I'll be brief here, but I don't get the feeling you are trying to play the same game as everyone else. (This is not to say that your game is necessarily worse.) There do exist quests where the strength of your reasoning influences how much your vote counts for, so you might have more fun playing one of those. (The example that comes to mind is Panopticon Quest.) Also, @Academia Nut explicitly said that we should channel our anger over votes not going our way into write-ins, so that might be a more constructive outlet for you.
Right, ideas for rewards for people to ask for:
Existing Techs
Important Industrial Techs, but remember these are probably the least likely resource for us to get.
Minor techs that we want but aren't willing to dedicate slots to.
You explicitly mentioned underground construction before, it could be a good choice.
New techs that we might want.
Vehicle techs, especially a flying machine would be useful.
Whatever it takes to get eclipse phase style muses.
Information about the game
A local map.
The biggest question I currently have is to what extent are we keeping the 40k idea of:
"Sufficiently Advanced Technology is indistinguishable from Magic. Evil Magic. Evil Magic that will actively try to kill you."
There is no point choosing an information based reward, it won't be utilised in anything approaching how it should be so its basically worthless. Tech is pretty much the only reward that will ever be leveraged somewhat properly given the play styles involved here.
There is no point choosing an information based reward, it won't be utilised in anything approaching how it should be so its basically worthless. Tech is pretty much the only reward that will ever be leveraged somewhat properly given the play styles involved here.
There is no point choosing an information based reward, it won't be utilised in anything approaching how it should be so its basically worthless. Tech is pretty much the only reward that will ever be leveraged somewhat properly given the play styles involved here.
He got the bonus from finding signs of Chaos, AN's offer for a book that is about the dangers of the Warp is thematically appropriate and will finally give the answers to why the Starbombs fell.
It would also get out social science projects off the ground so we can study how to fix this problem.
You misunderstood my point, there are to many competing play styles and thoughts on how to run our faction to leverage information to satisfactory standard. The fact we know the 504s tried to kill Dia in the past for instance should have been used to extract concessions from them when tech trading.
We could have threatened to reveal to dragonflies that they were behind our war with them.
This kind of thing will almost certainly never happen because a number of people do not want to take that tact.
I think a lot of us were hoping that we could use it as leverage later, and then--and here you're right--it got somewhat lost in the mix. If we ever want to turn the Dragonflies against the 504s and just go for a straight conquest, we can use that though. It's a good *excuse* for the Dragonflies to work with us to kill the 504s, like they want to do anyways. After all, it's implied that the 504-Dragonfly war is going to start up again in a few years once they find a better excuse.
There is no point choosing an information based reward, it won't be utilised in anything approaching how it should be so its basically worthless. Tech is pretty much the only reward that will ever be leveraged somewhat properly given the play styles involved here.
That's not true at all. Information based rewards are very important because we cannot act on things that we don't know about in character. The last 10 pages or so have been about how the 504 is falling to chaos because of what we learned from the spying. Dia doesn't know about chaos though all she sees is some strange cultural rituals going on in the 504. The players pieced together that those rituals are the beginnings of chaos but the characters don't know anything about chaos with the exception of maybe the gravekeeper.
We can only take actions that AN allows us to and he will only allow us to act on information that the characters themselves have. Effectively if Dia doesn't know about chaos then we don't know about chaos. So it's important to get those information rewards if we don't want to be blindsided in the future.
@Academia Nut Since we completed the Archival Tool project, does that mean that we've unlocked AI or Personal Design Logic research options? How about Vehicle Design Logic from the Forestry Mech?
I think the earlier point about resolving the succession dispute sooner rather than later by virtue of having the current lord of the Dragonflies step down is a pretty good idea. Perhaps doing so as a diplomatic action in one of the turns coming up? With consolidation between the two factions I would expect that tech from both would be shared, letting us industrialize the Dragonflies (which we are reluctant to do when they are currently an antagonistic faction) and brings a stronger population base.
Furthermore, I'd like to establish some sort of automatic counterespionage roll (maybe not actually 'secret police', but 'institute of not getting spied on all the time'?), which would hopefully allow us to do more tech-theft from other factions (we got 310 RP out of a single spying run, for example). I'd rather research a tech than not have it, and I'd rather trade for a tech than research it, and I'd rather buy a tech than trade for it, but I'd really like to get a tech and not need to pay for it at all.
Also, unless I missed my guess, the Recyclers probably aren't nomadic, but rather have a base of operations nearby hidden in the woods somewhere. Sap purification tech (at least so far as we can tell) requires some pretty heavy equipment to eliminate that 1% attrition-something municipal scale, not easily carted around. Furthermore, I don't imagine that they neglect their crops of armored leaves or grenade fruits by planting the seeds and wandering away. What I imagine they've done is completed the Pile Tree research and used the power generation and battleship-grade armored bark to defend against the myriad hazards of the planet.
Additional question to Academia Nut; would there be an option to have our jeagers scout the woods for signs of the Recyclers?
Edit: I notice we have vans. What's the RP cost to get the designs for one of those, and how suitable is it for a stopgap APC? Furthermore, what was the Dragonfly's hero unit (the Jannissary that took out a mech)'s name? I looked but did not find it.
Just look at the available research projects Slamu. I don't think a design logic would be appropriate for just the forestry mech, quite frankly that idea is downright silly.
[X] Plasma Physics I (500 RP) FOR Improved Fertilizer I, Pharmacuticals I +200c kicker (495)
Deciding that having something for your shiny new chemical refinery to work on would be rather useful and that the Dragonflies would not be able to make best use of general physics, although with the reactor research going on it will at least be useful for them. You don't ask for too much though, since you would like to help cover the gap in your budget as much as possible and you figure you can wrangle some material goods out of the whole thing.
You honestly have more exciting things to look into now, although you also have much more worrying ones. You are the premier military organization in the region, but there are clearly people who managed to retain a much higher level of technology, including things that were not generally available to the military before the Star Fall. Which you suppose means that perhaps you should have a little private meeting.
You had already intended to have an extended talk with Armin about establishing some sort of counter-intelligence services, but the initial meeting on that front is going to have to include Sammael since he is one of two living people (in a position to do anything about it) who knows about why you were even here in the first place, with the third in your local area having been executed by firing squad already.
"Armin, how are you?" You ask as you invite him into the meeting room, Sammael already there fiddling with a wireless jammer and white noise generator.
Knowing what the device is and what it does, he raises an eyebrow and says, "Not realizing just how bad the problem is, I guess."
You frown at that and then say, "When we first met, you mentioned that I was probably the heaviest armed group within 500 klicks, right? You've never really questioned why and I've never really elaborated on it because, well, my presence in Greengraft was basically moot once the star bombs fell. The thing is that with the crash recently, it might actually become important again... which means we need to prepare from an intelligence standpoint."
Armin absorbs this information and then says, "I'm not going to like this, am I?"
You shake your head and say, "No, not particularly. I was assigned to Greengraft for security reasons, particularly to avoid any revolutionary groups from potentially getting their hands on what would normally be considered a restricted, strategic resource: fissile material."
"The pile tree grove..." Armin breathes in dawning horror.
"Greengraft doesn't have the capacity to process or otherwise work with any of the fissile or fertile radioisotopes that could be isolated from the pile trees, but the potential as a source of such elements was considered a security concern," Sammael explains.
"With the appearance of the damaged vehicle showing that at least some factions have retained even more technology than we have, the possibility of the grove becoming of strategic importance once again: including if we decide to use it ourselves. This is of course something of a security concern, to say the least," you state.
"Fission bombs? Weren't the starbombs bad enough?" Armin asks, aghast.
"They are the easiest to construct with current infrastructure, and this is more of a 'I would rather be prepared' than my seriously thinking to pursue such weapons," you explain. You really don't want to, but you would rather not get blindsided by a more technologically sophisticated faction coming after you because you might have fission weapons.
"To put this in perspective: starbombs only generate radioactive fallout when they are used on significant quantities of solid matter, and that is relatively short lived in comparison to the fallout fission bombs can produce. Considering how little safe territory we have at the moment, it is not in anyone's interests to deploy these weapons," Sammael explains.
Armin nods at that and says, "I've had some ideas, but honestly they require far more extensive efforts than we have had before. I would need to time to get it into order."
You nod at that and say, "We will try to direct some resources your way for that... it's some heavy stuff to learn."
"Yeah... yeah, but thank you for bringing this to my attention now that it is relevant again but not particularly critical," Armin says, clearly thinking.
"So, how is Helena?" You ask, changing topics somewhat mischievously.
Snorting, Armin says, "She's glad to be in industry instead of politics. Let the two of us actually pursue a relationship instead of just flirting awkwardly and then feeling bad about it after."
"You two..." you say with a shake of your head. "How's her temper?"
"Directed," Armin replies with a shrug. "How are the girls?"
"Doing well enough with the new curriculum, although each struggles and excels her in her own way. Anna has exceptional abstract logic skills but struggles with language and phys ed., the latter for obvious reasons, while Mirande is sort of the opposite, probably because she is always covering for Anna. Speaking of children, how is Jacob?" You say conversationally.
"Doing well for his age, all things considered. I hear you have another child of your own coming soon?" Armin asks.
That pleasant interlude with Armin necessarily gives way to other things, and eventually you find yourself reading over the reports coming in from contacting the Free Volunteers at Amethyst Gardens and those beyond.
Rolled 4 + 30 + 5 Diplomatic Corps = 39
Failure
Unfortunately it seems that the group that had been settled there has been forcibly kicked out by another band of Free Volunteers and the new residents have decided that you are a group of 'oppressive warmongers' and thus it is acceptable under the principle 'hostis humani generis' to attack your traders and representatives for the good of all. You are fairly certain that is the biggest load of bullshit you have ever heard, but apparently it was their justification.
Rolled 25 + 30 = 55
vs.
Rolled 44 + 34 + 20 Discipline = 98
Major success
Fortunately your people were able to fall back in good order and took no casualties, but this does mean that you now technically have a war on your hand. While your immediate impulse is to rush out there yourself, with your pregnancy you pause and consider first. Other things you could try to continue diplomacy, deploy Jules to see if he has a proper grasp on the whole officer thing yet, or wait to assemble a proper response once your schedule clears up, and you have a dozen more SAWs to deploy.
Do you...
[] Deploy a retaliation yourself (1.1x)
[] Let your legate take the lead on this one (0.9x)
[] Attempt another diplomatic mission (0.9x)
[] Wait and launch a proper reprisal (1.2x)
We should wait and have the full compliment of saws and a few more trained soldiers as well and possibly some more intel on what they have and thier defensive position is before going out and killing them.
@Academia Nut Since we completed the Archival Tool project, does that mean that we've unlocked AI or Personal Design Logic research options? How about Vehicle Design Logic from the Forestry Mech?
You have an AI project. Personal goods are far too diverse a field to have a design logic project, or rather it is better to see it as you already have enough experience with them.
Edit: I notice we have vans. What's the RP cost to get the designs for one of those, and how suitable is it for a stopgap APC? Furthermore, what was the Dragonfly's hero unit (the Jannissary that took out a mech)'s name? I looked but did not find it.
You already have the design for the vans, they are quite simple and all fall within the range of things your UAMs won't give you guff over. They are useless as APCs unless you slap armour on them.
Their hero unit is Knight Darren Yaros, their Mech pilot. Yes, they promoted a slave into the nobility. It's a propaganda coup for them since while unlikely that anyone will ever pull something that crazy off again, they might, and having such a policy in place will encourage others to try, which can only be good for the Dragonflies.
Much as I'd like to move immediately, this vote has the weight it does for a reason. Dia's too savvy a military officer to move before she's ready, and we don't have to wait for all the SAWs. Even just taking 3 or 4 along will hammer anything we run up against into hamburger pretty fast.
EDIT:
Altered vote. Sufficient forces are available to move quickly that I feel satisfied with the operation proposed.
There is currently one group of Free Volunteers in those gardens.
Making a very clear point that we can be friends or we can be enemies to the other groups, is a very important thing. Doing so in appropriately overwhelming force, while giving the Legate a chance to use those tools, sounds like a good plan for next turn.
If we unleash an immediate reprisal how much firepower would we be bringing?
These guys are famously slippery, so if we wait for our full firepower to arrive they might be long gone.
"With the appearance of the damaged vehicle showing that at least some factions have retained even more technology than we have, the possibility of the grove becoming of strategic importance once again: including if we decide to use it ourselves. This is of course something of a security concern, to say the least," you state.
Unfortunately it seems that the group that had been settled there has been forcibly kicked out by another band of Free Volunteers and the new residents have decided that you are a group of 'oppressive warmongers' and thus it is acceptable under the principle 'hostis humani generis' to attack your traders and representatives for the good of all. You are fairly certain that is the biggest load of bullshit you have ever heard, but apparently it was their justification.
[X] Let your legate take the lead on this one (0.9x)
I think we should test Jules' mettle.
This is assuming Jules has a reasonable force with SAWs available; if he doesn't best to wait for a more impressive demonstration. If he does, I'd strike immediately, as speed of retaliation is *also* something to demonstrate. If someone thinks they'll have time before we launch a punitive expedition, they might decide to strike and then flee.
Whereas if we strike immediately, that kind of tactic is less valuable.
But it ultimately comes down to "does Jules have more than enough to complete stomp them"? If he does, we should send him out immediately. If he doesn't, then we should gather up sufficient force first.
On another note though Lailoken raises an important point. Due to the way our inheritance system works the Dragonflies and Greengraft might not actually unite due to Dia's marriage with Maxwell. It's a very real possibility that someone else will be elected then Dia's first born son or first born daughter if there isn't a son.
It might behoove us to press for some sort of inheritance law change among the Dragonflies (which would need to be after Maxwell inherits if he's to be sure to inherit rule of the Dragonflies). If so then we may want to press for a change before the more serious items in the Admin building cease being buried, though we may want to perform some espionage over what they may have gotten with that nat 100, and we still have the much more powerful military due to all of the extra SAWs we now have.
Possibly even try to merge with the 504 before the excavation of the Admin building is finished once that is done. If nothing else we have a Casus Beli in the form of the false flag operation and many of the 504's members were actually conquered through military force so they may not have much invested in the 504 ideology and considering that their ideology is in the beginning stage of turning into a Khornate cult we probably don't want for it to continue and become more settled in either.
Once that's done, the dust's settled and possibly after we dedicate some more time to integration we can declare us and Maxwell to then be Countess and Count of the Shattersaw city state.
It seems highly unlikely that both the Dragonflies and the 504s have both fallen to Chaos. The Chaos gods' influence at this stage should be negligible.
Even five thousand years later, when there were many more psykers about, chaos cults were so incredibly rare even on the scale of the entire galaxy that the Emperor could successfully pretend they didn't exist for the duration of the Great Crusade.
If two very small factions in such close proximity have fallen to two different gods so quickly, something very peculiar indeed is happening. It also suggests we're doomed, as the rest of the planet will be going to the Warp in a hand basket, if something has massively increased the rate of cult formation to this degree.
Well they haven't "fallen" quite yet but if that's so unusual then it may be Grave Keeper's influence that's involved. It's clear that he's touched by the Warp to some extent, who knows how much and how so.
You have three already available, and they are assigned to the garrisons of Greengraft, Glenshade Manor, and Shattersaw. Say that you've had enough time to build three more, so a reprisal force could be up to 4 squads with 3 SAWs and say a hundred militia as backup. You wouldn't be able to go much past Amethyst Gardens, but you could smack around anyone over there quickly enough.
I don't want your diplomatic action to go to waste on a bad roll, but bad rolls also make things a bit more lively and dynamic by not having everything necessarily go your way and creating new opportunities for the game to evolve.
