct your search for new meanings better. But still, with specific goals come specific solutions, and you wanted ways to better deal with demons and something that can send warp signals over long distances. The extra meanings were just lucky.
You can tell you're only scratching the surface of an enormous field of research here. Your more advanced applications of psychic shielding are having effects on the physical world. So far, it's primarily contained to mental effects on people, but you've started to observe effects on the physical world as well. The potential of this kind of technology is immense - inscribing patterns on projectiles that invoke the warp to weaken what they target, shielding on armor making it tougher than it has any right to be.
Researched Alternative Shielding Meanings - 61+20 = 81. Good success! You have unlocked the new psychic shielding meanings of: Begone, Hey!, Veil, and Soothe. Blueprint pages for psychic shielding have been updated. Begone - Warp entities who come in contact with the shield must resist and overpower the shield or be banished. Hey! - You can build warp devices that send a long-range semi-directional signal through the warp. Needs an appropriate listening device at the other end. Veil - Shields built with this meaning will be invisible to warp-senses. Also carries a mild antimemetic effect. Soothe - Calms those within, especially against warp-induced trauma. Unlocked new technology - Offensive Shielding Meanings (250 RP)
Unlocked new technology - Defensive Shielding Meanings (200 RP)
Unlocked new technology - Utility Shielding Meanings (200 RP)
Discounted existing technology - Tiny Psychic shielding cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Scrapcode Denial cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Enhanced Psychic Encryption cost reduced by 50 RP
You regard the new technology with a faint sigh. It's definitely a step forward, but every time you make a breakthrough it only serves to open you up to new horizons. You want to be able to communicate across the gulfs of interstellar space, and while you're certainly closer, you're starting to realize how far away that ability is, and how many interesting other technologies you'll unlock along the way.
But the next item on your docket is continuing to refit the Spark of the Ancients. It's not quite a ship of Theseus, but you've certainly remodelled and changed around the personnel areas pretty significantly since you built it. But as you've improved your shipbuilding capabilities, that's starting to change, and most of your effort and the effort of the Voidforge Miners is going towards rebuilding the thruster powers to take up a smaller footprint inside the ship. They won't be any more powerful, but they will take up less room and let you cram more in.
The rest of it is just some reshuffling - shifting the medical bay and the troop transport to be more integrated into the ship's structure and using the extra space to build new juvenat production facilities, enough to supply Victan's staff with juvenat. They haven't been on your crew long enough to start really feeling the effects of aging, but if you'd waited any longer, they probably would have, so it's good to take care of now.
You send Victan a note that he's free to inform his staff that their employment now carries the added perk of infinite youth. He's assured you it'll be great for loyalty, and you're not inclined to disagree.
It's good timing too - since the negotiations between Denva and the Vellkar are entering the sensitive phase. You'd had worries that Victan's staff would feel loyalty to their home planet that would jeopardize your efforts, but for better or ill the promise of immortality has convinced them that they are truly separate from their homes.
Victan's successfully inserted himself into the negotiation as a third partner, and you're doing your best to back him up with data analysis and the presence of your avatar when it makes sense. The Vellkar know who you are intellectually, but your presence in certain meetings makes the Stellar Ascendency diplomats significantly more polite than they would otherwise be. It's rather hard to be rude to the person who's culturally recognized as the savior of your planet and the font of your current golden age. It's also counterproductive in a lot of contexts to have you around, so Victan is using your presence as yet another one of the tools in his arsenal to guide the negotiations in the direction you want.
It appears to be a good thing too - from everything you can see, the Stellar Ascendency diplomats entered the negotiations with the full intent to re-establish the previous relationship they had with the Vellkar. It was more generous than something that could be described as a "vassalage," since it was closer to a trade agreement that consisted of Denva Secundus being able to harvest materials from Denva Primus in return for material and technological goods that would help uplift the Vellkar, with clear paths to integrate them down the line.
But that's not what the Vellkar want anymore. They've seen the threats of the galaxy, and the failures of the Stellar Ascendency to hold superiority in their own system. They're fine being friendly with the Stellar Ascendency, but they don't want to depend on them for military defense anymore, and are less interested in integration than they were. Not completely uninterested - but it'll have to come from a place of relative equality, instead of being a one-sided uplift.
Just as Victan predicted, things had gotten off to a rocky start between the two groups before he intervened. Denva had seen the Vellkar demands as greed and an attempt to extract unreasonable rents for resuming the trade agreement, and hadn't understood that the Vellkar would be demanding less aid in uplift in return for more manufacturing capacity to build their own capacity.
Your - and his - unique relationship to the Stellar Ascendency meant that they'd listen when he spoke, and he started by convincing them to slow down in pressuring the Vellkar to accept their aid.
Then he'd gone to the Vellkar and negotiated a very clear and obvious treaty that granted you pretty much the exact same rights the Ascendency were looking for - the ability to build and operate manufactories on the planet's surface to take advantage of the unique ore of Denva Primus, in return for providing a percentage of the output to the Vellkar in the forms they desired. That was primarily manufacturing equipment and weapons, with clear guidelines for supplying spacelift down the line.
Once that was complete, all Victan had to do was wave the treaty towards the Stellar Ascendency as a clear and obvious example of what they were trying to do. The diplomats involved simply had the follow the path he'd already paved.
"It's probably just as well that the Vellkar take more ownership over their uplift," Victan says to you as you're going over the final state of things and going over the sites listed by the Vellkar for their base. "Your implants don't work well for them, so they're not going to share the same manufacturing paradigm as the Denvans. I'm not convinced they even want to go that route. From everything I've seen, they prefer specialization, and even their most primitive crafts are handled in a production-line style setup."
You nod thoughtfully, but your mind is somewhere else. "Do you think there's a worry they'll end up fighting the Stellar Ascendency?"
He shakes his head and flicks you another file. "Not unless something really changes. The Stellar Ascendency's very much focused on growing out into the solar system and then the stars. They're expanding, but they don't see Denva Primus as territory to expand to. They're starting to see the Vellkar as partners and potential allies, and we've started to lay the groundwork for that to continue."
Stellar Ascendency Diplomacy roll - 7
Victan Diplomacy Roll - 64+28 = 92 The Vellkar and the Stellar Ascendency have signed a fair and balanced treaty giving the latter the right to build manufacturing capacity on Denva Primus in return for a share of the products, which the Vellkar will use to uplift themselves. You have the same terms and can build up to 1,000 manufactories on the surface, where they will produce +40% of their base BP after the tax paid to the Vellkar. +1 Victan level. +1 Stellar Ascendency Boon
After Victan leaves, you spend a little while thinking back over his progress. What he just accomplished is nothing short of monumental. For anybody else, it would be career-making to avert a diplomatic mishap of this magnitude while earning significant goodwill from both sides. But for him, it was run-of-the-mill. He's becoming the kind of diplomat who can gauge a situation at a glance and turn it in their preferred direction, and make a tightrope look like a sturdy bridge in difficult negotiations.
The question is - where does he go from here? You can certainly supply him with more information, and he'll only get better with practice. But given the right tools he could truly shine. The most obvious example is better mental implants to connect him more closely with your existing diplomatic suite, but you could also imagine him guiding his diplomatic staff into a more general-purpose espionage focus, with a greater focus on implants and infiltration.
It's a question that only needs to be answered years down the line, but it's good to be thinking about now. And it's been spurred on by watching Cia and Gwen work together. Cia's still improving, but over time she's had fewer obvious gaps to fill.
The same is not true of Gwen, who's still learning to use her implants to their full capabilities, plumb the depths of the educational material available in your archives, and learn to control her powers. Luckily, she has Cia to help guide her through those problems.
You've been keeping a close eye on that relationship, since on the face of it you don't know that you would expect them to get along. Cia is aggressive, outspoken and somewhat brash, though she's been modulated by decades of meditation and training in self-control. Gwen is more naturally shy and accepting. In the early years you were worried that their dynamic was tilting towards Cia running over Gwen and only rarely letting her get a word in. A problem down the line, if Gwen needs to give Cia strategically significant orders that may not be clear on the tactical level.
But after the whole affair with the Necrons, their relationship is more balanced. You're not sure how much of it is Cia seeing Gwen as an equal or Gwen simply having enough self-confidence to hold her own, but now they're interacting more like friends and partners, instead of the older-and-younger sister dynamic that was present before.
Gwen's also learning a lot, and has studied a decent percentage of the writings in your archive. She also probably understands them a bit better than you, and has also started studying the exact technical capabilities of the forces you can build. She's not a master strategist yet, but she's on the path.
Speaking of your crew, you are thinking of expanding it again by finally encouraging the navigator fetus you have in stasis to come to term. It's a big step, but it would give you unparalleled mobility through the stars, and you're starting to build a core crew that could probably do a decent job in raising a child. They'll take a couple of decades to grow enough to actually guide you through the stars, but you don't hate the idea of waiting.
But first, you need to solve the technological problems inherent in that - growing a whole-ass person isn't quite as simple as popping some cells into a test tube and then gradually increasing the size of the test tube as they grow. You're trying to mimic the function of a complex organ in the human body, and the uterus is a lot more than a test tube. It suspends the baby in a cushioned sac, and entwines vasculature to supply oxygen and nutrients, carry away waste, not to mention countless more functions.
Duplicating that function technologically is not easy, and there are two primary approaches you can imagine. One is to try and directly interface a series of tiny branching tubes, in effect creating an artificial placenta. The other is to grow your own placenta, and just feed it a stream of nutrients through an artificial blood supply. There are pros and cons for each approach, but the second will almost certainly work better, even if it is more technologically challenging.
So your first obstacle is growing a placenta in a vat, and then managing to get the growing embryo in a hydrogel to hook up to it successfully. You're not about to start with your single, precious sample, but that's the goal. You start with some human tissue, and following reverse-differentiation to stem cells, you proceed with a long and complicated pathway to cultivate the specific organ you're looking for... and it works on the first try. Which is unexpected, but amazing.
Then you try implanting an embryo and getting it to connect to the cloned placenta. You aren't expecting this to work, but you intend to grow these tests for no longer than a month or two, way before they'll develop any significant amount of brain activity. It doesn't work perfectly, but it's close enough that you are pretty sure you're only doing one thing wrong. You end up having to cut all of those off after three months of growth, after the brainstem develops, but before any higher functions really have time to grow in.
There might be more complications down the line, but you're confident your medical facilities will be able to handle them in real time, and you've still got quite a bit of time available. So you work on making those first few months bombproof, learning how to deal with all sorts of issues, and making the entire process robust as hell. The more reliable the foundation is, the easier it will be to build on later, and you develop a generalized framework. As long as a cell will grow in liquid nutrients, you think you can figure out how to make it work with your system and support an embryo through development.
Then you manage to extract a tiny sample of the fetus's cells from the stasis field and attempt to grow them. It... sort of works? There are all sorts of weird things going on with the navigator cells. The pluripotent stem cells don't want to replicate, but the trophoblasts can, so you propagate those instead, and with the improved process, manage to generate something that would probably support the fetus. Kinda. There's more work to do there, for sure.
Of course, all of this is only the first step. As it is, you'd need an adult population ready and willing to raise the babies popping out of your new production line. There are technological solutions to that - you've got a thousand different full and free educational courseloads in your databases, but all of the companies that made of those built them to work with their robots, which were sold at a premium. So if you want to raise children on your own, you're going to have to reinvent that particular little innovation, though at least you can crib off some old patents and such.
Researched Does in vitro have something to do with wine? - 85+20 = 105. Critical success. Unlocked the cloning bay installation & ship equipment. New technology unlocked - New Body, Brain Missing (100 RP)
New technology unlocked - The Tank-Bred (100 RP)
New technology unlocked - Cradle Facilities (150 RP)
Bonus technology unlocked - Alien Cloning (300 RP)
Existing technology discounted - Navigator Gestation cost reduced by 100 RP
Existing technology discounted - Navigator Genetics cost reduced by 50 RP
Existing technology discounted - Advanced organ replacements cost reduced by 50 RP
Existing technology discounted - Companion Cogitators cost reduced by 25 RP
Well. With just a bit of basic technological infastructure, you'd be capable of booting up an entire human population from zero. Which is pretty neat, even if it carries a whole lot of question marks and several cans of worms along for the ride. The ability could be used for a lot of evil purposes, but you think you might just be able to figure out some good ones as well.
There's one other thing that's been ticking on in the background, and you're cautiously optimistic about how it's going. You're talking, of course, about the process of kicking off the Stellar Ascendency Spacy Navy. They took your recommendations for building the campus and set to it with gusto, slapping together a gorgeous set of buildings across the Silvertear Islands. Most of them are concentrated on the largest island, with comfortable dormitories, grounds, and facilities sufficient to feed, exercise, and train tens of thousands of students. Notable are the massive cogitators and holotanks to simulate void engagements, the medical facilities to install thousands of Organic-machine control implants. Beyond that recreation is primarily covered by extensive sailing facilities with dozens of multi-person boats and hundreds of single-person boats. The hope is that they will encourage team-building and solo exercises in the calm bay and the choppy seas beyond.
There's definitely room for expansion - the main facility itself could triple in size and still leave pristine wilderness on the island, and the government has dedicated the rest of the Silvertear islands as a reserve for the naval academy's growth. They're already starting the process of building an underwater transit system to connect them all together, though there's no real rush about it. It's more of an aspirational scheme than anything else, since the only way it will be needed is if they need to produce tens or hundreds of thousands of officers, each capable of operating an entire starship. Which... isn't impossible. But like you say, aspirational.
The only flaw with this is that by letting the Stellar Ascendency build it, you also gave them the right to name it. Apparently inspired by the nautical theme, they decided to go with the NEPTUNE War College. It reeks of a name decided by committee, and is even an acronym. And this is how you've come to set up the facility of Naval Education for Precision, Tactics, and Universal Naval Excellence courses. You cannot believe they used Naval twice.
Of course, the most important part of this school isn't the facilities or even the students, it's the teachers. The thing that Denva has been missing for its whole history is the institutional knowledge of how to organize and execute void combat, and that's the primary thing they need your help with.
You've observed before that you're not excellent at tactics and strategy. You've won every battle you've fought by bringing overwhelming force and several technological advantages to the table, not by displaying brilliance in the art of warfare. But that's ok - you're certainly competent at logistics, and that extends to the logistics of warfare. War can be viewed as a skilled profession like any other, where the goal is to efficiently create a product and deliver it where it's needed to promote desired outcomes. But here that product is ordinance and the desired outcome is death.
Therefore, when you are presented with the crop of military officers, engineering professors and Cogitare members that are supposed to be the people who train the Stellar Ascendency's military, your first lesson is simple.
"Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals discuss logistics," you say, your hologram pacing back and forth in front of the audience in the primary holochamber. "You think of warfare as an art, a challenge of leadership and skill and discipline that will result in victory. This is wrong."
A few of the military leaders purse their eyes, and one even opens his mouth to disagree. But you roll right over him. "Brilliant tactics are for those who have failed to prepare adequately. If you have the logistics nailed down, then you can win without them. You will not be training your students to be geniuses who can win desperate fights against overwhelming odds. You will be training them to be skilled technicians in the art of warfare, who can make intelligent decisions in the field to ensure victory."
Now you give them a chance to interrupt, but none do. The man who almost spoke earlier - a general - thinks about it, but he's decided to give you a chance to say your piece. You note him down for discussion later. If he isn't onboard with what you're planning, it'll be better to kick him off the project sooner rather than later.
"The secret is, of course, the organic-machine control interface," you continue, bringing up a hologram of the interface wrapped around a human brain. "With this technology, a single person can control a cruiser, and a small team could control a battleship." You look around. Nobody is surprised at what you're telling them, and you sigh. "This changes all of the paradigms of warfare. Naval officers don't need to be leaders. They don't need to maintain discipline. They need to understand their ships inside and out, and use them like a master craftsman uses their tools. An Imperial fleet is a grand hierarchy where an admiral runs a team of commodores, who each command a group of captains, each of whom is second-after-god to thousands or millions of crew. But that's not how your fleet will work, and operating as if it is will hamstring you forever."
You pause once again, looking around to all of the people in the room. The cogitare members are looking a little bored, though most of them are ecstatic at being in your presence. "Every Stellar Ascendency fleet will be a small team, probably fewer people than are in this room. They will need to communicate closely, and they will need to understand who has decision-making authority, but they don't need perfect military discipline. They need to be skilled professionals who understand the task in front of them and why decisions are being made. You need to shift paradigms away from traditional military command and towards something closer to wargaming."
You gesture up at the display, showing a recording of an ancient esports event, where individual players commanded dozens of ships in a complex dance. "People mock this kind of thing as missing out on the most important elements of combat, that of morale and leadership. But that's not true for you. So, treat your students like trainees learning a challenging and technical profession, not people who will need to lead thousands of people into battle. Because they won't."
Your speech has clearly rattled some of the military members, though there's traces of confusion threaded through the noosphere from the cogitare members. They weren't confused by anything you said, but by your point. To them, all of this was self-evident. But it wasn't them you were talking to, and you communicate that in return, making sure it's very obvious that your focus is on the military officers. "So. In the coming years, we will go over what kind of education is necessary and how to provide it. Remember that I have discretionary authority over who actually remains to teach, and there are many tasks to cover. You represent skills from astrophysics to medical care to legal expertise to military command. Your students will need to learn all of it, and it's up to us to design that curriculum together."
You were worried about how well your speech would be received, but in the coming months you are relieved to find that it's actually been taken to heart. The military leaders of Denva's past conflicts have actually understood that theirs is not the only skill that matters, and in fact it's almost the least relevant. They work to integrate their lessons on tactics and strategy with yours, and you bring in Gwen to help game out the basics of void doctrine.
She's nervous of the prospect of arguing with generals in the Denvan military over void tactics, right up until you show her some of the simulations. It's obvious they've failed to understand the tactical implications of the weapons involved in void combat, especially nova cannons. That's a temporary problem, but she does a good job of beating the pants off them in simulations. Something about being beaten by a girl young enough to be their daughter lights a fire under the officers, and they improve quickly.
It's still going to be a long road for the Stellar Ascendency to figure out their exact military doctrine, but now they have a place where that can be developed, and it will start training the next generations of Naval Officers, who will be inculcated from the start in the proper mindset - which will be notably less military then their predecessors.
You stay with them as the school officially opens its doors, hundreds of the brightest young minds from across Denva entering to learn from the inexperienced professors within. To your surprise, it goes quite well. The campus is a bit more rambunctious than you expected, but the students are taking to their lessons with vigor and intent, and in a few years they'll be ready to take up arms in the Denvan space navy.
Military academy establishment 83+10 = 93. Critical success!
+1 Stellar Ascendency Boon
In fact, it's very much looking like there's not going to be enough ships for them. Denva's got their shipyards up and running, and are going to finish up a production run of the Flame frigates and Candle destroyers in the next few years, all configured to be operated by OMC control. But the number of people qualified to command the ships is going to outpace their production of ships for the foreseeable future, because they still can't really run the shipyards with the omnipresent OMC upgrades. The Anvil manufacturing craft are starting to proliferate, and they can literally build more shipyards than they can afford to run. Victan drops you a note that he's received more than a couple of subtle hints that they'd appreciate that little problem being solved, and that if you don't do it, then they will. Though it'll likely take them quite a bit longer than it would you.
Stellar Ascendancy Military Development - 51.
New boon opportunity revealed - research and transfer technology for enabling OMC control of shipyards at decent paces.
They're also, quite unsurprisingly, very interested in the Nova Cannon technology, though they're not going to come out and say it straight up. It's rather gauche to ask for strategic-level-weaponry.
New boon opportunity revealed - transfer the Nova Cannon technology.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 4,824/14,500
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Total Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Total Void Build Capacity: 8,820
Research Capacity: 200(+Anexa/Cogitare)
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 240/240 HP, Vita Core 270 HP, Crew Quarters (203/500) 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 270 HP, Bongo Oubliette 540/540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP, Captive Holding cells (12/500) 50 HP, (Shields can be repaired for 5 BP/point, repair bay works)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 0/0 Bongo is Bound.
Juvenat usage: 103/150 people's worth (cannot be stockpiled)
Shipbuilding capacity: 31/64 ship construction slots
Available ships:
none, beyond your flagship.
Available ground forces:
338 Specter Light infiltration bots (20 CP)
252 Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (20 CP)
794 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (20 CP)
21,900 Seeker Bots (22x20 = 440 CP)
37 Light Machine-spirit tanks (4 CP)
28 Medium Machine-spirit tank (2 CP) CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000, or 100 for tanks. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Current Installations:
130 Machine-spirit orbital Manufactories. +8190 Void BP/turn (20x130=2600 CP), around Aetherion
1 Large Shipyard, around Aetherion (31/64 ship construction slots)
Contains hulls for 2x Light Cruisers (1800 BP size), 4x Frigate (900 BP size), 7x Destroyers (450 BP size)
Warp research lab, 400 inner shielding, 200 outer shielding. Far orbit of Aetherion
Military:
2 Caltrop Defense stations (2x10=20 CP), around Aetherion
In progress construction:
none
In-progress research:
Intelligence Coding (210/400 RP)
Faith is My Shield (15/75 RP)
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governor's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots. A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor. Pieces of Chaos Spare Marine bodies & armor. Warp-Resonant Crystal. A Strange Seed.
Get their R&D system up and running (requires rolling well, or appropriate tech, or multiple actions).
Refit the full fleet of ships you acquired for their use and hand them over before they get their own fleet up and running. (last turn remaining)
Deliver them the methods for humans to effectively control shipyards. (limited timescale of use)
Deliver the Nova Cannon technology
Do big favors for civilizations to earn Boons. Most recent list of boons. Most of them will still be valid, ask if you want something else. Current one-time BP boon returns 30,000 bp. Ongoing boons:
Voidforge Miners, +1,750 bp/turn in Denva.
Sharing General Design, Industrial, biology, and ship design technology.
Large Cogitare presence, continuing to expand.
The Stellar Ascendancy. "Be for others as I have been for you."
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular. Don't do this just because it's free. Do it if you want to know something. Writing those sections delays the updates. If you want Vita to get more done, don't ask for this.
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
[] Travel/Explore: Pick a system on the Map to travel to/explore. Currently, you may travel 1 system as part of an explore action, or 3 systems if you don't explore. You can explore a place you've already explored, or focus your exploration on a specific feature of a place you've already explored. Or explore two systems next turn and then the turn after go back for specific POIs without costing an action. Jumping a single system over as part of an exploration action is free, a number which will increase with better navigation.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method)
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what you spend them on.
Installations
Installation default is to be built in full view. Basic stealth (building under cover, sensor-absorbing materials) can be applied with 2x BP cost. Ground-based installations can be built entirely underground for 3x BP cost.
For non-military installations, you can upgrade them with psychic shielding by spending extra BP up to 4x the base cost of the installation. The more you spend, the stronger the shielding will be.
Basic Biology Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic biological samples, such as flora & fauna. Or captives.
Basic Technological Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic technological samples, to understand their electronics, materials, etc.
Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab (200 BP, 50 CP) Will allow for safer experimentation with psytech and general psyker powers, at the very least confining the damage from perils of the warp. Can be outfitted with inwards-facing psychic shielding.
High-Energy Physics Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Will allow you to conduct research on more... excitable branches of physics. Maybe don't put it close to anything you want to keep. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place)
Warp Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Anexa's brainchild. Half mad science lair, half sensible warp research setup. Will allow you to conduct research on the warp, miniature portal generator and all. Will likely help contain poor results, though maybe give it some psychic shielding. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place in addition to any psychic shielding you add.)
Captive Holding cells (25 BP, 10 CP) will allow you to hold 500 captives and keep them fed and watered while you interrogate/indoctrinate/talk to them. Basic psychic shielding.
Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP) 50 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries. Basic psychic shielding.
Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries. Basic psychic shielding.
Cloning facility (100 BP, 100 CP) All of the facilities necessary to clone 50 babies every year. Childcare not included. Basic psychic shielding.
Directional-control Radio tower (25 BP, 5 CP) improves signal reception quality and allows you to send your own signals across the planet, as well as giving you the capability to bounce them off the atmosphere to disguise their origin. Basic psychic shielding.
Observatory (100 BP, 25 CP) Built on a nearby mountain. Will unlock research projects to map the current system. Basic psychic shielding.
Manufactory (100 BP, 50 CP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +52.5 ground-based build capacity. Basic psychic shielding.
Machine Spirit Manufactory (120 BP, 20 CP) As a manufactory, but controlled primarily by machine spirits. +63 ground-based build capacity. Basic psychic shielding.
Industrial Aquaculture Plant (50 BP, 10 CP) Produces all of the food necessary to feed 5000 people. The food is very spicy. Basic psychic shielding.
Rocket Launch facility (50 BP, 10 CP) Uses chemical rockets to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to half that amount of void build capacity per action. The opposite of stealthy. Basic psychic shielding.
Spaceport (100 BP, 25 CP) Allows you to use shuttles to convert ground build capacity to Void build capacity with no loss, or as a base to host and rearm fighters. Can host 10 fighters or 10 shuttles, each capable of converting 50 ground BP to void BP per action, built separately. Stealthier than rockets, but not invisible. Basic psychic shielding.
Magnetic Catapult launch system (1000 BP, 50 CP) Allows you to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to void build capacity per action with no loss. Actually quite stealthy. Basic psychic shielding.
Medium Void-shield Installation (1000 BP, 50 CP) A void shield capable of stopping medium orbital bombardment, approximately fifty heavy strikes. Basic psychic shielding.
Anti-Orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion. Basic psychic shielding.
Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
Anti-personnel Bunker, Psychic Shielding (40 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor. Modified with somewhat heavier psychic shielding.
Machine-spirit Jammer (100 BP, 10 CP) A bank of cogitators capable of jamming a large number of small machine spirits (weapons, doors), several medium machine spirits (vehicles) or one large machine spirit (small ship). Effect is temporary and resistance will build up. Basic psychic shielding.
Basic Juvenat Production Facility (250 BP, 50 CP) A set of carefully-managed vats capable of supplying 50 people with a perennial supply of Juvenat. Basic psychic shielding.
Void Installations
These are built in space. They require 'void BP' which is associated with lift capacity. This is a detail we'll abandon eventually, but for now your lift capacity is limited.
Orbital Aquaculture Plant (250 BP, 25 CP) Produces all the food necessary to feed 25,000 people. The food is very spicy. Basic psychic shielding.
Orbital Manufactory (250 void BP, 40 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +52.5 void build capacity. Basic psychic shielding.
Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactory (300 void BP, 15 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +63 void build capacity. Basic psychic shielding.
Deep Space Manufactory (750 void BP, 40 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +105 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Basic psychic shielding.
Machine Spirit Deep Space Manufactory (900 void BP, 15 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +126 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Basic psychic shielding.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) 4 Ship construction slots
Medium Shipyard (3000 void BP, 100 CP) 16 Ship construction slots
Large Shipyard (10,000 void BP, 250 CP) 64 Ship construction slots
Nuclear warhead (15 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a hive-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in or protected by void shields.
Exterminatus warhead (100 BP, 1 CP) A "variable-yield" nuclear warhead that must be deployed by an orbiting ship. Comes with a ground-penetrating body about the size of a torpedo, and can be shot down. But if not, it'll set off an explosion large enough to crack the crust and cause planetary-scale devastation from the resulting earthquakes, volcanoes, and utter destruction of all planetary cycles. It'll be possible to survive the resulting cataclysm in a bunker on the far side of the planet, but the planet's toast for at least a century.
Ships
Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP) Rests steailthily in orbit, until activated, at which point it can attack nearly any target in orbit. One-shots satellites, many are needed for ships or larger platforms.
Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Requires a spaceport for rapid transport of troops.
Crucible manufacturing craft (550 void BP, 60 CP, 1 ship construction slot) Voidborne craft with family-sized crew compartment. In-system only, no defenses but relatively hard to chase down. Gives +100 void build capacity, very mobile.
Anvil Large manufacturing craft (1500 void BP, 120 CP, 2 ship construction slots) Voidborne craft with small crew compartment. In-system only, no defenses but relatively hard to chase down. Gives +350 void build capacity.
Tiny system monitor (950 void BP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1500x300 meters. 7 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Light Shields. 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 light lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Small system monitor (2375 void BP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots) Frigate, 2200x600 meters. 5 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. 4x Medium Macrocannons, 1x Medium Lances, 2x Point Defense.
Candle destroyer (1450 void BP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1600x350 meters. 8 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. Living Space, "No" Psychic Shields (20 HP) 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 Medium Lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Flame torpedo frigate (2500 void BP, 2 ship construction slots) 2000x500 meters, 6 gravities, light shields, medium armor. Living Space. "No" Psychic Shields (40 HP) Medium Torpedoes, 2x point defense, Prow ram, Light macrocannons. High-maneuverability thrusters, melta torpedo payloads, Alloyed Armor, Light Boarding preparations.
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
Seeker Bot (80 BP, 20 CP). 1000 light infantry bots, light arms, and armor intended to fight lightly armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine spirits, equipped with "No" psychic shields and basic nonlethal weapons mostly consisting of basic knockout gas that sometimes causes fatal side-effects.
Specter (100 BP, 20 CP). 1000 infiltration bots, light arms and armor intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine-spirits, equipped with machine-spirit jamming and are both passively and actively stealthy.
Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor, mostly intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Good in tight corners and rough terrain. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control.
Light Machine-spirit infantry bots (35 BP, 20 CP). As light Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Light Humanized Machine-spirit infantry bots (60 BP, 20 CP). As light Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look like humans. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger.
Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Good all-rounders. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control.
Medium Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (75 BP, 20 CP) As Medium Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (100 BP, 20 CP) As Medium Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look like humans. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots.
Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good in open field combat against heavily armed foes.
Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (150 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Heavy Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (175 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look human. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots.
Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (190 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look human. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots. Can jam the weapons and equipment of foes who use machine spirits.
Light Machine-spirit tanks (150 BP, 5 CP) As Light tanks, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Medium tanks (200 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor.
Medium Machine-spirit tanks (375 BP, 5 CP) As Medium tanks, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Basic Artillery (300 BP, 50 CP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Basic Machine-spirit Artillery (450 BP, 5 CP) As Basic Artillery, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP, 10 CP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century. Basic psychic shields.
Machine Spirit Ocean Remediation Ship (75 BP, 1 CP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century. Controlled by a very serene machine spirit. Basic psychic shields.
Export Goods
Light Infantry Weapons (5 BP) Enough light weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Mostly intended for anti-personnel use. Lasguns, a few stubbers, some grenade launchers and supplies of frag grenades.
Light Infantry Armor (5 BP) Enough light armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial guard Flak armor, though with better communication abilities. Comes equipped with basic psychic shields, though not perfectly integrated.
Medium Infantry Weapons (10 BP) Enough medium weapons to outfit 1000 humans. A mix of anti-armor and anti-personnel use with greater specialization. Hotshot las-gun equivalents, some lascannons, some autocannons, some flamers, some sniper rifles, a supply of krak grenades.
Medium Infantry Armor (10 BP) Enough medium armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial carapace armor. Comes equipped with basic psychic shields, though not perfectly integrated.
Heavy Infantry Weapons (20 BP) Enough heavy weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Primarily focused on anti-armor, will work well on power-armored foes. Plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
Heavy Infantry Armor (5 BP per unit) Enough heavy armor to equip 1000 humans with armor slightly superior to Sisters-of-Battle grade armor. Can be built with integrated void-shields by doubling the price. Comes equipped with basic psychic shields, though not perfectly integrated.
Basic Force Weapons (5 bp for a personalized one, or 10 for 1 bp for general-purpose) A force weapon in the shape of a sword, axe, spear or glaive. Ideally it gets personally fitted to the user, which is difficult but has a better result, or you can mass-produce weapons that will work but won't be all they could be.
Man-portable Machine-Spirit Jammers (10 BP) Enough small devices in the forms of vox-units, bluescreen grenades and directed antennae to arm 1000 humans with gear that increases their effectiveness against enemies using weapons, armor and vehicles with machine spirits.
Personal Void Shields (5 bp per unit) A void-shield projector capable of protecting a person or bot from weapons fire. Can be fit into an amulet or be a larger unit attached to armor for greater shield strength.
Light crewed tanks (100 BP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Need crew. Roughly equivalent to the Imperial Chimera. Basic psychic shields.
Medium crewed tanks (200 BP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor. Roughly equivalent to the Leman Russ. Basic psychic shields.
Basic Crewed artillery (300 BP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication. Basic psychic shields.
Trade goods (Any cost you wish to spend) A mix of medical supplies, civilian equipment, vehicles and appliances tailored to your trade partner's needs. 5 is a small amount of goods, 10 is decent, 20 is a fair number, 50 starts being quite a lot.
Manned Manufactory (100 BP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +52.5 ground-based build capacity, to be spent as the people running it desire. Basic psychic shields.
Residential Space (10 BP)
Enough living space for 1000 people. Beds, plumbing. Temperature control. Basic psychic shields.
City (1000 BP per 50,000 people)
The complete package for a city. Residential space, power generation, sewage treatment, transit, and offices. No food production. Basic psychic shields.
Orbital habitat (1750 Void BP per 50,000 people) As city but in space. Includes Hydroponics. Basic psychic shields.
Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it, and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. Also can turn the seaweed into moderately palatable food for the crew. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century. Basic psychic shields.
[] Research: Gain research points equal to your research capacity, to be spent designing new blueprints or researching projects. Write in what you spend them on.
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, use the rules below and then spend the RP necessary to vote on them. This includes bunkers, anti-orbital defenses, ground units, etc.
If there's something you want that's not explicitly on this list, it's probably fair to assume that you cban use the nearest reasonable thing - if you want to design psychically shielded armor, the RP cost will be the same as for the appropriately sized bots. Same for manned vehicles and remotely controlled vehicles.
Small Blueprints Design
Blueprint Modification Options
Blueprint Modification system: We've unlocked various additions to ground blueprints. Instead of attempting to list all possible combination below I'll list the base options, and you can trick them out with the following modifications. In general BP & RP should round up to the nearest 5. CP does not. Note that these are calculated off "base cost," not total cost, so it is not compounding, though some upgrades increase the base cost.
Here's an example of me designing a fancy assault shuttle (I'm not going to keep this up to date, so the numbers here may not reflect the numbers as you improve the modifications available with future research
The base blueprint is 25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP), but I want to make it fancy. First, let's make it machine-spirit controlled. That gives +0.5x base BP, -0.9x CP, or +15 BP, -4.5 CP. So the blueprint is now:
25 RP - Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (40 BP, 0.5 CP)
Then I want to give it void shields. That costs +1x base BP cost because it's a small craft, then +1x RP. So +25 BP, +25 RP. Now it's:
50 RP - Void-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (65 BP, 0.5 CP)
Now I want to give it psy shields. That's +4x base BP cost for small craft (which was 25, so +100 BP), and +1x base RP cost (which was 25, so +25 RP). So now it's:
75 RP - Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (165 BP, 0.5 CP)
Oh and screw it, might as well make it stealthy too, which is +1x base RP cost, +0.25x base BP cost, so that's +10 BP (round up to nearest 5) & +25 RP cost, which leaves us with:
100 RP Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (175 BP, 0.5 CP)
And of course that's a bit of a mouthful, so I'm going to rename it the "Icarus," and the blueprint should look like:
100 RP - Icarus (Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle, 175 BP, 0.5 CP)
If we'd wanted to also make it humanized (so it looks like it's piloted by people, for example if you wanted to transport allies without them knowing it was flown by robots) then this all changes, since that adds +5 BP to the base cost. That doesn't change the RP or CP cost at all, but it does change BP. Instead of 25+15(0.5x)+25(1x)+100(4x)+10(0.25x)=175 you'd do (25+5)+15(0.5x)+30(1x)+120(4x)+10(1.25x)=205 BP. And then you'd have
100 RP - Basic Stealth Humanized Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (205 BP, 0.5 CP)
Crewed - (No change in RP or BP cost, completely removes CP cost) Makes a unit operable by a crew of trained humans. Incompatible with Humanization, Machine Spirits decreases manpower requirement. Can be applied to: Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Humanization - (+15 base BP cost for combat bots, +5 base BP for vehicles, small craft & defensive installations) Makes a unit appear to be operated by fully-armored humans. Slightly increases strength and armor of those units. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine Spirit Jammers - (+10 base BP) Adds machine-spirit jamming equipment to the blueprint, enhancing capabilities against forces that use machine spirits. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine-spirits - (+0.5x base BP cost, -0.9x base CP cost) Make this blueprint controlled by machine spirits, making it slightly corruption resistant and reducing the load on your systems. Synergistic with Psychic shields. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Void Shields - (+1x base BP cost for tanks & small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds void shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft.
Psychic Shielding - (+2x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds psychic shields to the object, having a variety of effects based on the type of shielding. Synergistic with Machine Spirits. Choose one of: "No" (offers general protection to warp attacks), "Begone" (coming into contact with warp entities may banish them), "Veil" (Protected from psychic perception, mild antimemetic effect), "Soothe" (Being in contact with or contained within the shield soothes warp-sensitive creatures). Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations. A blueprint can currently carry two layers of shielding, with any combination of shielding meanings.
Basic Stealth - (+0.25x base BP cost for vehicles and small craft, +0.5x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP cost, ) Makes a unit harder to detect with both active & passive means. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Less-than Lethal armament - (+0.5x base BP cost for vehicles, small craft & bots.) Arms a unit with dispensers for drugs to render human foes unconscious instead of dead. Will be improved by research for flexible. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Gravity Weapons - (+2x base BP cost for vehicles, small craft & bots.) Arms a unit with gravity weapons, capable of ignoring armor and ripping apart enemy internals on high power, or fairly effective short-term crowd control on low power. Power-hungry and short ranged, will be improved by research. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Combat Bots
10 RP - Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor.. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at either.
25 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Vehicles
15 RP - Light tanks (100 BP, 50 CP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium tanks (250 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons & antipersonnel weapons to fight enemy armor and infantry. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at any.
25 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Small Craft
25 RP - Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) A single shuttle which converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity, and shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking for it. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
25 RP - Bomber (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
25 RP - Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Cannot deliver troops to space targets.
Defensive Installations
10 RP - Anti-armor Bunker (50 BP, 5 CP) A bunker with a heavy melta cannon, able to take out most armor in a single shot.
5 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (20 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor.
15 RP - Anti-orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
10 RP - Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
25 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
25 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
10 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
Utility
50 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien origin. Has advanced scanning, modeling and processing capabilities.
10 RP - Maglev System (5 bp/mile, 50 flat CP) A high-capacity maglev system to transport large amounts of goods across a planetary surface, linking various surface installations together into a single network so production from any of them can be applied at all of them.
25*N RP - Void Manufacturing Platform (1000*N BP, 50*N CP) Design a larger, more efficient deep-space manufactory. Produces 100*N+50*N^2 BP. N must be a positive integer, currently capped at 5. If N=5 this platform would cost 125 RP to design, 5000 BP to build, 250 CP to run, and produce 100*5+50*5^2=1750 BP. Requires megastructure machine spirits before you can get the machine spirit boost. Further technology will increase max N.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:
Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total amount of space inside the ship, which is represented by the number of BP spent on the hull. That's your "Budget"
Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards cramming.
Pick hull equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards cramming.
Choose weapons, combat equipment & noncombat equipment to add to the ship. Your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in.
Have a vote win which spends the necessary RP to design the planned ship.
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Light defense Platform, 10 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Destroyer, 25 RP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slots (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 50 RP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150)
Light Cruiser, 75 RP, 200 CP, 8 ship construction slots (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/150/300) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Heavy Cruiser, 100 RP, 300 CP, 32 ship construction slots (2000-6000 BP, 4500x600-6000x1200 meters) Engines: (2/3/4 gravities) for (300/400/500 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400)
Available Hull Equipment:
These do not count towards hull cramming.
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command. Not required for OMC control.
Machine Spirit (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is primarily controlled by a sub-sapient machine spirit, reducing the CP cost of the base hull to 15% of what it would be normally. Currently limited to light cruisers, medium defense platforms and anythimg smaller).
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Void Abacus (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can navigate through the warp slowly, at a rate of 3 systems per action.
Psychic Shielding (Between 1/10 to 1/2 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, which has an effect based on the type of shielding. Choose one of: "No" (offers general protection to warp attacks), "Begone" (coming into contact with warp entities may banish them), "Veil" (Protected from psychic perception, mild antimemetic effect), "Soothe" (Being in contact with or contained within the shield soothes warp-sensitive creatures). HP of the shield is 1 HP per 5 BP spent on it. A blueprint can currently carry two layers of shield, with any combination of shielding meanings.
Basic Passive Stealth Profile (1/5 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has it's sensor profile reduced with special coatings and a shape that reduces the cross-section in response to active sensors. It can reasonably expect to stay hidden at long ranges (outside weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Improved Passive Stealth Profile (1/2 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is heavily dedicated to stealth, with not just coatings and a shape but also significant amounts of sensor bafflers and other passive systems designed to prevent it from being spotted. Should be able to stay hidden at medium ranges (or long weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Advanced Passive Stealth Profile (Doubles base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship tries it's hardest to be a void in space, and so long as it's not moving it generally succeeds. Should be able to stay hidden at close ranges as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Probably not good enough to get into boarding range.
Available Weapons:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Multiple the final weapon cost by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of weapons, it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for final ship cost.
Prow Ram (1/20 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50). This ship is built to run into things, and hurt them more than it gets hurt.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor. Heavy Plasma Cannon 1000 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Heavy Melta cannon 800 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor.
Light Gravity Blaster 300 BP, Very short-range, continuous weapon that wrecks enemy internals while ignoring armor. Ineffective against shields. Medium Gravity Blaster 600 BP, Very short-range, continuous weapon that wrecks enemy internals while ignoring armor. Ineffective against shields. Heavy Gravity Blaster 900 BP, Very short-range, continuous weapon that wrecks enemy internals while ignoring armor. Ineffective against shields.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability. Basic stealth automatically applied. Shuttles 100 BP, 50 CP. 10 Shuttlecraft, combined capacity of 500 lift to or from a planet. Assault Shuttles 150 BP, 50 CP. 10 Assault shuttles, with combined capacity of 1000 troops or 10 tanks in one trip. asic stealth automatically applied.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers. Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched. Large Torpedoes 600 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck cruisers, hurt grand cruisers and make battleships know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down. Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down. Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Novacannon 1000 bp. Fires a teraton-range shell at extraordinarily long range that does damage in a large area-of-effect. More effective against multiple smaller ships than a single big ship. Aimed by aiming the ship, and extended or repeated engagements can burn through ammunition, which is mitigated with ammunition bunkers.
Available Equipment:
Multiply the final equipment cost (both combat and non-combat) by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of equipment it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for actually paying for the ship.
These do count towards hull cramming.
Low-emission Systems (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has been tuned to reduce overall emissions, making it stealthier. Not stealthy. Stealthier.
Improved Sensors 250 BP - increased size and density of sensors, backed up by the necessary computational support, will make it more difficult for anybody to sneak up on this ship. Excellent Sensors 500 BP - You would say it's impossible to sneak up on a ship with this many sensors, but you saw what the Eldar did, and now it's merely incredibly improbable. Superb Sensors 1000 BP - This ship has enough sensors of enough modalities that it's basically a mobile scientific research platform. Anything weird will get noticed, investigated, and if it's an enemy ship, pinned down.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for tuned shields, so if shields costs 100 bp, then tuned shields cost 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for alloyed armor, so if armor costs 100 bp, then alloyed armor costs 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). Armor is much tougher but is harder to repair.
Light Boarding preparations (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) Bulkheads are reinforced, extra hatches seal all decks and turrets guard key chokepoints, making boarding annoying. Medium Boarding preparations (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) The ship layout is designed to funnel borders into kill-zones in front of armored bunkers, and any borders will take heavy casualties. Heavy Boarding preparations (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship as essentially a flying dungeon, filled with escherian mazes, hidden turrets, crushing-hallways and other deathtraps.
Light Machine Spirit Jammers (1/20 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Enough to cause significant degradation in an enemy ship's sensors, maneuvering and targeting. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Medium Machine Spirit Jammers (1/10 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same as light jammers, plus will also affect total thrust, weapons firing rate. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Heavy Machine Spirit Jammers (1/5 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. The same effect as medium, but may also affect friend-foe designation and reactor stability. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class.
Ammunition Bunker (100 BP) Holds a store of ammunition and specialized manufacturing equipment to supply ammunition to all projectile-bearing ammunition on the ship. Stacking more on a ship will reduce ammunition concerns for drawn-out battles and general resupply needs.
These do count towards hull cramming.
Troop compartment (50 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 severely injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/5 of its cost. (plus 5%)
Cloning Bay (100 BP) All of the facilities necessary to clone 100 babies every year. Childcare not included.
Cargo Bay (No cost, free. Designate an amount of BP to fill for cramming purposes) Allows transport of an amount of BP equivalent to the cramming amount from one system to another.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost. Can be used to refit the ships as well with a +50% markup. Cannot be used to make new ships, bots, manufactories.
The ways to get new research options are to:
Do research. That'll unlock more research.
Build appropriate installations & potentially acquire samples to research in them (samples could be anything from 'a human' to 'a Norn queen' in rarity).
Ask for them. Often I'll tell you what you need to do to unlock specific research options,
Ship Design
-[] Grand Cruisers (350 RP) Making a ship design that's not spaghetti takes time and effort. It's still boring. But if you want to make queens of the void, its necessary. (unlocks grand cruisers, half of the prereq for battleships)
-[] Medium Defense Platforms (50 RP) You've already got most of the tools you need to build bigger defensive platforms, but these would be a larger platform to stick guns on, with more ability to withstand damage. (Unlocks medium defensive platforms, potential for other void-based installation options)
-[] Improved Engine Designs (100 RP) Based on your understanding of physics and a few old research papers you think you can improve engine reactor thrust velocities. (Enhances ship speeds at every level. Unlocks further speed, maneuverability & stealth technologies)
-[] Streamlined ship design (100 RP) You can improve your tools for ship design to make it easier to design ships in the future. That might be nice (Halves the RP cost to design new ships, may unlock other ship design improvements)
-[] Extremely Efficient Equipment Distribution (250 RP) With further optimization, you can fit more stuff in your ships. (Equipment costs count as 0.75x for ship capacity packing. Especially effective for cargo holds on a good roll.)
-[] Extremely Efficient Weapon Distribution (200 RP) You did a good job already in packing more weapons into less space. But you think you see ways to make it even better. (Weapons costs count as 0.75 for ship capacity packing)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design new iterations of your ship)
-[] Boarding Capabilities (100 RP) Apparently it's common for ships in this day and age to board each other and for the crew to fight hand-to-hand. Instead of, you know, chucking enormous missiles at each other. Insane. Well, it might be a nice capability to have in case you want to capture ships intact. (Unlocks boarding torpedoes, drop pods, and boarding craft for hangers, may combine with stealth research to unlock stealth borders)
-[] Networked missiles (100 RP) The biggest danger to missiles is that they'll get shot down by fighters and point defense. If you can network them together to cooperate against those threats, more of the warheads will reach their targets. (Unlocks new combat equipment to make missiles more effective. May unlock more technology to make missiles smarter, longer ranged and generally more effective)
-[] More than just a Boom (100 RP) It's hard to argue with enourmous explosions. Still, sometimes you need alternate ammunition types for various purposes. Guided shells with melta-warheads, plasma rounds to strip shields, active pulse shells to break stealth, maybe even vortex, antimatter, psytech or psychic-shielding based shells... (Unlocks a wider variety of novacannon ammunition, synergizing with other techs and unlocking more research for more exotic payloads)
-[] Bigger Gun, Bigger Bullet (150 RP) There are all kinds of technical difficulties in scaling up a novacannon. But none of them are true blockers, and the only thing stopping you from hucking shells the size of a small ship at your enemy is your imagination. And a lot of design work. (Unlocks a Heavy Nova cannon that will barely fit on a grand cruiser, with an effect to match).
-[] Streamlined Novacannons (200 RP) You left some improvements on the table in the first go-around with nova cannons. Some might let you effectively miniaturize them, others might let you pack the same punch into a smaller package. (Discounts novacannon weapon, potentially enough to fit on a destroyer. May unlock smaller novacannon suitable for turret-mounting, or other novacannon optimization tech.) Requires Improved Gravity Weapons
General Design
-[] Megastructure Manufacturing (200 RP) You can design larger void manufactories now, and there are corresponding gains in efficency. . (Improves the size of void platform available for construction. May unlock research for other kinds of manufacturing, including core taps, asteroid-eaters, orbital rings, etc.). Requires Advanced Materials
-[] Ground Manufactory Efficiency Improvements (50 RP) You dramatically improved the efficiency of your void manufacturing by stripping out the dumb stuff that was required by stellar federation bureaucracy. There's probably some stuff like that in your ground manufactories too. (Reduces the CP cost but not BP cost of your ground manufactories. Unlocks follow-on tech to build ground manufactories in more challenging conditions such as extreme temp/pressure planetoids).
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Walkers (250 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, dreadnaughts, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Mothballing (50 RP) Keeping a bunch of systems functional and ready requires attention that is swiftly running out. Maybe you can figure out how to spend less attention on things that are mostly inactive (Unlocks the ability to mothball an installation for 10% of it's build cost, free reactivation that takes a few weeks. May unlock techs to allow you to freely turn things on and off, as well as increasing the speed of reactivation enough for you to keep military installations mothballed until they're needed.)
-[] Habitation Requires Correct Ingredients (200 RP) If a planet lacks an essential element, there's not that much you can do about that. Well, there isn't unless you lack imagination. You could crash comets and asteroids into the planet and get volatiles that way - but it would take a lot of them. Still, doable, if expensive. (Unlocks the ability to add essential elements to planets that lack them. Likely expensive, though further research will reduce the cost).
Stealth
-[] Improved Spaceship Passive Stealth (200 RP) Your current stealth systems are effective, but it would be nice if they were a little bit more effective. And maybe a bit cheaper. (Improves the effect and cost of stealth hull equipment. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth.)
-[] Low-Emission equipment (150 RP) Hiding a ship's profile versus active and passive sensors is one thing, but hiding engine signatures and head dumping is entirely another (Unlocks new non-combat equipment to allow ships to maneuver and do other things without destroying their stealth. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. May unlock technology to allow weapons fire without breaking stealth.)
-[] Active Spaceship Stealth (150 RP) Not returning a sensor signal is one thing, but actively providing false signals is another, and something that the Drukhari are evident masters of. (Unlocks new equipment to improve ship stealth against various sensors that you can't trick any other way. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. May unlock technology to hide your position and prevent enemies from getting good targeting.)
-[] Ground force stealth standardization(150 RP) It takes some time and effort to design stealth versions of various units, and they end up more expensive to produce. If you take another look at the process with an eye towards standardizing it you could probably improve that. (Reduces the BP & RP cost of stealth modifications for ground forces, potentially to zero.)
-[] Improved Passive Stealth (50 RP) Ok, you've figured out the basics of hiding your small craft, but you have ideas on what you can do better, that might allow them to hide from even fully-alert enemies. They probably won't be able to close all the way to attack range, but they'll be able to get a lot closer (Unlocks improved stealth designs with improved performance. Unlocks further research for advanced passive stealth technologies. Will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Improved Active Stealth (150 RP) Again, moving towards the idea of actively countering sensors so they can't see you. It's a cat-and-mouse game with sensors, and you want to be the cat. (Improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures. Unlocks further research for advanced active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Optical Camouflage (300 RP) Covering your units with holograms to make them harder to see with the naked eye sounds like a simple concept, but it very much is not. You need to know where the watcher is, project an image of what's behind you, and make it account for the movement of both the viewer and object. Unless you can think of a better idea. (Unlocks a blueprint modification to make your units harder to see. Unlocks further visual camouflage capabilities that might be closer to true invisibility)
-[] Examine the Dark Eldar Craft (150 RP) The Dark Eldar boarding craft showed incredible stealth capabilities. If you can figure out how it works that would be a great way to improve your own stealth capabilities (Discounts all stealth technology, may unlock unique stealth research and let you see through Eldar stealth better) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
Shields
-[] Heavy Void shields (150 RP) Your current shields are good, but they could be better. Specifically, you want to make multi-layered shields, which could be applied to anything larger than a destroyer (Unlocks heavy void shields for ships and stations, as well as further research for void shielding improved for recharge speed, layered defenses, etc.)
-[] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (100 RP) Well, the void shields you have are nice. But it would be nice to be able to build bigger ones, that can shrug off essentially any possible orbital bombardment. You need to figure out how to take advantage of the ridiculous energy and heat dissipation capabilities of being on a planet. (Unlocks heavy and super-heavy void shield installations. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding.)
-[] Void Shield Layering (400 RP) If you could layer multiple shields together, then when one failed the second could take damage while the first recharged. Right now there's harmonics that prevent this, but you are sure you can figure it out... with a full redesign. (Unlocks the ability to layer two sets of shields. Will unlock research for more layers of shielding, weirder shapes of shields and other specialty modules)
-[] Void Shield Discounts (250 RP) You have some ideas on how to swap out materials or simplify designs to reduce the costs of void shields. (Reduces the cost of void shields across the board. May lead to new kinds of mundane applications for void shields, such as manufacturing modules, shielded fighters or shuttles)
Materials & Armor
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks. Prerequisite for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Chaos Space Marine Armor Investigation (100 RP) Between the dozen corpses you can almost certainly piece together a full suit or two of armor from the chaos space marines. What does it do? Why is it covered with horns? (Significant discounts on space-marine power armor research, potential discounts on robotics and cybernetics, may unlock further research to improve power armor. Potential identification of strengths and weaknesses of Black Legion power armor).
-[] Advanced Materials (250 RP) You know there are exotic elements with absurd physical properties. But it's also possible to build absurdly strong materials with common elements. How does that work? Time to dust off some ancient research projects and figure this stuff out. (Unlocks improved armor, as well as research to unlock megastructures. Also required for battleships and larger walkers)
-[] Heavy Armor Production Line (100 RP) You can make Heavy armor, but you solved the problem by effectively making each suit into a custom-crafted suit full of expensive actuators. Maybe a redesign will make it cheap enough to mass-produce, and unlock follow-on research. (Dramatically reduces cost for heavy armor, and subsequent superheavy armor. May unlock more options for heavy armor, including integrated mobility options)
-[] Armor Device Integration (200 RP) Your armor blocks blows, which is its basic purpose. Still, it would be great to be able to integrate different devices into it - void shields, psytech, mobility options like jetpacks, holdout weapons and more. (Unlocks the ability to design specialty types of medium, heavy and superheavy armor that contain additional functions, many of which will be unlocked by other technology.)
-[] Temperature? Let's talk Albedo (150 RP) To change the temperature of a planet, you simply need to change how much it's absorbing and re-radiating, then let the energy of a local star do the rest. (Unlocks projects to heat or cool planets over decades with surprisingly minimal investment. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] The Golden Metal (200 RP) On Calderath, inside the Sector Governer's Hall of Wonders, in place of pride, you found a piece of golden metal supposedly from the Emporer's armor. What is it? What can it do? Why does it react stragely to psychic energy? Can you shape it into something for Cia? How can you find more? (A basic understanding of auramite and how to work it. Will unlock further research to prospect for it more efficiently - or potentially synthesize it eventually). Write in if you'd like to fashion what you have into the edge of a weapon or part of a piece of psytech for Cia.
Necrons
-[] Necron Initial Investigations (200 RP) You've got these scary robots lying in prison cells as if you're afraid they'll come to life and attack. Which you are. But the reason you have them is to study them, so start studying them. Everythign about them is fascinating, from the matierals they're made from to their mode of articulation to their processing units and even some faint radiation they're giving off. (Begins the necron research tree). Requires advanced technological research lab.
Robotics
-[] Avatar self-customization (100 RP) Your previous avatar was capable of changing its appearance at your whim, changing the hair, eye and skim color rapidly. Hair length and body size changes took a bit longer but were also possible. Is this worth figuring out? It might just be you being vain. (Unlocks some disguise-style cybernetics... once you get good cybernetics and can do things like skin/eye replacements).
-[] Improved Armor Articulation (50 RP) From your research on humanizing combat bots you have some ideas about improving the points of articulation on armor to increase the range of motion and make the suits more responsive. (Increased performance & mobility for heavier armor, both for combat bots & people wearing heavy armor you make. May unlock further armor upgrade techs)
-[] Combat Bot Melee Combat (150 RP) Your bots aren't armed for melee combat, and don't really have the articulation for it. If you could fix that, maybe they wouldn't be so vulnerable to close-range combat. (Gives your combat bots melee weapons and basic proficiency with them. Will unlock technology for improved melee proficiency, as well as synergize well and potentially unlock technology for improved melee weaponry.)
-[] Really good Robotics: (600 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
AI research
-[] Intelligence Coding (400 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree, also unlocks personality-checking research)
- [] Personality-Checking Routines (200 RP) All of this chaos-corruption is making you nervous. People changing according to the will of some warp-entity? Becoming different in ways that would disgust their past selves? That gives you the heebee-jeebies. Maybe - just maybe - it would be good to develop some ways to automatically check if aspects of your personality are diverging ways you don't want them to. Then you might be able to fix the problem before you become somebody who doesn't want (Gives you some algorithms to check for personality divergence in AIs. Doesn't do anything, just alerts you to changes and lets you decide what steps to take. Unlocks further research to prevent/rollback personality change, as well as potentially extend this research to humans with neural implants). Locked behind Intelligence Coding.
Psychic Shielding
-[] Better Psychic Shielding Efficiency (150 RP) You've figured out how to make your shielding modular, but each panel is still tricky to make. If you spent some time iterating that design you think you could make them even easier to make, and potentially power powerful (Further Improves the BP/HP ratio for psychic shields, may improve the HP of shielding you can pack into a unit of space.)
-[] Psychic Shielding Reliability (100 RP) Trying to make tripwire-versions of your shielding that could be installed in everything has revealed a weakness - the circuits can spontaneously fail. You fixed that problem by making them tougher, but now they won't always trigger. You're confident you can fix this issue, but it'll require you to make them more failure-proof. On the plus side, this should mean that your psychic shielding can last longer without maintenance. (Makes psychic tripwires more accurate, potentially to the point where it's impossible to corrupt your tech without you knowing about it. Also likely to make your psychic shielding last long time periods without maintenance. Will unlock research to use this on ships, and to make civilian-grade versions that could be put into literally everything).
-[] Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (175 RP) Start installing this shielding into hull plates as the norm. Every ship will have psychic shielding (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for all ships and platforms. Will unlock research to make cheaper shielding better)
-[] Offensive Shielding meanings (250 RP) You're starting to figure out the rules behind designing new kinds of psychic shielding, but you think that the designs branch by intent. Using the psychic shielding offensively might let you do things like put it into projectiles, project the effect away from the physical shielding, and maybe even enhance the descrutive power of weapons. (Unlocks new shielding meanings that can be used offensively, including in ranged weaponry. May lead to further techs to impose nasty warp effects on local areas, entirely technologically).
-[] Defensive Shielding meanings (200 RP) Your "no" shielding works well, but there's a lot of room to improve it in all sorts of ways, from strength to the area protected to extending to the material properties of armor. (Unlocks new shielding meanings that improve the defensive capabilities of psychic shields, unlocks research for meanings that improve the base toughness of whatever the shielding is attached to.)
-[] Utility Shielding meanings (200 RP) There's a lot of potential in your psychic shields to influence the local warp, to have all kinds of impacts on the local area. Who knows what kinds of powers that will unlock? (Unlocks new shielding meanings that do various things, including better stealth, improved psytech, faster movement etc. Will lead to future research for various random utility meanings.)
-[] Self-repairing psychic shielding (200 RP) Once you have a thinking, even if non-sapient, being in the loop on your psychic shielding, you can start to think about building it out of a material that'll let it self-repair after damage. (Your psychic shielding will repair when not in combat).
-[] Tiny Psychic shielding (300 RP) You were able to make your smaller psychic shielding by stacking the components and using the interference caused to generate the proper effect. However, you don't understand that interference well enough to go any smaller. Once you do, you can start to try to make actually tiny versions of the psychic shielding, small enough to fit in implants, or potentially into totems that project the shielding effect outside of themselves. (Fixes the issues with personal psychic shields, unlocks the ability to create implants with psychic shielding capability and potentially allows you to make amulets with psychic shields. May unlock additional technology to make all of that better.) Requires Triple Nested Psychic shielding
-[] Triple Nested Psychic shielding (200 RP) You've had two shields, yes. What about three? (Allows you to have three layers of shielding active at once. May unlock tech to allow inner shields to boost outer shields to be greater than the sum of their parts)
-[] Multi-meaning shields (250 RP) Your current shields say "No." Other sayings probably exist, and saying multiple things at the same time might have more esoteric effects, such as damaging attackers or defending better against certain types of attacks. Combining multiple of those into one shield could be powerful. (Allows you to combine two shield types together into one shield. May unlock further research for further combination, or to say one meaning EXTRA HARD.)
-[] Scrapcode Denial (250 RP) Scrapcode - and psychic corruption in general - is a difficult opponent. It's hard to enforce mistakes when it can magically see through your defenses. But if you could incorporate psychic encryption into that approach, it becomes viable again. (Makes your shielding Extraordinarily resistant to potentially completely immune to scrapcode-based attacks. Does not apply to machine spirits yet. May unlock technology to apply to other kinds of corruption. Likely synergistic with generating your own scrapcode)
-[] Psychic Shield Tuning (150 RP) Your new scrapcode defenses help against scrapcode, but not necessarily other threats. This research would potentially allow you to tune the capabilities of your shielding on the fly to improve performance against other angles of attack. Likely to allow psychic shielding to physcially block demons. (Resistance to specific types of attack will improve with exposure, up to a cap. Unlocks more research to allow for more flexible shielding that can target specific weaknesses of various psychic enemies. Synergizes with mutli-meaning shielding.)
-[] Enhanced Psychic Encryption (200 RP) You can block normal scrying and warp communication, as if you were encrypting everything. But it's possible that really good scryers could unscramble the signals somehow. Maybe? You're not sure. Still, it would be good to cut off the possibility. (New versions of psychic shielding that block even scrying & communication by expert seers. Likely to unlock specialized research to build installations that will deny scrying and foresight over a larger area - like a planet or system.) Requires Immaterium Understanding
The Warp
-[] Teleportation is like skipping a stone (150 RP) Teleporters work by skipping a cargo across the shallow warp, linking two places for a moment. They are limited in many ways. Now that you understand that, you can find the limits to extend range, capacity and think about other ways to utilize the same general idea. (Improves teleporters for boarding, may lead to the ability to directly teleport to planetary surfaces. Unlocks further research for further improving the teleporter, as well as potentially leading to warp portals, which is likely required for webway understanding).
-[] The Epicure of Chaos (100 RP) You can bin warp signatures into blessings, artifacts or rituals, as well as distinguish what god they came from. But you're not sure if you could tell apart a ritual of summoning from a ritual of empowerment or a ritual meant to attack an enemy. Work on that. (Allows you to detect what kind of ritual/blessing/artifact you're dealing with on the fly. Unlocks new intelligence when dealing with chaos, as well as the potential for actively countering or interfering with chaos when paired with alternative shielding meanings).
-[] The faintest whiff of the Chaos-Touched (200 RP) Warp signatures linger on objects and people. It'll be a short range-sensor, and may end up being some kind of scanner, but you can probably tease out the passive remnants of a ritual or even association with chaos-blessed objects on a person. (Unlocks improvements to sensors that will let you detect people who've been in proximity to a chaos ritual or have touched a chaos artifact, even if they bear no blessing.)
-[] Shards of Humming Gemstone (100 RP) The shards of crystal you recovered from the ritual don't carry an inherent chaos taint of their own, but they resonate with the warp somehow. The largest piece you have is the size of a human hand, maybe you can figure out what it is and how to use it? (May unlock new options for using, finding or synthesizing this warp-reactive substance, as well as discounts to technologies that involve resonance with the warp.)
-[] Empathy at Range (150 RP) Your warp sensors work well on things that are nearby, but they're definitely not able to detect anything large beyond combat range, or smaller things beyond very close range. Maybe it's a matter of improving sensitivity, maybe you need to specifically build some parts of your psychic shield to extend range. (Makes your warp sensors active at longer range, unlocks further research to pinpoint psychic activities from across the solar system. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication)
-[] Yelling into the Warp (150 RP) If you can receive signals from the warp, how do you send them? It probably involves modulating your psychic shielding somehow. Does that mean a new thought? Probably. (Unlocks the ability to cast signals into the warp, though that may attract attention. May allow you to signal psychically-sensitive allies... or enemies. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication)
-[] Warp Weather Prediction (300 RP) The Warp has been said to have "weather." Well, at least storms. But if you're constantly monitoring the signals from your psychic shielding, you can start to make predictions about what will come. That... might be useful. (Likely to give you advance warning of significant warp-effects, especially warp storms. May unlock further research to improve warp navigation, and if you crit again, a strange kind of warp-based technological foresight.)
-[] Warp Manufacturing (150 RP) The laws of physics break down in the warp, and in spaces influenced by the warp. This includes creating impossible structures and pushing materials beyond their limits. Figuring out how to use that might be tricky, but will probably be quite rewarding. (Figure out ways to use warptech to improve mundane manufacturing, unlocks techs for both mass-production and relic-tier artificing). Requires Immaterium understanding.
-[] Vortex Weapons (250 RP) When you first read about them vortex weapons sounded... terrifying. Now you're even more scared. Still, that might be a nice thing to have in your arsenal at some point. (Unlocks basic vortex weaponry. Likely further research for larger and smaller vortex weapons). Locked behind High-energy Physics
-[] Reliable Gellar Fields (200 RP) Your gellar field technology is capable, but for something that important you want it to be rock-solid. That'll probably require a full redesign, but having a gellar field that cannot be knocked out with destroying a good chunk of your ship seems like it might be a good investment. (Improves your gellar field technology to make it more reliable and redundant. Will help you resist demonic attacks in the warp.)
-[] Faith is my shield? (75 RP) Clearly the Imperium believes that faith can protect you from warp gribblies. It even seems like it might be true. How? Is there a way you can harness the effect without having to dedicate yourself to the Imperial creed? Also, what's going on with this skeletal hand you found? (Understanding the benefits of Faith. May unlock further research to allow Vita to design a less objectionable faith optimized for warp protection, and help develop better psyker training programs. Likely to unlock further understanding of relics and their usage.)
-[] Bell, Book and Candle (200 RP) Needing to set up a whole ritual for demonic binding and banishment is... potentially an issue. Trying to come up with all-purpose rituals that can be deployed offensively might be a useful tool to have in your pocket. (Develops anti-daemonic equipment for blueprint modification, as well as unlocks new narrative options for dealing with demons. May lead to research for ship-scale anti-daemonic equipment.)
-[] Read the Fine Print (200 RP) Summoning Demons is generally viewed as a bad idea. However, if you take the appropriate precautions, it can be an effective way to gain information, recruit footsoldiers, leave some damned nasty booby traps or even bind them into objects for an extra oomph. (Gains the ability to summon demons without significant investment. May lead to further research to bind demons into objects to make some pretty crazy items. Synergistic with warp manufacturing).
-[] Immaterium Understanding (200 RP) Anexa believes she understands something fundamental about the warp. Do some experimements to see if she's right. (Further discounts on all warp-related research, potential to unlock a research from farther down a warp research tree while skipping prerequisites) Anexa must work on this action. Guaranteed level(s) for her. Requires Warp Research Lab.
-[] Improved Void Abacus (125 RP) You understand how the Void Abacus works now, and you think you can tweak it to be better. That involves some amount of expanding and improving its connection to the warp though, so you're far from certain (Improves your Void Abacus design to be faster and better at warp jumps, though still inferior to an average navigator. May unlock further optimization of Void Abaci, including for cost/unstable warp jumps).
-[] The Basics of Psychic Computation (350 RP) You have several examples of different kinds of cogitators that interact with the warp in some way. They all share some kind of neural network system, but are very different in other ways. If you can figure out the minimal requirement for something to be psychically active - well. That would have implications. (Improves psychic shielding research, psytech research, some machine spirit research, may improve scrapcode research. Will help genetic manipulation to create psykers. May lead to a research tree to make psychic AIs or implants that grant psychic powers).
Psytech
-[] Help Cia's Training (50 RP) By spending more time with Cia, actively monitoring her use of her powers and providing feedback, you can improve the quality and outcomes of her training (Gives a +10 to any Cia training dice this turn, and may result in new kinds of outcomes. Can be improved by further pyromantic research. Repeatable)
- [] Basic Psychic Amplification Devices (100 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic amplification, but to actually confirm that you need to build one and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic staffs or other personal psychic amplification devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic amplification, as well as larger amplification constructs)
- [] Basic Psychic Suppression Devices (150 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic suppression, but to actually confirm that you need to build some and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic hoods or other personal psychic protective devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic nullification, as well as larger nullification constructs)
-[] Complex Psytech Implants (250 RP) Adapting what you know from organic-machine control implants, you can give a psyker greater control over their implants, in turn allowing you to give psytech implants more capabilities and more power that requires active tuning on the fly. (Improves psytech implants in terms of both precision and raw power) Requires either Basic Psychic Suppression Devices or Basic Psychic Amplification Devices
- [] Improved Psychic weapons (250 RP) You are starting to understand how force weapons work, but you're far from perfecting them. There's definitely work to be done on the composition of the main weapon, and if you can figure out how to grow crystals into the proper orientation that will help, and the psi-convectors and... well. It's almost easier to list the ways you can't improve them. (Further improves force weapons in every way. Potential to unlock specialized kinds of force weapons, such as versions specialized to fight specific foes and maybe large-scale force weapons such as ship rams).
- [] Psychic Aegis (250 RP) Psychically enhancing a weapon in combat is an obvious application, but the equally-obvious follow-on is enhancing armor. Or shields. Whatever. General defensive measures. It would be significantly more complicated than a simple weapon, and shields are probably the first step. But still - that would be a path to near-invincibility. (Allows you to create force shields and armor. Unlocks further research for improved force armor and other kinds of large-scale defensive psytech).
- [] Psychic Materials (250 RP) Silver. Specific kinds of crystals. Chitin? What unifies those things? What is it that makes them warp-conductive? If you can figure that out, maybe you can start designing new warp-capable materials that are better. (Psytech improvements across the board in terms of new materials, likely follow-on research into specific specialty materials and applications. Will be improved by samples of additional psionically active materials).
- [] Pyromancy Staff (200 RP) Amplifying a specific kind of psyker powers should allow you to amplify them even more. (Allows you to build pyromancy-focused psychic amplifiers, with the most common one being in the shape of a staff. Will unlock further pyromancy-specialized equipment, including larger-scale and more powerful amplifiers that may be relevant in ship combat.)
- [] Improved Pyromantic understanding (300 RP) Cia's eager to delve further into the secrets of pyromancy, and if you tried you could follow along for the ride. Any maybe figure out how to model this specific kind of psychic power. (Improves all pyromancy-focused psytech, improves the Help Cia's Training action and may unlock research towards influencing young psykers towards pyromancy.)
-[] Basic Divination (100 RP) Gwen's naturally inclined towards futuresight with her power. You could try and figure out more details about how that works, though it'll rely on her to generate somewhat larger-scale effects. (Allows you to build divination- focused psytech, and potentially unlock new kinds of actions or narrative options for Cia) Locked until Gwen reaches level 5.
-[] Destructive Scrapcode Investigation (200 RP) Well, if Bongo doesn't want to play ball, maybe you need to go in there and figure out what makes the scrapcode generator tick. Time to bring out the power tools. (Discounts existing scrapcode research, may unlock new research around psytech/psychic shielding. Gives better understanding of Chaos Demons. Destroys the scrapcode generator and likely banishes Bongo back to the warp.)
-[] Scrapcode Generation (350 RP) You have the barest hints as to how you might start generating scrapcode. You need to imbue psychic meaning into code. You're not quite sure how you might go about that, but it's an interesting avenue to chase down. (Unlocks the ability to create and hack with your own brand of scrapcode) Requires psytech past Basic Psychic Amplification Devices, as well as Rapid hacking
-[] Sigils of Power (250 RP) There are various sigils that are effective in binding, banishing and damaging demons. They can probably be integrated with psytech to be even more effective. (Modifies psytech to be especially effective at hurting, protecting against and evading demons. May unlock further research towards demon-interacting psytech).
Physics
-[] Dark Eldar Weaponry (150 RP) You have a few examples of Dark Eldar weaponry. Some of it just uses esoteric poisons, but other parts seem based on physical princples you can't identify. That's exciting (Unlocks new weapons based on Dark Eldar small-arms weaponry) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
-[] Improved Gravity Weapons (150 RP) Your gravity weapons are fairly rudimentary and could be made significantly more elegant. Start by tuning the power flow, then by decreasing the graviton interference... (Improves the range and reduces the cost for gravity weapons. Likely to improve the range for nova cannons, may unlock other applications of gravity technology.)
-[] Bootstrapping a magnetic field (200 RP) If a planet's magnetic field is dead then in the short term it'll be bombarded with hazardous levels of radiation, and in the long term whatever atmosphere is present will get blown off into space by stellar wind. But there might be a way to fix that? (Unlocks a rather expensive semi-megastructure project to start up magnetic fields. Unlocks further research to cheapen the process. May lead to some crazy research into utilizing or messing with star or gas-giant magnetic fields.) Requires Advanced Materials.
-[] The Promise of Superconductivity (250 RP) Now that you know the scope of the challenge, you think there's actually a lot of promise here. The problem is that you're not going to be able to just read literature, but actually come up with something yourself. (Discounts across many researches involving high current, a flat production boost of 10-20% depending on rolls, and potentially discounts on ship/bot equipment depending on rolls.)
-[] Miniaturized antigrav (50 RP) You can make antigrav that reduces the weight of things like shuttles to make them able to make orbit. But there's a floor on how small you can make that technology. The Imperium seems to have solved that. (Unlocks drones, jump-packs etc, as well as additional research to make antigrav vehicles/walkers)
-[] High-energy Physics (200 RP) There's some pretty crazy stuff you can do with physics. Especially when the energy exponents really start getting insane. However, that's going to take a bit of testing - maybe on a planetoid you don't care too much about. Or in space. (The next steps towards bigger, badder weapons, such as fusion beamers, volkite weapons, disintegration weapons. Half of the research for vortex weaponry.) Locked behind a High-Energy Physics Research Lab
-[] Antimatter is Dang Scary (250 RP) So. Antimatter. A staple of science fiction since time immemorial. The problem with dealing with antimatter is that it requires nothing less than perfection in every respect. One flaw in containment and suddenly you've got an anhillation reaction on your hands. Another problem is actually reacting it in a controlled way, since it favors incomplete reactions which result in the rest of the antimatter going the other direction at a speed close to light. Hmm. That might be interesting to weaponize (Unlocks methods to manufacture antimatter, which is a special resource that can be used to upgrade explosive weapons to incredible yields. May unlock technologies for weapons that fire beams of antimatter, which would be... dangerous.) Requires High-energy Physics.
-[] Better Sensors are just Physics (150 RP) You've made some progress on better sensors, but if you're really going to go to the next level you're going to start looking for edge cases. Things that are hard or downright impossible to hide, and will give away an enemy ship no matter its stealth. (Unlocks better basal sensors across the board, as well as improves specific stealth technologies. Synergizes with stealth research, unlocks even better sensors and may unlock long-range sensors to do detailed scans from across the system).
-[] Combat Information Gathering (200 RP) Many ship weapons are slow-firing and demand specific responses. If you can tell what an enemy ship is going to do before it does it, that will give you a tactical advantage. (Allows you to detect and decode energy signals to predict enemy ship activities, giving an advantage in combat. Will help more the better your sensors are. Will synergize well with boarding, may unlock targeted-teleportation technology and technology to target weak-points).
Machine Spirits
-[] Machine Spirit Ground Strategy (250 RP) Your bots can coordinate on the small scale, but being able to manage larger battles and fights is beyond them. If you can figure out how to connect individual squad networks together you can improve their performance. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued infantry & vehicle forces over the scale of theaters. Will unlock further technology for improved strategic coordination.)
-[] Machine Spirit Combat Bot Flexibility (250 RP) Your bots can do one thing, and that's win fights with lethal force. If you want them to do things like take captives, or avoid collateral damage, then you're going to need to teach them to do that. (Enables enhanced flexibility of orders for your combat bots. May unlock greater creativity in problem-solving on the part of your combat bots, as well as the capability for the bots to be effective at medicine or other tasks)
-[] Machine Spirit Void Tactics (100 RP) Fighting a ship is a very different thing from fighting on the ground, but many of the principles are similar. Adapt them. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued ships and void fighters. May unlock technology for improved strategic coordination. If you want to point your fleet at a system and say "Conquer it, spare the civilians" this is a good tech to have.)
-[] Advanced Large-scale Machine spirits (100 RP) Machine spirits scale strangely, and the effort of trying to keep them functional and stable as they get bigger is hard. But the value of them being so much easier to control is substantial (Raises the size limit on machine-spirit hull equipment.)
-[] Megastructure Machine Spirits (200 RP) A ship is a single entity that must be lean and efficient. But they also tend to be heavily standardized, with rugged construction and easy repairs. But a larger strucutre doesn't share those things, and needs to be able to deal with a greater diversity of modules (Unlocks machine spirit-improvements for larger facilities, including shipyards, larger manufactories and other potential megastructure-scale constructions).
-[] Independent Manufactories (300 RP) Your manufacturing machine spirits are pretty good at being independent but still require some direction on sourcing materials, and various types of blockages. If you give them more independence then they'd need even less management. But at the same time, building in that much independence would require appropriate safeguards so they didn't go off the rails. (Further reduce CP requirements of machine-spirit manufactories).
-[] Machine Spirit Shipboard Manufactories (75 RP) The constraints on shipboard manufactories make them different enough that you haven't been able to apply the machine spirit technology to them. (Improves the BP produced by the shipboard manufactory equipment, likely by about 20%. May unlock tech allowing better cramming for ship manufactories).
-[] Basic Automated Manufactories (150 RP) If you tool a factory and install a machine spirit optimized to make just one thing, then it can just keep doing it without your oversight. (Unlocks automated ground/orbital/deep space manufactories, which will continue to produce a single kind of product without requiring actions. Will require CP, and cannot make starships or installations. Unlocks further research to increase productivity, and flexibility, remove the CP requirement, as well as allow the automated manufactories to produce ships, installations and eventually megastructures).
-[] Machine Spirit Ship Design Improvements (200 RP) By encouraging creative and complex solutions to problems you can use the design-specialized machine spirits to improve your ship designs in exciting new ways. (Allows you to cram more things into void ships, depending on rolls. May unlock further research to further optimize cramming, as well as discount the absolute cost of various categories of ship components).
-[] Machine Spirit Hallucinations (200 RP) Your new machine spirits are capable of incredible creativity when you push them to solve impossible problems. A lot of it is silly and impossible, but buried within the morass are occasional nuggets of gold. Every good idea starts as a bad idea, so let's generate more ideas. (Improves the number of RP you get per action, though not by a huge amount. May unlock more research to further improve this number).
-[] Machine Spirit Chaos Immunity? (250 RP) You might be able to make your machine spirits "super-sane" and nearly impossible to hack with chaos shielding. It's likely to make them more expensive, but it may be worth it. (Unlocks blueprint options for ships & smaller units that makes them virtually immune to chaos takeover.)
-[] Psytech Machine spirits (100 RP) You don't think that machine spirits can be psychically active. However, from what you understand of psytech it's a temperamental and difficult discipline, and you think that integrating machine spirits into the construction of psytech might improve its reliability and performance. (Improves psytech, at the cost of making it somewhat more expensive. May lead to more advanced versions for more advanced psytech, and may contribute to better psychic shields)
Biology
-[] Servitorization (50 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Variety is the Spice of Life (50 RP) Your current foray into aquaculture production is fully effective at feeding large numbers of people, but it also makes them try to drink an ocean the first time they eat it. And several times after that. And kind of kills their taste buds toward anything else. Maybe get some other versions of aquaculture working that don't do that? (Fixes the spice problem).
-[] Enhance the Agriculture! (200 RP) 5000 people being fed from one facility sounds like a lot. But it's really not when you start to consider things like star systems. So far you've been playing with the hobby-version of aquaculture. More commercial versions used heavier food-manufacturing systems that are closer to organic printers. They'd probably be much more effective for feeding extremely large numbers of people. (Unlocks blueprints for extremely efficient methods to produce large amounts of food. Unlocks research to install tiny systems that fully substitute food needs, such as installing something onto a spacesuit that fully converts waste into delicious food).
-[] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP) Calderath is an interesting case of a planet that doesn't need to be terraformed so much as ecologically engineered. You think you know how to do it - make a microbe that sinks the stupendous amount of seaweed standing up the oceans and buries it in ocean sediment. Actually making and deploying such a thing and having it do what you want is a different matter. (Potentially makes Calderath livable to humans again without breathing masks. Will cross-synergize with MICROBES, and both techs will discount each other) Write-in a risk tolerance. Depending on how well you roll you might not release it and instead get a follow-up action to further improve your solution. Even if you roll poorly and release it there will be a subsequent roll to determine success or failure.
-[] MICROBES: Miniaturized climate regulatory and optimized biogeochemical engineering symbionts (250 RP) Microbes are the chemical factories that reshape the chemistry of the planetary surface and atmosphere to your liking. Delving into the techniques used in the distance past to figure out how to engineer them would let you design better, faster terraforming organisms, as well as let them be applied to more extreme starting conditions (Improves, cheapens, accelerates and broadens the terraforming projects you have available. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] Study the Strange Seed (150 RP) Gwendolyn has a strange seed that occasionally seems to glint with golden light. What's... going on with that? Can you figure out what it is? Maybe clone it? (More information on the strange seed, potentially unlocks the ability to clone it, may unlock a questline of some kind). Requires Gwendolyn active action to research.
-[] Complex genetic enhancement (150 RP) The complexity of human genetics lies in the epistasis between multiple different alleles. Put more simply, this shit is complicated. Figure it out. (Unlocks more advanced enhancements, including significantly improved strength, intelligence, etc. Unlocks research for even more dramatic engineering, and is likely required to try to make psykers)
-[] Psyker genetics (300 RP) What makes somebody psychic? You have a psyker, and some genetic samples from others acquired from various trips to the monasteries. (Allows you to develop a test to determine psychic ability, though it won't be perfect. Unlocks further technology to improve psychic potential in adults and embryos.)
-[] Understanding Mutations (150 RP) The mutations that occasionally pop up in Denva's population are... weird. Complex, and have bizarre phenotypes. Why? What's causing them? Why are they so hard to treat? Maybe look into that. (Potential cures for more difficult mutations, as well as further research into why they occur, and treating other kinds of genetic deterioration.)
-[] That's two levels of augmentation too many (150 RP) The Chaos Space Marines you fought are not really intact anymore, but there's enough accumulated gore spread around that you should be able to get a decent sample of their genetics and stuff like extra organs and surgical enhancements. And maybe mutations? (Discounts genetics, mutation, augmentation research. May unlock special researches around geneseed and space marine-specific augments.)
-[] Adult genetic engineering (100 RP) Genetically modifying an adult comes with all sorts of complications. Doing it without killing them or incapacitating them for months is even harder. (Allows your genetic enhancements/therapies to apply to adult humans. Likely required for a full understanding of juvenat.)
-[] New Body, Brain Missing (100 RP) Unlocks the ability to clone humans without fully developed brains, ripe for harvesting for organs or being used as new bodies if you can figure out mind-uploading (Improves medical devices, along with companion cogitators will unlock technology to allow for mind backup and uploading).
-[] The Tank-bred (100 RP) You know a number of mutations that can enhance human capabilities, and you're on the path to figuring out more. But cloning people carrying those traits is another matter. (Unlocks the ability to clone enhanced humans. For now that's just slightly healthier, stronger, smarter, but as you unlock new tech,nologies it may include navigators, psykers or people with space-marine level augments).
-[] Alien Cloning (300 RP) Cloning humans is one thing, but extending those same capabilities to aliens... that would be dramatic indeed. Still, it's worth investigating (Can attempt to clone other generally humanoid species. may lead to techs to further enhance this capability).
-[] The key to Expert surgery is Ego (150 RP) You can do fairly effective surgery, but the most complicated surgeries are beyond you. From all of the literature you have available, to truly break into the next level you merely need confidence. The confidence of somebody who believes they cannot be wrong. (Unlocks further discounts for advanced medical tech, cybernetic augmentations and more. Unlocks very advanced medical care, and further technology for reviving technically-dead bodies and brain transplants).
-[] Physical Apperance is Skin-deep (100 RP) Being able to do surgery on somebody's inside is one thing. But what about their outsides? (Unlocks cosmetic surgery to fix scars, alter appearances and even change skin tones. Unlocks follow-up research to allow you to disguise humans as xenos species whose biology you understand, or vice versa. May discount juvenat research.)
-[] Regeneration is just a matter of applied Growth (300 RP) You can make sure everything lines up properly to stimulate natural growth, but you can't actually accelerate it. Trying is a quick path to cancer and needs to be tweaked for every patient. That's why it wasn't common even in your time. But it should be possible, and you don't have to worry about pharmaceutical patents. (Your medical treatments have vastly accelerated healing timelines. Normally a prereq of juvenat, but in this case will simply have synergy. Unlocks further research for video-game-like med-kits and the ability to give people new organs without surgery)
-[] Perfect Knockout (75 RP) Your knockout gas is good, but it could be great. Increase dosage window, increase duration, decrease side effects. Make it absorb through exposed skin. (Dramatically improves effectiveness of knockout gas).
-[] Superhuman Uppers (100 RP) Pushing beyond the realm of what's normally possible for the human body is a recipie for disaster - unless you design the drugs right. (Unlocks drugs to boost human mental and physical characterstics beyond norms. Includes basic psytech drugs. Half of unlocking further psytech drugs).
-[] Juvenat Beginnings (325 RP) Ok. Juvenat is complicated. You're able to make it by following a formula that is at times precise, at times general and at times just - what? Maybe start to delve into the science of that. (Unlocks a basic understanding of juvenat, and may make it more efficient to produce. Tech cost will be reduced by other biomedical researchers. The start of the juvenat research tree.)
-[] Navigator Genetics (400 RP) So... you have some navigator genetic material. You can poke at that, see if you can figure out how it works. They had a reputation even back in your day, and it only seems to have gotten worse. Still, tempting. (Unlocks basic understanding of navigator genetics. Will unlock further technology to improve the health of navigators, as well as technology to allow you to clone navigators.) Locked behind Complex genetic enhancement
-[] Navigator Gestation (50 RP) You have a navigator fetus. You don't know what to do with that beyond the obvious. So, how would you do it? Well, you doubt you could just implant it into somebody. From the traces left behind on Klyssar's nest you should do this in a tank. (Allows you to turn the navigator fetus into a navigator baby)
-[] Dubious Dark Eldar Dissections (75 RP) You've got some corpses of Dark Eldar. Time to take them apart and see what you can learn! (Gives you some details on Dark Eldar physiology. May provide bonuses towards psyker genetics, or develop medical techniques, drugs or implants for Eldar)
Cybernetics
-[] Combat Mobility Cybernetics (100 RP) Sticking rockets and grappling hooks into cybernetics isn't just cool. It's also useful - it'll let the wearers utilize more of the strength of their new limb without tearing apart their organic body. It'll also give them new maneuverability options. (Unlocks new parts for augments that enhance the wearer's strength and mobility. Synergizes with other technology, may unlock enhanced mobility for bots & armors)
-[] Combat Neural Implants (50 RP) Allows you to install neural implants to calculate trajectories, assist with aiming, further improve reaction time and generally improve human capabilities in combat. (Unlocks combat-focused neural implants. Will synergize with other cybernetics and neural implant technologies)
-[] Advanced organ replacements (500 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, but not quite. But they can't adjust to shocks in body homeostasis and they do need to be replaced every decade or so. You think you can make them as good or slightly better than the real thing, including the potential to grow with the bearer. (Unlocks organs which actually just replace normal organs almost perfectly. Likely to synergize with other implant/cybernetics/enhancement techs).
-[] Superhuman organ replacements (300 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, and have some useful auxiliary functions. But there's another level of improvement that's possible here. You could make organs that conveyed superhuman characteristics on the wearers. Improved oxygen transfer rate, improved bone density, immunity to most toxins, improved healing rate. (Unlocks advanced organs implants which grant superhuman capabilities. Not quite space-marine-level, but that's the next tech, though these are still artificial). Locked behind Advanced Combat cybernetics.
-[] Companion Cogitators (325 RP) Your implants are good. But they still rely on external computers for any heavy lifting. But with a good deal of work, and some effort at miniaturizing computation, data storage and power units you could fit a full computer into somebody, giving them access to a full suite (Powerful neural implants capable of incredible amounts of data crunching/cryptography, as well as full virtual presences. Further improves Organic-machine control, unlocks very powerful types of implants, including implanted machine spirits, personality-backups and depending on other technology minor AIs).
-[] Mood Regulators (100 RP) Interfacing the implant with the brain's emotional centers will allow it to regulate emotional states. Potentially useful to help the bearer regulate dangerous emotions like fear, lust, anger, greed, sloth, as well as emotional outbursts when such would be dangerous for them. Also potetnialyl useful for interrogation. (Your implants that can help with - or destroy - mental stability. Useful for those engaged with Chaos, and for unstable psykers. May unlock more technology geared towards ensuring a stable mental condition). Locked behind Drugs? Drugs.
-[] Pain Controller (100 RP) Pain is an incredibly deeply seated stimulus, and it's hard to block it without destroying a lot of senses. But if you manage it it could help immesurably with combat implants. (Your implants allow the deadening of pain, allowing people so implanted to fight or last through injuries and other bad feedback).
-[] Advanced Combat cybernetics (150 RP) Your cybernetics can easily contain light and some medium weapons, but they're not really suited to heavy combat. Yet. You could make them tougher, beefier, and figure out how to fit the power sources for larger weapons inside. (Unlocks advanced combat augments. Half of the technology for excellent combat augments, unlocks further cybernetics/research). Locked behind Really good Robotics.
-[] Advanced Cognition Filter (150 RP) Your existing Cognition Filter works very well, but you worry that it's prone to remove important details. It's hard to see how long an enemy's sword is when that sword is covered with Chaotic sigils, for example. Some amount of modelling and virtual reality augmentation could just replace that with an unadorned sword, circumventing the drawbacks of the first-generation cognition filter. (Improves Cognition filters to remove any downsides to filtering out chaotic information from perception.)
-[] Sanity Module (150 RP) By integrating your learnings from chaos-resistant machine spirits into implants, you can help ensure that people with your implants keep a firm grip on sanity. (Reduces the vulnerability of people with your implants to corruption of all kinds, as well as more normal psychoses. Helps stabilize psykers). Requires Companion Cogitators.
-[] Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (300 RP) Chaos corruption is a lot of things. However, it almost certainly involves some amount of neural rewiring to think more Chaotic thoughts. With your neural implants, you believe you might be able to reverse that, using warp sensors to detect harmful thoughts, then a combination of memory editing, negative feedback and induced plasticity to undo the Chaotic brain patterns. This is unlikely to return them to how they were before, but it'll give them a chance to be somebody new without demons twisting their brain. (Your brain implants can slowly un-corrupt the mental side of chaos corruption). Requires Companion Cogitators& Understanding Mutations
-[] Advanced Organic-Machine Control (200 RP) Given improved technology you think you can let a single person control an unprecedented amount of machinery. At some point a crew of humans will be able to have as much CP as you will. (Approximately doubles the capacity of organic-machine control, letting a single human command more CP worth of units. Leads to further follow-on improvements.) Requires Companion Cogitators.
-[] Large-Scale organic-machine Control (75 RP) A manufactory is one thing, a shipyard or gas refinery is another. But at this point it's mostly a matter of scale and networking. (Allows OMC implants to control any kind of industrial production, including shipyards and non-military megastructures. Leads to further technology to improve the amount of CP one person can control.)
-[] Collaborative Computational R&D (250 RP) You've set it up so that humans can help you with research and development, but the gains are limited because there's only so much they can help you with before you get diminishing returns on team size. Figure out better ways to utilize your research teams and let bigger teams contribute to projects. (Increases size of research team before RP/turn limit is reached. May assign more technical staff to further reduce design costs.)
-[] Streamlined OMC interface (100 RP) Your Organic-machine control implants are a beast to learn how to use, and the learning curve to true mastery is measured in decades if not centuries. With a further redesign focused on effective tooltips, detailed tutorials on every facet of their function and further optimization to work with various kinds of robots you can help new operators figure out the ropes and get up to speed quickly. (Increases effectiveness of humans equipped with OMC implants, both for combat and manufacturing)
-[] Gameified OMC (75 RP) You have the combat simulation part of it down, but a game is more than just fighting. You need a framework for why the fighting is happening, some kind of tie-in to manufacturing and the ability to make people care about the results of the combat. You can solve all of those problems, but doing it properly so that people actually learn useful skills and enjoy doing it will be tricky. (Create a game that teaches OMC-skills to the general populace, both providing basic training and helping find individuals with above-average proficiency. Synergizes well with Lower OMC Implant Specs)
-[] Interchangeable OMC control (100 RP) Right now it's somewhat tricky for somebody to take over a new OMC system. There's a lengthy process of familarization & customization as they feel out the new system and get it all running. All of this means that it's hard for people to easily switch off between constructs or take over new ones when the old ones are destroyed. If you can streamline the user interface and make everything more standardized, then it'll be possible for operators to "plug and play" with new hardware. (Makes it possible for people with OMC implants to quickly swap between controlled systems, letting them do things like just jump control to a new fighter when the old one is destroyed, keep manufactory systems operating through multiple shifts and ease collaboration.)
-[] Lower OMC Implant Specs (150 RP) Your OMC implants are fairly intense, and only growing more so as you improve their capabilities. If you figured out how to dial down the requirements for the software, then it would be possible for less-sophisticated and invasive implants to also work with the system. They wouldn't operate at the same capabilities of control, but it would allow people with civilian-grade implants to control a CP or two worth. (Dramatically lowers the barrier to entry into OMC-style work, allowing a much larger fraction of the population to work with organic-machine control, and likely accelerating training as lower-scale implants are required to successfully work with OMC-technology. May unlock future technology to allow implant-less people to operate OMC effectively through normal cogitators).
Hacking
-[] Rapid hacking (400RP) You need to figure out a new approach to subverting machine spirits. It might involve some combination of confusing them with a burst of signals, then showing up and 'relieving' the issue. But it would take a lot of trial-and-error to get right. (Improves hacking of imperial tech. Potentially enough for use in combat situations? Will unlock further hacking technology).
-[] Improved Machine-spirit Jamming (300 RP) Well, you can't combine it with hacking, but you can still try to improve what you have to be more efficent, target more machine spirits at a time, etc. (Improves success rate of jamming imperial tech, decreases failure penalties. May unlock further jamming technology)
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 18
-[] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[] Anexa passive action: Exploratory Research - Roll to discount a random tech from one of her specialties, a success will discount an amount similar to her +5xLevel RP bonus but modified with the roll. Will receive the specialty bonus, and a crit will result in a level-up and unlocking a new bonus technology, like what you get for a crit on a research action.
Specialties (3/4): Machine Spirits. The Warp, Cybernetics. Grants a +10 bonus when doing research rolls in the relevant category. Staff: 100 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +20 CP each (2000) & 1 RP each (60) per turn, with people beyond 50 providing 0.2 and people beyond 100 providing 0. For design, 20 can be assigned to a design task to halve its RP cost. Those so assigned will not produce RP
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 19
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens. Staff: 100 assorted diplomats, analysts and spies from Aevon Intelligence & Counterintelligence. Will provide narrative bonuses to spying, diplomacy, infiltration, etc. (It's now valid to insert them covertly and you'll be provided more information on new worlds you talk to.)
Cia Steblin, FocusedPyromancer Psyker
Level 15
-[] Cia Active: Psyker improvement - Cia will actively attempt to practice her powers. Roll two d100s. Take the higher roll for determining level-up, but take the lower for perils of the warp. (DCs are unknown but context-dependent. They are currently favorable and will get less favorable as she levels)
-[] Cia Passive: Psyker improvement - Cia will take lower-risk actions to improve herself, including meditation, study and augmentation. A single level-up roll, with only a low roll resulting in perils of the warp.
Focus: Combat. Cia is now armed with custom heavy armor and a large but crude two-handed force sword.
Abilities: Cia is able to use minor psytech without risk. She's learned the value of carrying around a few mundane ways to make fire for when she doesn't want to rely on her abilities, but is focusing on improving her pyromancy, which is currently ranked at Epsilon.
Gwendolyn Kytante, Strategist
Level 2
-[] Gwen Active action: Military Command - Gwen will help coordinate and run a military campaign. She will contribute her level as a bonus to an order action that involves military action. Required a critical failure for perils of the warp.
-[] Gwen Passive: Training & Psyker improvement: Gwen will roll to improve her understanding of strategy and tactics by reading literature and studying past battles. She will seek to improve her psyker abilities, but only as a secondary foucus. Will only roll on perils of the warp with a failure.
Focus: Stategy. Gwen is armed with custom heavy armor and a crude two-handed force sword. She's not really that invested in personal combat, but will become involved in any surprise military actions as a commander.
Abilities: Gwendolyn is a diviner-specialized psyker, currently ranked at Delta
There was just the one conversation with the Necrons. You don't know much more than that, and you have no information on their ship. You don't think they detected the presence of the inactive necrons in the brig, but you're not certain of that.
On the new warp shielding, my primary concern is that this does not get too complicated. I've added adjustments to the blueprints design process, and we can assume that it's incorporated into civilian manufacturing below the level of abstraction. You can also now design blueprints with up to two layers of psychic shielding to stack effects. The "no" shielding remains the most effective at defending from psychic attacks. The "Begone" shielding requires physical contact - i.e., being in melee range. All that the "Hey!" Shielding does is unlock Yelling into the Warp. The Soothe shielding isn't secretly anti-demon.
Because it's been asked a few times - getting both Empathy at Range and Yelling into the Warp unlocks the Warp Comms tech, which probably costs about 200-350 RP depending on rolls. It will also only be a very early version of the technology, sending only somewhat directional pulses with low data throughput though the warp. Not enough to command ships remotely. Yet.
I added this text to the top of the blueprint design page:
If there's something you want that's not explicitly on this list, it's probably fair to assume that you can use the nearest reasonable thing - if you want to design psychically shielded armor, the RP cost will be the same as for the appropriately sized bots. Same for manned vehicles and remotely controlled vehicles.
If you do significant favors for the Vellkar you'll earn the opportunity to spend them. But you don't know what the opportunities are right now, though some of them might not be hard to guess. If you leave Victan on passive, he might get to know them himself, or you could spend an action to get to know them better, potentially unlocking a boon in the doing, and learning what kinds of things they could provide to you. But it's a risk - you don't know if they have anything you want.
The part about Victan's development is me informing you that Victan's level-up developments will depend on the technology you have available. Right now, he'd get options similar to those available last time, though likely more focused on making use of his staff and turning them into operatives or whatever. But if you unlock companion cogitators, or implant technology, or maybe some particular genetics tech, then that will unlock new options when he hits level 20 focused around applying those technologies. Though one of those votes will be to delay until you get better tech.
The NEPTUNE military academy is all set and is rolling along just fine. You could have spend a boon to get your pick of the best strategists of this generation - but you already have one. You have the option to enroll Gwen for one turn, which could have good or bad results depending on her roll. Think of it as expanding the distribution on both ends.
A normal success on Large-Scale organic-machine Control will be enough for the Denva boon, though Megastructure Machine Spirits would guarantee it. It's a free action to hand over the Nova cannon tech.
Ah, yes. You may notice that this update didn't come out last weekend. That trend is probably going to continue. I started writing Vox as a break from my actual writing project, and that's accomplished. So from here on out Ends of Magic is going to be where the bulk of my writing time goes, and I'll write Vox when I feel like it. Updates will probably be every 2-4 weeks instead of every week, but we'll see how it goes. So far I've been surprised at how easily having the guidance of the vote makes the words flow, so that may continue to draw me back.
Hey! - You can build warp devices that send a long-range semi-directional signal through the warp. Needs an appropriate listening device at the other end.
-[] Large-Scale organic-machine Control (75 RP) A manufactory is one thing, a shipyard or gas refinery is another. But at this point it's mostly a matter of scale and networking. (Allows OMC implants to control any kind of industrial production, including shipyards and non-military megastructures. Leads to further technology to improve the amount of CP one person can control.)
-[] Megastructure Machine Spirits (200 RP) A ship is a single entity that must be lean and efficient. But they also tend to be heavily standardized, with rugged construction and easy repairs. But a larger strucutre doesn't share those things, and needs to be able to deal with a greater diversity of modules (Unlocks machine spirit-improvements for larger facilities, including shipyards, larger manufactories and other potential megastructure-scale constructions).
And even 75 RP has trouble being a no-brainer. Probably worth doing, though. (Mega MS would be really nice to pair with that macro space industry tech though. Really nice.)
Meanwhile the only thing giving them nova cannons costs us is the option to not give them nova cannons.
Had most of my reactions on discord. May bring them over here later, but I should probably get ready for bed, lol.
I would like to say two things briefly:
One, I want to boost navigator gestation. It's cheap, and preventing a poor success here is really, really worth it.
Two, I'd like to get complex genetic enhancement same turn. Though adult genetic enhancement is an option, I feel that this is unlikely to be qualitatively the same as having actually applied it from the start - gaining superpowers as an adult has nothing on actually having them during your formative years, when who you are takes shape. I want that process to benefit from the augments we offer.
Doesn't Nova Cannons mean that once we are done with Sensors we are very technically done with the military in the short term, since you can just keep spamming them at whatever target shows up?
Doesn't Nova Cannons mean that once we are done with Sensors we are very technically done with the military in the short term, since you can just keep spamming them at whatever target shows up?
Novacannons are quite the trump card to pull, but even when ignoring details like captures and preventing retreats, they're not a one stop shop for naval combat needs. Ammo types will help with that a bunch though, some of the examples given by the research are quite spicy.
"Beware of your claims, mortal. This system, and every system in this sector, are the rightful and true property of the Thonakh dynasty of the Sunless Tomb. Your true overlord is Tazekhet, the Shadowed King."
You know, it's not unreasonable to ask what they offer in terms of annexation. The reason why diplomacy works out is that, even if they are assured of victory, maybe they would prefer not paying the cost of war and instead giving other concessions. Surely an ancient and technologically-founded race...
Soon enough the Necron ship well and truly is on its way, leaving behind the drifting hulk of the crucible, which they annihilate with strange beams of green energy as they depart. You follow their course until the ship goes FTL with a pulse of exotic radiation. Assuming they don't change course, they're headed for
Kethraxis, and have more intelligence on Denva than you're probably happy with.
Doesn't Nova Cannons mean that once we are done with Sensors we are very technically done with the military in the short term, since you can just keep spamming them at whatever target shows up?
There are some very nice to have military things after nova cannons for short term goals. Bigger ships, better shields, and better void manufacturing to name a few.
First things first, I think whatever plan we do has to have us fill out our troop holds. I don't want us to get into a situation again where we're lacking infantry.
There are some very nice to have military things after nova cannons for short term goals. Bigger ships, better fields, and better void manufacturing to name a few.
That academy could be the setting for an anime. Maybe mecha anime tropes? You're one of the best and brightest, an ordinary dude who's going to command a high-end sci-fi weapon as a young hotshot in the fleet against lethal alien threats that could end the world!