There's already a pretty significant draw on our Bureaucracy dice.
Yes, that's the point. If the situation doesn't merit using a Bureaucracy die, it's probably not important enough to merit taking locked dice off an industrial megaproject, because the megaprojects themselves are pretty darn important. That's not something you should normally have to do. I'd also say that ramping projects
up should be free, but ramping
down is what takes very literal bureaucratic effort to navigate.
@Ithillid, while we're on the subject of system changes, would it be possible to make a few changes to the four-year plan system to make it more flexible, such as replacing the total axing of our budget every four years with smaller annual drawdowns, or introducing plan goals such as "complete x worth of High Priority military projects"?
It does occur to me that annual or biennial drawdowns would start to make more sense and provide more stability... But it also occurs to me that the eventual goal might be for us to use
Interdepartmental Favors to trade off RpT for Political Support during the Plan so that we can afford to make reallocation less painful. For instance, we might be able to swing a "35% of GDI budget" setting for, say, -30 PS... if we
had 30 PS to throw around, which we usually don't because we only buy up so much.
Also, did you see my idea for refining the Ion Storm Collectors into anti-energy armor, as a supplement or replacement for Ablat?
I suspect they'd be too unwieldy and delicate, and the enemy could just blow the collectors off an armored fighting vehicle by hosing it down from long range with machine gun fire or shrapnel. Nod hasn't forgotten how to build conventional guns, and driving around with big antennas sticking off your tank sounds unwise. Plus, Nod's favorite form of energy weapon is lasers, and ion storm collectors do not excel at absorbing optical wavelengths as I understand it.
Would 'locking in' a number dice allow
@Ithillid to effectively pre roll them? That is to say, roll multiple turns worth of dice because those dice are locked in, and even if dice were added in or removed he wouldn't need to change the numbers.
Slightly problematic, because dice penalties and bonuses can vary unpredictably. Also, rolling extra dice in a turn costs effectively zero additional time; what costs time is writing blurbs and description. Stuff ticking over in the background doesn't need any of that unless the QM gets a brainwave and feels like doing it.
I think I'll hold off on the departments this turn.
I think that's a good choice.
Right now we need the dice. Spinning off departments is probably something we should do later, either in 2061Q4 so that the contributions from the departments are "priced in" to the targets set for us in reapportionment (e.g. so we get asked to build 1-2 phases of arcologies instead of 3-4), or when and as we have the money.
[] Plan Hello Civilian Are You Having A Satisfactory Day?
-[]Infrastructure 6/6 80R
-[] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 6) 5 dice 50R 100%
(Phase 7 97% Phase 8 26%)
(Progress 0/160: 10 resources per die) (-2 Logistics, +6 Housing)
-[] Suborbital Shuttle Service (Phase 1) 1 die 30R 100%
(Progress 156/200: 30 resources per die) (+3 Logistics)
I feel like if possible we should finish the current phase of fortress towns. Right now there are no fixed defenses near the current border. I think that setting up such fortifications would if anything
help lower tensions post-Steel Vanguard, because it's a signal of "here we have parked and here we intend to stay." I also think it might lower the logistical strain from raiding and military supply, by letting Ground Forces hold the newly captured territory in a way that doesn't require quite so many soldiers stationed so far forward.
-[]Heavy Industry 5/5 170R
-[] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 8 ) 2 dice 40R 100%
(Progress 243/300: 20 resources per Die) (+16 Energy) (-1 Labor)
-[] Crystal Beam Industrial Laser Deployment 3 dice + 1 free die 80R 0%
(Progress 51/600: 20 resources per die)
(+6 Capital Goods, +10 Energy)
-[] Isolinear Chip Foundry Anadyr 1 free die 50R 83%
(Progress 258/320: 50 resources per die) (+4 Capital Goods) (-2 Energy)
A reasonable approach. I accomplish the same goal with 1+AA dice on fusion, which gives a 99.4% chance of success as I recall (good enough for me). But this is reasonable.
-[]Agriculture 4/4 85R
-[] Agriculture Mechanization Projects (Phase 2) 3 dice 45R 61%
(Progress 25/250: 15 resources per die) (+12 Food, -1 Energy, -1 Capital Goods)
-[] Vertical Farming Projects (Stage 2) 1 die + 1 free die 30R 40%
(Progress 65/240: 15 resources per die) (+4 Food, +4 Consumer goods, -2 Energy)
-[] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 3) 1 free die 10R 50%
(Progress 85/175: 10 resources per die) (+2 Food in Reserve, -4 Food)
-[] Extra Large Food Stockpiles 1 Erewhon die auto
(+8 Food in reserve, -16 Food)
Personally I'd put the
Vertical Farming dice on the storehouses. Expanding the storehouses is
also popular, after all... And one of those things is a Plan commitment while the other isn't. Mind you, I have every intention of doing
Ranching Domes and
Vertical Farming in Q3 and Q4, aided by putting some E-CRP into storage to cheaply get the Stored Food requirement done so we can concentrate on yummies in the areas where people will actually eat the food.
-[]Tiberium 7/7 185R
-[] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 7) 1 die 15R 100%
(Progress 78/100: 15 resources per die) (small additional income trickle [5-10 Resources]) (1 point of yellow zone mitigation) (1 Stage available)
-[] Tiberium Processing Plants (Stage 2) 2 dice 60R 63%
(Progress 20/200: 30 resources per die) (+600 processing potential) (-4 Energy, -3 Logistics)
-[] Tiberium Processing Refits (Phase 5) 1 die 20R 61%
(Progress 6/100: 20 resources per die) (+50 processing capacity [-250 during refits])
-[] Harvesting Tendril Deployment (Phase 2) 3 dice 90R 0%
(Progress 74/750: 30 resources per die) (+100 Resources per turn) (-1 STU) (Increases efficiency of future Tiberium harvesting operations)
I have somewhat different priorites. Partly because the North American Red Zone inhibitor is a pet project. Partly because I think it's worth trying to make progress on the claw harvesting deployment for reasons discussed in my plan draft post. But this is a reasonable lineup.
-[]Orbital 6/6 140R
-[] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 5) 6 dice 120R 0%
(Progress 348/1535: 20 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +2 Consumer Goods) (+2 available Bays) (10 Political Support)
-[] Lunar Rare Metals Harvesting (Phase 2) 1 free die 20R 28%
(Progress 11/125: 20 resources per die) (+5 Resources per turn)
While I favor two Free dice on Orbital and seven dice on
Enterprise, I guess the extra Free die for fusion power has to come from somewhere.
-[]Services 5/5 180R
-[] Professional Sports Programs 2 dice 20R 70%
(Progress 102/250: 10 resources per die) (+2 Consumer Goods, -1 Health, -1 Labor) (+10 Political Support)
-[] Pinhole Portal Early Primitive Prototype Construction (Tech) 1 die 100R 24%
(Progress 56/180: 100 resources per die)
-[] NOD Research Initiatives 2 dice 60R 32%
(Progress 0/200: 30 resources per die) (1d10-1 technologies)
One thing I've noted myself is that we have a wealth of promising new +Health options coming out. In particular,
Regional Hospital Expansions and
Ocular Implants. I'm gonna be keeping an eye out for opportunities to roll that out as soon as practical,
especially the optical implants.
We almost certainly have a LOT of flash-blinded veterans (and civilians) from all the lasers Nod throws around, far more blind people than would be normal in a real life war. And while a lot of amputees with mediocre prosthetics can at least do certain kinds of desk jobs and service jobs, being blind is a
really serious handicap for workforce participation. That's our next big +Labor trickle right there.
This isn't me disagreeing with your priorities, just observing and thinking about the future.
-[]Military 8/8 180R
-[] Universal Rocket Launch System Deployment (Phase 3) 3 dice 30R 81%
(Progress 0/200: 15 resources per die) (-2 Energy)
-[] Orbital Strike Regimental Combat Team Stations (Phase 3) 4 dice 80R 81%
(Progress 5/295: 20 resources per die)
-[] Bogatyr Research Projects 1 die 30R 32%
(Progress 0/120: 30 resources per die) (Expires Q1 2062)
-[] Escort Carrier Shipyards
--[] Newark 1 free die 20R 0%
(Progress 0/240: 20 resources per die) (-5 Energy, -2 Capital Goods)
-[] Mastodon Heavy Assault Walker Deployment 1 free die 10R 30%
(Progress 113/225: 10 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -1 Capital Goods, -1 Labor, -1 STU)
Uh. If it was me, I'd take at least one die off URLS and shift it to Newark. We're gonna need to get Newark done in a timely manner and if we don't push it with 2-3 dice in
this quarter, we have very little margin for error in completing the Newark yard before the end of the Plan.
-[]Bureaucracy 4/4
-[] Conduct Civil Satisfaction Surveys 4 dice 98%
(DC 90/120/150/180)
Ahh, I was wondering what your plan was here. I was figuring on waiting until Q3 for this.
[nods respectfully]
All in all, I'm mostly comfy with this plan, though the lack of Newark dice makes me nervous.
I actually like your plan, Simon, but not putting one die on Bogatyr is a mistake in my opinion, especially since 3 dice on escort carrier shipyard is potentially one die too much, since it has 4% probability to finish on two dice and we do have enough time to add dice in consequent turns.
Likewise, we have time to roll two Bogatyr dice simultaneously in Q3 or Q4, or one in each. Resources will be easier to come by (since we will hopefully not have to commit to Anadyr dice and/or portal dice in Q3 and Q4).
Remember, this is plan
Attempting To Be Done By October, or at least
hoping to be done by then. We cannot in good faith hope to be done with the Newark yard in Q3 if we only invest two dice now; there are too many ways we might be forced to choose between overinvesting Military dice and spinning the project out into Q4 because of bad luck. Three dice on Newark is my attempt to partially insulate us against bad luck in that area while still keeping Military dice free for other things.
Edit:
I am also not quite sure what the intention of "Interdepartmental Favor" is, especially since otleaves one Bureaucracy die idle. Would it not be better to use them to add an AA die somewhere?
Debateable. I'm really hoping to bargain for Political Support for use in reallocation to set reasonable targets for ourselves, and I don't have a
LOT of places where an AA die would do a lot of good. The most likely point for one would be the Mastodon production line, and that's where it was before the favors option.
Also, I admit I'm just plain curious about what
Favors does and looks like.
