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Benefaction: A Combine Ck2 Quest in Star Wars Legends

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[x]Army of Monsters
Our best bet without access to human(oids) to modify.

@Mantising
How big is our citadel right now actually, I was wondering how much room we have to play with and what sort of manufacturing facilities we have. Is it some sort of 3d printer deal or a proper little assembly bay?

EDIT: oh, even more importantly, do we have proper patriotic music to blast over loudspeakers in public spaces
 
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Hazeron said:
[x]Army of Monsters
Our best bet without access to human(oids) to modify.

@Mantising
How big is our citadel right now actually, I was wondering how much room we have to play with and what sort of manufacturing facilities we have. Is it some sort of 3d printer deal or a proper little assembly bay?
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At the moment I'd say four to six times the size of the Citadel Reactor area we see in Episode One, not including your Smart Barriers. You've essentially got a Citadel Grade reactor with what was considered the bare minimum support structures and equipment needed to eventually build out into something like the City 17 Citadel, with regular supply drops from other Combine installations. As you build more the Citadel will grow mostly in line with the design choice you're making this turn,

Your production equipment ranges from upsized versions of the 3D printer machines seen in Alyx to full on multi-ton drop hammers for forging future structural beams and exterior plates.
 
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A good start to our endeavors. Do we have access to construction equipment like bulldozers by the way, I noticed that we have to research defoliants to get out of the woods which suggests we don't have things to just clear cut our way through.

EDIT: oh also what's our resource situation, do we have simple extraction ongoing or are our stockpiles good enough that for the time being there's no issue or risk of depleting them?
 
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Hazeron said:
A good start to our endeavors. Do we have access to construction equipment like bulldozers by the way, I noticed that we have to research defoliants to get out of the woods which suggests we don't have things to just clear cut our way through.
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You could brute-force it, but then the swamp just grows up again behind you. Easier just to cook up a little Agent Orange and let it rot away.

Edit for Edit: For now I'm handwaving resources until y'all get into a good spot for a mechanical overhaul.
 
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Hazeron said:
wait are they literally growing fast enough that we can't lay down gravel or even tamped dirt, or is this just a case of expediting the process?
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The latter, you'll have learned from your Weequay friends that the Hutts have to regularly spray down the roads between settlements; else roots try to push up and through the road substrate within days.
 
[X] Plan: Spring The Trap
TACTICS, +5: 2D
--[X] Abstain (Tactics) X2

ADMINISTRATION, +15: 2D, 1.5FD
--[X] Produce Scanners (DC 15) .5HD
--[X] Repair Smart Barriers (DC 50, +5 to location defense once completed.) 2D
--[X] Setup a Suppression System (0/100 +10 to location defense once completed.) 1FD/.5HD

RESEARCH, +15: 2D
--[X] Defoliant Studies (0/100, Enables non-aerial logistics running out of your base.) 2D

DIPLOMACY, +5: 1D
--[X] Abstain(Diplomacy) X1

PSIONICS, +7: 1D, 1FD
--[X] Hatch (0/150, +2 Skill to Admin, Tactics and Diplomacy.) 2D

PERSONAL:
--[X] Down (Free)

-Suppression System 1 Full FD, 1 Half FD
-Produce Scanners 1 Half FD
-Hatch 1 Full FD

Think I did that right, if not, well I'll try to fix that

Admin has Scanners to help keep interlopers, spies or any others from finding us before we are reading, repairing our barriers now is needed now that we have confirmation that they know we are here, suppression system is to get defenses up now instead of be attacked and get our asses whooped by a mass wave of mercs or something.

Research I am kinda iffy on I may switch to Defoliant and replsorlift together, may not, depends.

Psionics is becoming necessary now that things are steadily ramping up, and we need more bonuses to push things over the edge of completion, and unlock more abilities too.


Personal, I believe burrowing/bunkering is safer especially in a galaxy where Base Delta Zero and even Tactical Orbital Bombardments are common place, and typical, even in the Clone Wars it has happened, it was never publicly known or shown unless one side black flagged it, or false flagged the op, but it had become more and more available as the war progressed.
 
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LordArcturus said:
Psionics is becoming necessary now that things are steadily ramping up, and we need more bonuses to push things over the edge of completion, and unlock more abilities too.
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I have to note that hatching provides +2 to various skills, all which does not push any of them up to the point of giving us more die to work with. Though it may unlock options to train them up I admit.

If we want more psionics die, our only real option is to train psionics until it levels up to the point it can get a second psionics die. I would rather work on that to get that second die personally before working on hatching with both of them over time.
 
i apologize if this was asked already but what lore are we running with for our current augmented troops/standard brain modifications? Apparently in Alyx Combine soldiers (even the more augmented ones) are decently chatty and can be seen laughing and stuff, which suggests they're more independent than in other appearances in the setting.
 
Hazeron said:
i apologize if this was asked already but what lore are we running with for our current augmented troops/standard brain modifications? Apparently in Alyx Combine soldiers (even the more augmented ones) are decently chatty and can be seen laughing and stuff, which suggests they're more independent than in other appearances in the setting.
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So there's a clear progression in Design going from Grunts > Soldiers > Elites, which is why I refer to the Alyx grunts as "Prototypes". They're an early attempt at making Transhuman Soldiers useful to the Combine, and are at least somewhat successful in that regard. Moving forwards to Hl2 they've perfected their Psycho-engineering to a much higher degree; creating the professional, almost robotic supersoldiers seen then.

At the moment you're working with the most modern versions of the Transhuman Overwatch, with minimal Cognitive Dissonance.
 
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Cool, thank you.

edit: @Mantising also, are suppression fields going to be a thing or do you want to retcon that? not only is it a really weird piece of tech (how exactly do you magically 'inhibit' the formation of specific proteins with an energy field) it's also incredibly overpowered (program it so that it prevents people from creating the proteins needed to maintain lung structure and functionality and everyone that steps foot on your planet dies within a week)
 
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Hazeron said:
(program it so that it prevents people from creating the proteins needed to maintain lung structure and functionality and everyone that steps foot on your planet dies within a week)
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It's probably not as able to be directed as containment fields, so it would affect literally everyone it could affect in whatever way it's set up to.

Which means setting it up to kill anyone coming in is bad if you want to yanno, live on a planet. Especially when your workforce is made up of the exact same kinds of biological entities you might want to kill.

I also imagine that it requires a well built up citadel or even a direct connection to the homeworld to set it up.

There's also that the Combine want to harvest as many resources as possible, so outright murdering entire planets they can harvest for new workers is counterproductive.

Headcrabs as weapons seeming to be a newly tested thing, are somewhat less wasteful than just outright murder field, since while hostile they're still alive somewhat given their screams and cries, and potentially salvageable for the transhuman process with some effort. At least in my opinion it should be an option.
 
Hazeron said:
(how exactly do you magically 'inhibit' the formation of specific proteins with an energy field)
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Magnetic particle string resonance. Some energetic wavelengths either resonate (induce, encourage, entice) or impede (inhibit, discourage, reject) atomic bonds in protein sequences better than others.

For obvious reasons, all research into field protein inhibitors/inducers are, officially, banned from research IRL. Even though, most equipment theorized needed to even do so, by and large don't exist, yet.
 
Asmodemus said:
It's probably not as able to be directed as containment fields, so it would affect literally everyone it could affect in whatever way it's set up to.

Which means setting it up to kill anyone coming in is bad if you want to yanno, live on a planet. Especially when your workforce is made up of the exact same kinds of biological entities you might want to kill.

I also imagine that it requires a well built up citadel or even a direct connection to the homeworld to set it up.

There's also that the Combine want to harvest as many resources as possible, so outright murdering entire planets they can harvest for new workers is counterproductive.

Headcrabs as weapons seeming to be a newly tested thing, are somewhat less wasteful than just outright murder field, since while hostile they're still alive somewhat given their screams and cries, and potentially salvageable for the transhuman process with some effort. At least in my opinion it should be an option.
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No I know it isn't directed, and it's stated abilities just generally stretch my suspension of disbelief.

edit: @WCSII interesting. still, my main issue with the idea is 1. how widespread and consistent the effect is globally and 2. the fact that all proteins utilize the same basic mechanics so any change to one sort of bond should reasonably have knock on effects so you can't exactly 'target' it
 
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Ah, you were asking how to target specific proteins, that's a completely different string resonance that's no one's sure what it's a resonance of. But, once you can target specific protein sequences using the one, you can use the other to do your preferred activity. Somehow. Most documentation on that research, when discovered by accident, is classified very quickly, and beyond the basic details, no one, publicly, knows.

{edit} As for why it's classified? Pick your favorite conspiracy theory. It's just as likely to be correct as the others.
 
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