LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
Maybe, but we can't use that to blow up armies after the crisis has passed. Our goal here isn't just to blow Ulysses to bits.
Attempting to Shatter the Skies: An Ace Combat Plan Quest
- Thread starter grimely
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Alt. History
-
- Tags
- ace combat
KnightDisciple
Brotherhood. Unity. Peace.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
So basically the goal is going to be more about taking out multiple incoming fragments?
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
Shatter Ulysses so hard that the fragments are small enough to burn up in orbit. Trying to intercept all the fragments would be impossible.
Asmodemus
Subversive Element
I say we start with a giant emplaced laser for simplicity.
But plan for it to be cut down in size and attached to something down the line after it stops the giant asteroid, at which point we won't need as much firepower and ability to continuously fire.
It'd be cool to have a giant TW3 Avatar-like bot that rips out the parts needed to make it a super armament for it that then goes on to crush enemy factions.
But plan for it to be cut down in size and attached to something down the line after it stops the giant asteroid, at which point we won't need as much firepower and ability to continuously fire.
It'd be cool to have a giant TW3 Avatar-like bot that rips out the parts needed to make it a super armament for it that then goes on to crush enemy factions.
Does it have Tiberium?
Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
Asmodemus
Subversive Element
"A new substance has been discovered in the aftermath of the Ulysses asteroid remnants impact, the asteroids having being cut down to size via the Global Defense Initiative Durandal Laser, the substance has been determined to have tremendous weaponization properties. This is believed to have been the result of materials within the asteroid being superheated even beyond re-entry via the Durandal laser, with the majority of it impacting in the anarctic region, particularly in the area held by the Antarc Throne, almost as if planned.
The Brotherhood of Nod coined the name of the mineral Tiberium, stated to be named after Tiberius Drusus Caesar, and has been quickly moving to scavenge and hoard as much of the newly christened Tiberium with it's golden shining form as possible."
RA Ore but named Tiberium with properties vague enough to explain why we want it, providing a reason for an arctic campaign of getting it and conflict between nations.
Also, after looking it up, we should definitely name our giant laser Durandal, as we're basing this off Excalibur and-
Ulysses
grimely
Twink Death Sufferer
Ulysses 1994XF04 is an Earth-crossing asteroid of the Apollo family approximately one mile in diameter. Possessing an extremely eccentric orbit, it spends most of its time beyond the orbit of Mars, the long journey it has made granting it its name. Six times smaller than the asteroid which killed the dinosaurs, it still possesses enough energy to create a crater ten miles in diameter and an airblast powerful enough to shatter windows a thousand miles from the point of impact - approximately the distance from the Osean capital of Oured to Directus, in Ustio.
This calamitous event will not come to pass however. After its discovery, astronomers at Comona University confirmed that the Earth's gravity would shatter Ulysses into fragments, predicting that it will cross the Roche limit on July 3, 1999, at 3:30 PM Usea Eastern Standard Time. The resulting shotgun like blast of fragments is then projected to rain down across the Usean continent for two weeks, with a total energy equivalent of 30,000 megatons of TNT - an order of magnitude greater than that of every nuclear weapon ever built.
Following the cessation of the impacts, the resultant cloud of ash and debris is expected to linger in the atmosphere for years, reducing the average global temperature by multiple degrees. Life on Usea would be wiped almost entirely clean without intervention, and the impact winter and tsunamis that followed would cause devastation to the globe. The death toll reaped by uncaring physics in this event can only be eclipsed by that of rapacious politics sure to follow in the days of crisis that would come afterwards.
It is true that Ulysses on its own is not enough to wipe out mankind, but it may prove just the spark needed for the world to burn itself down.
This calamitous event will not come to pass however. After its discovery, astronomers at Comona University confirmed that the Earth's gravity would shatter Ulysses into fragments, predicting that it will cross the Roche limit on July 3, 1999, at 3:30 PM Usea Eastern Standard Time. The resulting shotgun like blast of fragments is then projected to rain down across the Usean continent for two weeks, with a total energy equivalent of 30,000 megatons of TNT - an order of magnitude greater than that of every nuclear weapon ever built.
Following the cessation of the impacts, the resultant cloud of ash and debris is expected to linger in the atmosphere for years, reducing the average global temperature by multiple degrees. Life on Usea would be wiped almost entirely clean without intervention, and the impact winter and tsunamis that followed would cause devastation to the globe. The death toll reaped by uncaring physics in this event can only be eclipsed by that of rapacious politics sure to follow in the days of crisis that would come afterwards.
It is true that Ulysses on its own is not enough to wipe out mankind, but it may prove just the spark needed for the world to burn itself down.
Black shading: Direct impact zone
Dark blue shading: Immediate tsunami strength waves
Light blue shading: Constant swells
Dark blue shading: Immediate tsunami strength waves
Light blue shading: Constant swells
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
We could build a rail gun and try to break ulysses into smaller and smaller fragments. might mean less damage as more burn up in the atmosphere.
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
Probably a good idea as a contingency plan, but our main priority ought to be having a powerful enough laser that the fragments we produce are small enough that they burn in orbit instead of impacting the planet.
Railguns would probably better for shattering Ulyssess, but our tech base is lasers so going down the railgun route would be harder.
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
so we're relying on Ulysses being conglomerate? heat the water ice to break it into fragments?
grimely
Twink Death Sufferer
That will be an option. If you hadn't taken High Expectations you actually could've only built floodwalls and called it a day as far as plan goals went.
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
Nope. Just outright cut it apart with a powerful enough laser beam. Alternatively, we could just use the laser to deflect Ulysses and change its course (Asteroid Laser Ablation).
The 2nd one is the practical option since it means we don't need to deal with fragments at all, but we're playing as Kane in Ace Combat and building a superweapon so the only option in my mind is blowing Ulysses up with giant lasers.
We could also possibly send our laser to orbit the earth like the Osean's SOLG (GIANT SATELLITE RAILGUN), but that's probably a hard thing to sell to the superpowers, and that's probably why Usea abandoned their Anti-Asteroid Laser program in favor of the Stonehenge Railguns.
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- Pronouns
- He/They/She
We're also in a bad spot for orbital launches. We'd have to rent launchpads from someone in or near the tropics and somehow I doubt Osea or Yuktobania are going to lease out anything capable of launching an intercontinental missile to The Messiah when they have the option of doing literally anything else.
What we need is something with enough power to ablate or cut up the thing before it gets to the roche limit. Or something that can delete large fragments after it starts breaking up and then sell it to Usea.
What we need is something with enough power to ablate or cut up the thing before it gets to the roche limit. Or something that can delete large fragments after it starts breaking up and then sell it to Usea.
grimely
Twink Death Sufferer
I will say straight out that deflecting Ulysses will not work, you simply do not have enough time to change the trajectory that much considering you need to build the system from scratch. What's worse, trying would more than likely have it miss Usea and have it hit somewhere unprepared for the impact.
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
On the off chance that we fail to sufficiently minimize the size of the fragments with Excalibur 2.0 (Proposed Name: Caliburn) and some are headed our way, I do think investing in the creation of mini-Excaliburs would be worthwhile to protect our cities. Think Aurelia's Atmos Ring for its capital, but instead of Meson Cannons it uses Lasers.
Alternatively, there's the RTLS (Rail-based Tactical Lasers), which are laser cannons on train cars. It's not as powerful as the main gun, but it's mobile and could mean we can protect a larger area with less since the cannons can be moved around as needed. Power generation will probably be an issue with this one though, since unlike the canon versions, they can't just hang around Excalibur.
Speaking of Ulysses, the asteroid will pass the Roche limit at July 3, 1999 and it's currently May 24, 1996 so we have 3 years to get everything ready before then. Our diplomatic efforts are going to be key to getting us the resources we need to finish Excalibur 2.0.
Alternatively, there's the RTLS (Rail-based Tactical Lasers), which are laser cannons on train cars. It's not as powerful as the main gun, but it's mobile and could mean we can protect a larger area with less since the cannons can be moved around as needed. Power generation will probably be an issue with this one though, since unlike the canon versions, they can't just hang around Excalibur.
Speaking of Ulysses, the asteroid will pass the Roche limit at July 3, 1999 and it's currently May 24, 1996 so we have 3 years to get everything ready before then. Our diplomatic efforts are going to be key to getting us the resources we need to finish Excalibur 2.0.
Mechanics
grimely
Twink Death Sufferer
This quest is going to use the Plan Quest format first used and popularized by Blackstar's Attempting to Fulfill the Plan MNKh Edition Alt. History - Users' Choice! and replicated in many others since. The most influential on me that I have read through while plotting to run my own - incidentally, this was not my first idea, Ace Combat brain worms just got to me hard out of nowhere - have been
Etranger's You Are The Messiah: A Command and Conquer Nod Plan Quest Sci-Fi - Alt. History and Attempting to Subvert the Plan: Dominion Edition Sci-Fi
Faith's Attempting To Fulfil Your Contract: A Noveria Planquest [Mass Effect]
AnotherPerson's Right Man in the Wrong Place: A Black Mesa Planquest
Shadows' Per Aspera (Space Agency Plan Quest) Original
The Bird's Eve of Destruction (Fallout Pre-War Quest) Mature - Sci-Fi and Eve of Destruction Part 2: We Didn't Start the Fire Mature - Sci-Fi - Superhero
Rockeye's Central Planning, Fantasy Edition Fantasy
and of course Ithillid's Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
I consider all of them to be excellent reads and highly recommend them.
For those utterly unfamiliar with the format, you have a limited pool of resources with which to perform actions - referred to as projects - in order to make number go up, with abstract economic indicators simulating the state of the broader economy. You will have three principles resources at the start of this quest: Resources, Political Support, and dice. Dice are assigned to projects, at the cast of Resources, and occasionally either cost or reward Political Support. The summed of the dice plus or minus any bonuses and penalties is then added to the project's progress. Overflow on projects will be assigned to a related project, but not always on a 1:1 basis.
Projects currently come in the following categories:
Infrastructure
Heavy Industry
Light & Chemical Industry
Agriculture
Military
Research
Administration
Foreign Affairs
Economic indicators will start vague and high-level, but can be refined and focused in the course of play through the completion of certain Administration projects.
The three resource types at the start of the game are:
Resources (R) are a high level abstraction of wages, raw material, and specialized components required to build something.
Political Support (PS) is an equally high level abstraction of how well you're liked by your boss. In this quest, you do not have to be held accountable to any democratic body (for now) and so now parliament mechanic is in play - your PS is the sole abstraction of your soft power in government. That said, you have three bosses, and therefore, three PS bars to watch: Chaldea, Antarc, and Kane.
Dice are abstractions of labor that you can assign to actually get things done. For each die assigned to a project, I will roll a 1d100. For most dice, they critically succeed on a natural roll of 100 and critically fail on a natural roll of 1. Dice come in three broad types: Regular Dice are assigned to a given type of project which can only be used for projects of that type, Free Dice may be assigned to any project without penalty, and finally Construction Dice. Construction Dice are similar to Free Dice, but may not be assigned to Research, Administration, or Foreign Affairs projects, and suffer a universal -10 penalty to all of their rolls. Additionally, if a given project only has Construction Dice assigned to it in a turn, they cannot critically succeed.
In comparison to many other Plan Quests, I will be frontloading many mechanics and bonuses. This is intentional, you will need them in order to build something that can deal with Ulysses.
On omakes
I love omakes, feel free to make them. I will award them bonuses scaling +5/+10/+15 based off of my own whim, and may optionally tag them as canon. There is no linkage between canoncity and the size of the bonus. I will also enthusiastically accept art, memes, and especially maps - please help me make maps I've been slaving over paint.net to make these things. Omakes will be consumed automatically to complete projects that are within the value of any unused bonuses, using the least valuable ones first. Only one omake will be used per project. I have no specific priority list, but will generally prefer to complete projects that are the subject of impending deadlines or are pass/fail DC checks.
I honestly didn't realize how many Plan Quests I had read through before I sat down and listed all of them out like that
Etranger's You Are The Messiah: A Command and Conquer Nod Plan Quest Sci-Fi - Alt. History and Attempting to Subvert the Plan: Dominion Edition Sci-Fi
Faith's Attempting To Fulfil Your Contract: A Noveria Planquest [Mass Effect]
AnotherPerson's Right Man in the Wrong Place: A Black Mesa Planquest
Shadows' Per Aspera (Space Agency Plan Quest) Original
The Bird's Eve of Destruction (Fallout Pre-War Quest) Mature - Sci-Fi and Eve of Destruction Part 2: We Didn't Start the Fire Mature - Sci-Fi - Superhero
Rockeye's Central Planning, Fantasy Edition Fantasy
and of course Ithillid's Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
I consider all of them to be excellent reads and highly recommend them.
For those utterly unfamiliar with the format, you have a limited pool of resources with which to perform actions - referred to as projects - in order to make number go up, with abstract economic indicators simulating the state of the broader economy. You will have three principles resources at the start of this quest: Resources, Political Support, and dice. Dice are assigned to projects, at the cast of Resources, and occasionally either cost or reward Political Support. The summed of the dice plus or minus any bonuses and penalties is then added to the project's progress. Overflow on projects will be assigned to a related project, but not always on a 1:1 basis.
Projects currently come in the following categories:
Infrastructure
Heavy Industry
Light & Chemical Industry
Agriculture
Military
Research
Administration
Foreign Affairs
Economic indicators will start vague and high-level, but can be refined and focused in the course of play through the completion of certain Administration projects.
The three resource types at the start of the game are:
Resources (R) are a high level abstraction of wages, raw material, and specialized components required to build something.
Political Support (PS) is an equally high level abstraction of how well you're liked by your boss. In this quest, you do not have to be held accountable to any democratic body (for now) and so now parliament mechanic is in play - your PS is the sole abstraction of your soft power in government. That said, you have three bosses, and therefore, three PS bars to watch: Chaldea, Antarc, and Kane.
Dice are abstractions of labor that you can assign to actually get things done. For each die assigned to a project, I will roll a 1d100. For most dice, they critically succeed on a natural roll of 100 and critically fail on a natural roll of 1. Dice come in three broad types: Regular Dice are assigned to a given type of project which can only be used for projects of that type, Free Dice may be assigned to any project without penalty, and finally Construction Dice. Construction Dice are similar to Free Dice, but may not be assigned to Research, Administration, or Foreign Affairs projects, and suffer a universal -10 penalty to all of their rolls. Additionally, if a given project only has Construction Dice assigned to it in a turn, they cannot critically succeed.
In comparison to many other Plan Quests, I will be frontloading many mechanics and bonuses. This is intentional, you will need them in order to build something that can deal with Ulysses.
On omakes
I love omakes, feel free to make them. I will award them bonuses scaling +5/+10/+15 based off of my own whim, and may optionally tag them as canon. There is no linkage between canoncity and the size of the bonus. I will also enthusiastically accept art, memes, and especially maps - please help me make maps I've been slaving over paint.net to make these things. Omakes will be consumed automatically to complete projects that are within the value of any unused bonuses, using the least valuable ones first. Only one omake will be used per project. I have no specific priority list, but will generally prefer to complete projects that are the subject of impending deadlines or are pass/fail DC checks.
I honestly didn't realize how many Plan Quests I had read through before I sat down and listed all of them out like that
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Hmm, well looking at the effects we have on right now, I do think the increased loyalty and 50% chance of + 10 to laser researcher is worth the somewhat erratic free die and permanent -5 influence. I am kinda worried about our complete inability to deploy, but we also only have one die in military so hopefully we can just slowly develop that until either we are forced to remove the effect or the debuff ends.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Uh, did the sign of this get reversed or am I missing a -10 to Construction from somewhere?