IIRC one of the requirements for another UP site is that there needs to be 2 major planets in the same system (like Earth-Mars). So there's only a few places that fit the bill.
Pretty sure that's not a requirement.
Alukk isn't even such a bad location actually. A 2nd one at Amarkia or Alukk for our spinward forces and then a 3rd one at Rigel for our coreward forces.
It was mentioned by Oneiros when the first questions about a second UP came up, a long time back. A quick thread search turns up this post and the ones near it. Might've been more elsewhere in the thread.
For the Romulans and Klingons the likely staging grounds aren't on the map. What's there is based of the biophage arc (rimward half of the neutral zone and surroundings) and the war reports. Also how much of our space they would have to cross and how heavily fortified the route is is probably more important than the absolute distance. It's a bit weird that as far as we know we don't even have a single starbase or ourpost closer than 10LY to the direct route from Romulus to Sol.
Request the prepatory project in the snake pit for 110pp, then buy the shipyard when that finishes. That's it. QMs are probably going to disallow systems that have neither a home world nor a major colony and a system away from the major trade routes would probably increase our industry loop multiplier severely, or perhaps the prepatory project will end in failure if we pick an unsuited system, but a combination of home world and major colony in the same system very likely isn't supposed to be a requirement. That was just something we were including in the package when we asked the question (which led to the snakepit option) to minimize possible in-universe factors for disallowing it in places other than Mars.
Using the TOS Formula Warp 14 is equal to 2,744C or 7.5LY/day. A 30LY radius around each Mega Shipyard ensures it would take at least four days for anyone leaving their territory to reach it. Sol doesn't quite count since a tiny bit of Romulan space is within that bubble but it's close enough. Other candidates are:
Its something that we are going to do eventually. I would prefer that we do it sooner rather than later since we have so many problems at our door right now. IE the Cardassians, Horizon, Hishmeri Septs, the Romulan/Klingon war and its echoes as well as any other problems out there that are plaguing the Federation right now. Having a second HIP would cut down on ship construction times and whatever else I am forgetting Which is why I would prefer that we have it at Amarkia. They see themselves as the defenders of the Federation and having an HIP in their system would allow them to do just that.
your not the only one who wants to secure the trade routes. The better secure they are for us the better for the war effort it will be in keeping our Transports, Cargoships, and freighters safe from attack.
this might just me failing too read tings right.
I am agreeing with you.
It looks like they are making good progress on fixing that corruption. Their efficiency increased by about 5% in the last two years. If I just plug in the numbers I get 32.24% and I got 26.88% two years ago, but if I assume their base income is 0.4 higher than accounted for two years ago (either due to more worlds counting as major or more trade partners than assumed) and that one of their three new cargo ships is needed for logistics I get exactly 25% two years ago and exactly 30% now. So Orion current base infrastructure income is 4.7. Assuming they keep the rate up they will break 50% efficiency within a decade, which would put them in company of the Risans, Laio and Tauni.
Remember that any mega industrial project is going to have Starfleet and member law enforcement all over the place. And we saw in Master of Orion that even the syndicate couldn't hide large scale corruption from serious federation-wide scrutiny.
Keyword a Decade. Yea no! I really don't see us waiting that long in universe to build a second HIP. Not with the various problems we have going on right now. I am now firmly of the position that we need to build the HIP soon. Like in the next few in game years. which means we have to make some very hard decisions soon. We are definitely waiting until after the Ambassador wave gets started though. Once that is done who knows but one way or another we need to get the second HIP started.
Not so faint, considering that their economy was based on the corruption for centuries.
