Anyway, vote time. Lots of MWCO options this time around - I like
Comments on member fleet incomes:
As previously indicated, member fleets that advanced their mobilization level in the Arcadian crisis (UESPA, TSF, RDS from 100% peacetime to 125% early mobilization; VHC and BDF from 75% pacifist to 100% peacetime mobilization) haven't returned to their original economic mobilization levels just yet. But they'll likely do so starting from now.
Except the crazy Amarki staying with their limited 150% mobilization level. Heck, even if they were on peacetime mobilization, their income would still rival the Apiata's income. It may not be sustainable, but as long as they can establish new successful colonies in the GBZ, it'll pay off and their current "limited mobilization" could turn into their new "peacetime mobilization" economic levels. It already happened before in 2312 as a legacy of the Lironh bombing!
Other than that, incomes haven't changed at all. Not even the Apiata, which is a bit surprising because I would've thought their new GBZ mining colonies would've increased it.
Priorities:
As I pointed out, Betazoids already have a 2nd 1000kt berth and will struggle to fully utilize all their 5 berths with their paltry income, so the 'Change Betazoid Long Term Priority to "Second One-Megaton Berth"' vote doesn't make sense.
edit: Oh, the Betazoids are building Centaur-As. Huh, they and the Vulcans are actually the most likely to build them due to their near 1-to-1 BR to SR income ratios.
I thought about a Rigel budget increase, since they have the lowest resource to crew income rate in the whole Federation, but their priorities strongly imply that they're constrained by lack of raw resources, and thus they're expanding to address this problem.
I find it very interesting that the
Apiata Amarki (edit: oops) effectively told us "we're not idiots, shove off" when last year, we voted to tell them to "focus more on cargo shipping". Because they were already crash building more cargo ships and did not drop their "Riala-A '17" priority at all. In fact, they jumped ahead on prioritizing new frigate classes (which were voted on in the SDB thread). Let's not annoy them again this year, m'kay?
Andorians and Apiata are struggling to find ways to use up their growing crew pools. Apiata in particular - they have a whopping 52 enlisted!! The Apiata are addressing their resource to crew ratio imbalance by developing in the GBZ. But the Andorians don't have such an out. They're already in a rut with overdeveloping Centaur-As instead of saving for Renaissances (they're only building one). There's nothing else they can do except invest in resource income development, which it looks like they're already planning to do. And the fact they're aiming for mine development instead of budget increase indicates that they can't feasibly do the latter.
Finally, Humans - poor guys. They actually only lost a single Miranda last year, but they also need to recover from all the casualties and ship damage costs. UESPA now has the 2nd weakest member fleet out of the whole Federation, dropping down from a tie of 3rd weakest with the Andorian Guard last year. They're even below the Vulcans now! Fortunately, they have they the 3rd strongest income (or 4th, if Rigel ever had a resource surplus), so they should be able to catch up.
In conclusion, I can't find any priority that obviously needs changing this year.
[ ][PRIORITY] Change nothing [Weighted 1.5x]
No-brainers:
[ ][GAENI] 100sr for 150br
[ ][REN] Endorse the tech transfer
Cats:
Let's not mess up the standard Caitian battle group in their GBZ force. They have 4 Fatherships and 14 Modern Swarmers, with 2 more of the latter on the way. That implies that their standard formation is intended to be 1 Fathership + 4 Swarmers. (Contrast that with the Apiata [Little] Queenship + 2 Stinger battle groups.)
[ ][CATS] 1 Fathership, 4 Swarmers
Bees:
First off, the Apiata's need for a Stinger replacement is less important for the overall health of the Federation than helping the developing Orion Union. Well, the Qloathi are also an option, but there's no evidence that they're struggling like the Orions.
Additionally, the development of a Heavy Stinger that would utilize more BR would require a >600kt design, which would in turn require upgrading most of their berths which are 600kt in size. That's a very large and non-obvious investment.
[ ][BEE] Exchange resources with the Orion
The Apiata may have 1 2500kt and 6 600kt free berths and an impressive treasury of 315br 130sr and income of 165br 115sr, but they still can't populate all those berths with new Stinger builds. Starting this year, they can only afford to start 2 Stingers or Foragers per year. Meanwhile, I think they're already building two Bumblebees (cargo ship) and a Dorsata (super freighter), so it's not likely they'll be starting new auxiliary builds this year; at most just one more auxiliary.
So asking to use 2 of their 600kt berths for cargo ships should be of minimal burden to them. It would still leave 2 600kt and 1 2500kt berths free for repairs, not to mention the repair yards that have been built in the GBZ. And with how deep in the hole we are with logistics, 8pp is a worthy investment for 2 more cargo ships.
[ ][LOG] Start 2 Starfleet Cargo Ships at Irrizizza for 8pp
Dings:
While I still think its important to improve the less experienced EC Excelsiors to improve early overall event non-failure rates for compounding rewards/non-failures, along with greater survival of our greenies, and I will grant it needs to be balanced against experience efficiency. I'm also amenable to the idea that we need one elite flagship for those rare yet critical occasions we can direct important EC missions.
Of the veteran candidates to make elite, there's
Sarek and
Courageous.
Sarek is closer to dinging then
Courageous, and I'm a bit tired of the
Courageous blowing up, so
Courageous it is.
On the less experienced side, the completely green yet-to-launched
Tarrak is in. Green
Voshov is another candidate, but it looks like she's going to level up soonish anyway. That leaves one of the blooded EC ships to level up. The just dinged
Odyssey would be the obvious candidate.
...but I'm gonna do a 180 here and vote for something outside the
box Federation:
[ ][ENTER] Send the survivors to existing ships
-[ ] USS
Courageous, USS
Tarrak, USS
Stargazer
Scientology:
I agree that sending an Explorer Corps ship should be sufficient for handling the Caldonian issues, and since she would still have quarterly events, it won't incur an opportunity cost. That obviates the need for pp-expensive Andorian Guard reinforcements, and they would be an unnecessary provocation anyway.
The question of which ship to send boils down to either
Odyssey or
Voshov.
Odyssey would have better bonuses, including the crew rating. However, there's a decent argument that the Caldonian situation is relatively safe and unimportant. The latter because we have a shitload of member ratifications upcoming anyway. But on the other hand, a Caldonian crisis right on the Klingon border and the escalations that could provoke could be very destabilizing.
[ ][CAL] Ignore
[ ][EC] Pick an Explorer Corps ship to carry this out: USS Odyssey
Collated vote:
[X][PRIORITY] Change nothing [Weighted 1.5x]
[X][CAL] Ignore
[X][EC] Pick an Explorer Corps ship to carry this out: USS Odyssey
[X][LOG] Start 2 Starfleet Cargo Ships at Irrizizza for 8pp
[X][GAENI] 100sr for 150br
[X][CATS] 1 Fathership, 4 Swarmers
[X][REN] Endorse the tech transfer
[X][BEE] Exchange resources with the Orion
[X][ENTER] Send the survivors to existing ships
-[X] USS
Courageous, USS
Tarrak, USS
Stargazer
