THOUGHTS FOR NEXT TURN
Thinking about our IC budget and some oncoming priorities. We'll have, I gather, a 39000+1500 IC budget, factoring in the IC from the plane factory. I propose something like:
Build Industry (???) 4000 IC
Build Industry (Gunther Bay Emergency Administration): 4000 IC
Build Industry (Estovakia): 3900 IC
Four F-14Xs 8100+1500 IC
Seven EML special weapon modules (14000 IC)
TLS special weapon module (3000 IC)
IC FOR FIGHTER PRODUCTION (1950 IC)
Induction Furnace, Mk I (50 IC)
Line by line justification follows.
1) I really, REALLY think we should be doing aid in industrial capacity to, well, someone. I suggest one or more of the following options:
-Backing the Erusean Restoration Forces- they have plenty of IC, but their quality of life is low and their support for us is low, so we might get some traction out of it. Good way to say thanks for helping IUN-PKF retake the Lighthouse, maybe? Also,
the Free Eruseans have 1/10 Alien Support, so yeah.
-Voslage is a near neighbor, with only 1/10 support for us, but Medium quality of life. Not having to worry about them attacking us would be nice.
-The Comonan Commonwealth is an interesting choice; they have a high quality of life but low support and militarism and negligible industrial capacity. However, they can presumably tap the Lighthouse for power any time they want, so they COULD upgrade their industrial output- and might feel predisposed to sling that industrial output back to us. Dunno.
2) Aid to Gunther Bay will help. They're tipping a huge chunk of their overall industrial output towards X-COM, and paying it back will be beneficial. No question in my mind that I want to do this.
3) Aid to the brutally impoverished nation of Estovakia will help keep them on-side. Their support for us is flagging, and yet we're a heavy user of their CFA-44 and EML weaponry. The big problem is that Estovakia may not have the electricity to power that industrial capacity, but they can hopefully figure out something? NOTE: I consider this a high priority.
Their support for US is 1/10, and they have 1/10 alien support. Actually engaging with them is X-COM ANEA's responsibility technically, but we cannot afford to let them go foop on us, and donating industrial resources seems to be one quick way to win them over. Note that we should also look at other global trouble spots like Leasath.
4) Another squadron worth of F-14X fighters means we can re-equip Rigel Squadron with the significantly more mobile Hellcat IIs and retire the Su-33s to reserve plane duties, finally getting all our pilots into planes with the maneuverability and avionics of a fifth-generation fighter. Equipping Salamander Flight with F-14X-EMLs is a priority for next turn. With that done, we'll have enough reserve planes to arm at least two squadrons, which dovetails well with having HR hire more pilots and giving us a 'second team' to handle base defense duties. Note that 1500 IC of the cost of this comes from the factory we've set up.
5) The EMLs allow us to equip all our current F-14X pilots (Pixy, Jaeger, Baker, and Cyclops Squadron) with railguns. If we can't get that many EMLs, pity, we'll prioritize in the order I've listed above.
6) The TLS module is intended first for static testing against alien hulls. Will it work well, mediocrely, or not at all? If we have reason to think it sort of works, we'll stick it on the Su-37 Baker used to use. This is an expense we may be better off without, but it gives us some idea whether we should even bother with laser weaponry as a path of development, or try to double down on mass driver tech. I consider it a useful speculative investment. Maybe we can figure out a way to swap it to some other X-COM branch if we decide to standardize on EMLs.
7) Since 2400 IC put us up to 1500 IC/turn, we can reasonably hope that another 1950 will put us over the 2400 IC/turn line at which we can manufacture on F-14X per week.
8) Dr. Shen wants that induction furnace so we can safely work alien alloys. Also I'm trying to train him to ask for equipment rather than passive-aggressively grumbling that we don't have it and sniping at Avril Mead for hammering together
extremely imperfect substitutes in a cave from a box of scraps.
Now, as to other things we should get teams doing soon:
-Human resources should hire some more pilots:
--Specifically hire at least two more squadrons' worth of pilots to crew our present reserve planes.
--Have HR try to track down any surviving skilled (S-Rank or above) pilots from the various wars fought in Usea over the past few decades, such as surviving members of Scarface/Phoenix Squadron, Sol Squadron, Yellow Squadron, Mobius Squadron, et cetera.
-For engineering, feasibility study and cost study for launching various satellite constellations, including:
--Deep space tracking network to monitor spacecraft approaching Strangreal
--Spy satellites to monitor events, especially in Belka
--Communications/datalink satellites to coordinate X-COM activities, accessible to national militaries including Osea's.
--Power relay satellites to provide energy from the Lighthouse to the other side of the globe.
--Orbital satellites armed with lasers similar to the Arsenal Bird's, and similarly powered by the Lighthouse. A space-based global defense grid might be difficult to establish, but it's worth looking into.
-Have HR and Administration work together to create a liaison office that can coordinate with various national governments and factions in Usea. That's a key part of our jurisdiction, and one we haven't been very focused on. It may help us build support and expertise that we'll need if we're going to intervene constructively to prevent countries suffering war-torn, impoverished circumstances like Leasath and Estovakia from following Belka's example and flipping sides.
