Ad Astra ex Lutum

[CrabMonarchy]

A quick guide to Combined Goverment Programs costs:
- Education and Technologies Programs is +400B grants, -300B projects, net +100B
- Establishment of LDO Infrastructure is +500B grants, -1150B projects, net -650B
- Domestic Competitiveness Programs is +950B grants, -1650B projects, net -700B
- Technical Jobs Program is +800B grants, -1200B projects, net -400B
- Redevelopment of Terrestrial Infrastructure is +600B grants, -850B projects, net -250B

 

[MightbeaMimic]

I love how the concept of limited wars is a strange new alien derived tech for us.

 

[Adronio]

[]Plan Winning The Peace
-[]Formally Resign
-[]Civilian Recommendations
-[]Hard Cutbacks
-[]Four Million Army
-[]Return Pre-War Standards
-[]Peacetime Army
-[]Domestic Competitiveness Programs
-[]Technical Jobs Programs
(Leaves 1800B Or for infrastructure and procurement, ignoring civgov deals)
Forex (-350B Or)
-[]Refined Material Sales
-[]Cryptographic Currency Program
-[]Mass Media Sales
-[]Foreign Student Funding
-[]Hire Technical Professionals
-[]Hire Professors
-[]Textbook and Database Contracts
-[]Itzcuih Class Courier Craft
Space Infrastructure (-300B)
-[]Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts
-[]Restoration of Satellite Networks
Groundside (-1100B after civgov deals)
-[]Civilian-Military Partnerships
-[]Expanded Military Scholarships
-[]Formalized Tech Transfers
-[]Superconductor Plants
-[]Inertial Fusion Test Facility
(Competativeness)
-[]Optical Computing Programs
-[]Dedicated Military-Electronics Plants
-[]Next Generation HEA Plants
-[]High Throughput CNT Production
(Jobs Program)

8200B Or spent on personnel and operational costs, 1750B Or spent on infrastructure (actually 3500B spent, but we gained 1750 from civgov deals), with 50B left. I'll just post it here for now while I double check to see if the math is correct, and I'll justify it later.

 

[CrabMonarchy]

This turn, we have a truly massive amount of infrastructure options available to us, many of which appear important to do as soon as possible. Do not worry, however! Through the power of massive military downsizing, we can afford a truly ridiculous level of spending. Presenting:

[] Plan Oops! All Infra!
-[] Formally Resign
-[] Civilian Recommendations (+10T Or)
-[] Hard Cutbacks (-1T Or)
-[] Two Million Army
-[] Return to Pre-War Standards (-1.5M Or per soldier)
-[] Peacetime Army (-0.3M Or per soldier)
-[] Combined Government Programs (+1750B Or):
--[] Domestic Competitiveness Programs (+950B Or)
--[] Technical Jobs Programs (+800B Or)
-[] Foreign Exchange Sources (-350B Or, +90B XCU, +??B XCU):
--[] Cryptographic Currency Program (-100B Or, +50B XCU)
--[] Refined Material Sales (-200B Or, +40B XCU)
--[] Mass Media Sales (-50B Or, +??B XCU)
-[] Foreign Exchange Purchases (-90B XCU):
--[] Foreign Student Funding (-15B XCU)
--[] Hire Technical Professionals (-5B XCU)
--[] Hire Professors (-20B XCU)
--[] Textbook and Database Contracts (-25B XCU)
--[] Itzcuih Class Courier Craft (-25B XCU)
-[] Space Infrastructure (-1950B/2000B Or):
--[] Establishment of LDO Infrastructure (-1150B Or):
---[] Orbital Launch Ring (-500B Or)
---[] Re-Establishment of Orbital Shuttles (-100B Or)
---[] Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts (-150B Or)
---[] Establishment of Orbital Manufacturing (-400B Or)
--[] Miscellaneous (-800B Or)
---[] Recolonization of the Inner Moon (-200B Or)
---[] Renovations of Destroyed Cylinders (-250B Or)
---[] Dockyards and Trade Stations (-200B Or)
---[] Restoration of Satellite Networks (-150B Or)
-[] Groundside Infrastructure (-4350B Or):
--[] Domestic Competitiveness Programs (-1650B Or):
---[] Civilian-Military Partnerships (-250B Or)
---[] Expanded Military Scholarships (-200B Or)
---[] Formalized Tech Transfers (-300B Or)
---[] Superconductor Plants (-600B Or)
---[] Inertial Fusion Test Facility (-300B Or)
--[] Technical Jobs Programs (-1200B Or):
---[] Optical Computing Programs (-450B Or)
---[] Dedicated Military-Electronics Plants (-300B Or)
---[] Next Generation HEA Plants (-250B Or)
---[] High Throughput CNT Production (-200B Or)
--[] Redevelopment of Terrestrial Infrastructure (-850B Or):
---[] OFAC to AFCC Yard Conversions (-400B Or)
---[] Expanding Trade Infrastructure (-150B Or)
---[] Pre-Construction of Orbital Components (-200B Or)
---[] Expansion of Inventory Management Systems (-100B Or)
--[] Miscellaneous (-650B Or)
---[] CLP Standard Spaceports (-250B Or)
---[] Reorganization of Disaster Relief (-50B Or)
---[] Curach Garrison Program (-100B Or)
---[] Department 4 Consolidation (-150B Or)
---[] Department 6 Expansion (-100B Or)
-[] elfbudget: 10000B - 3000B benefits - 600B operational costs - 1000B manufacturing - 350B forex - 1950B orbital - 4350B terrestrial + 1750B grants = 500B Or
-[] salamanderbudget: 90B - 90B + ??B = 0B + ??B XCU

The core of this plan is an aggressive push to rebuild the civilian economy and climb back into orbit, investing a combined 6.3T into infrastructure. I went with Civilian Recommendations to enable the economy to recover faster, and used Hard Cutbacks and Two Million Army to slim down ongoing costs. I did take Returning to Pre-War standards, however, because although hurts the budget quite a bit it's necessary to avoid discontent in the military. Peacetime Standards was chosen mostly because we just came off a major war, so I'm not too worried about our quality degrading since we should still be staffed overwhelmingly by veterans, and next plan we can restart more intensive exercises once we have money.

For foreign exchange, I took the programs laid out in the Education and Technologies Programs grant, with the leftover 25B invested in the Itzcuih Class Courier Craft both to acquire a more reliable FTL capability (which can also be used to deliver a Lirrir ambassador to Danaan, since the Investigator's FTL drive would kill the Lirrir due to brain damage) and because it comes with a bunch of technical information on how to manufacture various components of the ship which can help us with catching up technologically.

Space Infrastructure investment is pretty basic, with a focus on building up our launch capabilities. Orbital Launch Ring and Establishment of Orbital Manufacturing put us in a position to push hard into space in the following turns, while Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts protects our infra from getting destroyed by random debris and Re-Establishment of Orbital Shuttles lets us move personnel and cargo around orbit more easily. Recolonization of the Inner Moon and Renovations of Destroyed Cylinders help put existing orbital infra back into service, Restoration of Satellite Networks is good for communications/navigation/weather services, and Dockyards and Trade Stations builds up our connection to the broader galaxy.

Groundside Infrastructure is very simple. I took all the programs from the three different grants to turbocharge our economic recovery, and then added a few extra with my spare budget. Department 4 and 6 are necessary to keep an eye out for internal and external threats, CLP Standard Spaceports is a short-term option for maintaining trade relations with the broader galaxy and also might help reduce the chance of incidents when dealing with the CLP, Reorganization of Disaster Relief is a key job assigned to us so we might as well do it right, and the Curach Garrison Program helps stabilize that region after all the resources we spent on destabilizing it lol.

Now, this plan does have a few major shortcomings. First, it essentially abandons procurement for the next five years entirely, with only a 500B reserve for emergencies. I don't think this is a big problem though, because we have serviceable equipment already and we'll want time to digest the technologies we're acquiring from the Xolotlan Sovereignty anyways. The second major issue is that cutting down to Two Million means letting a huge amount of skilled personnel go, which means that we'll likely have to shell out through the nose when we start expanding again because those people will have found other things to do (see also the work reforms we pushed through, which will reduce unemployment and thus the pool of people with nothing better to do than join the military). This is especially an issue because this plan turbocharges the civilian economy, which means that most people will have job options with better pay and conditions, potentially leading to a recruiting crisis in the future unless we shell out for increased benefits which would be horrifically expensive. I'm personally willing to accept this in order to push a faster overall recovery, but this is absolutely a serious concern for the military's future and I don't think it should be dismissed lightly. I'd also like to note that this plan was originally conceived mostly as an exercise in seeing if it was possible to actually take every single infrastructure option this turn lol, so I'm not going to pretend I have some deep insight that motivated me to make this plan, this entire thing was a meme from the beginning. Still, I do think it turned out pretty well, so please do at least give my plan some consideration.

 

[VonVonson]

The right wing opposition is consumed with fighting itself as the PPP and its senior members are fighting a brutal holding action against the PSC with mudslinging and several questionable retirements and suicides coming from the conflict

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When Rós said she'd fukken do it again she meant she'd fukken do it again

Anyway holy shit that's a lot of projects. Only thing I can say for sure is we should do the launch ring and NOT do disaster relief so we're not on the hook for it year after year. I love that we can do crypto as a way to get foreign currency lmao

 

[Vi'Talzin]

snip

Click to shrink...

But have you considered, simply remaining a dictator?!

[] Plan Park Chung-Heemaxxing
-[]Delay Elections
-[] Return to Pre-War Standards (-1.5M Or per soldier)
-[] Two Million Army
-[] Hard Cutbacks (-1T Or)
-[] Civilian Recommendations (+10T Or)
-[] Peacetime Army (-0.3M Or per soldier)
-[] Forex Sources (-350B Or, +90B XCU, +??B XCU):
--[] Cryptographic Currency Program (-100B Or, +50B XCU)
--[] Refined Material Sales (-200B Or, +40B XCU)
--[] Mass Media Sales (-50B Or, +??B XCU)
-[] Forex Purchases (-90B XCU):
--[] Foreign Student Funding (-15B XCU)
--[] Hire Technical Professionals (-5B XCU)
--[] Textbook and Database Contracts (-25B XCU)
--[] Hire Professors (-20B XCU)
--[] Itzcuih Class Courier Craft (-25B XCU)
-[] Orbital Infrastructure (-1950B Or):
--[] Orbital Launch Ring (-500B Or)
--[] Re-Establishment of Orbital Shuttles (-100B Or)
--[] Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts (-150B Or)
--[] Recolonization of the Inner Moon (-200B Or)
--[] Establishment of Orbital Manufacturing (-400B Or)
--[] Renovations of Destroyed Cylinders (-250B Or)
--[] Dockyards and Trade Stations (-200B Or)
--[] Restoration of Satellite Networks (-150B Or)
-[] Terrestrial Infrastructure (-4350B Or):
--[] Civilian-Military Partnerships (-250B Or)
--[] Expanded Military Scholarships (-200B Or)
--[] Formalized Tech Transfers (-300B Or)
--[] Superconductor Plants (-600B Or)
--[] Inertial Fusion Test Facility (-300B Or)
--[] Optical Computing Programs (-450B Or)
--[] Dedicated Military-Electronics Plants (-300B Or)
--[] Next Generation HEA Plants (-250B Or)
--[] High Throughput CNT Production (-200B Or)
--[] Expansion of Inventory Management Systems (-100B Or)
--[] Pre-Construction of Orbital Components (-200B Or)
--[] Department 6 Expansion (-100B Or)
--[] Department 4 Consolidation (-150B Or)
--[] Curach Garrison Program (-100B Or)
--[] Reorganization of Disaster Relief (-50B Or)
--[] Expanding Trade Infrastructure (-150B Or)
--[] CLP Standard Spaceports (-250B Or)
--[] OFAC to AFCC Yard Conversions (-400B Or)
-[] Grants (+1750B Or):
--[] Domestic Competitiveness Programs (+950B Or)
--[] Technical Jobs Programs (+800B Or)
-[] elfbudget: 10000B - 3000B benefits - 600B operational costs - 1000B manufacturing - 350B forex - 1950B orbital - 4350B terrestrial + 1750B grants = 500B Or
-[] salamanderbudget: 90B - 90B = 5B XCU

This is a very good ideia that won't squander all the good will we cultivated decades!

 

[Nervos Belli]

But have you considered, simply remaining a dictator?!

[] Plan Park Chung-Heemaxxing
-[]Delay Elections
-[] Return to Pre-War Standards (-1.5M Or per soldier)
-[] Two Million Army
-[] Hard Cutbacks (-1T Or)
-[] Civilian Recommendations (+10T Or)
-[] Peacetime Army (-0.3M Or per soldier)
-[] Forex Sources (-350B Or, +90B XCU, +??B XCU):
--[] Cryptographic Currency Program (-100B Or, +50B XCU)
--[] Refined Material Sales (-200B Or, +40B XCU)
--[] Mass Media Sales (-50B Or, +??B XCU)
-[] Forex Purchases (-90B XCU):
--[] Foreign Student Funding (-15B XCU)
--[] Hire Technical Professionals (-5B XCU)
--[] Textbook and Database Contracts (-25B XCU)
--[] Hire Professors (-20B XCU)
--[] Itzcuih Class Courier Craft (-25B XCU)
-[] Orbital Infrastructure (-1950B Or):
--[] Orbital Launch Ring (-500B Or)
--[] Re-Establishment of Orbital Shuttles (-100B Or)
--[] Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts (-150B Or)
--[] Recolonization of the Inner Moon (-200B Or)
--[] Establishment of Orbital Manufacturing (-400B Or)
--[] Renovations of Destroyed Cylinders (-250B Or)
--[] Dockyards and Trade Stations (-200B Or)
--[] Restoration of Satellite Networks (-150B Or)
-[] Terrestrial Infrastructure (-4350B Or):
--[] Civilian-Military Partnerships (-250B Or)
--[] Expanded Military Scholarships (-200B Or)
--[] Formalized Tech Transfers (-300B Or)
--[] Superconductor Plants (-600B Or)
--[] Inertial Fusion Test Facility (-300B Or)
--[] Optical Computing Programs (-450B Or)
--[] Dedicated Military-Electronics Plants (-300B Or)
--[] Next Generation HEA Plants (-250B Or)
--[] High Throughput CNT Production (-200B Or)
--[] Expansion of Inventory Management Systems (-100B Or)
--[] Pre-Construction of Orbital Components (-200B Or)
--[] Department 6 Expansion (-100B Or)
--[] Department 4 Consolidation (-150B Or)
--[] Curach Garrison Program (-100B Or)
--[] Reorganization of Disaster Relief (-50B Or)
--[] Expanding Trade Infrastructure (-150B Or)
--[] CLP Standard Spaceports (-250B Or)
--[] OFAC to AFCC Yard Conversions (-400B Or)
-[] Grants (+1750B Or):
--[] Domestic Competitiveness Programs (+950B Or)
--[] Technical Jobs Programs (+800B Or)
-[] elfbudget: 10000B - 3000B benefits - 600B operational costs - 1000B manufacturing - 350B forex - 1950B orbital - 4350B terrestrial + 1750B grants = 500B Or
-[] salamanderbudget: 90B - 90B = 5B XCU

This is a very good ideia that won't squander all the good will we cultivated decades!

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Maintaining a military dictatorship while simultaneously laying off huge numbers of soldiers and cutting back on military spending is a "unique" strategy, certainly.

 

[MordredRaal]

Ros is so based for just killing the fascists.

"I said "I'd do it again". Didn't you get that the first time?"

 

[agumentic]

[]Plan Winning The Peace

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I wouldn't mind this, but I really think it would be worth it to roll the dice on HEA plants. We'll get some ships to buy next cycle anyway, but we might not get those again.

 

[CrabMonarchy]

Here's a plan that's somewhat more reasonable than Oops! All Infra! The biggest change from my prevouis plan is moving to Four Million Army, which involves significant cuts in infrastructure spending, while the key difference from Adronio's plan is that I dropped the Technical Jobs Programs grant and projects to fit in a bit more space and miscellaneous spending. The forex section is the same, while space consolidates down to the Orbital Launch Ring, Cleaning, and Satellites, and groundside infrastructure focuses on Domestic Competitiveness Programs, with Curach Garrison Program and Department 6 Expansion to help maintain internal stability. This leaves 150B 100B as a reserve for emergencies, but similarly to the other plans sacrifices procurement.

[] Plan All Quiet on the Budget Front
-[] Formally Resign
-[] Civilian Recommendations (+10T Or)
-[] Hard Cutbacks (-1T Or)
-[] Four Million Army
-[] Return to Pre-War Standards (-1.5M Or per soldier)
-[] Peacetime Army (-0.3M Or per soldier)
-[] Combined Government Programs (+1350B Or):
--[] Education and Technologies Programs (+400B Or)
--[] Domestic Competitiveness Programs (+950B Or)
-[] Foreign Exchange Sources (-350B Or, +90B XCU, +??B XCU):
--[] Cryptographic Currency Program (-100B Or, +50B XCU)
--[] Refined Material Sales (-200B Or, +40B XCU)
--[] Mass Media Sales (-50B Or, +??B XCU)
-[] Foreign Exchange Purchases (-90B XCU):
--[] Foreign Student Funding (-15B XCU)
--[] Hire Technical Professionals (-5B XCU)
--[] Textbook and Database Contracts (-25B XCU)
--[] Hire Professors (-20B XCU)
--[] Itzcuih Class Courier Craft (-25B XCU)
-[] Space Infrastructure (-650B/1500B Or):
--[] Orbital Launch Ring (-500B Or)
--[] Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts (-150B Or)
--[] Restoration of Satellite Networks (-150B Or)
-[] Groundside Infrastructure (-1900B Or):
--[] Reorganization of Disaster Relief (-50B Or)
--[] Curach Garrison Program (-100B Or)
--[] Department 6 Expansion (-100B Or)
--[] Civilian-Military Partnerships (-250B Or)
--[] Expanded Military Scholarships (-200B Or)
--[] Formalized Tech Transfers (-300B Or)
--[] Superconductor Plants (-600B Or)
--[] Inertial Fusion Test Facility (-300B Or)
-[] elfbudget: 10000B - 6000B benefits - 1200B operational costs - 1000B manufacturing - 350B forex - 800B orbital - 1900B terrestrial + 1350B grants = 100B Or
-[] salamanderbudget: 90B - 90B + ??B = 0B + ??B XCU

EDIT: forgot about the disaster relief project lol, edited that in

 

[Simon_Jester]

REACTION POOOST!

What the PSC has achieved with a broader voting base the PPP is reducing through a targeted intimidation campaign of unreliable politicians and those that are too toxic to the republic to be allowed to exist. Confirmations of their operations exist in some ways but the general drive is too decentralized and implication-based to pinpoint exact culprits in the apparatus.

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I'm not saying it's Ros, but it's Ros.

[]Formally Resign: The constitutional thing to do after the successful completion of a war and the end of military authority is to resign and then appear in a vote before the civilian government. It is the constitutionally expected action and at least for the current coalition confidence is high that they will reaffirm the appointment as defense minister. This would provide an example for future leaders and more importantly, decouple the military from global leadership for the arduous task of reconstruction.

[]Hold Power: Avoiding a resignation and extending the period of emergency governance is necessary given the threats faced by the authority internally and externally. The massive geopolitical threats justify a temporary hold on absolute power until the next election at which point a formal resignation can be given. This would technically not breach any constitutional procedures but starting to interpret the document would only give credence to more radical interpretations.

[]Delay Elections: With the rising threat of the PSC and the likely disruption caused by alien contact, the 47AE election can be bypassed. The military will continue its administration for as long as it is needed to prepare the state for another invasion or hostile military action, prioritizing the development of new armaments. There is a concrete crisis that can be pointed to as the Xolotlan Sovereignty is a dominant power and could easily take over the planet if sufficiently mobilized.

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I'm torn. The formal resignation thing seems the most based and Cincinnatus-pilled thing to do, and may constitute Ricky inventing a new social tech for us again.

The other category of worlds is the majority of corporate worlds that are directly administered by several massive corporate interest groups. These are primarily simple extraction and production economies with little sophistication or local machinery production. Almost all of them are operated as self-sufficient internal economies that produce a large quantity of labor-heavy intermediary goods for consumption by the core. These range from clothing woven from natural fibers to several simpler electronics to reduce costs. For the end consumer this allows a garrison force of only a few divisions to seize the economic potential of hundreds of millions of dedicated workers. Worlds administered in such a way are depended upon to sustain themselves and focus all other energies on export production that is then moved off-world as a tax imposed by the corporation owning the planet.

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Yuck.

All of this represents a massive political and economic system for slightly under a trillion sentients. Representation in the Senate is conducted through two appointments for each planet of adequate size that has at least half a million sentients on it. This has led to the near-total settlement of core space and a flight of workers out to construct new colonies on otherwise useless rocks. In practice the senate votes are explicitly bought and sold with sums in the trillions of XCU needed to force an agenda on the senate. Political commentators in the XS and several textbooks insist that because of this no one interest group can bribe legislators, as buying even a single vote out of the seventy-eight thousand requires billions of XCU in investment.

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Of all the stupid-ass things... well, political commentators be politically commentating.

New Technologies:

Limited War: The invasion has demonstrated that wars can be fought for discrete political and economic goals that are subordinated to state policy without a long-term outlook of general competition. Subordinating war-making to staged political goals can enable the targets of war and war-making to shift towards one of primarily supporting internal or external political maneuvers instead of direct gains in the territory through security operations. To that end, the implementation of limited war can be used instead of conventional warfare, salami slicing towards concrete goals in lower commitment and lower risk operations. (Social Sciences) (New 46 AE) (Alien Derived)

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I love how this is a tech for us. An alien derived tech.

Magnetic Particle Beam Confinement: Alien SMES systems depend heavily on magnetic confinement and the precise control of the resulting fields with a massive amount of technical literature on the topic. Adapting those techniques for the confinement and acceleration of charged particles has brought immediate results. Reduction of dispersion from particle beams has been achieved to improve the range of fire from any theoretical weapon system. This is limited to linear accelerators, but they are expected to be the primary form of space combat weapon. (Particle Beams) (New 46 AE) (Alien Derived)

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[blinks]

Well, how else would you do it? You confine a charge particle beam with, like, quadrupole magnets and so on. They just... have better beam confinement than us, it sounds like.

Comprehensively Safe FTL: The development of safer drives that produce negligible internal stress has been a commonality of any alien drive. A far wider field is made to enable a much shallower jump, diverting the forces that would be placed onto the drive bubble post-initiation exterior to the craft instead of the interior to it. This significantly reduces the range of single jumps and likely worsens discontinuation syndrome due to longer discontinuity periods. Still, this eliminates the physiological and material consequences of jumps, making them entirely safe. (FTL) (New 46 AE) (Alien Derived)

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Oh, nice. I was wondering if the Galactics still had problems with jump distress.

Superconducting Linear RF Cavities: Using a superconducting holmium cavity with a strong field further improvements can be made to the generation of a charged particle beam. This is achieved through the use of novel superconductors and incredibly strong fields allowing for vast improvements in accuracy and energy on target. Efficiency for the systems is still not great but thermal release can be minimized internally with the general mechanism avoiding significant thermal gains and enabling internal placement of the cavity. (Particle Beams) (New 46 AE)

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...This is another fairly straightforward concept if you have late 20th century research particle accelerators in your history books. You just need, uh, the superconductors.

 

[OatmealOatmeal]

What do we need immediate FTL capabilities for? To visit the Lirrir again? At this point teching up is more important than diplomacy with primitives, and even if we really need to for some reason we can just pay to charter flights in the future.

 

[Adronio]

The courier ship is a tech transfer all of its own, with manuals and lots of spare parts to look at and tinker with. And if there is any place we need to catch up the most it is in space ships. This is in addition to everything else you can do if you have A FTL capable ship, and with the SAS Investigator being uh, troubled, having one that wont risk exploding every time it jumps is going to be useful. Gain experience with Sallie ships in preperation for buying more. Gambling on jumping ahead on HEAs is not inherently bad, but I think catching up on spaceship stuff is more important.

 

[Simon_Jester]

What do we need immediate FTL capabilities for? To visit the Lirrir again? At this point teching up is more important than diplomacy with primitives, and even if we really need to for some reason we can just pay to charter flights in the future.

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There is a certain advantage to having at least one viable FTL ship that is under our exclusive control and that a bunch of foreign-galactic lawyers can't somehow block us from accessing via paperwork shenanigans.

The courier ship is a tech transfer all of its own, with manuals and lots of spare parts to look at and tinker with.

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Also, this.

 

[Vi'Talzin]

'm torn. The formal resignation thing seems the most based and Cincinnatus-pilled thing to do, and may constitute Ricky inventing a new social tech for us again.

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The current civilian government will almost certainly reappoint us. We have worked for decades cultivating their trust, winning a seemingly existential war aside, the Greens we were open with about what happened with the Lirrir, the PDL we trusted with knowledge of the Cube and let handle the leak, and the WP got reforms they couldn't dream of pushed through by Richie's initiative, and the PSC paramilitaries defanged.

Anyway, the Courier is useful because not only does it have a Lirrir rated FTL (our precious blorbos can finally come visit us and form a embassy), it gives us manuals and spare parts to go through to guide us in making our own ships. It also is a much more reliable ship in general compared to the investigator, and we can conduct ops more easily through it (if we fund Dept 4 anyway, they have zero base dice, we should fund them if at all possible).

 

[VonVonson]

Id be more interested in getting a warship so we have SOME answers to say, pirates that doesn't rely on nothing going wrong for the next 15 or so years it'll take to get our military ships out assuming they're even worth anything in combat. That said we have a lot of diplomacy to do and the courier ship would be a cost efficient way of enabling that.

 

[stairmaster]

I abhor the idea of immersing ourselves in space-crypto currency but I'm leaning towards oops all infra since we gotta take those intelligence options.

 

[WestOrEast]

[]CLP Standard Spaceports: Landing pads and cargo transport capacity for standardized surface-to-orbit craft are massive installations and necessitate several novel concerns. Until the orbital ring is constructed, building a few dozen spaceports capable of sustained launches of OFACs, AFCCs, and standard CLP craft will be important for establishing good trade ties. The facilities will all be extensively monitored to reduce the chance of untoward activities and in a small part will start the processes of opening up the planet. (250B Or)

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So will we actually insert nukes into the foundations of these or just have the coordinates on file for the missile silos?

[]Curach Garrison Program: Deploying bases onto Curach represents a massive step in improving security and re-establishing a permanent presence. Local partisans are a partial threat and several denounced paramilitaries have only radicalized into new and esoteric ideologies. Committing forces to the island will be a regular part of operations but reconstruction of key ports, logistical links, and in-land bases will be key to a peaceful re-integration. (100B Or)

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Damn well called it.

I abhor the idea of immersing ourselves in space-crypto currency

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And not just that but counterfeiting spacecoins. Which, even as I say it, I realize isn't all that out of the ordinary for real world miners.

 

[7th Hex]

The courier ship is a tech transfer all of its own, with manuals and lots of spare parts to look at and tinker with. And if there is any place we need to catch up the most it is in space ships. This is in addition to everything else you can do if you have A FTL capable ship, and with the SAS Investigator being uh, troubled, having one that wont risk exploding every time it jumps is going to be useful. Gain experience with Sallie ships in preperation for buying more. Gambling on jumping ahead on HEAs is not inherently bad, but I think catching up on spaceship stuff is more important.

Click to shrink...

While the courier craft will come with tech transfer, we already just unlocked the tech for making reliable, non-exploding, Lirrir-safe FTL drives of our own. If we need them to go faster, we can always go back and hot-rod them a little bit.

Meanwhile of all the ships on offer I'm most interested in the light cruisers. Between them serving as a space navy operations tech transfer of their own (with the "wealth of knowledge" coming from the hulls and manuals we'll get), serving as capable test platforms for our space weaponry development, and likely contributing a significant amount to our system defense until we can get the industry needed to produce similar vessels natively up and running I think they offer a lot more to us of what we really need right now than just a very fast prototype courier.

 

[Captainwolf]

Comprehensively Safe FTL: The development of safer drives that produce negligible internal stress has been a commonality of any alien drive. A far wider field is made to enable a much shallower jump, diverting the forces that would be placed onto the drive bubble post-initiation exterior to the craft instead of the interior to it. This significantly reduces the range of single jumps and likely worsens discontinuation syndrome due to longer discontinuity periods. Still, this eliminates the physiological and material consequences of jumps, making them entirely safe. (FTL) (New 46 AE) (Alien Derived)

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What is Discontinuation syndrome?

 

[Blackstar]

What is Discontinuation syndrome?

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Physiological stress from random impacts from another spacial dimension that causes random stresses on possibly important neurons, occasionally causing brain damage amongst crews. Plus those same stresses on delicate electronics and critical drive systems that cause further technical issues. The psychological stress comes from having an additional one to five hours of perceived time while seeing, sensing, and feeling nothing and hallucinating from that. Both cause a number of casualties when dropping out from a jump but the former is mostly only a factor of your and no one else's drives.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Physiological stress from random impacts from another spacial dimension that causes random stresses on possibly important neurons, occasionally causing brain damage amongst crews. Plus those same stresses on delicate electronics and critical drive systems that cause further technical issues. The psychological stress comes from having an additional one to five hours of perceived time while seeing, sensing, and feeling nothing and hallucinating from that. Both cause a number of casualties when dropping out from a jump but the former is mostly only a factor of your and no one else's drives.

Click to shrink...

I imagine that other people had similar problems with the drives when they were first invented, but that this was so long ago that nobody really remembers or cares.

Sort of like "ah, yes, your sailors still get scurvy on long sea voyages, how quaint and stupid of you not to have invented pickled cabbage."

 

[Captainwolf]

[]Reorganization of Disaster Relief: The army's expectation to continue providing disaster relief took a short break during the war with the department organized more towards evacuating refugees. Now that the war is over and the environment is only expected to worsen it once again comes down to the army to fund the service. Expanding the ranks further and bringing several servicemembers into it will keep trained personnel in the military, but there is little other benefit to being responsible for disaster recovery. (50B Or) (-150B Or Maintenance) (Severe Political Cost if not Taken) (Will Lose Responsibility for Disaster Relief if not Taken)

Click to shrink...

Also, are we willing to take the political cost hit from not doing this? 2 of the 3 plans proposed so far don't have this done.

Could we deliberately give away responsibility for disaster relief instead? IE transfer some budget to create a new organization dedicated to disaster relief so the army doesn't have to think about it?

 

[Simon_Jester]

Also, are we willing to take the political cost hit from not doing this? 2 of the 3 plans proposed so far don't have this done.

Could we deliberately give away responsibility for disaster relief instead? IE transfer some budget to create a new organization dedicated to disaster relief so the army doesn't have to think about it?

Click to shrink...

I think it would be a much better idea to just bite the bullet and put it in.

Granted, the conditions under which we gave the army that responsibility in the first place have now changed beyond all recognition. But it would be a bad idea to get a reputation for fucking something like that up.

 

[Josiah]

[]Plan Tired From Too Much Winning (So no Sats for you)
-[]Formally Resign
-[]Civilian Recommendations
-[]Hard Cutbacks
-[]Four Million Army
-[]Return Pre-War Standards
-[]Peacetime Army
-[]Domestic Competitiveness Programs
-[]Technical Jobs Programs
(Leaves 1800B Or for infrastructure and procurement, ignoring civgov deals)
Forex (-350B Or)
-[]Refined Material Sales
-[]Cryptographic Currency Program
-[]Mass Media Sales
-[]Foreign Student Funding
-[]Hire Technical Professionals
-[]Hire Professors
-[]Textbook and Database Contracts
-[]Itzcuih Class Courier Craft
Space Infrastructure (-150B)
-[]Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts
Groundside (-1250B after civgov deals)
-[]Civilian-Military Partnerships
-[]Expanded Military Scholarships
-[]Formalized Tech Transfers
-[]Superconductor Plants
-[]Inertial Fusion Test Facility
(Competitiveness)
-[]Optical Computing Programs
-[]Dedicated Military-Electronics Plants
-[]Next Generation HEA Plants
-[]High Throughput CNT Production
(Jobs Program)
-[]Curach Garrison Program
-[]Reorganization of Disaster Relief

This is Adronio's plan variant. It drops Sattelites to free 150B (I haven't found anything else to drop), and adds Kurac garrison and disaster relief, both of which are important politically (latter is important explicitly, former implicitly).
extra 50B go nowhere - I did not found any droppable program for 100B, only the sats for 150.

[]Plan Irresponsible Gambling Does Not Make Me an Addict, I Can Quit Anytime
[]Plan Tired From Too Much Winning (So no Sats for you)
-[]Formally Resign
-[]Civilian Recommendations
-[]Hard Cutbacks
-[]Four Million Army
-[]Return Pre-War Standards
-[]Peacetime Army
-[]Domestic Competitiveness Programs
-[]Technical Jobs Programs
(Leaves 1800B Or for infrastructure and procurement, ignoring civgov deals)
Forex (-150B Or)
-[]Cryptographic Currency Program
-[]Mass Media Sales
-[]Foreign Student Funding
-[]Hire Technical Professionals
-[]Hire Professors
-[]Textbook and Database Contracts - Aquisition of these would depend on if Media Sales pan out (less netflix sales, less textbook purchases)
Space Infrastructure (-150B)
-[]Restart Orbital Cleaning Efforts
Groundside (-1500B after civgov deals)
-[]Civilian-Military Partnerships
-[]Expanded Military Scholarships
-[]Formalized Tech Transfers
-[]Superconductor Plants
-[]Inertial Fusion Test Facility
(Competitiveness)
-[]Optical Computing Programs
-[]Dedicated Military-Electronics Plants
-[]Next Generation HEA Plants
-[]High Throughput CNT Production
(Jobs Program)
-[]Curach Garrison Program
-[]Reorganization of Disaster Relief
-[]Department 4 Consolidation
-[]Department 6 Expansion

This variant also brings two department at cost of dropping the refined material sales (could be restarted later), the funny alien boat and making the textbook purchase conditional on media sales (if media sales bring less than 15B of triton tenge, the textbook/database deals suffer)