The energy problem can be fixed with Synthgas Reactors and then later with Fusion Reactors, hence why I added one in my proposal. The sheer usefulness and snowballing potential of having an extra 3 autofabbers, combined with the psychic drones, is insane.
More than enough to fix most of our resource problems the turn after.
And I don't see why democracy or setting up the barebones of a government would be a problem besides the cultural resistance, which as Logos pointed out, is only because the current psionic/telepathic method is considered superior despite some drawbacks.
Integrating telepathic interfaces into a computer core and having it handle the voting, debates, etc, would bypass most of that and get us the best of both.
What we have now, a council made up of family heads + us, is good governing system, at least for now.
A telepatic Anarchy, to put a name to it, is usefull for now, how many adults are there 250? for such "small" group it works, the basis of the democracy won't see any true use until we are way bigger and the telepatic channel is overcrowded.
So I can understand the resistance that our current population has against it, but i can also recognize that we need to plan a proper democrtic system (with a telepatic focus in mind) for the future
no, but we can ly the foundations of that, what e have now is a space dedicated to politics and legisltion (forum), which in a wy it can also mean tht if you want to talk about politics or laws go there to not bother those who don't want
the forum has the objective to start chnging the mindset of our people, so that when it is needed, we don't hve to fight the mindset of several thousand people.
It is easier to change the minds of just 200 people
So what is a priority for you when it comes to diplomacy actions?
There's nothing we absolutely need, so why not look towards the future? Wardemer makes a good point, I'd rather do things now than in a few decades or so when we're all set in our ways.
Right now, I'd focus on building culture, then pivot to government. Hence why my plan went "maybe we should improve the cultural center.", which I absolutely want as running as possible before end of Founding era.
As far as the people who dissected the sandworms can tell, they have no special psychoactive characteristics.
What they do have is highly mineralized outer hide, a pair of secondary guts filled with lithovoric bacteria, and a number of "sonic chambers" strewn throughout their bodies that agitate soil/debris/sand around them so that they can literally swim through it, like it was a fluidized air bed.
Their natural diet seems to primarily consist of "stonebushes", which are a species of sagebrush-like plant that coats itself in a sort of natural cement (silica and lime), as a protective measure against the winds and ionic discharges (various forms of lightning) of the subarctic storms.
The ones that attacked your warehouse did so, by your best estimate, because they mistook it for the largest lunch they'd ever witnessed (being drawn by whatever senses they use to notice their main diet; probably some olfactory method scenting the leached minerals of the ground water.)
As far as the people who dissected the sandworms can tell, they have no special psychoactive characteristics.
What they do have is highly mineralized outer hide, a pair of secondary guts filled with lithovoric bacteria, and a number of "sonic chambers" strewn throughout their bodies that agitate soil/debris/sand around them so that they can literally swim through it, like it was a fluidized air bed.
Their natural diet seems to primarily consist of "stonebushes", which are a species of sagebrush-like plant that coats itself in a sort of natural cement (silica and lime), as a protective measure against the winds and ionic discharges (various forms of lightning) of the subarctic storms.
The ones that attacked your warehouse did so, by your best estimate, because they mistook it for the largest lunch they'd ever witnessed (being drawn by whatever senses they use to notice their main diet; probably some olfactory method scenting the leached minerals of the ground water.)
The original idea I had was to genetically modify the worms to be telepathic, but now with this comment I'll need to feed them minerals that are psychoactive in nature and have them act as an organic refinery for said psychoactive mineral now all we need is a psychoactive mineral.
Scheduled vote count started by Logos01 on May 6, 2024 at 9:28 PM, finished with 38 posts and 7 votes.
-[X] Plan: Storms are Coming
- [X] Industry:
-- [X] Harden the mines. Try and make improvements to existing infrastructure to mitigate penalties and raise food production.. (2 autofabbers)
- [X] Military:
-- [X] Patrol, look for sandworm nests within the region.
- [X] Exploration:
-- [X] Work with the military to locate likely nests and methods of ingress.
- [X] Research:
-- [X] Pest Control. Psi tech research, as well. Use last autofabber as needed to build defenses or warning systems.
- [X] Diplomacy:
-- [X] Work on improving the cultural center, adding more to it. (Work on reaching step 2) (autofactory)
- [X] Personal:
-- [X] Go prospecting for minerals in orbit.
[X] Plan: Advancing Onward
--[X] If we have 5 or more minerals at the start of next turn, build another Storm-Hardened Autofactory, 1 autofabber, 1 food, then also build a Storm-Hardened Syngas Reactor, 1 autofabber, 1 food, set it to whatever setting gets our energy balance neutral. If we do not have 5 or more minerals at the start of next turn, then build two more Storm-Hardened Mining Complexes, 2 autofabbers, 2 food.
--[X] Stay on watch, use the drone network as needed to locate any Sandworm nests.
-- [X] Once the nests are found, study the Sandworms using the drones from a distance and their relation to the local ecosystem, try to figure out if killing them will have any long-term effects.
-- [X] Research Psi-Tech, with a focus on the telepathic interfaces for computers and machinery.
-- [X] Work on improving the cultural center, adding in a central computer core that incorporates the telepathic interface, 1 autofactory, 5 food. Also, check up on people to see how they're doing and impress upon them the importance of staying safe and indoors to avoid accidents.
-- [X] Take the colony ship into orbit for asteroid mining.
- Colonization Basics.
Can build Tier 0 "Basic" basic facilities with autofabber action.
- Defense Basics.
Can build basic military gear, both personal and semi-autonomous drones.
- Energy Production Tier 1
Can design specialty Tier 1 facilities for power production. Most will require a Basic Autofactory.
- Ecological Architecture.
Can perform special actions to modify buildings to better perform or integrate better with local environment. (Example: "Storm Hardening").
- Kobold Veterancy Archives.
Eliminates potential unskilled labor penalties. Grants +1 bonus to tasks requiring extreme skill (combat rolls, medical performance, etc.,)
- Psi-Amps (Primitive)
Through the use of electrically charged Psi-Crystals, a telepath can -- very clumsily -- use telekinetic abilities. The surface has barely been scratched with this.
- Telekinetic Weapons
Can use unengraved but larger psi-crystals to create heavy recoilless slug-thrower weapons, though they require hip or backpack power supplies.
- Psionic Interfaces
Telepathic interface technology can now work reliably with human-made computer components.
Tier 0:
- Basic Autofab: -1 Energy Prod. Allows 1 Autofab Action/turn. Cost: 1 Autofab Action. 2 Minerals.
- Basic Militia Gear. Allows 1 pop to perform military actions. Cost: 1 Autofab Action. 1 Minerals.
- Basic Hab Complexes. +1 Pop Cap. Cost: 1 Autofab Action.
- Basic Greenhouses. +1 Food Prod. Cost: 1 Autofab Action.
- Basic Mines: +1 Minerals Prod. Cost: 1 Autofab Action.
- Basic Lumber Camp: Reduces non-pop food costs by up to 1 per turn. Cost: 1 Autofab Action.
- Wind/Solar Farm: +1 Energy Prod. Cost: 2 Minerals. Up to 1 Autofab Action (build multiple with 1 action.) (Cannot be Storm Hardened.)
- Syngas Reactor: +1-3 Energy/-1-3 Food Prod. Cost: 2 Minerals. 1 Autofab Action.
- Basic Autofactory: -2 Energy Prod. Allows 3 Autofab Actions OR 1 Autofactory Action. Cost: 2 Autofab Action. 5 Minerals.
- Gunshuttle. -2 Energy Prod. Allows 1 Orbital Operation /turn. Cost: 2 Autofab Actions. 10 Minerals.
- Basic Kelp Farm. +1 Food, -1 Food Cost, -1 Energy Prod. Requires deposit. Cost: 1 Autofab Action, 1 Minerals.
- Build Storm Peat Deposit. Adds a Storm Peat deposit to the planet. Cost: 1 Autofab Action, 10 Food.
- Cultural Center. 0/0/0. Negates all Cultural Crisis penalties when complete. 4 Food per stage. (Core / Ring / Wings )
Industry:
-- Harden the mines. Try and make improvements to existing infrastructure to mitigate penalties and raise food production.. (2 autofabbers)
While it was something of a 'rush' to get things taken care of, given the approach of the Quinquennial Storm, it was also a fairly straightforward process. Time to spare on the hardening of the mine facilities due to using mostly local resources in both cases meant that some leftover time was available to do "finishing touches" on the greenhouses and habitat areas.
It was unfortunate therefore that the lack of power supplies meant that the ambitions to improve the greenhouses with more autonomous machinery needed to be nixed. It wasn't like the colony was struggling for food anyhow, though -- even with the efforts to grow Earth-native fauna from seedstocks to populate the Ring section of the Community Center.
The Stoners in particular were somewhat nonplussed by this; they had apparently been hoping to start establishing a luxuries "market" based on the ever-growing food surplus. Of course, any resentment they might have felt over this not happening was broadly agreed to be a product of their attempts to make it a surprise for the rest of the colony -- if they had simply mentioned it then you might not have sunk so much of the biomass yield and harvestables into completing the Community Center.
-- Results:
Storm Hardened trait applied to Peat Mine and Basic Minerals Mine. No improvements made to Greenhouses due to lack of ability to use them.
Bad Morale from failure to complete hidden agenda amongst Stoner Clan (no markets for you!)
Military:
-- Patrol, look for sandworm nests within the region.
As it turns out, animals that literally swim six or more feet below the surface don't leave much in the way of visible signs on the surface to be tracked. But there was also very little in the way of noticeable ground tremor activity -- there were a few false positives, but they all turned out to be dry lightning storms rolling in. Easily accounted for with your weathermapping satellites, but still a nuisance.
-- Results:
No meaningful hits. As far as you can tell, there is no active sandworm activity in the forested area surrounding the colony. Wherever they came from last year, they were a long way from home.
Exploration:
-- Work with the military to locate likely nests and methods of ingress.
Attempting to discern how they might have arrived in the area of the colony, however, was slightly more successful. The creatures after all were not all that small -- portable seismographs reading the subsoil above the bedrock in the area of the forest and surrounding ecosystems revealed that while individual worms could come from a number of areas, the easiest routes for swarms were fairly traceable. The evergreen-jungle trees had fairly robust root networks, spreading out and quite deep as well -- likely a further adaptation to resist being blown over by storms -- and this would make it difficult for larger worms to move in groups through the forested areas. But there were plains and valleys which were more prairie-like, and these could be set up with seismometers as an early warning perimeter if necessary.
Given how cheap the infrasonic listening devices were, a fairly broad 'fence' of them was planted just in case -- if nothing else, it would give the Militia much better time to respond to another incursion. Though how to address one was another story; none of the colony's weapons would be at all effective given the sheer depth the animals travelled at.
-- Results:
Sandworm attack damage mitigated 1 step due to establishing early warning methods to detect their approach.
Research:
-- Pest Control. Psi tech research, as well. Use last autofabber as needed to build defenses or warning systems.
(Early warning system: see exploration action).
Different possible approaches were considered to detect or better control the sandworm nuisance. Various proposals were made. One of the cheapest was to create water canals down to the bedrock layer -- and while that could be done, it would represent an impediment to future colony growth to say nothing of the lightning risk mineralized water would create in colony areas. Another suggestion was to plant rows and rows of trees in the plains areas -- and while this might also reduce the scope of attacks it would take years if not decades to be effective and nobody was sure if the root networks wouldn't just be eaten through. It took one of the Runningdeers to suggest that you could possibly mimic one of the herbivores' natural predators somehow to result in an expedition to be proposed for the following year -- when the storm cycle had somewhat abated -- to search the animals' native habitat to see if there were in fact some carnivore that hunted the sandworm herds that could be used to ward the animals off.
In happier news, the psi-crystal research project has gone just about as well as could be hoped. The Namikazes collectively spent much of the first half of the year simply correcting the previous glitch and finding the interface-terminals roughly bug-free: your computers and drones could now use telepathic signals instead of keyboards or displays, so long as you had the crystals for it. They'd even hooked a small number of crystals up to small toy humanoid robots for mock duels for the kids. (And the adults who felt like betting on household chores as their wagers...).
Repeating the initial incident with the charged psi-crystals on the other hand was ... not unsuccessful. The Greys and Namikazes who worked on this noticed that it was fairly easy to induce a single directed impulse to anything "facing" the crystals, but their capacity to deliver a charge was largely limited to how much electrostatic charge had built up in the crystal itself. Still; this did mean that by using some of the larger variety that the psi-crystal machine could make, you could probably design and manufacture telekinetic "shotguns" or "coilguns". Nothing incredibly impressive there, but the ability to directly use an electrical charge rather chemical propellant meant such weapons could hold more ammunition and maybe hit harder. Something that was looking quite valuable given just how many rounds your militiamen had to use to take down the worms given their thick and mineralized hides -- the things were tougher than kevlar, to say nothing about their tolerance to abrasive, thermal, or electrical impacts. The telekinetic weapons designs Mira's people were recommending were oversized designs that were clearly meant to take advantage of the fact that the crystals imparted kinetic energy without recoil. Meaning much heavier weapons could be used without breaking the wielder.
A far more interesting result, however, came from Namikaze Shirou's attempts to see what could be done with some of the engraved circuitry patterns the crystals in the psi-crystal forge machine had; most of which were duds... except one particular pattern, which instead of imparting directional energy to anything the crystal's main face was pointed at -- would resist the passage of any energetic variance in the area immediately facing the crystal. Kinetic, electrical, thermal, photonic; so long as the electrical energy held out and Shirou (or any other teep focusing on the engraving)'s focus was sustained, the area in front of the crystal would apply that electrical energy to resisting the flow of said passing energy. As this was as yet only in an area less than 10 cubic centimeters in front of the crystal itself, there wasn't a lot of practical application to be had here. But it was proof that much more could be done here. Perhaps even direct telekinetic deployment of thermal or electrical energy without a need for physical slugs. Or laser weapons?
-- Results:
Cooperation with explorers and military to reduce sandworm attacks by -1 severity.
Follow-up on pest-control to occur next turn. (This will not count against Research actions.)
Psi-Drone technology unlocked. (Requires Psi-Crystal Machine action. 2 Minerals. 1 Energy. Creates 1 "pop" of Psi-Drones. Can be allocated to facilities in lieu of other workers.)
Telekinetic Militia unlocked. (Requires Psi-Crystal Machine action, 2 Minerals. +1 Effectiveness over Basic Militia.)
Diplomacy:
-- Work on improving the cultural center, adding more to it. (Work on reaching step 2) (autofactory)
With the full surplus and in defiance of the winds and constant lightning strikes, not only do your people continue the Colony Center, but the actual facility itself is fully completed. The Core, which houses main "functions of state" as well as the main colony archives to date -- printed and microfiche library as well as banks of datacrystals, in the most hardened area of the center, are complemented by the various miniature biomes of the native flora and easily-zoo-housed fauna to represent how Kithhame is now the core of your people's heritage. And while it digs deep into the bedrock, the Core also rises ten stories into the sky with an utterly absurd amount of plascrete and structural plastics, as well as walls of two-meter-thick transplas, to represent your people's will to never cower despite any and all adversities.
The outer Ring is established in acknowledgement of the colony's origins, with as close to microbiomes as you can get by bioprinting seeds and eggs in the autofactory to suit what your people were beginning to call "Old Earth". The Ring itself is established with multi-leveled "open-air" (by which you mean meter-thick transplas roofing) commerce facilities that should be sufficient for decades to come. A mall of Kithhame if you will. Places for you and your children and your childrens' children to set up shop and work on whatever professions they see fit, be it basketweaving, tattooing, general medical practitioner, psi-crystal engraver, jazz busking, or book salesman, or anything between or beyond.
The Wings -- two of them, as 'great loops' which connect as a figure-eight back to the Ring -- are established as more infrastructure for the colony itself; one wing in which AMAI is relocated, which will also function as a future for any research or scientific academia as the case may be, and the other is established more as a logistics hub for the colony as whole, with the intention of monitoring future traffic -- aerial, orbital, or vehicular -- as well as the needs of the militia to have a "central command and control"; these facilities are made even "harder" than the rest of the Community Center as a whole, with redundant "double-hull" exteriors, no windows to speak of, and a large number of 'airlock' style entrances for rapid controlled ingress/egress.
-- Results:
Community Center completed. Potential Cultural Crisis events negated. Four "sub-facilities" slots unlocked -- one occupied by medical center, "AMAI".
Possible economy updates in future turns.
Personal:
-- Go prospecting for minerals in orbit.
Spending an entire month in space, as it turns out, doing nothing but hunting down shiny rocks for your "collection" back at home, is a fairly great and un-stressful way to leave Mira and 'bolds to watch over the kids.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the way she was polishing the barrel of her 50mm semiautomatic telekinetic shotgun. Nor the gleam in her eye when she kept doing so. Even a deep scan would confirm that. Totally.
-- Results:
10 (1d10 == 9, + 1 KVA ) minerals obtained.
You got your wife a cannon. Wives love cannons.
Votes by plan, please:
Each turn is 1 year.
1 Action in each category, only write-ins for now while the dust settles and interest is shown.
- [] Industry:
(Agricultural, economic, and residential leadership actions go here.)
-- []
- [] Military:
(Militia, naval, wartime, and such go here.)
-- []
- [] Exploration:
(Scouting, mapping, resource survey type actions go here.)
-- []
- [] Research:
(Pulling schematics for practical application out of the colony ship's AI, discovering new techniques, biotech, and so on.)
-- []
- [] Diplomacy:
(Internal or external diplomatic actions. Building community, negotiating trade deals, and so on.)
-- []
- [] Personal:
(Things you do yourself.)
-- []
The three empty bullet points in the Cultural Center aren't an error. They're slots for "subfacility" specials that the Cultural Center can support.
An example of another subfacility would be the "Central Computer Core" we discussed previously, that would support "teep" e-democracy and the implementation of the Robotic (exchange up to 3 energy for +1 in performance) upgrade to your Basic facilities.
Psi-Drone pops can be applied as a +1 to the performance of any given facility, representing it being fully staffed. They require -1 Energy to sustain. (Yes this is an overlap with Robotic as an upgrade; the pops can be moved from one facility to another; the Robotic upgrade is specific to a facility and can only go up to +3.)
- [X] Plan: The Next.. .5 year plan?
-- [X] Industry: Build Fusion Power Plant. Build out mines. Build out greenhouse, since Stoner clan apparently wants to be capitalists. (Autofactory, autofabber)
-- [X] Military: Build emergency caches, send to help with the expedition.
-- [X] Exploration: Assist with expedition to the sandworms area.
-- [X] Research: Work on the expedition, also continue research on psi-tech. Work on ways to move the colony ship core as a backup to the Comm Center.
-- [X] Diplomacy: Work on setting up a routine council so clans can *tell each other* goals they have, or even just regular telepathic meetings, so we can have an agenda. Discuss potential research outposts in storm or underwater. (Well, I mean.)
-- [X] Personal: A date with Mira. Doing some mining if we have time.
I am sufficiently convinced for the e-democracy core to add it, but this is largely "let's start ramping up production". Next turn I want to do the core move and build a new autofactory.
It's a preliminary plan, though.
ETA: It might be overloaded on the industry section.
ETA2: I... really get the point of a second autofactory. Next turn...
-- [X] Industry: Build Fusion Power Plant. Build out mines. If we have spare energy, build psi-drones for mining use. Build out greenhouse, since Stoner clan apparently wants to be capitalists. (Autofactory, autofabber)
-- [X] Military: Build out stuff for Telekinetic Militia (autofabber)
TBF, I was afraid of that which is why I wanted to get the fusion plant up so we could have a second autofactory while we keep building up minerals. I see why the plan last turn had that in it.
TBF, I was afraid of that which is why I wanted to get the fusion plant up so we could have a second autofactory while we keep building up minerals. I see why the plan last turn had that in it.
For what it's worth I let you guys have the Telekinetic Militia already on the basis of you dedicating the autofabber to countermeasures and doing psionic research in the same turn. So that's already there. (hand-carried semiautomatic punt guns are good sandworm plinkers. So Sayeth Mira. So Sayeth We All.)
Also, you could build a SynGas facility with an autofab and just sink the -2 Food for +2 energy. (You can use the FoodCost from the Peat Mine to offset that), which would let you for example use the other 2 autofabs to build a second Autofactory.
That would leave you with one Autofactory action to work with but that could get you the Central Computer Core. Which, mind you, would have a -1 Energy cost unto itself.
Having so little Energy production is now your major chokepoint. But that was pretty much always going to happen.
It's also a little amusing to me that your Food production is the highest still to the point I've been giving ways to consume it on that basis. You guys definitely won't struggle with building those Exowomb Nurseries.
K, I think I understand this all well enough to build a plan. This one is about expanding our industry, and running down potential problems before they get big.
[X] Plan: power underwhelming
- [X] Industry:
-- [X] Build Basic Autofactory (2 autofab, 5 minerals)
-- [X] Build Syngas Reactor (1 autofab, 2 minerals) (burn -2 FoodCost from peat mine for +2 energy)
-- [X] Build Basic Fusion Reactor (1 autofac, 2 minerals)
- [X] Military:
-- [X] Protect Exploration group from potentially hostile fauna. Maybe supplement colony food stores with some light hunting.
- [X] Exploration:
-- [X] Begin planetary biosurvey. Focus on identifying potentially hazardous flora/fauna. Maybe we can catch the next sandworm-level-problem before they're chewing on our colony.
- [X] Research:
-- [X] We need a design for a satellite that can detect and track spaceships entering our solar system. Ideally quiet, passive sensors only. Bonus points for tracking potential planetary impactors.
- [X] Diplomacy:
-- [X] If the stoners are going to try to establish an economy, let's talk about the basics. What is money; is it pure fiat, or is it based in something? How do you prevent abuses of wealth? Are we going to do taxes? Long term this can cause big issues, so let's do it right.
-- [X] Suggest basing 'money' on productive capacity - currency can be exchanged for a specific amount of autofabber runtime. Suggest community-owned fabbers could regularly pay out "production credits" to all citizens.
- [X] Personal:
-- [X] Yeah, a human can easily psychically dominate a group of kobolds. But what if you didn't? Try to sink into the kobold group-mind, see what you can learn. Also, take your wife on some nice dates.
Yes, some of that Diplo vote is purely so I can justify calling our money 'Credits'. But also I think it could kinda work.
@TeaMug I really like your plan and I like your idea for Diplomacy, but it would probably be a lot better if we set up the e-democracy system first before we start setting government/colony policies like that.
So maybe exchange the Fusion Reactor for an action to upgrade the cultural center with a computer core? The syngas reactor, with upgrades, will keep our energy balance somewhat neutral for the next turn.
And then we'll be able to double our production on energy buildings with two autofactories.
EDIT: Or maybe just delay the Diplomacy action for next turn, that'd probably be safer.
I agree that the culture center upgrade would be nice, but we don't currently have any spare power (and no reserves). If we dropped a reactor for culture, we'd have negative energy.
(Or I guess we could burn food for power, but that doesn't appeal to me)
That's the point of this plan: kick off our (hopefully) geometric industry growth. More factories build more power (and mines, soon) which supports more factories which gives us surplus, enough to support the things we want to do, culture center included.
A year or three of hard ramp-up will buy us turns worth of construction every year.
---
As for the Diplo, well, the Stoners are going to try to move ahead regardless. I'd just as rather handle this proactively.
Feel free to make your own vote!
(I agree we also need to push democracy, but the populace has been resistant/complacent. I figure give them a little more time before pushing again. And maybe if we get into a few good shouting matches over economics, folks will realize feel a more pressing need for formalized disagreement-management systems? A guy can dream)(tho tbh I am mostly just prioritizing industry growth)(THE FACTORY MUST GROW)
