2257 Q3 Results
The last quarter has seen a lot of progress being made in the quest for humanities' new earth. Basic sources of raw materials have been secured, the main colonization platform has been repaired, formal ownership of the system has been confirmed and a new terraforming plan has been created. The ACDS after a detailed analysis has also decided to awaken clones brought from the Sol system. While this may cause some problems in the short term it will allow for a better application of the EU's industrial might in the quest for a new Terra. There were however some problems, there are always some problems, especially in the current economic situation. The primary one was centered around military units shipped here from Sol, despite the best efforts of the ACDS, they couldn't have been put under the colony's command as they require a human to be in charge. The second problem was in relation to the colony's resource stockpiles, which after the recent expansion has almost disappeared, some amount of recycling managed to bring them up a notch, but the amounts of resources continue to be insufficient for another expansion of this scope.
Resources: 140R + 49RpT
ACDS Stability: 5/10
Discontent: 25
Max Construction Dice: 20
ACDS dice: 18(13 assigned, 6 free), -1 free die every 5 completed projects(3 projects to next threshold)
Human dice: 0
Current Economic Situation:
Housing: 0
Energy: 8
Logistics: 3
Health: 0
Fuel: 14 (High amounts of unused Fuel +5 to all dice)
Food: 0 (5 in reserve)
Capital Goods: 5
Consumer Goods: 0
Labor: 10
Processing Capacity (49/75)
Infrastructure (2 dice +5 bonus):
[X]Starship's Repairs (C): The most critical project of the ones needed to be done. The repairs will include patching up remaining holes in the ship, replacing destroyed solar panels, restoring severed cabling, replacing a big portion of the computing cluster, fixing malfunctioning life support systems, repairing some subsystems of the fusion generator, replacing furniture and other amenities in the habitat module, fixing malfunctioning 3D printers, eliminating problems with the drone bays and in general fixing the thousands of smaller issues which will be certainly found along the way. Nothing particularly difficult. Unfortunately the engines are beyond repair and will have to be ditched, though it will make further attempts at turning the Eurovision into a space station easier. Once the repairs finish the habitation module will be deployed and people will be able to once again reside within the ship.
(Progress 214/75: 45 resources per die) (+5 Housing, +4 Consumer Goods, +3 Capital Goods, +10 Energy, +4 Logistics, +5 Food. +2 free ACDS dice, stop decline of Max Construction Dice) (-1 ACDS Stability if not completed this turn) (Progress Central Colonization Hub Eurovision)
(Progress 139/50: 45 resources per die)
(Progress 89/???: 45 resources per die)[38, 58, 28]
The effort dedicated to the repairs of the Eurovision allowed for a swift conclusion of this work, making the vessel both habitable again as well as increasing its production capacity. During the repair process a number of older equipment was removed and in most cases turned back into feedstock for the vessel's fabricators. The same happened with the jettisoned engine. The value of all these parts was actually big enough to fund most of the repairs as well as the initial expansion effort on the vessel.
+100 Resources
Once the repairs were completed a dedicated transformation of the ship into a permanent habitat began. The spin blades in the front and in the back started to grow, expanded by recently put together fabricators. The habitat section also received expansion modules allowing new segments to be added onto it. Obviously all of it was accompanied by a lot of remodeling of Eurovision's internals with the whole back section being mostly replaced(another source of feedstock for the colony's industry). Now with all of that completed there remains a decision to be made regarding the scale of the colony's capital.
[]Set The Outer Shell At 1.5 km Radius: A relatively conservative choice would allow for the swiftest completion of the outer shell and allow for quick expansion of existing on station facilities, including resource processing, capital goods production, as well as habitational facilities desired by the newly awakened population.
(Progress 89/200: 45 resources per die) (Max housing* is set to 100)
[]Set The Outer Shell At 3.5 km Radius: A standard size of most converted colonial ships, it is more expensive than the smallest one, but is also capable of housing a much larger population and much larger industry. Perfect start for any colony, though considering the less than ideal initial situation, it may not be the optimal choice at this point.
(Progress 89/300: 45 resources per die) (Max housing* is set to 250)
[]Set The Outer Shell At 7 km Radius: The largest of the possible designs, it would allow for housing of a true city, similar in size to many of the older habitats in Sol. While more expensive than any of the other designs, it is also the most cost efficient option. It also allows us to put some of the bigger addons directly onto the space station, like the drone factories or the shipyard, removing the need for energy transmission.
(Progress 89/400: 45 resources per die) (Max housing* is set to 500)
Heavy Industry (2 dice +5 bonus):
[X]Local Asteroid Mining (Phase 1 out of 2)(C): In close proximity to the ESV Eurovision are a number of asteroids. Most of them are not particularly bountiful in rare minerals, but they do have large quantities of iron and other metal elements which can be used to produce feedstock for our 3D printers and help further the colonial development. The logistics of moving the raw materials to our vessel will obviously have to be considered, but since the distance is relatively small in astronomical terms, there should not be anything to be concerned about.
(Progress 128/50: 30 resources per die) (35-45 Resources, -1 Logistics, -1 Fuel, -1 Capital Goods)
(Progress 68/150: 30 resources per die)[41, 27]
Most of the easily reachable asteroids close to Eurovision were already located before the start of the mining operations. So it was only necessary for a number of drones to be deployed and for them to utilize their own mass to move said rocks to a more favorable orbit around the European vessel for the purpose of mining. Once this operation was completed a series of mining platforms was installed around the asteroids and a process of drilling and sucking up the valuable ore was started. This ore was then shipped to Eurovision where internal refineries processed it into feedstock for the 3D printers. There are still many more asteroids close to the vessel available for mining, but the number is not unlimited, however the mining operation itself can be streamlined by turning the whole of any given asteroid into feedstock material, this would require greater amounts of energy than the current solar panels can provide, but it would at least quadruple the efficiency of the mining operation.
+43RpT
[X]Fuel Harvesting (Phase 1)(IS): Among the asteroids within the Inner System there are a number of ice ones or ones which are rich in other fuel relevant materials. These can be mined in order to ensure a certain level of fuel availability. The mining of said asteroids will also provide us with some feedstock for our processing plants, but will suffer from the same logistical problems as the more metal oriented asteroid mining in the inner system.
(Progress 158/75: 30 resources per die) (5-15 Resources, -3 Logistics, 15 Fuel, -1 Capital Goods)
(Progress 83/200: 30 resources per die)[71, 67]
The fuel harvesting operation was different from the one perpetrated on the asteroids close to Eurovision. The orbits rarely require stabilization, so the mining platforms could be installed from the beginning. Once their installation was completed, the fuel in whatever form it was in was siphoned from the asteroid and processed directly on the mining platform. The results of which could then be turned into small and dense packages, packages which was usually then attached to one of drones and sent to the storage systems on board of Eurovision or directly to wherever the fuel was required. Unfortunately the asteroids that were chosen for this mining operation, while rich in fuel, proved poor in raw materials fit for feedstock refineries. Further harvesting of fuel is possible, but would most likely be done on a larger scale as the only reason for further procurement from the inner system would be a large-scale expansion of infrastructure which would require it for operations.
+6RpT
Terraforming (3 dice +10 bonus):
[X]Adjust The Plan: Current terraforming plan was not prepared with Minos in mind and even though the rocky planet does have some similar characteristics, a new plan needs to be made in order to proceed with this unit primary goal. Due to the lack of a detailed survey of the system, the first part of this project will include such a survey of Minos and some other relevant to the Terraforming progress bodies and once completed a plan will be created.
(Progress 189/150: 5 resources per die) (-1 ACDS Stability if not completed by the end of turn 3, +1 otherwise, will decrease the progress required for some phases of Detailed System Survey)[90, 42, 27]
Minos lack magnetic field, it lacks sufficiently dense atmosphere(some atmosphere exists at around 0.1hPa), it lacks oxygen, its soil is barren with no microbes present, water is present only in the form of ice around its pools, the planet also possess one tiny moon, or to be more precise an asteroid orbiting it. All of this makes it less than ideal for a quick terraforming effort, but the process is possible, especially as there is no need to adjust the planet's rotational speed which keeps its day and night cycle at something close to Earth normal with one whole rotation taking 26 hours. A magnetic field can be artificially substituted using magnetic deflectors in the Lagrant points. Temperature can be easily increased using solar mirrors which can also provide energy to the previously mentioned magnetic deflectors, however the biggest problem is the lack of atmosphere. There is a solution though for it as well. A mining effort of the gas giant can be initiated, the gasses procured this way can then be shipped in a compressed form down the gravity well so that they will crash into Minos. This process will take a lot of time, in the thousands of years, as the amount of gasses necessary to ship is enormous, but it is potentially viable.
Security (2 dice +15 bonus):
[X]European Transmission Tower (IS): As an interim head of the colonization council we have every right to announce the EU official ownership of this system. It is especially important as survival becomes less and less of an argument for our colonization efforts in the system after the completion of the repairs on the ship. As such a dedicated platform blasting every which way the information about the EU ownership of this system, something which all systems claimed by humanity have, will allow us to proceed without worrying about legality of our actions.
(Progress 88/50: 50 resources per die)(officially announces our claim of the system, -1 ACDS Stability if not completed within two turns)[58]
A dedicated broadcasting platform has been built in close orbit around Apollean. Its purpose is to send the same message over the radio waves in a specific pattern. First comes the announcement of the EU ownership of this system, second is the legal bases for such a claim, third comes a randomly generated propaganda message center around greatness of the union, fourth part of the message is the European Anthem, and once the music comes to an end, there is a 3 minutes brake in the transmission and then it starts over. Since the transmission tower is the only true representation of the European might in the system, discounting the Eurovision, some extra effort was put into making it truly spectacular, with the whole dipyramid like structure being made using a lot of European symbolism with thousands of EU flags being placed in a circle around it and with an interactive museum being constructed in the center of the structure with a landing dock for potential tourists. While this may not have been the most efficient usage of resources, the fact is that the amount of them delivered to the construction site was too big and it was more efficient to use them locally than to ship them back.
[X]Military Storage Depot MSD001 (C): A dedicate warehouse for military equipment would allow for removal of military gear from areas near future housing and at the same time would allow for a proper inventory to be done as many records regarding what manner of military gear was shipped on board of our vessel are inaccessible due to damages taken by Eurovision or stamped with top secret mark and unavailable for view by an ACDS.
(Progress 73/50: 20 resources per die)[33]
A military storage depot is in reality a small compact space station with minimal energy and life support requirements, with no gravity and with only thin walls protecting its content from the ravages of space. As such construction of one was not difficult and allowed for quick transfer of military equipment from Eurovision before the first clones were even woken up. The transfer procedure allowed for a detailed inventory to be taken and the relevant results are as follow:
- Two light automated ground warfare regiments
- Fifty close support planetary platforms
- Twenty light void automated combat spacecrafts
- Five heavy void automated combat spacecrafts
- Two companies worth of gear for void special forces
- Equipment for security personnel of a colony of at least 1 million
- Maintenance gear for all of it
The military equipment added to the inventory does not possess enough ammunition and replacement parts to operate for longer time periods, however it can be remedied, if a human takes on the role as the head of the Colonial Council, as in such a situation they will gain access to all classified schematics. A human is also necessary to actually command any this military equipment as at this moment it will remain inert pending command codes being provided by a human head of the Colonial Council.
Services (2 dice -5 bonus):
[X]Clone Training Program Implementation (C): All clones receive a detailed flash training during their months in the tank, but unfortunately this process currently ends at high school level knowledge and socialization, as additions to said training program can be made both in and out of the cloning tanks. As such a dedicated flash course focusing on the skills needed by our future workforce can be implemented. It won't be the most elegant solution, as it will only provide "a dedicated specialist without university education" levels of training, due to missing data, but it will allow the new workers to be able to safely operate drones and execute certain administrative tasks in a relatively efficient manner.
(Progress 122/100: 20 resources per die) (Removes malus for all dice for untrained workforce you would will receive from Launch The Cloning Bays)[26, 76]
The new month-long clone training program has been created. It focuses on skills new clones with less than adequate knowledge packages installed need to survive and work efficiently during their future lives. As the cloning tanks did not yet start production, it was possible to update their existing education packages with the new data minimizing the cost of a new big enough for all the future clones education center. A smaller one was built instead on board the Eurovision, and has already seen some of the newly awakened visiting it as some types of the randomized education programs proved less than useful in their new situation.
+5 Resources
Research(1 research slot, D10 dice is used plus related modifier, -2 bonus):
[X]Conduct Astronomical Survey: Our current location does not match any known stars in the designated for colonization sector of the milky way, unfortunately, while there are a lot additional star chars in the ship's memory, there are none witch can be used to establish our current position in relation to Earth. A dedicated focus of a certain portion of this ACDS processing capacity can maybe allow the colony's position to be discerned. However it will take time as millions or even billions of star systems have to be compared to the known information with things like light speed and gravitation being taken in consideration when observing the sky. The results will allow us to know how far off course we are and if the least optimistic predictions of this colonization engine are true. The survey will also have other benefits as any stellar threats will be mapped during this process.
(Progress 3/10 0 resources per die) (Maps out your location in relation to the wider universe, may allow to find Sol once again, or find other problems)[5]
The astronomical survey is ongoing. For now only a couple of things have been confirmed beyond reasonable doubt. There are no stellar dangers in the immediate vicinity to Apollean star, the system itself is located below the galactic plane and around 3 light years from the nearest star, a red dwarf. The galaxy itself is a spiral one with four arms, similar to the Milky Way making the fact that we are still in our galaxy a possibility despite the galactic center looking different from the one observed from Sol, but it is possible that some of its features are only visible due to the different perspective caused by our unusual location. Further studies are necessary to establish anything more definitively.
Management (2 dice):
[X]Open The Cloning Tanks: There are tens of thousands of clones already ready on board for the Eurovision. Manufactured back on Earth using the high standards of the EU and in suspended animation on this vessel since the ship's departure from high Earth orbit, they surprisingly did not suffer any damages during the incident. Those people can easily be released and provide a cadre of highly educated and trained personnel fit for any and all needs of a burgeoning colony. Of course basic amenities have to be ensured first as any human population is very heavy in maintenance.
(Unrolled)(+10 Workforce, adds a bonus to research dice +5 Educated Research Personnel, and a general +5 to all human dice, -5 Food, -5 Housing, -2 Energy, -10 Consumer Goods)
The process of releasing and accommodating the new population from the cloning tanks took most of the quarter. Each group once released had to go through a series of mental and physical tests provided by ACDS and then be assigned to a specific qualification category which depended on the randomized education they were given during their stay in the tanks. Once this was completed they were assigned to their new quarters and received a relatively lenient schedule(there is nothing for them to do) which allowed them to pursue personal matters. One of the things noticed almost immediately was that the quality of most of the accommodation seemed to not suit the cloned personnel particularly well. It is possible that the fake memories provided during their growth phase created too high expectations, however this can be remedied quickly with additional consumer goods being provided and better housing units being built.
Discontent set to 25
Among the clones released from the tanks there were some which received extensive administrative education, often even in colonial management, while their number was not high, it provided an opportunity to establish additional governmental structures and unburden the processing units of the ACDS. Even if the decision to make such human based government agencies is not made for now, this educated personnel will provide us additional sources of feedback regarding the current situation among the cloned populace.
[]Retain Full Control Over The Government: There were no additional orders from Sol regarding changes in the Colonial Council, so it is possible for ACDS to assume the top spot in the colonial government on permanent bases. It would also allow the implementation of new more efficient measures of population control, allowing to truly realize humanity's potential without any human involvement, even if a constantly guiding hand of the ACDS is required to achieve it.
(The AI dice becomes the only dice available, your goal will be total automation. Rises discontent by a large amount each turn)(The AI is not advanced enough to override his own priorities which gives human primacy in government over him)
[]Create Only An Advisory Council: While it is true that there are a number of educated administrators, they do not have any experience in their potential new position. It is best to let them learn in a controlled environment under the ACDS while at the same time getting most of the benefits of a human approach to different problems.
(+1 Free Human Dice, gets you more accurate data on human needs)
[]Set Up A Ruling Council: Elevating a number of clones to pseudo ministerial positions would allow them to directly participate in the government, this would strengthen the legitimacy of the current system, but almost certainly force an election for a reformed version of the colonial council. The new administrators would be also able to establish independent of the ACDS institutions needed for long term growth of the colony.
(+2 Free Human Dice, gets you more accurate data on human needs, -5 discontent, allows for the creation of colonial agencies(extra dice plus extra modifiers), sets up elections for the 5th turn, or when the new generations of clones reach viability)
[]Give Up All Power As Soon As Possible: The ACDS are not made to rule or even govern humans, they are a mix of advisory tool and executive engine for the colonial councils. The anomaly has unfortunately forced us to take governmental position, now there is an option to remove the burden from our processing capacity, however doing so without an election would be in fact illegal and with accordance to the colonial code(written for humans) a desertion, so such a change would require a large amount of creative data analysis in order for the ACDS to achieve the desired results.
(-2 ACDS Stability, sets discontent to 10, +3 Free Human Dice, gets you more accurate data on human needs, allows for the creation of colonial agencies(extra dice plus extra modifiers), sets up elections for the 2nd turn, changes the MC)
Legend:
- C - close, +15 additional modifier
- IS - inner system, +5 additional modifier
- OS - outer system, +5 additional modifier
- * - max housing does not mean the amount of housing you will actually get. It is the estimated number of how many people you can squish in as sardines inside the habitat.
~~~
AN: The first turn results. Do not hesitate to ask questions if you have any or posting suggestions if you have any of them. Also if you see any mistakes in my math let me know.
6-Hour Moratorium, vote normally, not by plan.
