Into that Vast and Unrelenting Darkness (40K Xeno Civilization Quest)

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Citrakayah said:
We're never going to get a realization project for Wan Xiu, because he's already realized despite never having one. We will get further Wan Xiu projects--but we've arguably done a lot in recent turns, because the ex-daemons are his subsidary spirits and the shrines are all linked to him.

I don't think realization projects are actually the norm--but it's hard to say, because we've got three active celestial gods, one of which was already realized prior to our civilization existing, another of which we realized by accident, and the last of which had a realization project.
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I think this is simply going to have to be an area we disagree on for now. For starters, I'm not really sure that the ex-daemon investments we've done would count for Wan Xiu. As for the shrines, true, we've invested into them, and they were how we managed to make a great deal of progress on him once we invested into Consecrated Shrines, but apart from that, we haven't really invested too much into Wan Xiu himself.

He's definitely active, as we've seen, but I'm not sure we can really call him realized like the Dancer was. As for the Old One...he's sufficiently different enough from our other gods that I don't think we should really use him as a point of comparison for anything, really.

Besides, some of Wan Xiu's associated projects seem useful enough that I'd like to grab them, like the Shrine-Libraries, and the Ledgers of the Functionary. And that's not even touching on what proper investments into the religious shrines could do for our gods.
 
I just realized that @Aliya 's Union Time plan is based on @StarSingerBlue 's The Proletariat Rises from last vote! p.s. proletariat rises voters who may not have realized: Thanatosra, blankmask, *name*, FoxInASuit, MangoFlan, Woltaire, Blackdart6


Agitprop Rationales below:
StarSingerBlue said:
We've neglected our industry and our commitement to the destruction of capital. We need to change that ASAP.
Also Mahou Ferrets.
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StarSingerBlue said:
My comrades of the Directorate, we face a dire situation.

Our ships go empty from lack of goods, the workers, constructors of the Arsenal of Victory, wallow in despondency and lack of funding, and our colonies suffer alongside them.

It has been decades since our manufacture capacity was increased.

So let us give them strength and resources, let them flourish and grow.

Let these final years of the Industrial Revolution be beautiful ones.

Let this be our Christmas Gift to them.
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Kairos123 said:
I feel like Bond-Technomata is going to have some good synergy with our muses. Psyker machine spirits sound like they would be a good help with assaulting the CPU Moon too.
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ReaperofInterest said:
Rites of Soul and Communion have been available practically since the first turn, while I'm curious to see what BondTechnomata can do!
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Do I have the plans for you two! Plan Union Time and Plan Eat Your Fucking Vegetables by @Hyacinthium both finish not just Bond-Technomata (a.k.a Psyker Machina) but also Rite of Communion, Rite of Soul AND gestalt protocol.


nintendoplayer96 said:
Harvest Metal: There were many useful materials in the soil. It would require modifying and treating the living metal first, but it was theoretically possible to create a version capable of leeching the ground for said materials in order to both increase the rate at which living metal grew, but also allowed for other elements it had absorbed to be harvested. 0/20, generates substantial EXP, grants Harvest Metal technology.

Harvest Metal tech would have been extremely beneficial for us, especially when trying to gather more metal for our ships and armies. Why haven't we gotten such useful technology yet?
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Plan Eat Your Fucking Vegetables has got you covered! It has a couple of other living metal related upgrades too: Voidfarmer Reactors and Mycelliometal Network.

SteelWriter77 said:
I mean i know folks will want their Eco stuff, but i'm still gonna shill my own plan for the Union and NecroTek stuff, with little bits of Industry thrown in for good measure.
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I'm hearing it's Union Time ✊✊


Here are some of the cool projects in one or both of these plans and my rationales for choosing them. These are also the only plans that have Nuclear Ritual Engines btw.
astergremlin said:
Nuclear Ritual Engines -
Mag-Tek Altars had proven an effective way of amplifying the effects of Mystek Rites. Some theorized that they could be improved further via nuclear reactor bloks, providing the Altar spirit with additional surges of power to channel into occult motion: to that end, they wanted to apply Mystek principles to nuclear design. 3/15, Mag-Tek Altars upgraded with Nuclear Ritual Engines, unknown effects, costs 2 Nuclear Material.
literally marked "You want this" by Bird many turns ago.

BlokBot Optimization Principle: Upgrade that is more powerful the sooner we get it since our BlokBots will keep improving.
The basic program behind Upgraders could be simplified in order to allow for, over time, BlokBots to automatically perform basic optimizations and improvements. This would largely benefit industry, as valuable Tekket-power that was spent on BlokBot design could instead simply be foisted off on machinery. 0/25, BlokBots over time will slowly upgrade to more powerful + versions, increasing EXP.
Improved MagTek Repair Protocol: Increases efficiency at every level, is almost certainly necessary to go further down the Necron materials science tech-tree.
A more sophisticated version of the MagTek Repair Protocol, this update to the firmware would allow for simple machines and systems to repair themselves. You wouldn't be able to repair a reactor without an engineer, but it could at least hook back up to the wiring systems and recreate lighting. 0/20, MagTek Reassembly Protocol upgraded to lightly repair systems damage in buildings and fortifications.
Bond-Technomata: Upgrade available since VERY EARLY that would raise the ceiling on how powerful and generally amazing our machine spirits can be.
No Bond-Spirit was nearly mature enough to achieve a third metamorphosis yet, but potentially this process could be accelerated with sufficient amounts of Life-Force, and many Mysteks were salivating over the possibility: Bond-Machina had the ability to generate energy far in excess of their power systems and the ability to use that energy to strengthen and manipulate machinery. Who knows what powers their evolution would have? 0/30, create Bond-Technomata, advanced psyker machine spirits.
Other tech-upgrades we've been neglecting that are either in the living metal tech-tree or machina tech-tree are below:
Voidfarmer Reactors: Right now, most living metal farms had to rely on the local electrical grid, and the power needed to grow Living Metal was not...inconsiderable. One proposed solution was a roll-out of specialized reactors designed specifically for growing living metal. This would cost a great deal of perpetunite, but it would improve the overall efficiency of the harvest. 0/20, generates 2 Living Metal, costs 1 Nuclear Material.

Harvest Metal: There were many useful materials in the soil. It would require modifying and treating the living metal first, but it was theoretically possible to create a version capable of leeching the ground for said materials in order to both increase the rate at which living metal grew, but also allowed for other elements it had absorbed to be harvested. 0/20, generates substantial EXP, grants Harvest Metal technology.

Shrine-Conduits: Living Metal had a number of uses, but the biggest was that it retained lifeforce...concerningly well. By incorporating it into the design of your Shrine even more extensively in the form of special conduits, the Directorate should increase their overall efficiency, improving the impact of Shrines overall. 0/10, Shrines upgraded with Living Metal Conduits, increasing EXP by 1. Costs 1 Living Metal.

Gestalt Protocol: Another route to improving the strength of Machine Spirits, some of your scientists belonging to the Grand Reconfiguration Committee theorized that synthetic souls were just as modular as their form: they believed that there might exist some manner to merge machine spirits in order to radically accelerate their growth, creating Gestalt-Drones. They would no doubt be very, very different from typical Bond-Drones, however. Recently, the Assembly had begun to pursue experiments in this vein as a potential alternative method to grow their Avatars. 3/15, develop Gestalt-Drones, advanced automata created from a multitude of fused together synthetic souls instead of singular awoken machine spirits. If completed automatically, lose 1 Nuclear Material.

I love shinies too but It would sure be nice to have significant tech-superiority over our many enemies rather than surviving by luck and the skin of our teeth! Tonally this isn't the darkest quest and we've been given a lot of grace by the QM but imo we should make use of the advantages we have instead of stumbling around through haphazardly with occasional sparks of brilliance, yanno?
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Thank you in advance for your forbearance and patience with this unprecedented level of shilling voter outreach program. With gratitude for your continued forbearance, may I recommend voters for just one of these plans consider whether the other meets your approval? ( @w34v3r @Voidseer @Kirbstomp @death & gravitas )

That all said, I think all the plans have their advantages and while I have my favorites it will be OK no matter which plan wins. 💜
 
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I'm going to try and talk up my plan a bit more for people on the fence.

People have been talking for a while now about wanting to get more gods realized, and here we have the perfect opportunity to do so now. The Toy Maker within reach; maybe not super close, but doable within a turn. We haven't gotten his realization project yet, so we're at least one project off from that, but with the Christmas Projects getting us 2, just a little more effort could see us get past the finish line with him

Additionally, Bird has told us that our manufacturing is slacking, so I'm going ahead and getting all the basic projects for that to get the bottleneck off Naklis and Teklia. Tacchis, Meeklak, Erichtheo, Trove, and Spra'ang at once; hopefully spreading out our industry while also building up all our colonies.

Finally, our outposts. Right now, we only have a single set of outposts (the Red Sun ones), but we have 2 upgrades to building outposts. So, I want to use those upgrades and do all 5 outpost building projects to really start to spread the Directorate's eyes and ears in space. Plus, with the Drunkard giving us more Rep with Wintersprite (and every other faction, because holy cow her bonus is nuts), and the Resistance hunting down the Phasmid to take care of at least one of the region's threats, they'll be a whole lot safer in the interim.
 
I'm *definitely* going to hell for this but for the next vote I just had a stroke of utter genius

[] Plan: I'm going to Hell
-- If this plan wins, do everything the plan with the second most votes does but replace FTH projects with:
-[] Faith Projects (125/???)
-- The Autonomicon Ex Mortis (Simplified): The Book of the Broken Machine. The Autonomicon was penned by an ancient Watchmaker sorcerer, one who had apparently managed to contact a dark god of the forge, who taught him sacred and profane arts of dark technology. Much of the rituals within were potent, but would likely need to be modified to be safe. 0 --> 125/25, gain 3 random technologies, increases Auton reputation by 5. Repeatable (Wheel, Weapon, Wand, Wine, Walker): fifth completion increases all special resources by 5. WARNING: each completion of this project triggers a number of HazardTek rolls equal to the number of times this project has been completed. Can only be completed five times.

If the void dragon eats us, don't look at me. Just kidding, it can't because we're consequence-free during the time pause. That's right, we get these with no downside.


Seriously though, completing this gives us and the Autons both (the same) 15 technologies. Three for each of the themes, Wheel, Weapon, Wand, Wine, Walker. Needless to say, the benefits during the assault on CPUMoon will be immense. On top of that, we get 25 Auton Rep. Finally, and almost as significant as everything else together: we get 5 of every special resource. That's 5 NK, 5 NT, 5 BIO, 5 LM, 5 Warp, 5 ART (and possibly 5 Intel, I don't know how it works exactly).


Absolutely nothing else would give us this kind of benefit and there literally could not be a better time than
  • Current period of immunity to HazardTek rolls
  • Prior to the assault on CPUMoon where we can expect intense resistance and both us and the Autons could use all the Auton tech we can get
I was joking with the "do whatever the next highest plan gets in other sections" but I can flesh it out once we know what wins the current vote.
If anyone wants to adapt this plan or collaborate on it, that would be fabulous btw.
 
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astergremlin said:
[X] Stizlak's antianima was a part of him, and the thing had grown in the same ways anyone else's pent up and ignored problems would. He had fought himself here. The fact that it had been in the form of a trippy and uncomfortable dream quest was a fast forward. A short cut. But now, as the victor, there're easy choices he can make. But why should Stizlak be the one to make all the choices? The zoggin git of fear and darkness in front of him is his responsibility, and it's his turn to offer chances given to him. Congrats git, you're adopted.
-[X] Mojo Jojo

I forgot to vote for this.
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Your new vote overwrires your previous one. You want to include your previous vote in this. You can just edit it in.
 
This is not a plan for this turn, so don't vote for it. I put this together for Kirbstomp as a proof-of-concept for an ocean plan. It costs a lot of Art and Warp, but there's space in EXP and CUL to make up the difference so I'm happy with it.

[X] Plan: Ocean Proof-of-Concept
-[X] Expansion Projects (65/153)
--[X] Erichthean Library (0/10 --> 10/10) +1 Network
--[X] Water-World Data-Buoys (0/10 --> 10/10) +1 Network
--[X] Erichtheo Totem Network (0/10 --> 10/10)
--[X] Erichthean Great Orchestrion (0/10 --> 10/10)
--[X] Trovian Coral Farmers (0/25 --> 25/25)
-[X] Culture Projects (91/130)
--[X] Song of the Sea (0/25 --> 25/25) -1 Warp
--[X] Great Gallery Artquarium (0/25 --> 25/25)
--[X] Oceanic Magmacourt (4/15 --> 15/15)
--[X] WyldSong Emitters (0/30 --> 30/30) -1 Art
-[X] Faith Projects (130/126)
--[X] Rite of Communion (0/15 --> 15/15)
--[X] Coralhearts (0/15 --> 15/15) +1 Biodata, -1 Art
--[X] Aqua-Arks (0/25 --> 25/25)
--[X] HydroCores (0/25 --> 25/25) -1 Art
--[X] Mass Aqua Deployment (0/25 --> 25/25) -1 Warp
--[X] Collegiate Crown (0/25 --> 25/25) -2 Network
-[X] Academy Projects (120/113)
--[X] Holy Emulator (0/50 --> 50/50) -1 Network, -1 Warp
--[X] Abyssal Zone GeneLab (0/10 --> 10/10) +1 Biodata
--[X] Glo-Coral GeneLab (0/10 --> 10/10) +1 Biodata
--[X] Trove Electrocoral Power (0/25 --> 25/25)
--[X] TotemSerum (0/25 --> 25/25)
-[X] Resource Management
--[X] Artifacts: -3
--[X] Biodata: +3
--[X] Network: -1
--[X] Warp: -3
 
We have criminally underdeveloped WyldTek and BioTek for most of this game. The world tree has been an option for months; this basic Wyld god has been ignored while we snapped up technopagan and celestial God projects. We have had Anima class machine spirits for most of the game but cannot be assed to give any Wyld spirits this status through the Rite of Nature's Awakening. We never did the genelabs and those were, IIRC, starting Ericththeo projects.

Similarly we have known that we could create ecosystems for Luna and Naklis since May. I have been trying to get people to move on it for months, to the point where I gave up for a while. There was always something else. We could have pyreflies fly through magmalands and pebblecrabs scuttle across all off Luna. We could have the reputation as people who can make bespoke ecosystems.

We also could create bioships for Yr Albain, but this tech will never be unlocked if we don't pursue it. But we keep ignoring biotech other than medicine. I tried to get just fairy fire bottles so the fairies would stop sputtering out and dying and I was unsuccessful for months. They've been living longer, but they're still fucking dying, and a lot faster than even the Khimer.

We have spent 85 points on this one god, not including the ones for the offering, the stuff for his family, or any of the Wonderpark stuff (NukeLand, WP Naklis, the docks, Diggland). That's more than we spent on anyone else. I am not convinced that he won't realize next turn anyway given the resonance for his servant spirits and the offering--or if there is a realization project needed (and Wan Xiu didn't need one), that it won't show up without further investment. Especially since inanimate technology turns into major demigods with just one offering. This is more effort than we sunk into any other god, or have discussed sinking in for any other god.

Let's not let bio and eco stuff get delayed yet again. People talk about old projects looking like neglected dogs, well, here are your old projects. Let's do it now, and make sure it gets done, because WyldTek and BioTek are the neglected stepchildren right now. Vote for Plan: Ecological Ascension.

And my plan improves industry too, by making Trove self sufficient, and gets two outposts.
 
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I agree with Citra broadly. I am a little salty of my plans having little chance of victory, but I do believe plan Eco Ascension is neat and does a lot of neat stuff. One of our allies have an issue of having a fragile ecosystem, and being Bio-Tek specialists will mean that will be a much more trivial problem to solve.
 
And past voting patterns suggest that WlyldTek and BioTek will not be done piecemeal. Again: I've tried to get it done. It's like pulling teeth though, or perhaps slamming one's head into a brick wall.

Toy Maker stuff really does not have that problem, not does (specialized) industry. Both have gotten drip feed related projects (counting Wonderpark here, since if art counts for the Dancer this counts too) and his family got major projects bought and halfway bought through spare change.

I'm concerned that it's now or never. The last WyldTek investment was like six months ago. We've never done much BioTek at all, really. I couldn't even talk people into desert hybridization for Sandscorn.
 
Citrakayah said:
And my plan improves industry too, by making Trove self sufficient, and gets two outposts.
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I mean, if you want to promote the minor things your plan is doing, I'm also getting a fair bit of WyldTek in Plan: Here Comes the Toy Maker with Industry. The World Tree and Polar Tower were noted by Bird to give a strong boost to Wyld magic and the Song of the North would get nature Vita in the colder regions a lot more common and powerful.

I think the 6 manufacturing projects I'm getting are probably bigger draws to my plan though; it's something Bird has said we're slacking on, so I'm happy to address that issue now.

Citrakayah said:
...his family got major projects bought and halfway bought through spare change.
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I feel like this is a bit misleading? His family has had one project finished (Temple to the Hermit) and it happened over the course of 10 turns by feeding it 2-4 points every other turn. The Polar Tower is also the only project of his family that has any progress on it, again over the course of 5 turns feeding it leftover points.
 
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chellewalker said:
I feel like this is a bit misleading? His family has had one project finished (Temple to the Hermit) and it happened over the course of 10 turns by feeding it 2-4 points every other turn. The Polar Tower is also the only project of his family that has any progress on it, again over the course of 5 turns feeding it leftover points.
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Which days a lot about the sustained interest in his family's projects. I didn't say it was fast; that's kind of inherent in being bought by spare change. But I tried to get Rite of Nature's Awakening bought the same way and it never went anywhere. Toymaker stuff is the only stuff this has really been possible for. It's a pretty clear indication of enduring interest and proof the thread won't just ignore them.
 
Citrakayah said:
Which days a lot about the sustained interest in his family's projects. I didn't say it was fast; that's kind of inherent in being bought by spare change. But I tried to get Rite of Nature's Awakening bought the same way and it never went anywhere. Toymaker stuff is the only stuff this has really been possible for. It's a pretty clear indication of enduring interest and proof the thread won't just ignore them.
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In the time it took us to finish Temple to the Hermit, we got 8 projects related to the Wyld and an entire turn dedicated to the ocean. The drip of Wyld projects has been very consistent.
  • Temple to the Hermit unlocked (Turn 17)
  • Megaflora Serum (Turn 18)
  • Rite of Nature's Harmony (Turn 19)
  • Coral Shrines (Turn 20)
  • Dance of the Pyreflies (Turn 20)
  • Arbor Totem (Turn 20)
  • Soil Processing Facility (Turn 21)
  • Eternal Arbor Guardian (Turn 21)
  • Plan: Investment in Oceans (Turn 24)
  • Cloud Shrines (Turn 25)
  • Temple to the Hermit completes (Turn 26)
 
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ReaperofInterest said:
Honestly, once we do manage to realize the Toy Maker, I'd personally like to move on to another Celestial Pantheon. We've only gotten the realization project for one deity, and I think that we can make significant progress on others with some strategic projects. After all, we made significant progress on the Peerless Immortal Functionary by accident, and while he's certainly active, we also haven't really gotten the equivalent of a realization project from him.
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if u want a pan divine upgrade plan for our celestial plan and gods I got a plan for you a gift to gods and shrine or a time kf realization for our gods and indrusty
 
I mean, let's be honest here, plans that do actually abandoned projects (Nekro Tek and Lunar Monks stuff) got very little traction, so of course the stuff that is winning is not abandoned. :V
 
I encourage everyone to vote on [] Send the Dark Mojo to mandatory therapy sessions to rehabilitate them. They will become the god of dealing with inner darkness through.

Because not only it makes sure using Dark Mojo is safe without aadding more animania headaches which we already have but also lead to more effective method of rehabilitating our enemies.
 
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