Attempting to Subvert the Plan: Dominion Edition

[Kelenas]

[] Plan Foundations and Helping People
-[] Infrastructure (4/4 dice, 25R)
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) 133/250 (2 die, 10R) 43%
--[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) 78/450 (3 dice, 15R) 0%
-[] Heavy Industry (4/4 dice +4 Free, 55R)
--[] Nephor II: Nephor Industrial Megacomplex (Phase 1) 80/350 (5 dice, 25 R) 66%
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 153/250 (3 dice, 30 R) 90%
-[] Light Industry (4/4 dice, 40R)
--[] Nephor II: Phoros Neotextile Fabrication Plant (Phase 2) 116/250 (3 dice, 30R) 81%
--[] Tyrador IX: Refugee Workshops (Phase 2) [Reconstruction] [NEW] (1 die, 10R) 0%
-[] Environmental (4/4 dice, 35R)
--[] Nephor II: Cap'n Yum-Yum's Fantabulous Foodularium 0/150 (3 dice, 30 R) 60%
--[] Korhal: Regreening Effort (Phase 1) (1 die, 5R) 0%
-[] Services (4/4 dice, 35R)
--[] Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction] 2/100 (3 dice, 30 R) 75%
--[] The Dominion Health Service (Phase 2) [NEW] (1 die, 5R) 0%
-[] Military (5/5 dice, 35R)
--[] Nephor II: Fort Horner Marine Training Camp 0/150 (4 dice, 20 R) 79%
--[] Brontes: Fort Riley Orbital Training Center [NEW] (1 die, 15R) 0%
-[] Research (4/4 dice, 50 R)
--[] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute 50/150 (2 dice, 30 R) 40%
--[] New Model Weaponry (Phase 1) (Tech) 0/150 (2 dice, 20 R) 8%
-[] Bureaucracy (4/4 dice, 30R)
--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 146/200 (2 dice, 10 R) 90%
--[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census [Reconstruction] 42/300 (2 dice, 20 R) 0%
-[] Personal (4/4, 30 F)
--[] Raynor's Raiders: Request an Update [NEW] DC 40 (2 dice, 10 F) 87%
--[] Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust, DC 40 (2 dice, 20 F) 87%
Total: 305R

Note that all completion-percentages are calculated WITHOUT omake-boni.

The general goal of my plan is to continue building up our foundations and actually helping people by rebuilding our industry and alleviating current issues. Main focus is on the SCV Factory for the labor-savings, and finishing NIM both for the R-income (even though we currently don't really need it that much anymore), and the economic effects of people actually having work again, and being able to produce various tools and machinery. The completion of the former is near-guaranteed, and in my opinion this would also improve the - already quite good - chances of completing NIM this turn.

Phase 2 of the Neotextile Factory was prioritized because there's effectively no chance for the Refugee Workshops to complete this turn even with 4 dice, and this will allow us even further R-savings. While this is not an immediate issue due to Brontes, this should keep our overall operating costs low, meaning that come the next Budget-negotiations, we should be quite safe requesting a lower Budget than our current 50%. It will also help when we increase the overall amount of dice available to us again by fleshing out the remainder of the bureaucracy.

I know some really want to get started on re-greening Korhal, but in my opinion that is something that should wait further, given there are still severe shortages of food and housing ongoing. Hence why I'm prioritizing the food-factory and continued development of the farmsteads.

The rest of the plan is nothing unusual, IMO, though I'm considering @F0lkL0re's idea of dumping all 5 Military dice into the TRUST project.

 

[The Laurent]

Honestly my own perspective is that people are going to basically endlessly kick down doing anything with Korhal Regreening down the road for years and years and then act baffled when quality of life is shit and Korhal is a mess. Turn after turn we've kept on pushing back on doing anything with it at all, supposedly because there are higher priorities, presumably literally every action... and then every phase of every action, because even completing Tyrador Farms I was apparently not enough to maybe make people think that Korhal not being a lifeless hellhole had value.

Most of the rest of Kelenas' plan is mostly Goose/Gander disagreements, tbh. I'm skeptical of the value of starting Refugee Workshops 2 until we actually complete Tyradol Reconstruction. Ditto the Farmlands (though as I note above to a lesser extent) But I at least mostly get the logic sorta-kinda? I just strongly disagree with it on Environmental.

 

[Enthusiast#117]

[] Plan Breaking The Limits, Restoring Nephor
-[] Infrastructure (4/4 dice + 2 Free, 35R)
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) 133/250 (2 dice, 10R)
--[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) 78/450 (5 dice, 25R)
-[] Heavy Industry (4/4 dice+ 2 Free dice, 35R)
--[] Nephor II: Nephor Industrial Megacomplex (Phase 1) 80/350 (3 dice, 15 R)
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 153/250 (3 dice, 30 R)

Click to shrink...

I like this part of the plan. It feels like a good allocation of dice; even if the SCV project overflows, that just means progress on Phase 2.

-[] Light Industry (4/4 dice, 40R)
--[] Vardona: Vespene Extraction Operations (Phase 1) 0/550 (4 dice, 40 R
-[] Environmental (4/4 dice, 25R)
--[] Korhal: Regreening Effort (Phase 1) 0/150 (3 dice, 15 R)
--[] Nephor II: Cap'n Yum-Yum's Fantabulous Foodularium 0/150 (1 dice, 10 R)

Click to shrink...

This part I like less.
I'd much rather put 1 or 2 dice in regreening and 2 or 3 in refugee farms phase 2.
I think at this point our highest priority is the refugee crisis, and the farms project both feeds and resettles them.
For similar reasons, I'd like to at least split the Light Industry dice between the vespene project and refugee workshops phase 2.

So long as we keep putting at least 2 dice in both refugee projects each turn, I'll be happy.

Narratively, the consistent effort can only help.

-[] Services (4/4 dice, 40R)
-- [] Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction] 2/100 (3 dice, 30 R)
-- [] Mass Literacy Movement (Phase 1) 0/200, (1 dice, 10 R)
-[] Military (5/5 dice, 40R)
--[] Nephor II: Fort Horner Marine Training Camp 0/150 (4 dice, 20 R)
--[] Brontes: Refloating the Fleet (Phase 1) 0/300 (1 dice, 20 R)

Click to shrink...

I don't really have any issues with this part.
My inclination is to allocate 1 die every 50 when trying to finish up projects that aren't critically urgent (especially when there aren't follow up phases to absorb the spillover), but that's not a huge deal.

-[] Research (4/4 dice, 50 R)
--[] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute 50/150 (2 dice, 30 R)
--[] New Model Weaponry (Phase 1) (Tech) 0/150 (2 dice, 20 R)

Click to shrink...

I suppose the exact order these finish in doesn't matter. I'd prefer to trade a turn of mad science for a sooner rollout of better guns, but odds are it won't make much difference.

-[] Bureaucracy (4/4 dice, 30R)
--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 146/200 (2 dice, 10 R)
--[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census [Reconstruction] 42/300 (2 dice, 20 R)
-[] Personal (4/4, 30 F)
--[] Raynor's Raiders: Request an Update [NEW] DC 40 (2 dice, 10 F)
--[] Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust, DC 40 (2 dice, 20 F)

Click to shrink...

These look fine.
I don't really have much opinion on the personal stuff beyond not wanting to risk much right now, but these risks look minor enough.

 

[ORE]

I feel like people are sleeping on the poker option
I really can't think of a simpler or more likely to be effective and painless way to remove mengsk than a palace coup and getting the secret police and the heir to the throne is a natural slam dunk in that regard

 

[The Laurent]

I like this part of the plan. It feels like a good allocation of dice; even if the SCV project overflows, that just means progress on Phase 2.

This part I like less.
I'd much rather put 1 or 2 dice in regreening and 2 or 3 in refugee farms phase 2.
I think at this point our highest priority is the refugee crisis, and the farms project both feeds and resettles them.
For similar reasons, I'd like to at least split the Light Industry dice between the vespene project and refugee workshops phase 2.

So long as we keep putting at least 2 dice in both refugee projects each turn, I'll be happy.

Narratively, the consistent effort can only help.

I don't really have any issues with this part.
My inclination is to allocate 1 die every 50 when trying to finish up projects that aren't critically urgent (especially when there aren't follow up phases to absorb the spillover), but that's not a huge deal.

I suppose the exact order these finish in doesn't matter. I'd prefer to trade a turn of mad science for a sooner rollout of better guns, but odds are it won't make much difference.

These look fine.
I don't really have much opinion on the personal stuff beyond not wanting to risk much right now, but these risks look minor enough.

Click to shrink...

I'd be willing to so 2-Korhal Regreening, two Yum Yum, but not really much lower than that. If we really want to work on Refugees we should get started on Tyrador Reconstruction, which I plan to do Q3.

I guess we could split the Vespene (if so I'd want 2/2, maybe?), but as far as that goes, we actually have a time limit. We lose the bonus +5 as soon as we finish Augustgrad Phase 2.

 

[grimely]

I'd really rather do 2 Korhal Regreening, 2 Farmsteads.

 

[The Laurent]

I'd really rather do 2 Korhal Regreening, 2 Farmsteads.

Click to shrink...

The Foodarium can if two dice are put in it this turn be finished Q3 along with Regreening. Whereas if we just keep endlessly making Tyrador Farming our top and only priority, it feels like we're going to be shortchanging that and the window of opportunity for Vardona Hydroponics. Like, I do think Tyrador Farmlands are important, but I feel as if there's too great of a risk to monofocus on it when both the Yum Yum and Vardona Hydroponics could majorly influence our food situation as well, and with a far lower goal.

Which could of course be an argument for Regreening 2, Vardona Hydroponics 2, tbf as well. But the Nephor II action does have a bigger bonus.

But either way, 2 Regreening, 2 Hydroponics/Yum Yum

2 Regreening, 1 of whatever was chosen, 1 of whichever wasn't chosen.

Could mean that Q4 has us finish Yum Yum and Hydroponics and then start on Tyradol Farming... after we've finished the Reconstruction of Tyrador, which is also on the menu and will play a huge role in settling things.

 

[grimely]

Hmm, honestly when you put it that way I want 2 on Vardona because its bonus will go away.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Shit. I was grossly underestimating how much loot we could get out of Brontes.

I was not, however, underestimating how little steady RpT trickle we get out of the workshops.

 

[The Laurent]

Shit. I was grossly underestimating how much loot we could get out of Brontes.

I was not, however, underestimating how little steady RpT trickle we get out of the workshops.

Click to shrink...

A lot of that seems to be that it's too busy being used by Tyrador and its refugees, which after all hasn't really even begun its main reconstruction. Just less than the "almost all of it" used by the Kerhal Mines.

 

[Enthusiast#117]

I'd be willing to so 2-Korhal Regreening, two Yum Yum, but not really much lower than that. If we really want to work on Refugees we should get started on Tyrador Reconstruction, which I plan to do Q3.

I guess we could split the Vespene (if so I'd want 2/2, maybe?), but as far as that goes, we actually have a time limit. We lose the bonus +5 as soon as we finish Augustgrad Phase 2.

Click to shrink...

Sounds like maybe we should move one of the Augustgrand dice to Tyrador Reconstruction? With the SCV project completing, it still may finish this turn, but Phase 2 completion will be that much farther away.

That way Tyrador is at least started while Phase 2 of the refugee projects gets going.

 

[The Laurent]

Sounds like maybe we should move one of the Augustgrand dice to Tyrador Reconstruction? With the SCV project completing, it still may finish this turn, but Phase 2 completion will be that much farther away.

That way Tyrador is at least started while Phase 2 of the refugee projects gets going.

Click to shrink...

Maybe? But I think the two dice should potentially finish Augustgrad Phase 1, and will allow only a single die to be put on it next turn. My thought would be, like... this turn as said.

2 Augustgrad
5 Nephor II

Q3

1 Augustgrad
1 Nephor II to finish it, if needed, so most likely.
5 Tyrador Reconstruction.

Or something like that.

 

[Simon_Jester]

We should take the Battleball and use it's proceeds to invest in the Dylarian Shipyards.
...what do you mean ' land-based construction projects' only? The Dylarian Shipards would only take like 12 dice, and the battle-ball was worth 300 resources, of which our windfall would cover 180R worth of!

Click to shrink...

That's actually not a bad idea.

Actually, I'm interested to see if doing another phase of the Keresh Mining Complex (Phase 2) would push Augustgrad down to 0R per die.

Click to shrink...

I doubt it. From the sound of the blurbs, the first phase focused on bulk materials (i.e. aggregate and rock for construction materials), stuff that doesn't have much impact on our bottom line but is painfully costly to ship from planet to planet, so you want it dug up close to the site, or at least somewhere on the same planet with a rail or port connection to the site. The second phase is going to be going after materials that are rarer ("jorium" and "crystallized xenon," whatever that means), which I suspect will mean further reductions to Progress costs for Augustgrad and more RpT income, but not a cost-per-die improvement.

We should be putting all or almost all our free dice into personal actions. Personal actions are where the fun happens. It's where we get the opportunity to make decisions and influences things instead of being just another pawn in Mengsk's grand plan to oppress everyone other than himself.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, but that doesn't mean we should, or need to, speedrun this. Actually rebuilding Terran space matters too; this job isn't all about Mengsk, even about "overthrow Mengsk."

A lot of that seems to be that it's too busy being used by Tyrador and its refugees, which after all hasn't really even begun its main reconstruction. Just less than the "almost all of it" used by the Kerhal Mines.

Click to shrink...

Consumer goods made and then used on Tyrador shouldn't be irrelevant to the overall Dominion economy and providing us with no revenue.

I think it's just a case where the kind of goods made by the workshops aren't all that precious to the Dominion economy as a whole. Which is fine! I was in favor of the workshops even when I fully expected them to take something like 6-8 turns to pay for themselves, and I don't regret the investment.

Sounds like maybe we should move one of the Augustgrand dice to Tyrador Reconstruction? With the SCV project completing, it still may finish this turn, but Phase 2 completion will be that much farther away.

That way Tyrador is at least started while Phase 2 of the refugee projects gets going.

Click to shrink...

I think we should focus on no more than two projects at a time given how big projects are, unless we're very confident the Nephor II phase will finish.

 

[The Laurent]

[] Plan Breaking The Limits, Restoring Nephor, and Helping Vardona
-[] Infrastructure (5/5 dice + 2 Free, 35R)
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) 133/250 (2 dice, 10R)
--[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) 78/450 (5 dice, 25R)
-[] Heavy Industry (4/4 dice+ 2 Free dice, 35R)
--[] Nephor II: Nephor Industrial Megacomplex (Phase 1) 80/350 (3 dice, 15 R)
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 153/250 (3 dice, 30 R)
-[] Light Industry (4/4 dice, 40R)
--[] Vardona: Vespene Extraction Operations (Phase 1) 0/550 (2 dice, 20 R)
--[] Nephor II: Phoros Neotextile Fabrication Plant (Phase 2) (116/250) (2 dice 20 R)
-[] Environmental (4/4 dice, 40R)
--[] Korhal: Regreening Effort (Phase 1) 0/150 (2 dice, 10 R)
--[] Vardona: Subsidiary Hydroponics Effort 0/150 (2 dice, 30 R)
-[] Services (4/4 dice, 40R)
-- [] Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction] 2/100 (3 dice, 30 R)
-- [] Mass Literacy Movement (Phase 1) 0/200, (1 dice, 10 R)
-[] Military (5/5 dice, 40R)
--[] Nephor II: Fort Horner Marine Training Camp 0/150 (4 dice, 20 R)
--[] Brontes: Refloating the Fleet (Phase 1) 0/300 (1 dice, 20 R)
-[] Research (4/4 dice, 50 R)
--[] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute 50/150 (2 dice, 30 R)
--[] New Model Weaponry (Phase 1) (Tech) 0/150 (2 dice, 20 R)
-[] Bureaucracy (4/4 dice, 30R)
--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 146/200 (2 dice, 10 R)
--[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census [Reconstruction] 42/300 (2 dice, 20 R)
-[] Personal (4/4, 30 F)
--[] Raynor's Raiders: Request an Update [NEW] DC 40 (2 dice, 10 F)
--[] Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust, DC 40 (2 dice, 20 F)

310 R.

 

[F0lkL0re]

Well I've been convinced to switch some stuff over to Vardona.

[] Plan Private Troops and Funds
-[] Infrastructure 5/5 35R (+4 modifier)
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) 2 dice 10R 52%
(-10 Paranoia when complete)
(Progress 133/250, -5R per die)
--[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) 3 dice + 2 free dice 25R 22%
(Progress 78/450, -5R per die)
-[] Heavy Industry 4/4 35R (-1 modifier)
--[] Nephor II: Nephor Industrial Megacomplex (Phase 1) 1 die 5R 0%
(Provides Resource income)
(Progress 80/350, -5R per die)
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 3 dice 30R 90%
(Multiple projects finish faster upon completion) (+5 Paranoia when complete)
(Progress 153/250, -10R per die)
-[] Light and Chemical Industry 4/4 60R (-1 modifier)
[] Vardona: Vespene Extraction Operations (Phase 1) 3 dice 30R 0%
(Provides Resource income upon completion)
(Progress 0/550, -10R per die)
--[] Nephor II: Phoros Neotextile Fabrication Plant (Phase 2) 1 die + 2 free dice 30R 97%
(Reduces some per-die project costs upon completion)
(Progress 116/250, -10R per die)
-[] Environmental 4/4 30R (-6 modifier)
--[] Korhal: Regreening Effort (Phase 1) 2 dice 10R 7%
(+5 Paranoia upon completion)
(Progress 0/150, -5R per die)
--[] Vardona: Subsidiary Hydroponics Effort 2 dice 10R 12%
(+5 Paranoia upon completion)
(Progress 0/150, -5R per die)
-[] Services 4/4 40R (-6 modifier)
--[] Mass Literacy Movement (Phase 1) 1 die 10R 0%
(+5 Paranoia when started, +5 Paranoia when complete)
(Progress 0/200, -10R per die)
--[] Re-Establish the Universal News Network 3 dice 30R 75%
(+5 Paranoia when complete)
(Progress 2/100, -10R per die)
-[] Military 5/5 25R (-1 modifier)
--[] Vardona: Treasury Reserve Uniformed Service Troops 5 dice 25R DC120 97%
(Unlocks additional TRUST projects) (Paranoia either gained or lost on completion)
(DC 40/80/120, -5R per die)
-[] Research 4/4 50R (-6 modifier)
--[] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute 2 die 30R 40%
(-10 Paranoia when complete)
(Progress 50/150, -15R per die)
--[] Tyrador IX: Imperial Science University 2 dice 20R 7%
(+5 Paranoia when complete)
(Progress 0/150, -10R per die)
-[] Bureaucracy 4/4 30R (+4 modifier)
--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 2 dice 10R 85%
(+5 Paranoia when complete)
(Progress 146/200, -5R per die)
--[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census 2 dice 20R 0%
(Progress 42/300, -10R per die)
-[] Personal 4/4 40F (-6 modifier)
--[] Private Investments 4 dice 40F DC70 97%
(DC 30/50/70, -10F per die, +5 Discretionary Funds per quarter per DC passed, failure incurs +5 Paranoia)
-[] Free Dice 4/4
-[] 2 in Infrastructure
-[] 2 in Light and Chemical Industry
-[] Resources stockpile 295/395 Income /315 Total /710
-[] Discretionary Funds (F) stockpile 40/40 Income 0/25 Total 40/65

 

[Kelenas]

Honestly my own perspective is that people are going to basically endlessly kick down doing anything with Korhal Regreening down the road for years and years and then act baffled when quality of life is shit and Korhal is a mess. Turn after turn we've kept on pushing back on doing anything with it at all, supposedly because there are higher priorities, presumably literally every action... and then every phase of every action, because even completing Tyrador Farms I was apparently not enough to maybe make people think that Korhal not being a lifeless hellhole had value.

Click to shrink...

I think Korhal not being a lifeless hellhole has value. I just think that people not going hungry and actually being able to eat three meals a day has more value, especially when quality of life Korhal is very much problem for the future (my impression is that it's currently mostly uninhabited), whereas the shortages of food are very much a problem right now.

That's the reason why I'm focusing most of the Environmental dice on the food-factory on Nephor, rather than the homesteads; because the factory has a decent chance to complete this turn and increase the overall amount of food available in the Dominion. The Subsidiary Hydroponics would also be an option, but the factory on Nephor has a slightly higher chance of completion, which is why I prefer it.

It's roughly the same with the Vespene option. The additional income from drilling for Space!Oil would be nice, sure, but in my opinion it's still vastly more important for us to ensure people aren't lacking basic supplies such as Kitchen utensils and in general have the means necessary to start rebuilding their lives; hence the continued investment into the Refugee Workshops, even if it's minimal.
On top of that, the Vespene operation requires large amounts of time/dice investment, for an uncertain amount of R-income, while the expansion of the Neotextile Plant could potentially be accomplished this turn, meaning we can start benefiting from the reduction in R-cost for land-based projects next turn already. Depending on which projects we select going forward, the savings from the cost-reduction could eclipse the income we would have gained from the Vespene Extraction, and as an added benefit, while the R-income from the Vespene Extraction (amongst all other R-income increases) will be re-distributed at the end of the year during the budget negotiations/poker game - meaning we're likely to lose at least half of said income or more - the R-discount from the Neotextile Plant will remain.

 

[AlexScribler]

We got some fun goodies last turn. I'm hoping we turn them to helping people. Towards that end, here's the elements I think we want to include in any plan and why.

-[] Personal (4/4 + 2 Free, 60F)
--[] Raynor's Raiders: "Lose" Military Surplus [NEW] (2 dice, 20F) 75%, a third die would go to 92%
--[] Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust (2 dice, 20F) 87%
--[] Private Investments (2 dice, 20F) 91%/82%/68%

Raynor's Raiders: "Lose" Military Surplus [NEW]
- Protects people who are otherwise vulnerable and builds relationships with Raynor. What's not to love.

Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust
- We should really do this while we're doing all the Nephor development

Private Investments
-I really want to take Fringe Worlds: Divert Supplies to Independent Settlements but we don't have the funds to do that and the other actions we want. We had a cheap quarter last time and we're still budget constrained. That's only going to get worse. So we need to grow our income. I wish we could embezzle more.


Also good from Personnel are
Deadman's Rock: Authorize Arendt's Working Vacation <- More options and low risk of failure means we can even try with 1 die
Fringe Worlds: Divert Supplies to Independent Settlements [NEW] <- just a good thing to do
Korhal: Go Drinking with Colonel de Santo <- Sexism is stupid, let's not be stupid.

In other categories

[] Fringe Worlds: Supply Bunker Construction (Phase 1)
The lowest hanging fruit in Infrastructure. This both strengthens non-Mengsk aligned humans and allows them to better protect themselves and their food. A real chance of completing with just 2-3 dice.

[] Mass Literacy Movement (Phase 1)
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
[] Tyrador IX: Imperial Science University
ditto

[] Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction]
The better of two options.

 

[Redtape]

How much longer until the UED invasion and the queen of blades?

 

[Etranger]

How much longer until the UED invasion and the queen of blades?

Click to shrink...

At a certain point I'll start rolling for the Brood War's prologue events to fire.

 

[Hunter531]

We should be putting all or almost all our free dice into personal actions. Personal actions are where the fun happens. It's where we get the opportunity to make decisions and influences things instead of being just another pawn in Mengsk's grand plan to oppress everyone other than himself.

Click to shrink...

Problem is that we have very ambitious plan goals, to the point where we really need every single free die on reconstruction, or on stuff that makes reconstruction faster/cheaper. Plus, it's not like getting people out of refugee camps and unemployment is a bad thing.

--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 146/200 (2 dice, 10 R)

Click to shrink...

Why two dice here? With our new bureaucratic bonus, we have a 50% chance of completing it with only one before taking any omake bonuses into account, and I don't see any downside to having it complete next turn if the dice don't go our way?

It's not like we don't have plenty to do in Bureaucracy. There's the census,which we need done by end of Q4. However, if that is not to your liking, there's expanding the bureaucracy (we have more resources than we have dice to spend them with thanks to Neotextile and Brontes, a problem I would prefer to see fixed before we next negotiate our budget), or Planning and Statistics (so we can finally un-blackbox those mechanics).

 

[The Laurent]

Problem is that we have very ambitious plan goals, to the point where we really need every single free die on reconstruction, or on stuff that makes reconstruction faster/cheaper. Plus, it's not like getting people out of refugee camps and unemployment is a bad thing.

Why two dice here? With our new bureaucratic bonus, we have a 50% chance of completing it with only one before taking any omake bonuses into account, and I don't see any downside to having it complete next turn if the dice don't go our way?

It's not like we don't have plenty to do in Bureaucracy. There's the census,which we need done by end of Q4. However, if that is not to your liking, there's expanding the bureaucracy (we have more resources than we have dice to spend them with thanks to Neotextile and Brontes, a problem I would prefer to see fixed before we next negotiate our budget), or Planning and Statistics (so we can finally un-blackbox those mechanics).

Click to shrink...

For moral reasons, mostly. The odds of having a 50% chance of stranding decent people in jail for 3 more months of torture seems rather too high. And tbh, we know that overflow goes *somewhere* so I'm not too worried.

 

[Simon_Jester]

To quote our favorite pointy-headed silverback* general, "All right, then." We're in business! Also, our cost per die is now enough that we can easily afford to activate all dice, which means it's time to take the next level of Bureaucracy and get more dice. Preferably soon. That's going to be a partial focus for me.

Also, I think we should use the windfall money from the Brontes salvage to help fund Refloating the Fleet, a good -Paranoia action that would otherwise probably be too expensive.

Hm. Factoring in the Uncrowned Queen and Center of Power bonuses... Hm.
_________________________

*(Hey, I read Liberty's Crusade, what can I say? Hope Michael made it through Operation Blindeye... )

---

Budget:
315 RpT
395 Stockpiled
65 Slush Funds

330/315 R (stockpile to 380)
4/4 Free dice

[] Plan Attempting to Expand Our Capabilities
-[] Infrastructure (5/5 dice + 3 Free, +4 bonus, 40 R)
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) 133/250 (2 dice, 10 R) (57% chance)
--[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) 78/450 (6 dice, 30 R) (66% chance)
-[] Heavy Industry (4/4 dice, -1 penalty, 30 R)
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 153/250 (2 dice, 20 R) (73% chance)
--[] Nephor II: Nephor Industrial Megacomplex (Phase 1) 80/350 (2 dice, 10 R) (2/4.5 median)
-[] Light Industry (4/4 dice, -1 penalty, 50 R)
--[] Sara System: Imperial Chemical-Mineral Survey 0/200 (2 dice, -30 R) (2/4 median)
--[] Nephor II: Phoros Neotextile Fabrication Plant (Phase 2) 116/250 (2 dice, -20 R) (50% chance)
-[] Environmental (4/4 dice, -6 penalty, 20 R)
--[] Korhal: Regreening Effort (Phase 1) 0/150 (4 dice, 20 R) (77% chance)
-[] Services (4/4 dice, -6 penalty, 40 R)
--[] Re-Establish the Universal News Network 2/100 (2 dice, 20 R) (56% chance)
--[] Mass Literacy Movement 0/200 (2 dice, 20 R) (2/4 median)
-[] Military (5/5 dice, -1 penalty, 60 R)
--[] Nephor II: Fort Horner Marine Training Camp 0/150 (2 dice, 20 R) (36% chance)
--[] Brontes: Refloating the Fleet (Phase 1) 0/300 (2 dice, 40 R) (2/6 median)
-[] Research (4/4 dice, -6 penalty, 50 R)
--[] Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute 50/150 (2 dice, 30 R) (54% chance)
--[] New Model Weaponry (Phase 1) 0/150 (2 dice, 20 R) (15% chance)
-[] Bureaucracy (4/4 dice + 1 Free die, +4 bonus, 30 R)
--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (I) 146/200 (1 die, 5 R) (66% chance)
--[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census 42/300 (1 die, 10 R) (1/5 median)
--[] Flesh Out The Remainder of the Bureaucracy 62/200 (3 dice, 15 R) (78% chance)
-[] Personal (3/4 dice, -6 penalty, 30 F)
--[] Private Investments DC 30/50/70 (3 dice, 30 F) (98.4/95.2/89.4% chance of hitting each DC)
--[] We're going to need more than 25 Funds/turn to support all the anti-Mengsk stuff we want to do.
--[] Investing sooner rather than later means more total Funds for these missions.
--[] More freedom to support Raynor's Raiders and other factions.

---

Infrastructure: I consider reconstruction on Nephor II to be a critical industrial goal; having the planet as a whole be a wreck cannot be good for our industrial base, including the shiny new facilities we're building there. Thanks to Uncrowned Queen, we can put two dice on Augustgrad and six dice on Nephor II, giving good odds to finish both and leaving a Free die for Bureaucracy.

Heavy Industry: I'm not putting Free dice here because it seems like a more important priority to put them on infrastructure and bureaucratic work so we have the capabilities to do better Cool Stuff later rather than grabbing the shiny up front. The SCV factory has a good chance of finishing with two dice; the remaining dice go to NIM, which is my second-highest priority in the category.

Light Industry: Since we're already halfway to completing Phase 2 of the Phoros factory, it seems the obvious move to invest a couple more dice in hopes of getting it. The remaining dice... Well, I was torn between multiple project options, but I think a survey of the Sara system is worthwhile. I could be persuaded to pick a different option here.

Environmental: With Korhal Regreening Effort being so cheap per die and likely to have good effects for future Korhal construction (such as reducing the number of radioactive dust storms), I think it's an obvious choice. Four dice gives us a good one-turn completion chance, even!

Services: Hopefully we can get UNN up and going again, then move on to the next big thing, which for now I think should be the literacy program.

Military: Fort Horner is still a good choice, but with the huge windfall from Brontes making it so easy to activate lots of dice, I move that we also begin work on Refloating the Fleet.

Research: Progress on Broken Mesa, and work on a project that seems like a good move for -Paranoia and defense reasons.

Bureaucracy: Basically, I'm no longer worried about us being able to fund all our dice, so I want to take the action that gives us more dice. It would be very helpful if we had enough Infrastructure dice that we could more reliably complete our reconstruction goals without needing constant Free dice investment, for instance. Since the census cannot be finished this turn anyway, I'm shifting the main effort to Flesh Out The Bureaucracy, while hopefully wrapping up the truth and reconciliation committees and at least keeping the census ticking over.

Personal: Bear with me here. As explained above, it's clear that for a lot of the Personal actions, we're going to want to spend 3+ dice (to minimize the risk of failure) at a cost of 10 F/die or more. Therefore, we need a budget of more than 25 FpT going into the slush fund. Therefore, we make investments. The income will pay for itself rapidly and we'll be able to do a lot more to fund Raynor's Raiders or handle other operations without taking painful risks and eating those big +10 and +20 Paranoia spikes.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Damn. We're up to like... 8-12 plans.

Some people might say you need to spend dice on immediate projects-I say spend dice on getting MORE DISCOUNTS. SCVs, Neotextiles, and Tool and Die projects are all pushed reasonably hard...

Click to shrink...

I get a suspicion that further phases of those projects may to some extent hit diminishing returns on project cost reduction. Though I'm going to push ahead on neotextiles and SCVs anyway, so I look forward to being proved wrong!

Mass literacy efforts coincide with ramping up the Census, and we start working on a statistics branch to actually tell us what the census MEANS.

Click to shrink...

Personally, I think we should flesh out the bureaucracy first. More dice in all categories sounds like a great "gift that keeps on giving," now that the cost of so many key projects has declined to where we can handily fund all dice we have now. It means more capacity to do Bureaucracy and Services projects that make the state more functional at the expense of Mengsk's personal control later, after all. We're still in the early game, so we want projects that maximize our capabilities to get more done sooner.

Bureaucracy 8/4 Dice 55 R
-[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 146/200 1 dice 5 R
-[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census [Reconstruction] 42/300 3 dice 30 R
-[] Flesh Out the Remainder of the Bureaucracy 62/200 2 dice 10 R
-[] Re-Establish the Bureau of Planning and Statistics 0/200 2 dice 10 R

Click to shrink...

I respect what you're trying to do here, but I think this category is too scattershot. Even with three dice, there's no realistic chance of finishing the census, and two dice have no realistic chance of finishing Planning and Statistics. It'd be better to concentrate dice on three projects instead of four, giving the chosen stuff a higher chance of short-term success. Flesh Out The Bureaucracy and Planning and Statistics are both very likely to give immediate bonuses that make next turn a big jump up in capability for us, so we want to get both projects done if we can.

Well we are the ones writing their pay checks and if we go down there's a very high chance that they'll go down with us due to Mengsk's paranoia.

Yes indeed we shall go to aid him in his quest to block bullets with his body.

Click to shrink...

I'm thinking we should see how he likes one of those hundreds-of-stories-tall elevator shafts in the megaturbopalace he wants built.

Okay first draft plan anyone have any input?

--[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) 3 dice + 2 free dice 25R 22%

Click to shrink...

Did you factor in Uncrowned Queen?

-[] Heavy Industry 4/4 35R (-1 modifier)
--[] Nephor II: Nephor Industrial Megacomplex (Phase 1) 1 die 5R 0%
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 3 dice 30R 84%

Click to shrink...

I think three dice on the SCV factory is overkill, especially with our lawyer bonus to Vardona actions.

My only thoughts about TRUST is that it frightens the heck out of me when I think about having our own paramilitary organization within the treasury that might at any time be infiltrated or turned by more adept security organizations.

Click to shrink...

The alternative is to have no paramilitary organization, in which case all the people with guns are not merely infiltrated or turned by more adept security organizations. They are those same security organizations.

Who would you rather have guarding our main building? Director Starke's agents, or a task force we sign the paychecks for and can vet the membership of? Without TRUST, we're pre-infiltrated by any other paramilitary or military arm of the state with the muscle and interest to poke its nose into our business. At least founding TRUST adds an extra step. Still, if we're going to go for it, we should probably go hard, though it occurs to me that the DC 120 version may give us "bigger results, bigger Paranoia."

It feels like these dice allotments should be flipped. Neither of these are time sensitive and it's important to be conservative with our dice to take advantage of unusually high rolls.

Also, census noted having problems with finding questioners who could read so I'll bet finishing literacy will slash progress requirements for taking a proper census.

Click to shrink...

A literacy program that takes 3-6 months to complete will not immediately produce people well suited to the census role. Education takes longer periods to take effect.

Honestly my own perspective is that people are going to basically endlessly kick down doing anything with Korhal Regreening down the road for years and years and then act baffled when quality of life is shit and Korhal is a mess.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, it seems like you've got something like this every turn.

If you think a project's a good idea, great, argue in favor of it. But you can argue in favor of a project without insulting everyone's intelligence by implying that we're a bunch of fools for not having done it first ahead of all other priorities and getting all passive-aggressive with the "gee, it's too bad nobody thinks Korhal not being a lifeless hellhole is a good idea" stuff.

It's really unpleasant and corrosive in Planquest discussions when projects get talked about this way. There's so much going on that we just can't reasonably expect everything we want to get done immediately. None of us can.

I feel like people are sleeping on the poker option
I really can't think of a simpler or more likely to be effective and painless way to remove mengsk than a palace coup and getting the secret police and the heir to the throne is a natural slam dunk in that regard

Click to shrink...

My main thing is that I want to try and stack up a few more Personal action bonuses and a bigger pool of Funds before I try that one. The consequences of failure could be really bad, and trying to speedrun the overall "overthrow Mengsk" plan is very likely to increase our risk of failure and exposure.

Hmm, honestly when you put it that way I want 2 on Vardona because its bonus will go away.

Click to shrink...

Ehh, it's only a +5 and the bonus will be around for at least a few more turns. Also, frankly, I'm not all that eager to take options that explicitly increase Paranoia without a lot of direct gains for us right now. Keeping Paranoia low so we have some buffer in case we get caught doing a risky Personal action seems important to me.

 

[Polgas]

I'm calling it now. The sinkholes are sabotage and we'll soon be getting our first high profile martyrs fighting the dominion.

 

[Dreikanter]

[] Vardona: Treasury Reserve Uniformed Service Troops 5 dice 25R DC120 97%
(Unlocks additional TRUST projects) (Paranoia either gained or lost on completion)
(DC 40/80/120, -5R per die)

Click to shrink...

I think passing the 120 threshold for TRUST is likely to gain us additional paranoia. To me, the breakpoints read as:

• 40: Hamhanded centralization effort that raises alarms in the throne room and causes unrest in the department, but is nonetheless largely successful. Paranoia gain and other penalties.
• 80: Successful reorganization that shows we're enthusiastically going along with Mengsk's plans to build up a stratocratic autocracy, while not being a threat to his authority. Paranoia loss, no other effects.
• 120: Very successful reorganization that greatly increases the power that we, personally, hold. Causes Mengsk to worry that we might eventually have enough power to pull off a coup. Paranoia gain, unknown other benefits.

I have no particular objection to this project, but I would suggest that it may be a bad idea to put too many dice in. Maybe just two? We have other stuff to do in this category.