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The Practice War [Complete]

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Teucrian said:
May I ask what your source is for this? I've always been under the impression that quarks are smaller than electrons.
A quick google search was a bit inconclusive.
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Yeah, that's my bad, since I'm the one who wrote up the idea. I had meant to say "baryon", as in protons and neutrons, not quark; once you get down to the level of quarks and leptons the concept of volume starts to get a little weird, which was kind of my point.
 
[X] Plan Last Call v2

I don't have time this vote to dig that hard into it, but what I'm seeing looks acceptable.
 
Huh, so no other competing plans? I'm a little surprised; I figured there'd be at least a little more debate over some of my choices. For example, I remember there was a lot of debate over taking For its Own Sake last turn, and I could see a convincing argument for swapping Pushing the Boundaries out for that, with the upside that Inheritor could be changed out for something else too; maybe change Learned Amity out for The Links Between, and take Ties that Bind as our other Personal action?

Another question for @Snowfire too: I was sort of assuming that most of our Elder First vault actions, especially Pushing the Boundaries, would be harder after moving on to the Arcadia Institute given the prospect of increased Congressional oversight and (well-intentioned) obstruction: in other words, that our "Advisor Score after Congressional modifiers" would go down. That's why I rated Pushing the Boundaries as such a high priority this turn, to get in a few last bites of the Elder First apple before it becomes much harder to do so. Is that a reasonable assumption to make, or am I missing something?
 
TheEyes said:
Huh, so no other competing plans? I'm a little surprised; I figured there'd be at least a little more debate over some of my choices. For example, I remember there was a lot of debate over taking For its Own Sake last turn, and I could see a convincing argument for swapping Pushing the Boundaries out for that, with the upside that Inheritor could be changed out for something else too; maybe change Learned Amity out for The Links Between, and take Ties that Bind as our other Personal action?

Another question for @Snowfire too: I was sort of assuming that most of our Elder First vault actions, especially Pushing the Boundaries, would be harder after moving on to the Arcadia Institute given the prospect of increased Congressional oversight and (well-intentioned) obstruction: in other words, that our "Advisor Score after Congressional modifiers" would go down. That's why I rated Pushing the Boundaries as such a high priority this turn, to get in a few last bites of the Elder First apple before it becomes much harder to do so. Is that a reasonable assumption to make, or am I missing something?
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I think what we are seeing is option fatigue. The old mechanics have become too unwieldly, and despite the long list, we don't really have a lot of choice because what we must do already exceeds what we can do. Hopefully the new mechanics will address these problems.
 
TheEyes said:
Another question for @Snowfire too: I was sort of assuming that most of our Elder First vault actions, especially Pushing the Boundaries, would be harder after moving on to the Arcadia Institute given the prospect of increased Congressional oversight and (well-intentioned) obstruction: in other words, that our "Advisor Score after Congressional modifiers" would go down. That's why I rated Pushing the Boundaries as such a high priority this turn, to get in a few last bites of the Elder First apple before it becomes much harder to do so. Is that a reasonable assumption to make, or am I missing something?
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You are, yeah. It boils down to what @Robinton was saying, in that Congress exists to protect humanity above all else. Now yes, that means you'll need to justify your getting access to the Vault, but given the example of Vision and the confirmed fact that Amanda is the only person capable of opening the Reliquaries, it'll be easier than you might think. It's also highly likely to be a government priority at some level, even if they can't dedicate resources to it, whilst you can.

Vault access will be moderately difficult, but getting access to Alexandria will be a lot harder, I guess is the comparison I'm making here.

I'll be closing this vote this evening, please add write-ins to your speech <3
 
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Snowfire said:
I'll be closing this vote this evening, please add write-ins to your speech <3
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I'm going to do what I can to write a few talking points, but I'm hoping someone else will be able to do more. This is my 19-hour workday, so after I post a few things this morning I don't anticipate being able to do much else until tomorrow at best.

Some of this touches on issues of security. My talking point outline, right now, looks like this:
Talking points:

-[X] Start by acknowledging those who have fallen to the Shiplords, both during the Week of Sorrows and afterward. In particular acknowledge those who died during the First Battle of Sol, whose sacrifice we are only now truly beginning to understand, and those who died during the Second Battle of Sol, fighting against an implacable enemy in defense of peace and Humanity.
-[X] Remark on how far we've come, and on how much still needs to be done, since we all know that the Shiplords will return, more powerful and dangerous than before. Remind everyone that this is a storm that will require all of humanity working together to weather, and that we will do so by remembering the sacrifices of those who came before, and by always striving for the future.
-[X] Transition into a more workman-like speech outlining the work still needing to be done, to research the next generation of defensive technologies that will make up the new fleet that must be built, and the support infrastructure to sustain the fleet.
-[X] Give a brief overview of non-military infrastructure projects that have been built and are being built, specifically how we are entering an age of planetary-scale and star system-scale megaprojects the likes of which have never been seen, and of the vision required to see such projects to fruition.
-[X] Then talk about the work being done to build a diplomatic corps, and about how we will soon see a Second First Contact event, with fellow sufferers under the incomprehensible wrath of the Shiplords hoping to band together against the storm, how important that work could be to securing humanity's future, possibly even building a community among the stars.
-[X] Acknowledge how we've come to know this: Practice, and the tireless work of the Awakened, from the Elder First to the newest generation. Talk about the work still needing to be done to understand exactly what Practice does and how it works, and how important those questions will be going forward.
-[X] Emphasize how important it is that those who are Awakened not become arrogant about their abilities, that those abilities are born of the sacrifice of countless thousands of humans and Dragons, and that they are still a part of humanity. Great power, great responsibility, much is demanded of whom much is given to, etc. Just as important is an admonishment to not acquire too much political power in the hands of the Awakened; it would be all too easy for humanity to become an oligarchy ruled by the Awakened, and that must not be allowed to happen.
-[X] In that vein, officially announce that you will not be seeking re-election, if you haven't already, to pursue more narrow, though still important, goals. Tie this back to the admonishment not to allow too much power to accumulate in the hands of a single person; humanity will always remain the implacable enemy of tyrants, and must not become tyrants themselves in the defense of freedom.

-[X] Close with a song, something that reminds people of the many events that were held over the years leading up to the Second Battle of Sol, and reminding everyone that the great work of building a humanity free from the threat of annihilation still continues.
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I'm curious though if any of that violates classified information rules, specifically the stuff discovered by Project Insight. Are we telling people about that openly, or is it all being kept secret?
 
Look good, @TheEyes. I'll pull from that, keeping in mind any security issues. The UPI report is still mostly classified, so the certainty of contact will be removed, but I'll go off what I'm reading of your intent there and that should be fine.

Vote will close in 5-6 hours.
 
So some things have come up today related to work that will probably be monopolising my time for the next week or so, which means that my progress on Turn 13 may be slower. That said, once I do the rolls tonight, I'm going to try and speed through it as swiftly as I can with no more than two interludes unless I really need them - not counting the complex mini-turn you'll get from talking to Ministers. I'll probably cover all the Ministers at once, and use Task based voting for anything you need to vote on related to them.

With that in mind, I'll close this vote here, and do the rolls as soon as I get home there before focusing back on my new project. I'm still aiming for getting us into the new mechanical format by mid-August, but we'll see how things evolve.
 
Everyone okay with closing the speech with a song, or is this not really the right time and place? That's the bit I'm most uncertain of.
Snowfire said:
Vault access will be moderately difficult, but getting access to Alexandria will be a lot harder, I guess is the comparison I'm making here.
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Hmmm. Makes me think we should swap pushing the boundaries with shells of death, actually. Ugh, decisions decisions.
 
TheEyes said:
Hmmm. Makes me think we should swap pushing the boundaries with shells of death, actually. Ugh, decisions decisions.
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Please note that moderately difficult involves a 40-50% chance of success. With you rolling off a Diplomacy modifier of +31. If you like, I can keep the vote open, but I was planning on closing it out now and doing rolls.
 
Snowfire said:
Please note that moderately difficult involves a 40-50% chance of success. With you rolling off a Diplomacy modifier of +31. If you like, I can keep the vote open, but I was planning on closing it out now and doing rolls.
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Go for it. I won't have time to second guess myself until tomorrow at the earliest, and you already said you'd close the polls by then.
 
Varano said:
Well that was a massive thing to read through! *falls over exhausted*

This is a pretty good quest, you have here @Snowfire, thanks for taking the time to create this. :)
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Welcome, and thank you! Please be sure to recover before binge-reading more quests <3

bryanfran36 said:
[X] Plan Last Call​
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Welcome! Sadly, the vote closed about a week ago.

But! I'm about halfway through the results post now, should be able to work on it this evening, and I have Wednesday off. So if all goes well, I'll have it up tomorrow sometime.
 
So we know what the Second (biological manipulation) and Sixth (nanotech) Secrets are now, and we can actually use the Sixth. Are there any others that I've missed?
 
Revan said:
So we know what the Second (biological manipulation) and Sixth (nanotech) Secrets are now, and we can actually use the Sixth. Are there any others that I've missed?
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  • We're pretty sure that gravity manipulation is itself a Secret, given that the Shiplords use it in their gravitic shear guns (that we can only mimic through Practice).
  • (Speculative) Between the Second (biomanipulation) and Sixth (nanoscale manipulation) techs are room for a Third, Fourth, and Fifth. It would seem too convenient to be coincidental that there are three fundamental forces/pseudoforces recognized by modern physics, which would make a great deal of sense as Secrets 3-5:
    • Gravity / General Relativity -- High-end gravity manipulation tech basically turns us into a Mass Effect civilization, complete with biotics and possibly another form of FTL travel that isn't First Secret-based.
    • Electromagnetic / Electroweak -- Think Girl Genius thunder-magic everywhere. Also, since the weak nuclear force is the one that prevents atomic nuclei from getting too close to each other, this could open the possibility of Honey I Shrunk the Kids style "shrink rays" and the ability to phase through solid matter like the Tolans from Stargate.
    • Strong nuclear / Quantum Chronodynamics -- Dictates what is and is not an "atom". For this one think Schock Mercenary, with their annie (matter-antimatter annihilation) plants that can be scaled up and down basically indefinitely, the use of post-transuranic elements as armor plating, and, combined with Gravity Manipulation, the ability to use neutronium as building material.
 
EmptyHusk said:
I still haven't finished reading the quest, though I think I have a rough idea of what has happened thus far.

Thus far, good quest.
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Welcome!

EmptyHusk said:
Could it be weaponiced?

I mean, what would happen if we managed to hit a Shiplord's ship with a big asteroid (roughly 1/2 the size of said ship) with a FTL momentum?
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It's not really that sort of FTL, but even if that was possible the problem is that you'd be sacrificing a drive every time you did that, and you have a somewhat limited supply of them at present.

In unrelated news, can someone roll me a d10 please.
 
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