The Grand Solar Rush - Asteroid colony management quest
- Thread starter Karf
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
technotemplar
(Sleeping Bear)
- Location
- Texas
[X] Ship
-[X] Return it
[X] Plan Expansion
-[X] Return it
[X] Plan Expansion
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
[X] Ship
-[X] Return it
[X] Plan Expansion
-[X] Return it
[X] Plan Expansion
Turn 7 - 2176 - Back to business as nowhere else
Winner said:
(Roll, advertise your colony, required 25: 98)
'The rule of law, unchained from ancient tradition and old fat – Little Klondike treats people with respect. We do not bow to bullies and we conduct ourselves with dignity. If you too are tired of the old world way of doing things, if you too want to make your own fate, this is your proven chance. Right now, Little Klondike needs your presence, your will, your wits – every person is valuable to us. Your voice lends us strength, just as we will stand by you as we stood by our principles and unquestionable right to self-determination.'
Hailey pauses the narration at your request, the video showing clips of Amanda and the QRF during exercise drills and very carefully spliced together scenes of the arrests.
"Isn't 'old world' a bit too on the nose? Sure everybody knows what we're alluding to regardless, but you said yourself that we have to leave them an out."
"It's very terra-centric to think of the old world as Europe. Both Mars and Luna refer to all of Earth as the 'old world' in their recruitment videos," she assures you before pressing play again.
'Little Klondike is no longer a risky startup. We are out of the first few years where luck is the biggest factor next to good management. The first we had plenty of and the latter is more evident than ever to anyone who sees the truth of things. Now, what we need is you. We will continue to grow, and the faster you come and get established, the closer you are to the founding, the better your prospects will be.'
The camera shows clips of your signing of the constitution to candid shots of you chatting to people during the last harvest festival, then switches to scenes from your lab and hospital, cut with aerial shots of the mines.
"A little bit of good old fashioned fear of missing out thrown in there." Hailey just nods.
'Our facilities are top of the line and it's not an injustice to compare them to ones on Earth. Too many colonies fall into the trap of complacency – 'the facilities are as good as Venus', better than the ones next door'. We say no, we can break beyond the top.'
The clip continues in a similar vein, extolling the virtues of coming to your home and subtly, or not so subtly, suggests that the faster one gets here the better.
"Looks good to me, Hailey. If there's nothing else then we can wrap up for tonight," you give your customary end-of-meeting speech, but instead of the usual 'see ya, boss!', she remains seated, the silence stretching.
"There's actually something. About the ship," she starts.
"I thought we agreed to send it back with all the cargo?"
"Yes, and I think that's a good idea, but I was thinking of something else."
It's not like her to be so indirect, "Okay, I'm listening, what's the matter?"
"It's been six years since we came here now, and it's been great. But with the ship making an unplanned trip to Earth, I was thinking…" she takes a deep breath, "I'd like to be on the ship, boss. I haven't seen my parents or siblings in person in a long time now. A sort of working vacation if you will."
"Alright," you blink, "have a nice trip? I haven't thought about it, but we can keep things going here for a while."
"I'd be back on the supply freighter and I think there's things I can do for the colony while I'm there, some interviews and…" she rushes out before processing your words and leaning back, "Wait, just like that?"
"It's not like you're a prisoner here. Just because I've pretty much invested everything into this place doesn't mean you guys can't have your own thing going on."
"Thanks, boss!" she's eyeing the table between you and you get the feeling you'd be the recipient of a bone-crushing hug without it. Then she launches herself across the table and nearly topples you over anyway.
"How long has this been brewing? Of course you can go see your family," you do your best to extract a limb and awkwardly pat her on the side.
"I was going to bring it up at the start of the year, but what with things happening it got put on a backburner. The Almighty knows it's been kind of stressful for me," she speaks into the leather of your chair before finally getting back up off you.
"For us all. Is there anything you need my help with or do you have things ready?"
Hailey is back to her energetic self in the blink of an eye, "No, got it covered boss! The banking node is great for transferring assets back and forth. I'll send you some publications that have asked for an interview, look them over and let me know if I can contact them back to schedule a date. See ya."
Sure enough, by the end of the week your diplomat is going to Earth to deliver a laden colony ship and drum up an even bigger media frenzy over a colony in the belt beating back the big mean EU. True to her word, she sends you several news clips of her answering questions about Little Klondike with glowing praise. Once it's time for the usual freighter to launch from a lunar port you've signed off on an extra crew module rental for all the people that want to relocate to your little rock.
(Colony size doubled again, population about 500 people, expect more growth.)
(Roll, squads, required 30: 79)
Today, instead of meeting with Sergeant Carpenter as you've lately been doing, you're meeting with Officer Carpenter, the leader of your police force and one Anatoli Lirov.
"It's not right that the people receiving military training in all but name remain a part of the force that interacts with our own citizens," Amanda delivers her starting statement, "Furthermore, we risk eroding the built up goodwill and public trust if we use military equipment for in-complex patrols or sending home drunk patrons from a bar, sir."
You just nod, letting her continue, "We've had more people express an interest in joining the security forces, especially after the lander operation. Mostly on the military side, but some on the policing side as well. When it comes to guaranteeing public order, our numbers are perfectly adequate and we don't need to expand the current operation more than a cursory amount as people immigrate. The military side can always take more people, but while I am happy to receive more funding, from your own perspective it'll have to justify itself at some point, sir."
"A healthy military budget serves a multitude of purposes from clearly measurable effects like the development of an experienced officer corps to intangible but no less important ones like a deterrent force," you wave away her concerns.
"Of course, sir," Amanda tilts her head then switches tracks, "You're certainly familiar with Officer Lirov."
Anatoli Lirov is a short man with tan skin, dark cropped hair and clearly East Asian roots. You've seen him around plenty of times, first when handing out rations as the man seemed to have a constant supply of sweets to hand out to any kids and later as Amanda's representative on petty grievances while the woman herself was out on the fields.
"We've met before."
"I've decided to promote Officer Lirov to be in charge of the local precinct as the head of police moving forward. Officer?" Amanda prompts the man.
"The administrative change will place me in charge of day to day police operation in the colony," he steps forward and, whether subconsciously or not you can't tell, mimics Amanda's posture. "While Lieutenant Carpenter remains as the ultimate leader for both branches, she'll have much more time to devote to the new influx of recruits for the action squads."
You stand up and offer the man your hand, "Congratulations on the promotion, Mr. Lirov."
There's a few documents that the three of you go over which require your signature, but before long Lirov bids the two of you a good day and leaves for his new post.
"It's strange, sir," Amanda speaks up after he leaves, "I'd never have imagined myself as leading a paramilitary organization even three years ago, let alone back on Luna."
"That's life for you, sheriff. How are the new guys doing anyhow?"
"Settling in as best as they can. I've allocated funds for more of those armors we're using and handed out the last of our weapons stockpiles. If I were a lesser woman I'd say that getting a gun manufacturing license and workshop should be our next priority."
"But you're not, so what should we be focusing on?"
"It's been fine so far when I was the leader of a single cohesive unit. I didn't even mind the split between police and the QRF. However, there's a reason militaries come with a strict hierarchy and regulations. I can't remain in charge of a squad myself while having another equal unit. Not without setting up clear rules that can serve as a base going forward," she sighs, "If we're going to have an army then we need to organize the whole operation as one. I've made Luke into a sergeant as a field promotion, but it's not the right way to do things, sir."
(Second unit of 10 troops gained.)
(Roll, mines: copper + silver, required 50: 100)
The expansion of the mines is continuing apace: new holes are drilled and tunnels get expanded, the additional equipment arrives on time with the freighter, there's plenty of people to apply for the jobs and the veins themselves run even deeper than you originally thought. In fact, upon further consultations of ground x-rays and borehole sample analysis the two deposits seem to merge into each other. Not that it makes a significant difference, you nonetheless decide to connect the two shafts, excavating a long tunnel between the two mines. It's in the middle of that cavern that you and Ken find yourselves, called there by an engineer checking the lights and power lines of the new hole.
"So, uh… either of you know what that is?" the man asks you after a while.
You're all staring at the side of the tunnel where the copper vein should be meeting the silver vein. Instead of the red-teal of copper, glittering blue silver ore or the usual grayscale silicate minerals and quartz, the wall you're staring at looks like a window into the depths of the asteroid. A clear substance fills the merging point of the two metal shards and shining a light into what looks eerily like a hole eventually gives the thing a faint blue color in the far distance. There's small crushed shards of the stuff laying around from the tunnel bore and although it's hard to gauge the relative weight of things with your local gravity and spacesuits, the splinters are still much lighter than you'd expect. You try to chip at the hole, carefully avoiding stepping on the darkness that extends below you for no practical reason but due to the inherent creepiness of standing on a void, and find the stuff harder than it looks.
"No idea," Ken shrugs.
"Something great," you mumble, your gut feeling telling you you're right. "Let's get this to Lena."
Your scientist steps back from the microscope, absently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Alright, you made some alumina oxide aerogel, there's some things that are off from what I know about it, but I'd need to run more tests and check some publications. It's an impressive amount and I'd assume you used the lab without me knowing about it, sir?" she phrases the last sentence as a question, as if looking for something to praise.
"It's not manmade," you tell her.
She pauses, "D-Did Amanda make it?"
"It's not manufactured," Ken corrects you.
"Funny. Now I have a time sync ping coming up, if you don't mind, sir."
"Send the packet then clear your schedule for today," you tell her bemusedly, "We've got something to show you."
(Silver and copper mines successfully expanded, found another avenue of research.)
(Roll, living space: luxury + expansion, required 55: 10)
Finding the unexpected mystery deposit has thrown a wrench into your expansion plans, as has the sudden influx of new people. The location of the veins' meeting place just happens to be right beneath your planned expansion trail and rather than go through with it and then uproot the complex soon anyways, you scrap the foundations for another time. Only the ex-prison hallways get transformed into apartments and connected to your other networks, but you're too proud to accept a backslide in lifestyle, so the rooms that were cramped for a hundred people now house about thirty.
The incoming wave of people similarly forces your hand with expanding existing condos. Instead of installing second and third floors or knocking down connecting walls to make them bigger, it's all you can do to throw up comparable shelters for the newcomers, leading to some grumbling about useless remodeling.
(Roll, surveillance, required 30: 74)
"A comprehensive sensor suite," you prompt Erikson when the man comes to your living quarters with his tools and gadgets.
"Optical smoke sensors in every room of the complex, fed by direct wire and hooked into a central system. People get a minute to turn off the alarm via a button on the device or disable the thing entirely for ten minutes if they know they'll be making some smoke."
He demonstrates the little knob switch on the side of the innocuous off-white box, then moves on to the next device.
"Barometer for air pressure, mechanical for the most part. If the room loses atmosphere a spring relaxes and breaks a circuit. Same system as the smoke alarm, different sound so you know what sort of danger you're in, also a strobe effect for when there's no air at all to carry the sound. That one is more for rescue crews looking for which rooms they can open and which ones to keep sealed."
The man's far from done.
"Air quality sensor, technically measures the ratio of nitrogen to oxygen to 'other'," he makes air quotes, "Doubles as a moisture detector. It may seem silly, but there's been a few farming satellites that had to be condemned due to mold. The spores can apparently survive vacuum just fine."
Next is a far smaller capsule.
"A networked thermocouple for your air conditioning unit, obviously reports temperature."
"Let me guess," you point to the next things in line, "motion sensor for the door – no wait, the whole room – wall voltage detector for shorted wires, manual panic button… is that seriously a scintillator?"
"If you get hit with a burst of cosmic radiation then every second can matter."
"Fair enough. These are all installed in every room?"
"Yes, and wide lens cameras for all hallways, storages and public rooms," You follow him to the corridor where he points to a black dot in the ceiling no bigger than your thumbnail.
"Bye-bye privacy," you wave at the eye.
"Just the alarms are monitored, the rest is only accessible with my, Amanda's or your say-so. Alright, now let me work," he orders you around as he starts to install the myriad of devices.
(Proper sensors installed throughout the colony.)
(Roll, communications, required 35: 88)
The communications equipment is still outside of your ability to make on the spot, even if you're inching ever closer to it. Still there's network protocols to write, reflector and amplifier dishes to set up and fiber-optic cable to install while you and Lena wait for the precision lasers and focused wave generators to arrive on the freighter. It would be easy to just rig an ancient broadcast antenna and blast away any info you needed; at least it would certainly reach your nearest neighbors, but doing so is both illegal and quite rude. Illegal because you'd likely slam into someone's tightbeam and scramble possibly vital data, and rude because the long range frequencies are kept open for emergency broadcasts.
There's three acceptable modes of communication. First is short-range radio, which you've used extensively and which dissipates after no more than a few thousand kilometers. Not that you usually operate at the upper limit, a hundred clicks being enough for keeping in contact with your patrols and mines, especially if you deploy your backup relay to reach the backside of your rock.
The second is direct tightbeam, which you use to send and receive data with Earth. Hyper-focused lasers that are carefully timed and calibrated to tag a target no larger than a standard airlock door across the whole inner solar system. Great for private, fast communication, but terrible for bandwidth. The laser pulse separation time and receiver frequency are the main bottlenecks, with the usual solution being to just add more lasers and receivers when you need more data.
The third is a newer tech, which uses precision tools that can carefully calibrate a wave pattern that dissipates to background noise right after reaching the intended target, so long as the target is within the same cosmic neighborhood. This one you flat out haven't had access to yet, but it's popular for talking to asteroids that haven't exchanged tightbeam data. Its main drawback is security, as using it is akin to shouting across long corridor full of doors to unknown rooms.
After the freighter arrives and brings you the necessary components, you spend no time in getting improved access to all three, helped along by Hailey's skills in calibrating the correct cycles for your little rock's spin.
(Communication equipment installed, diplomatic, internal and research options unlocked.)
Another year, another meeting. You're glad Hailey is back, the place really wasn't the same without her.
"Well, boss, not going to lie, gravity is a real downer back home."
Then again, maybe you should send her off as soon as possible. Ragnar swats her shoulder and Ken physically flinches, you just sigh.
"With that, we've another year to review and plans to make. How are things going?"
Ken is the first to take the floor, "We're officially generating more metal than a single freighter can fit. Moving forward, our bottleneck is the lack of landing facilities and extra trade contracts or ships of our own. Power production remains at a steady but delicate balance, the teams Will set up are doing an admirable job finding free moments on the precision printers for expanding the solar farms. Unless we intend to take on particularly power hungry projects we should be fine as is. Lastly, our food situation has both good and bad news. The good news is that we make a balanced diet locally and even have some luxury produce in the menu. The bad news is that with the influx of new colonists, we're straining the self-sufficiency angle; there's just not enough growing."
"About that," Hailey cuts in, looking worriedly at Ken, "the amount of people coming is pretty much guaranteed to grow unless we literally stop accepting ships with passengers."
Ken nods, sitting back down and Ragnar takes over, "In the same vein, we'll actually have to cut back on private living space or bunk up people if we don't do something about it."
"In line with our population monitoring efforts, a proper census might be in order after this year's influx," he hesitates for a moment, "One more thing, not strictly related to internal affairs, but important to me. I'd like for us to set up a proper school. There's enough kids and teens around that the current teleschooling doesn't have to be the only option. I can work on the paperwork and get it set up if you give me the green light."
"Speaking of children," Weissmeier smoothly picks up the conversation, "we're going to have our first one this year."
'Phrasing,' you barely catch yourself from glancing down to her belly before she continues.
"One of the women on the farm teams is in her first trimester. We're adequately prepared for the birth, just thought you might want to know, sir."
"Of course, good."
"In other news our facilities are ready and waiting for a project."
Amanda is the last to speak, wrapping up the discussion, "We've ran out of weapons to hand out and we still can't produce more locally. However the more pressing concern is the structure and purpose of our standing army, sir."
Rumor mill:
People's Daily: Ministry of Finance and People's Bank of China in talks for third miner bailout since impact; mineral prices continue freefall.
Minister Ming met with bank directors again earlier this week, sources indicate. The debate around the effectiveness of providing a third stimulus package to mining giants in two decades grows fiercer with supporters labeling opponents anti-patriotic. Meanwhile speculation over mineral price indexes remains negative as New Belt colonization gathers steam.
BBC: exposé from the vac-dock – months long queues mean nightmarish production quotas.
In an interview with an anonymous source that works in a US LEO shipyard, we explore the hidden underbelly and unexpected cost of the surging demand for more and more spaceships. As companies push to meet rising demand driven by far away ports, one person speaks out: "It's like the industrial revolution, but there's no Ford to help the workers".
Al Jazeera: the age of the micro-nation
The Impact Age is ended, the Solar Age has begun, and the first winners are emerging. We sit down with the diplomatic envoy from Little Klondike: independent colony turned nation state, who sent Europe a fully loaded colony ship. Read the perspective of a country light-minutes closer to the sun.
New York Times: on the double standard of the EU – "For too long have they made laws for others to follow" – Riley
In a scathing speech on the Guyana Crisis, US ambassador to UN Jaylen Riley calls out the Union for pressing through international laws and signing treaties they have no intent to follow. The accusations follow in the wake of last years' fight over colonization rights between the superpowers.
The Olympian: peaceful protests in Arabia continue – "Martian justice for Martian pain!"
Extraction of US head scientist amid further human experimentation accusations continues to draw ire in Arabia Terra; protestors demand government step down for not defending Martian interests. Opposition promises so called 'pirate rules' on crimes against humanity: absentee trial, guilty considered armed and dangerous, permission to post bounties.
Hailey Maria Perez, or just Hailey, as she insists, is an energetic and empathic woman. Prone to some daydreaming with a short attention span and with a habit of talking to herself, she nonetheless has an uncanny insight into what people are feeling around her. A masterful poker player and a great shoulder to cry on, the latter by her own words at least, she's probably best suited to face-to-face meetings and positive contacts. Also proficient in astrology. Choose 1 task to send her on.
[ ] Diplomacy
-[ ] Advertise your colony
You'll pretty much always have potential room and jobs for people willing to put in the effort, but you won't get all that many colonists if no one knows of you. Place ads, make unreasonable and vague promises and put up flyers, whatever works. You'll probably get people to come, but they won't be… overqualified, to put it optimistically. On the other hand, maybe a bit of grunt work is exactly what you need right now, and occasionally you might – might – find rough diamonds with the slop. DC 15
-[ ] Establish relations with…
Subtly put out feelers for a patron, someone to legitimize your claim. Nothing overt, just find out who might be interested in your little rock and see what they might offer you in return. Nothing permanent or committal of course, your first partner will always be special and just the act of choosing will make you enemies as well as allies, even if they won't show it. Geez, this is like high school all over again, except now you need to worry about nuclear warheads instead of hurt feelings. Recent events have also not made you a more attractive target for courtship. DC 45
-[ ] Seek corporate deals
You can sell your output on the open market as it gets launched out, but the prices will fluctuate and rarely in your favor. Likewise for supplies of food, air and water, all of which can be scarce this close to the sun. After all, you can't very well not buy the necessities if deliveries come by once a year. Instead, you could find one of the many middle-man businesses that exist just to prevent that from happening. See what they'll offer you and make sure you can fulfill your part of the deal. DC 30
-[ ] Send a probe to New Ireland
New Ireland is mainly a refueling station, located on a chunk of ice from the rogue planet Lucifer. They process the ice into hydrogen and oxygen, selling the products as fuel for haulers on a round trip. A simple self-destructing probe can get in radio range of them and exchange your tightbeam comms protocols. DC 25
-[ ] Send a probe to Deckard Station
Maybe you should just go through New Ireland, but you can't well be faulted for trying if no one technically told you their political situation. And who knows, maybe you can get a better deal by talking with them directly. DC 25
-[ ] Send a probe to the Children of Dreamers
People with strange beliefs are nothing new and these ones are your closest neighbors. Surely they have some needs that you could fulfill or vice versa. DC 25
-[ ] Send a probe to the Prismdust research base
A research colony is usually well supplied by their patron, but they might have interesting patents to sell you and collaborative research, while a logistical nightmare, might produce some revolutionary results. DC 20
-[ ] Send a probe to the private resort
If it's some trillionaires party house, then something as exotic as locally sourced fruits and vegetables might very well fetch a price that would be ridiculous elsewhere. And the security staff have needs too, maybe you can undercut their current supplier. DC 25
-[ ] Smooth relations with the EU
The whole 'your colony, my colony' thing was so long ago, who even remembers these things anymore. Surely we can all just let bygones be bygones and start on a blank page. DC 85
-[ ] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
What it says on the tin. With your upgraded comms, you can send out an all-purpose greeting and find out if someone else wants something from you. Why do you have to do all the legwork, let them come to you instead. Genius. DC 40
You'll pretty much always have potential room and jobs for people willing to put in the effort, but you won't get all that many colonists if no one knows of you. Place ads, make unreasonable and vague promises and put up flyers, whatever works. You'll probably get people to come, but they won't be… overqualified, to put it optimistically. On the other hand, maybe a bit of grunt work is exactly what you need right now, and occasionally you might – might – find rough diamonds with the slop. DC 15
-[ ] Establish relations with…
Subtly put out feelers for a patron, someone to legitimize your claim. Nothing overt, just find out who might be interested in your little rock and see what they might offer you in return. Nothing permanent or committal of course, your first partner will always be special and just the act of choosing will make you enemies as well as allies, even if they won't show it. Geez, this is like high school all over again, except now you need to worry about nuclear warheads instead of hurt feelings. Recent events have also not made you a more attractive target for courtship. DC 45
-[ ] Seek corporate deals
You can sell your output on the open market as it gets launched out, but the prices will fluctuate and rarely in your favor. Likewise for supplies of food, air and water, all of which can be scarce this close to the sun. After all, you can't very well not buy the necessities if deliveries come by once a year. Instead, you could find one of the many middle-man businesses that exist just to prevent that from happening. See what they'll offer you and make sure you can fulfill your part of the deal. DC 30
-[ ] Send a probe to New Ireland
New Ireland is mainly a refueling station, located on a chunk of ice from the rogue planet Lucifer. They process the ice into hydrogen and oxygen, selling the products as fuel for haulers on a round trip. A simple self-destructing probe can get in radio range of them and exchange your tightbeam comms protocols. DC 25
-[ ] Send a probe to Deckard Station
Maybe you should just go through New Ireland, but you can't well be faulted for trying if no one technically told you their political situation. And who knows, maybe you can get a better deal by talking with them directly. DC 25
-[ ] Send a probe to the Children of Dreamers
People with strange beliefs are nothing new and these ones are your closest neighbors. Surely they have some needs that you could fulfill or vice versa. DC 25
-[ ] Send a probe to the Prismdust research base
A research colony is usually well supplied by their patron, but they might have interesting patents to sell you and collaborative research, while a logistical nightmare, might produce some revolutionary results. DC 20
-[ ] Send a probe to the private resort
If it's some trillionaires party house, then something as exotic as locally sourced fruits and vegetables might very well fetch a price that would be ridiculous elsewhere. And the security staff have needs too, maybe you can undercut their current supplier. DC 25
-[ ] Smooth relations with the EU
The whole 'your colony, my colony' thing was so long ago, who even remembers these things anymore. Surely we can all just let bygones be bygones and start on a blank page. DC 85
-[ ] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
What it says on the tin. With your upgraded comms, you can send out an all-purpose greeting and find out if someone else wants something from you. Why do you have to do all the legwork, let them come to you instead. Genius. DC 40
Miss Carpenter projects an air of confidence and her no nonsense attitude backs up her demeanor. Perhaps a bit headstrong and stubborn, but as long as you don't act against her she'll likely be quite competent. After a successful operation under her belt and her necessity in the colony thoroughly proven, there's no doubt that she's in her element as a commander of your executive branch. Choose 1 security action to focus her on.
[ ] Security
-[ ] Armor improvement
Your troops are kitted out with light power armor, but there's plenty of things to improve. A better compound material for shielding, an improved power profile for increased recon range, maybe even comms equipment for increased bandwidth. In addition to general enhancements, you might want to start work on specializing the light armor for different purposes. DC 50
-[ ] Squads
Your colony has a surprisingly professional and well liked security force, largely thanks to the expertise of your sheriff. While you probably don't need more right this instant and lack the means to equip them, looking ahead can't hurt. See if more people might be interested in joining the forces. DC 50
-[ ] Ships
Buying anything better than a tugboat attached to a fuel tanker is expensive. Really, really expensive. But you need to be able to project your power beyond your immediate colony. Whether as a statement to accompany your diplomats or as strike craft against asteroids or pirates, you'll be on the market for a proper spacecraft. DC 70
-[ ] Professional army
So it might be a bit presumptuous to call two squads of enthusiasts an army, but it's a start. Fitness, team tactics, leadership exercises, rules of engagement and the like, alongside some live fire exercises to develop team cohesion are a good early basis for an officer corps. Ultimately you have dreams both of statehood and of mercenary groups you can rent out for sweet, sweet profit. DC 30
-[ ] Weapon patents
The guns you have are still in limited supply, no one wants to arm every random space rock after all. Do some shopping and convince a manufacturer to grant you access to their design specs so that you could start producing your own ammo and weapons. Or, failing that, try to build your own. DC 50
-[ ] Better armaments
Turns out neither you nor anyone on your immediate staff is a trained soldier, so the weapons you got were probably more flash than bang. Not that they are completely useless, just that they could be so much better. Hunker down with your sheriff and find a better set of offensive equipment for your troops. DC 40
-[ ] Heavy armor
Instead of the mobile suits you have for everyday work, you want Power Armor with a capital letter, the real space marine stuff. You'll try to buy it, but most governments are unlikely to sell what basically amounts to a personal tank to people, so be prepared to start your own designs. DC 60
-[ ] Jetpacks
Combat mobility is key and especially in a zero gravity environment you want your troops to have all the possible tactical advantages. The basic ship maintenance stuff has tiny thrusters to control yourself, but the combat variant would be much stronger and come with proper dampening software and trajectory control. DC 40
-[ ] Armored personnel carrier
A support vehicle for ground based combat, capable of light fire support, however its main purpose is to serve as a safer way to get infantry into combat zones. Its current usefulness to you is questionable, but you never know. You've been on both the unprepared and over-prepared side and you know which you'd like to be on. Whether there's someone out there that produces APCs for a microgravity environment is a different matter. DC 55
-[ ] Drones
Just imagining combat inside a spaceship gives you the chills. Information is worth more than bullets in many cases and a tiny camera can't be too hard to stick on some legs. The classic flying approach from Earth doesn't work without an atmosphere, but some skittering spiderbots should be within your means of development and production. DC 50
Your troops are kitted out with light power armor, but there's plenty of things to improve. A better compound material for shielding, an improved power profile for increased recon range, maybe even comms equipment for increased bandwidth. In addition to general enhancements, you might want to start work on specializing the light armor for different purposes. DC 50
-[ ] Squads
Your colony has a surprisingly professional and well liked security force, largely thanks to the expertise of your sheriff. While you probably don't need more right this instant and lack the means to equip them, looking ahead can't hurt. See if more people might be interested in joining the forces. DC 50
-[ ] Ships
Buying anything better than a tugboat attached to a fuel tanker is expensive. Really, really expensive. But you need to be able to project your power beyond your immediate colony. Whether as a statement to accompany your diplomats or as strike craft against asteroids or pirates, you'll be on the market for a proper spacecraft. DC 70
-[ ] Professional army
So it might be a bit presumptuous to call two squads of enthusiasts an army, but it's a start. Fitness, team tactics, leadership exercises, rules of engagement and the like, alongside some live fire exercises to develop team cohesion are a good early basis for an officer corps. Ultimately you have dreams both of statehood and of mercenary groups you can rent out for sweet, sweet profit. DC 30
-[ ] Weapon patents
The guns you have are still in limited supply, no one wants to arm every random space rock after all. Do some shopping and convince a manufacturer to grant you access to their design specs so that you could start producing your own ammo and weapons. Or, failing that, try to build your own. DC 50
-[ ] Better armaments
Turns out neither you nor anyone on your immediate staff is a trained soldier, so the weapons you got were probably more flash than bang. Not that they are completely useless, just that they could be so much better. Hunker down with your sheriff and find a better set of offensive equipment for your troops. DC 40
-[ ] Heavy armor
Instead of the mobile suits you have for everyday work, you want Power Armor with a capital letter, the real space marine stuff. You'll try to buy it, but most governments are unlikely to sell what basically amounts to a personal tank to people, so be prepared to start your own designs. DC 60
-[ ] Jetpacks
Combat mobility is key and especially in a zero gravity environment you want your troops to have all the possible tactical advantages. The basic ship maintenance stuff has tiny thrusters to control yourself, but the combat variant would be much stronger and come with proper dampening software and trajectory control. DC 40
-[ ] Armored personnel carrier
A support vehicle for ground based combat, capable of light fire support, however its main purpose is to serve as a safer way to get infantry into combat zones. Its current usefulness to you is questionable, but you never know. You've been on both the unprepared and over-prepared side and you know which you'd like to be on. Whether there's someone out there that produces APCs for a microgravity environment is a different matter. DC 55
-[ ] Drones
Just imagining combat inside a spaceship gives you the chills. Information is worth more than bullets in many cases and a tiny camera can't be too hard to stick on some legs. The classic flying approach from Earth doesn't work without an atmosphere, but some skittering spiderbots should be within your means of development and production. DC 50
You and Ken often find yourselves working together; engineering as an honest means of work is something you're both intimately familiar with. Likewise you both know that a space station's engineers are her lifeblood, so you've hit it off quite well with the man. Far from being a simple farmer, he does have a solid base in nearly all things mechanical and you shore up the electric side of things. While he's still shy, his beer is to die for. Choose 2 projects to start building.
[ ] Engineering
-[ ] Farms expansion
You've a solid culture of different plants, but as you continue to grow it's just not enough. Build another tower next to the first one and get more food. Ken is always happy to try new strains and cultures of plants and growing more of the old stuff is just as fine with him. DC 30
-[ ] Aerogel quarry
You might not have the full picture regarding the deposit, but you know for a fact that if you carefully chisel out massive sheets of the stuff then you can get at least equally massive amounts of dosh for them in exchange. Can't go wrong with massive amounts of dosh. DC 50
-[ ] Fuel refineries
Instead of trading away leftover oxygen as a low quality, low yield fuel replacement, get proper cooling towers and better filtration systems, start importing larger amounts of hydrogen and maybe even water for industrial electrolysis. Sure you'll be intruding a bit on your neighbor's market, but they'll be out of the production business soon enough anyways. DC 50
-[ ] Luxury living space
The current apartments are adequate, but not luxurious. Expand the existing ones by including more floors and extra amenities. DC 40, can be taken with More living space for DC 55, counts as 1 action
-[ ] More living space
Now that actual money is rolling in and you're firmly established, more and more people will be coming. It's a good idea to stay ahead of the curve and start up a second complex of living space, you've even laid some groundwork with the holding cell you built for those colonists. DC 10, can be taken with Luxury living space for DC 55, counts as 1 action
-[ ] Docks
Your launch facilities are in a word pathetic. Refueling takes ages and is wasteful, you need to cart the supplies way too far and there's still a very real risk of something crashing directly into your domes. Set up something resembling a dock, instead of having a nice flat patch of rock some half a kilometer away serving as a launch site. DC 50
-[ ] Transportation
Moving to and from any installation on the surface is perilous. Low G walks under the blackness are scary and slow and you have almost no redundant cars. Ken pointed out that while you're small now, a robust metro network is never set up soon enough. The lack of unoccupied mining equipment is but a minor concern they assure you. DC 55
-[ ] Industrial capacitor bank
A massive array of capacitors that can be used to fully charge a spaceship's batteries in a few hours. While bigger vessels have means of generating their own power, they can occasionally carry empty cells to reload and sell. Smaller ships meanwhile need a recharge almost as often as a refueling. Also, there are other possible uses for massive and sudden energy releasing, namely railguns and mass drivers. Alas, this stuff is really, really, expensive. DC 65
-[ ] Industrial battery bank
A marginally cheaper alternative to capacitors, an oversized battery bank means that even if some disaster wipes out your energy farms, you'll have a month or so to do repairs before the air cyclers stop running. And you won't be wasting energy most of the time if you have a good reservoir to pump it into. DC 55
-[ ] Communal space
How's a dictator supposed to give rousing speeches to their people without a wide plaza and a balcony. Jokes aside, the harvest festival brought to your attention the fact that people don't have a sufficiently large area for gathering. Fostering a strong sense of community is something Hailey is constantly on your case about, and a space should be set aside for it. DC 35
-[ ] Aquaculture
Ken has come to you with a rather strange idea. The water cisterns you currently have are filled with distilled, pure H2O and you regularly add mineral content to it between the tank and a tap. What if you instead switched the injectors for filters and opened up the tanks. And then, he tells you, put fish in them. Most mammals and birds fare poorly in the super-low gravity, but supposedly fish mostly do fine and the stuff humans like to drink is an ideal environment to grow them. DC 60
-[ ] Bakery
The closest thing to fresh bread you've had in years are the dry crackers from the ration packs that, rumors say, expand when you apply moisture. You now have a variety of grains, things like rye bread and rice cookies would definitely sell like hot cakes. Also, muffins, 'nuff said. DC 30
-[ ] Fission power plant
Sure you've a good system developed for powering your stuff, but diversity is a strength. Unlike the free sunlight, you'd need to import uranium, possibly refine it too, not to mention the difficulty of developing and constructing a plant from scratch. On the plus side, waste isn't a problem when you've the world's biggest incinerator staring down on you and no pesky gravity to stop you from chucking things in. DC 80
-[ ] Fusion power plant
This is what the big boys use. There's a total of three functional ones on Earth, one on Mars and probably a few on some cutting edge satellites and military cruisers, so it might be worth it to build one just for the prestige alone. It'll also mean that as long as you have access to the most abundant element in the world you can produce power. Not to mention the potential scientific benefits. DC 95
You've a solid culture of different plants, but as you continue to grow it's just not enough. Build another tower next to the first one and get more food. Ken is always happy to try new strains and cultures of plants and growing more of the old stuff is just as fine with him. DC 30
-[ ] Aerogel quarry
You might not have the full picture regarding the deposit, but you know for a fact that if you carefully chisel out massive sheets of the stuff then you can get at least equally massive amounts of dosh for them in exchange. Can't go wrong with massive amounts of dosh. DC 50
-[ ] Fuel refineries
Instead of trading away leftover oxygen as a low quality, low yield fuel replacement, get proper cooling towers and better filtration systems, start importing larger amounts of hydrogen and maybe even water for industrial electrolysis. Sure you'll be intruding a bit on your neighbor's market, but they'll be out of the production business soon enough anyways. DC 50
-[ ] Luxury living space
The current apartments are adequate, but not luxurious. Expand the existing ones by including more floors and extra amenities. DC 40, can be taken with More living space for DC 55, counts as 1 action
-[ ] More living space
Now that actual money is rolling in and you're firmly established, more and more people will be coming. It's a good idea to stay ahead of the curve and start up a second complex of living space, you've even laid some groundwork with the holding cell you built for those colonists. DC 10, can be taken with Luxury living space for DC 55, counts as 1 action
-[ ] Docks
Your launch facilities are in a word pathetic. Refueling takes ages and is wasteful, you need to cart the supplies way too far and there's still a very real risk of something crashing directly into your domes. Set up something resembling a dock, instead of having a nice flat patch of rock some half a kilometer away serving as a launch site. DC 50
-[ ] Transportation
Moving to and from any installation on the surface is perilous. Low G walks under the blackness are scary and slow and you have almost no redundant cars. Ken pointed out that while you're small now, a robust metro network is never set up soon enough. The lack of unoccupied mining equipment is but a minor concern they assure you. DC 55
-[ ] Industrial capacitor bank
A massive array of capacitors that can be used to fully charge a spaceship's batteries in a few hours. While bigger vessels have means of generating their own power, they can occasionally carry empty cells to reload and sell. Smaller ships meanwhile need a recharge almost as often as a refueling. Also, there are other possible uses for massive and sudden energy releasing, namely railguns and mass drivers. Alas, this stuff is really, really, expensive. DC 65
-[ ] Industrial battery bank
A marginally cheaper alternative to capacitors, an oversized battery bank means that even if some disaster wipes out your energy farms, you'll have a month or so to do repairs before the air cyclers stop running. And you won't be wasting energy most of the time if you have a good reservoir to pump it into. DC 55
-[ ] Communal space
How's a dictator supposed to give rousing speeches to their people without a wide plaza and a balcony. Jokes aside, the harvest festival brought to your attention the fact that people don't have a sufficiently large area for gathering. Fostering a strong sense of community is something Hailey is constantly on your case about, and a space should be set aside for it. DC 35
-[ ] Aquaculture
Ken has come to you with a rather strange idea. The water cisterns you currently have are filled with distilled, pure H2O and you regularly add mineral content to it between the tank and a tap. What if you instead switched the injectors for filters and opened up the tanks. And then, he tells you, put fish in them. Most mammals and birds fare poorly in the super-low gravity, but supposedly fish mostly do fine and the stuff humans like to drink is an ideal environment to grow them. DC 60
-[ ] Bakery
The closest thing to fresh bread you've had in years are the dry crackers from the ration packs that, rumors say, expand when you apply moisture. You now have a variety of grains, things like rye bread and rice cookies would definitely sell like hot cakes. Also, muffins, 'nuff said. DC 30
-[ ] Fission power plant
Sure you've a good system developed for powering your stuff, but diversity is a strength. Unlike the free sunlight, you'd need to import uranium, possibly refine it too, not to mention the difficulty of developing and constructing a plant from scratch. On the plus side, waste isn't a problem when you've the world's biggest incinerator staring down on you and no pesky gravity to stop you from chucking things in. DC 80
-[ ] Fusion power plant
This is what the big boys use. There's a total of three functional ones on Earth, one on Mars and probably a few on some cutting edge satellites and military cruisers, so it might be worth it to build one just for the prestige alone. It'll also mean that as long as you have access to the most abundant element in the world you can produce power. Not to mention the potential scientific benefits. DC 95
A quiet individual, it took you months to find out that one of the children in your colony was the daughter of your personnel manager. When Ragnar Erikson does contribute to the conversation, it's usually a well thought out response or an insightful comment and his action plans are clear and concise. Perhaps this is just his way of separating his occasionally thankless job and his private life, as he seems to get along with Hailey at least. Choose 1 action.
[ ] Internal Affairs
-[ ] Background checks
Sure, you've vetted everybody important on board, but can they spot the lies on their underlings' resumes? Didn't think they had any? Maybe, but now you're thinking about it. Look into the staff of your staff, maybe they let someone accidentally slip through. If you intend to maintain control of your colony you'll need all the info you can get. Sic your spymas- set internal affairs to finding out about the people here, see what they'll dig up. DC 25
-[ ] Census
Take stock of your current populace. Where do they come from, what do they think of life here, familial status, religious affiliation, occupations, etc. DC 30
-[ ] Thorough check - Ken Hiragi
There's something about the nice, quiet ones. Erikson brought to your attention the barest of possibilities, but you should still follow up and reassure yourself. DC 50
-[ ] Thorough check - Lena Weissmeier
Why is she so secretive, what sinister motives could she have? Remember, it's only rude to pry if you get caught doing it. And no, this does not count as stalking or harassment, you're doing this for security reasons. DC 60
-[ ] Emergency generators
Your current power supply is awfully vulnerable to forces of nature and targeted attacks alike. Set up well hidden, well shielded and separately supplied backup generators that would at least sustain basic life support around your compound should something happen to the solar fields. DC 30
-[ ] Poke the black site
Alright, so you're not going to launch a probe to knock on their front door, but if a casual solar wind analyzer happens to pass by, they'd surely have more to lose by reacting to it. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it gave man the stars and if you've built a house next to a wolf den then you should make sure to guard your sheep. Err, bad analogy, you definitely don't think of your people as sheep. Anyways, try to find out anything about your secret neighbor. DC 75
-[ ] The colonists
Why did Europe come after your rock so insistently? Sure it's a lovely rock, but as you sent them packing, it clearly wasn't worth fighting over. Was it just an overzealous officer? Find out what you can about the expedition to Little Klondike and the lead officer, one Lisette Rousseau. DC 50
-[ ] Schooling
As your colony grows and your colonists settle in and start to consider the place a home instead of a place to work for some time, you'll start having less young single childless people and more expectant families. Not to mention that more and more pre-existing families are also willing to come over. Give the children a competitive education. Or bash them with books until they can recite them backwards. DC 30
-[ ] Global WIFI
With generally expanded data transfer equipment set up in your central complex, you can fix the issue of having communication on your proverbial backside. At the moment you need to route through your silver mine tower and the single mobile antenna you have. Set up towers all over Little Klondike to grant adequate internet connection to every nook and cranny. DC 50
Sure, you've vetted everybody important on board, but can they spot the lies on their underlings' resumes? Didn't think they had any? Maybe, but now you're thinking about it. Look into the staff of your staff, maybe they let someone accidentally slip through. If you intend to maintain control of your colony you'll need all the info you can get. Sic your spymas- set internal affairs to finding out about the people here, see what they'll dig up. DC 25
-[ ] Census
Take stock of your current populace. Where do they come from, what do they think of life here, familial status, religious affiliation, occupations, etc. DC 30
-[ ] Thorough check - Ken Hiragi
There's something about the nice, quiet ones. Erikson brought to your attention the barest of possibilities, but you should still follow up and reassure yourself. DC 50
-[ ] Thorough check - Lena Weissmeier
Why is she so secretive, what sinister motives could she have? Remember, it's only rude to pry if you get caught doing it. And no, this does not count as stalking or harassment, you're doing this for security reasons. DC 60
-[ ] Emergency generators
Your current power supply is awfully vulnerable to forces of nature and targeted attacks alike. Set up well hidden, well shielded and separately supplied backup generators that would at least sustain basic life support around your compound should something happen to the solar fields. DC 30
-[ ] Poke the black site
Alright, so you're not going to launch a probe to knock on their front door, but if a casual solar wind analyzer happens to pass by, they'd surely have more to lose by reacting to it. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it gave man the stars and if you've built a house next to a wolf den then you should make sure to guard your sheep. Err, bad analogy, you definitely don't think of your people as sheep. Anyways, try to find out anything about your secret neighbor. DC 75
-[ ] The colonists
Why did Europe come after your rock so insistently? Sure it's a lovely rock, but as you sent them packing, it clearly wasn't worth fighting over. Was it just an overzealous officer? Find out what you can about the expedition to Little Klondike and the lead officer, one Lisette Rousseau. DC 50
-[ ] Schooling
As your colony grows and your colonists settle in and start to consider the place a home instead of a place to work for some time, you'll start having less young single childless people and more expectant families. Not to mention that more and more pre-existing families are also willing to come over. Give the children a competitive education. Or bash them with books until they can recite them backwards. DC 30
-[ ] Global WIFI
With generally expanded data transfer equipment set up in your central complex, you can fix the issue of having communication on your proverbial backside. At the moment you need to route through your silver mine tower and the single mobile antenna you have. Set up towers all over Little Klondike to grant adequate internet connection to every nook and cranny. DC 50
Miss Weissmeier is a younger, more conventionally beautiful and feminine version of Miss Carpenter. Even in zero G she wears a dark business skirt and heels, her reports are thorough and drier than a vacuum, but you can't fault her data or methods. She might be the youngest on your council, and in rare moments her lack of life experience shows, but you're quite glad to have someone with medical expertise on standby at all times. Choose 1 subject.
[ ] Research
-[ ] Mineral surveys
The general readings claim that your rock should have a good balance of light and heavy metals, silicates and oxygen rich rock, and who knows what else. You've gone over the surrounding top soil, for lack of a better term, but there's more to the asteroid both in depth as well as further out, keep looking for more minerals. DC 40
-[ ] Medic Training
The people in your colony come from various backgrounds and educations, but lifesaving knowledge is something everyone should have. Expand the rudimentary programs currently set up and make it a mandatory part of life on this rock. It will cut into productivity a bit but it'll be worth it to literally save lives. DC 20
-[ ] Oncology ward
The next step towards a fully-fledged space hospital is a cancer ward. Cosmic radiation can be mitigated quite well these days, but ultimately the human cell is still the same as it was thousands of years ago. For most colonists, there's the option of flying back to Earth for treatment if the tumor is detected on time, but you'd like to be better than that. DC 60
-[ ] Silver nanites
Miss Weissmeier has charmed you into supporting her research on silver nanomachines for medical purposes. It'll be easier now that you have proper mining set up for the silver, your refining options are greatly expanded and you actually have a lab; thus she assures you that she can start her work now, if you give her the green light. DC 60
-[ ] Solar wind capture
The lighter the element, the less likely you are to find a good supply of it around here. Unfortunately hydrogen is one of those, yet you need a constant supply of it. It's used in many, many chemical reactions and synthesizing processes, it's a prime component of rocket fuel and the only component of fusion fuel. It's also hard to keep recycling it, as the tiny gas can leak through most seals in time. Thus, try to catch some of the material that the Sun constantly bombards you with. DC 80
-[ ] Magnetic field research
A key component of fusion, magnetic fields can be used to direct a stream of particles. Similarly, Earth enjoys a protective shell shielding her from harmful radiation thanks to a massive iron core generating immensely big fields. Could there be anything you can do to replicate these effects? Or perhaps probing one of the fundamental forces of the universe might reveal some new applications that people haven't thought of or haven't needed so far. DC 70
-[ ] Primitive AI
They always say that true artificial intelligence is ten years away at most. They've been saying it all your life in fact, so it must be true. Mostly, the nonexistence of AI is attributed to a treaty known as the Tokyo Convention, but upon even a cursory glance at the text, there's clearly still room for research. The forbidden parts of AI have more to do with the moralities of developing something with feelings and ill-defined motivations than actual AI. Try to skirt that line and see where something barely smarter than a goldfish can take you. DC 50
-[ ] Life extension
Sure, you'll probably live to see a hundred and fifty, barring some accident. But if you want to enjoy eternal youth not eternal life, then you might want to put in your own contribution to the development of various life extension technologies. DC 60
-[ ] Natural aerogel
Normal aerogel remains costly as it's time consuming to make in large quantities and the size of any single piece is limited. What you have is thoroughly unique: both in its amount and its method of formation. Also, what did Weissmeier mean when she said it's not quite normal? DC 40
-[ ] Patent encryption breaking
There's several techs in your colony that you'd be able to produce yourself, in theory. From guns to motors to radios and lasers you should be able to make the components as prototypes in your lab. It's not industrial scale production and if someone caught wind of you using or worse yet, selling cracked products you'd be in trouble. But if you don't get caught then you'd be able to sustain your own needs just fine. DC 60
The general readings claim that your rock should have a good balance of light and heavy metals, silicates and oxygen rich rock, and who knows what else. You've gone over the surrounding top soil, for lack of a better term, but there's more to the asteroid both in depth as well as further out, keep looking for more minerals. DC 40
-[ ] Medic Training
The people in your colony come from various backgrounds and educations, but lifesaving knowledge is something everyone should have. Expand the rudimentary programs currently set up and make it a mandatory part of life on this rock. It will cut into productivity a bit but it'll be worth it to literally save lives. DC 20
-[ ] Oncology ward
The next step towards a fully-fledged space hospital is a cancer ward. Cosmic radiation can be mitigated quite well these days, but ultimately the human cell is still the same as it was thousands of years ago. For most colonists, there's the option of flying back to Earth for treatment if the tumor is detected on time, but you'd like to be better than that. DC 60
-[ ] Silver nanites
Miss Weissmeier has charmed you into supporting her research on silver nanomachines for medical purposes. It'll be easier now that you have proper mining set up for the silver, your refining options are greatly expanded and you actually have a lab; thus she assures you that she can start her work now, if you give her the green light. DC 60
-[ ] Solar wind capture
The lighter the element, the less likely you are to find a good supply of it around here. Unfortunately hydrogen is one of those, yet you need a constant supply of it. It's used in many, many chemical reactions and synthesizing processes, it's a prime component of rocket fuel and the only component of fusion fuel. It's also hard to keep recycling it, as the tiny gas can leak through most seals in time. Thus, try to catch some of the material that the Sun constantly bombards you with. DC 80
-[ ] Magnetic field research
A key component of fusion, magnetic fields can be used to direct a stream of particles. Similarly, Earth enjoys a protective shell shielding her from harmful radiation thanks to a massive iron core generating immensely big fields. Could there be anything you can do to replicate these effects? Or perhaps probing one of the fundamental forces of the universe might reveal some new applications that people haven't thought of or haven't needed so far. DC 70
-[ ] Primitive AI
They always say that true artificial intelligence is ten years away at most. They've been saying it all your life in fact, so it must be true. Mostly, the nonexistence of AI is attributed to a treaty known as the Tokyo Convention, but upon even a cursory glance at the text, there's clearly still room for research. The forbidden parts of AI have more to do with the moralities of developing something with feelings and ill-defined motivations than actual AI. Try to skirt that line and see where something barely smarter than a goldfish can take you. DC 50
-[ ] Life extension
Sure, you'll probably live to see a hundred and fifty, barring some accident. But if you want to enjoy eternal youth not eternal life, then you might want to put in your own contribution to the development of various life extension technologies. DC 60
-[ ] Natural aerogel
Normal aerogel remains costly as it's time consuming to make in large quantities and the size of any single piece is limited. What you have is thoroughly unique: both in its amount and its method of formation. Also, what did Weissmeier mean when she said it's not quite normal? DC 40
-[ ] Patent encryption breaking
There's several techs in your colony that you'd be able to produce yourself, in theory. From guns to motors to radios and lasers you should be able to make the components as prototypes in your lab. It's not industrial scale production and if someone caught wind of you using or worse yet, selling cracked products you'd be in trouble. But if you don't get caught then you'd be able to sustain your own needs just fine. DC 60
Votes for the image of William O'Rielly standing as follows:
4 for image 1
1 for images 2, 4, 5
First to 5 wins, refer to turn 5 for the options.
There's not a vacuum rated Kalashnikov clone in the public domain? Strange.
[X] Plan: stuff and things
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
-[X] Security
--[X] Professional army
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Farms expansion
--[X] Docks
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Emergency generators
-[X] Research
--[X] Natural aerogel
It's about time we introduce ourselves to our neighbors and from what Carpenter says we really need some kind of military structure before we expand our army further. The farm is need for self-sufficiency and expanding the docks will allow us to take on more than one freighter. I was really tempted to go the colonists for internal affairs or schooling but I think we've delayed getting emergency generators up for too long. Also the aerogel looks promising so let's look into that.
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
-[X] Security
--[X] Professional army
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Farms expansion
--[X] Docks
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Emergency generators
-[X] Research
--[X] Natural aerogel
It's about time we introduce ourselves to our neighbors and from what Carpenter says we really need some kind of military structure before we expand our army further. The farm is need for self-sufficiency and expanding the docks will allow us to take on more than one freighter. I was really tempted to go the colonists for internal affairs or schooling but I think we've delayed getting emergency generators up for too long. Also the aerogel looks promising so let's look into that.
[X] Plan Crunch Time
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
-[X] Security
--[X] Professional army
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Farms expansion
--[X] More living space
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Schooling
-[X] Research
--[X] Natural aerogel
Mostly about addressing the time-sensitive issues brought up (schools, food supply, living space, army organization). I decided against doing both more living space and better living space, because there's an influx of people coming this turn and I didn't want to risk it. Diplo-wise, we already have a wave of immigrants on the way and I want to be a little better established before thinking about shopping around for a patron - so I went for the general purpose contact option which can sub in for ~5 different 'meet with neighbour X' actions.
For research, I'm looking into the aerogel because it came as a result of a nat 100 - I'd like to know what makes it special before digging it up and selling it off.
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
-[X] Security
--[X] Professional army
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Farms expansion
--[X] More living space
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Schooling
-[X] Research
--[X] Natural aerogel
Mostly about addressing the time-sensitive issues brought up (schools, food supply, living space, army organization). I decided against doing both more living space and better living space, because there's an influx of people coming this turn and I didn't want to risk it. Diplo-wise, we already have a wave of immigrants on the way and I want to be a little better established before thinking about shopping around for a patron - so I went for the general purpose contact option which can sub in for ~5 different 'meet with neighbour X' actions.
For research, I'm looking into the aerogel because it came as a result of a nat 100 - I'd like to know what makes it special before digging it up and selling it off.
I've got 3 arguments to provide some suspension of disbelief. One there haven't been any wars in space, so while the weapons have been developed, they're not widely disseminated. Two the actual ammo is probably much trickier to make as you need something that expands rapidly without oxygen and not clogging up a gun with no atmosphere or gravity to vent it. Three the high quality printers that are actually capable of making parts with enough precision are carefully controlled and programmed to only work with an approved library of patents. In order to get them to make guns for you, you'll need to essentially jailbreak them, except the DRM of the future is much worse.
Sorry for the late reply. Here's some thoughts on actions. Actions are the single best possible reward. Thus giving out more actions should be a special thing. If I gave them out easily in the first ten turns then it would either set expectations to have more of them going forward, which at some point becomes unsustainable, or future achievements would feel less good because the reward would be smaller.
Similarly, I don't really keep a significant backlog of possible actions. What you see is what you get. If there's many things you'd like to get done then from my perspective things are great. I like to have choices amongst many good options.
That said, there is a way to get an extra action in each category baked in from the start. As one hint, it's effectively your advisors doing the work of organizing and planning that takes up their time and effort, but they're only human and have their own stuff going on in the background.
As a 'what could have been', if you refer back to advisor selection, for example, a scientist candidate Alex Thiago Castillo has an extra line of text in my file that says:
Alex is fully committed to becoming a cyborg. Expect some questionable amputations, perhaps even biopsies and brains in jars if given free reign.
Alex is fully committed to becoming a cyborg. Expect some questionable amputations, perhaps even biopsies and brains in jars if given free reign.
This is basically the 'seek patrons' option. After all, what is legitimacy but getting others that are seen as legitimate to say that you are too.
Thanks for the response, and that does make sense. One last question, is the colony overview going to be put up soon or is it to early for it to be needed?
[X] Plan: stuff and things
We need to get the a dock set fully up so we can actuality get more than one freighter a year which is not only important for increasing exports for cashflow but also increasing the amount of imports we can get. Plus communication with the neighbors is nice but not to useful if we are not set up for trade.
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- Location
- St. Petersburg
[x] Image 2
Not sure about the plans yet. Docks and setting up backup for power generators sound pretty important.
If we get the docks up and running, we can probably delay expanding our farms as we could likely survive on imports for a couple years, and we wouldn't be depending on a single freighter which is what made us push for self-sufficiency in the first place.
Not sure about the plans yet. Docks and setting up backup for power generators sound pretty important.
If we get the docks up and running, we can probably delay expanding our farms as we could likely survive on imports for a couple years, and we wouldn't be depending on a single freighter which is what made us push for self-sufficiency in the first place.
[X] Plan: stuff and things
Sorta? The main problem is that we have three pressing issues that need engineering fixes - we mine more than a single freighter can ship, we don't have enough living space for to hold all the new immigrants, and we don't produce enough food for all of the new immigrants. We only have two engineering actions, so at least one of them has to wait.
In terms of relative priority between those three, IMO the freighter is the least pressing - refined ore doesn't go bad and doesn't really need special storage facilities (as opposed to just leaving it out on the surface of the asteroid).
Next is food, because while we can get alternative sources (either running our stocks of MREs and such down or adding on further financial burden by paying to ship it in) those sources incur more of an opportunity cost. Living space is the most pressing - there's a much sharper limit to how many people you can cram into a space over and above what it's meant to support in a space habitat, and getting too close to that line means people die.
I could be persuaded to swap out farm expansion for docks under the reasoning that being able to sell more metal would cancel out needing to buy more food, but there's also the fact that according to the rumor mill metal prices are on a major downward trend - so being able to sell more metal is quite possibly not enough to make up for needing food, but even if it is it's still a better move financially to reduce the amount of food imports we need. Not adding living space is really a dealbreaker though, as that's our single most pressing issue.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
[X] Plan Crunch Time
I'd really prefer Internal Affairs to be emergency generators instead of schooling, but with us getting overcrowded as it is and more colonists on the way, additional living space is something I see as non-negotiable.
I'd really prefer Internal Affairs to be emergency generators instead of schooling, but with us getting overcrowded as it is and more colonists on the way, additional living space is something I see as non-negotiable.
This sort of ignores the other benefits that the dock brings. For one it synergies very well with opening communications with our neighbors if they can actually dock with us which is going to be key for establishing trade or even swapping experts or diplomats. Second it mentions in the dock action that the lack of proper docking facilities is very dangerous an an accident waiting to happen, I do not know how events like that are simulated, or even if they are, but building a proper dock should make everything safer. Third the falling mineral prices means building the dock to increase exports is even more important as we do import a great deal as is noted in most actions we take so as we continue to expand and ramp up building, maintenance, and wage costs we need to ramp up income as well.
I do agree with you that housing and food are important but I feel they can wait a year. It was mentioned that neither situation is critical and we can afford to not address them this year, just that it would strain the situation if we do not, I think getting the dock finally set up is worth letting one of them get a bit strained.
On that same vein the docks are also not critical so it boils down to your personal preference. I for once prefer quality of life over profits.
[X] Plan: stuff and things electric boogaloo
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
-[X] Security
--[X] Professional army
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Living Space
--[X] Docks
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Emergency generators
-[X] Research
--[X] Natural aerogel
People seem to want living space a lot so I switched out farm expansion for living space.
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Introduce yourself to the neighbors
-[X] Security
--[X] Professional army
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Living Space
--[X] Docks
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Emergency generators
-[X] Research
--[X] Natural aerogel
People seem to want living space a lot so I switched out farm expansion for living space.
NeonLights
Formerly Reliable_2IC
- Location
- In shambles
[X] Plan Crunch Time