What do I want to get the axe? Hard to say since I mostly just read without participating in the votes. A lot of the issues I've heard about are getting sorted out or simplified. I guess research, since it's complicated and takes forever to get things completed so you don't even know if you screwed up until years later in game, but I'm really not the person to ask about it.
Since we're on the subject @OneirosTheWriter , if you had to start the quest over from scratch, what would you do differently? I'm sure this has been a learning experience, so what would the older you yell at younger you to fix?
That was a fine bit of clusterfuckery from me - as you might have noticed, I'd been budgeting 160br for those as the approx. But as you clearly did notice, I hadn't scheduled upgrades to the infrastructure. That's been sorted out now
I'm gonna head-canon that that was a result of Admiral Lathriss getting on the old subspace transceiver to the Confederacy Navy High Command and making them wish the demon Riala had indeed come for their souls.
Note- those SDB designers have a very economical 2325 Anacail-A design that should hopefully keep it relevant well into the 2330s. 5BR/5SR refit, no build cost change for +1C or 10BR/5SR +5SR build for +1CD. 15/15 +1CLD and base price bumps up 5sr.
Preliminary work indicates a 5BR/5SR Hebrinda-B stopgap refit for +1C using T2 burst launchers is also very reasonable, they could start developing that today.
We were also throwing around the idea of developing UP2 in Amarki space jointly with the Amarki government, where they would build their new 2Mt berths.
Not quite what you were asking but if I was trying to set various stages into most like/least like system it would be something like this:
A+ Captain's Logs. Easily the high point of the quest. Also the most plentiful which makes it even better.
A Shipyard Ops & Snakepit. With both of these not only do we have a chance to make important choices but each choice really feels important. There's a great sense of A, B or C where each one is viable and gives great benefits but each option is different.
B+ Special Event Arcs. They have a lot of what makes the Captain's logs great but they can start to drag on after a while. While still enjoyable some of the effect is lost when there's like a month and a half between an event starting and it's resolution and the points between don't really show concrete progress or an interesting twist or an important decision is needed.
B- Intelligence - The general reports make for interesting choices and are a great chance to ask IC questions and get more about the parts from Captain's Log that most interested people. Like the Haruka system with the Gorn or those Gretarians with the headphones.
My biggest problem is that the major power reports feel kind of foolish. We pretty much always want to know who is talking to who for what reasons and we would expect that it's pretty basic knowledge and we know that IC. It feels like every time we ask it's a case of someone going to poke the FDS and saying "Hey, get back to work and give us some basic info." rather then us getting something valuable.
For fixing it maybe scrap the major powers diplomatic posture and shipyard reports and instead just write a basic briefing about each one at the start of the intel vote. Something like "Romulans reaching out to Bolians for war support, blah blah. Cardassians building new embassies on multiple Gorn worlds, their relationship seems to be improving because of blah. Klingons announce completion of the Ha'kPhlegm Yard with 6 berths, at least 2 are 2 MT or larger." and then if we want more specific info we can ask for it.
C Rat Race. I skim it for names I recognize but it's rare I see more then 2-3 per post. I can see it as interesting to people who want to track their favorite omake characters but it's honestly kind of forgettable to me. I don't think it needs any changes, I just don't feel much for or against it but I recognize it's valuable to other people.
D Research. I know a lot of work has went into it but it kind of feels like a way to funnel parts into the SDB and isn't that relevant to the main thread which I know is wrong. It has massive impact on what we can do in the future but I kind of just gloss over it and bandwagon if I bother to vote at all. Maybe spoiler the long list of numbers and open with research summaries for the most interesting bits. Like a report of something that happened while testing a personal force field on a Yan-Ros or target practice with the new phaser arrays, or how a glitch in the Isolinear processors made Lightning think they found a moon that actually was made from cheese. Something that changes research posts from dry grinding to something that seems like a part of the narrative whole of TBG.
D Deployment. For all the reasons other people have stated. A long slog with minor changes every time. No real feeling of success when we get it right and no events are completely missed and a real feeling of frustration when something does go wrong (ie. the Tellarite thing) and we look back and don't see how we could have forseen or fixed it. Part of it was the massive ship crunch we're just getting over which will make it better by making it easier to re-shuffle our ships. Part of it is the massively expanded Starfleet since the start of game which will get much worse from here on so much more to keep track of and place. I don't really have any new suggestions for improving it.
In regards to simplification, I'd suggest the following:
1. Streamlining the Ex Astris Scientia, Ex Astris Results, and the Research Megapost updates
- move the completion calculations into a GM only editable spreadsheet, and read only to the rest of us, and make the Research Megapost only a listing of descriptions of the possible research items.
- Ex Astris Scientia would remain the same, but the Results would merely be the usual spoilered winning vote, a paragraph or two statement of completed projects, increased ranks of teams, and a link to the spreadsheet. The google sheet would have a different tab per year of research, a copy of the prior one and updated appropriately.
2. Steering Committe and Well, They Try (Intelligence Reports), and a tag system adjustment
- alter the reporting system to be point based.
- reports would be always be single polity reports, based on standard areas (known shipyards, ships being worked on, overall fleet size, ships on the border, diplomatic posture, items of interest to intelligence - which would almost always be the questions we raise). The more points spent on a report, the more resources intelligence pours into finding out additional details. A two point report may have nothing in it except the basic diplomatic posture from a regular citizen of that civilization, for example.
- multi-polity issues would be covered in any of the single civilization reports, but each would be from their perspective, so getting all of the reports would be needed for a full picture.
- researched polities would automatically have points spent equal to the number of current reports * (whatever point translation amount is chosen).
- reports would be on the wiki, with links to them in Well, They Try. Perhaps prior year entries could be in collapsable sections.
- add tags and diplomacy scores to the major civilizations, not just our potential affiliates. The tags here would represent impediments to our interactions, just as standard tags do, but instead of limits for affiliation status, it would be positive/negative relations limitations. Cardassia could start at -550 Distrustful, while the ISC could be 750 Ally. And just as in the current system, hidden tags would exist.
I think by removing the (apparent) large amounts of formatting of the Ex Astris Results page and the simplification of the Intelligence Reports should make things a bit easier for the GMs.
I seem to be the only person in the thread who thinks the research system is fun. I really enjoy looking through the research tree, seeing all the techs we could get, what events or other parts of the game each new tech could affect, and how we're slowly advancing through them. Ironically, I've kinda got the opposite problem Forgothrax has: If it wasn't for needing to know from the SDB what ship parts we need to go for, I would be able to make a complete research plan by myself.
To me, the problems with the research tree are that, while from a gameplay perspective the ability to assign different teams to research slides and use the research boosting allows us to speed certain technologies along and overall make our research get new beneficial techs into the rest of the game sooner... Overall the added complexity still means the system is beyond most readers and unfortunately has not fufiled its storytelling potential. Most research systems in other games have a cost to start a research, and a time it takes to completion. The cost in our system is needing to choose which team to assign it to, but the time it takes for a research slide to be completed is just way too variable in a way that makes it seemingly opaque to almost everyone. Even after the recent update! Not to mention, again, that the SDB is the group that knows whichn ship parts are needed first and when, leaving all of the (interesting!) research outside ship design to be often overlooked.
Narratively... the research system is a failure. We have many research teams, each of them who could have their own small stories and presence, but in practice the only difference between Spock and Generic Team 1 researching new sensors is their different experience levels. The Experimental Computing Group, a research team that was a lowly generic team but came together to create the Isolinear Chip, the most advanced computing architecutre in the the quadrant and a game-changer for ship design... has zero character or presence in the story of this quest. They have a very nice logo, but neither the QMs nor the thread has felt any inspiration to write about them. The closest we have this research turn is a joke about the away team manuals not being translated into catspeak. The mechanics of the research system and research teams is just not conductive to storytelling in its current form.
Crap, now I'm too sad about it to think of ideas of what we could do to fix things. I'm just going to post this now instead of sitting on it for hours. Have this p.s. I wrote earlier:
P.S. Any fix for the research system totally has to keep us swimming in rp. It's just so in-character for us to constantly have way more incoming research data and other stuff per year than we can deal with in only 12 months.
The Captain's logs are the best part ... honestly I'm not here to play a quest anymore, I'm here for Oneiros and co's marvelous Star Trek AU fic collection with voter weighted prompt engine.
Special Event arcs are hit-and-miss. The Biophage was amazing, Grey October was good fun at playtime and better on reread, Master of Orion One was hit-or-miss, the Arcadian War had good lead in, a very problematic start and the war itself wasn't that hot even if it made for some great battle narrative omakes and had an absolutely amazing ending sequence, I liked MoO2 even though I'm pretty burned out on crisis arcs, the OSA pirate clusterfuck was a good idea with bad implementation and runs into some annoying OOC/IC clash issues, the GBZ was lame as hell outside of the climax, and the Vulcan Technocracy stuff was absolutely amazing.
I seem to be the only person in the thread who thinks the research system is fun. I really enjoy looking through the research tree, seeing all the techs we could get, what events or other parts of the game each new tech could affect, and how we're slowly advancing through them. Ironically, I've kinda got the opposite problem Forgothrax has: If it wasn't for needing to know from the SDB what ship parts we need to go for, I would be able to make a complete research plan by myself.
To me, the problems with the research tree are that, while from a gameplay perspective the ability to assign different teams to research slides and use the research boosting allows us to speed certain technologies along and overall make our research get new beneficial techs into the rest of the game sooner... Overall the added complexity still means the system is beyond most readers and unfortunately has not fufiled its storytelling potential. Most research systems in other games have a cost to start a research, and a time it takes to completion. The cost in our system is needing to choose which team to assign it to, but the time it takes for a research slide to be completed is just way too variable in a way that makes it seemingly opaque to almost everyone. Even after the recent update! Not to mention, again, that the SDB is the group that knows whichn ship parts are needed first and when, leaving all of the (interesting!) research outside ship design to be often overlooked.
Narratively... the research system is a failure. We have many research teams, each of them who could have their own small stories and presence, but in practice the only difference between Spock and Generic Team 1 researching new sensors is their different experience levels. The Experimental Computing Group, a research team that was a lowly generic team but came together to create the Isolinear Chip, the most advanced computing architecutre in the the quadrant and a game-changer for ship design... has zero character or presence in the story of this quest. They have a very nice logo, but neither the QMs nor the thread has felt any inspiration to write about them. The closest we have this research turn is a joke about the away team manuals not being translated into catspeak. The mechanics of the research system and research teams is just not conductive to storytelling in its current form.
Crap, now I'm too sad about it to think of ideas of what we could do to fix things. I'm just going to post this now instead of sitting on it for hours. Have this p.s. I wrote earlier:
P.S. Any fix for the research system totally has to keep us swimming in rp. It's just so in-character for us to constantly have way more incoming research data and other stuff per year than we can deal with in only 12 months.
Honestly I'd say TBG's research system is probably one of the best I've seen when it comes to simulating what I imagine research would actually work like in a polity like the Federation. Of course, this makes it so complex most of the player-base just doesn't care to engage with it. Not when there's so much quest to engage with.
Task Force Commander's Log, Task Force Unity - Rear Admiral Michel Thiur
Our efforts this quarter have largely been focused on convincing the Licori to slow or stop their offensive. The attack on Ioji has proven to be a major escalation. Red Torina is a hero, even though she lost the battle; rhetoric on Ikeigenoi has hardened strongly against giving a single millimeter to the 'feudalists,' even if it means using corporate assets. Thankfully, Ambassador N'Gir and Captain Devereaux were able to successfully negotiate a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the recovery of the Elakus Twelve has driven a small rift between the Laio and the Licori. This presents an opportunity, but also a risk. We are concerned the Licori could turn this around and say that if the Laio are concerned about conduct in war, they could take the lead in further battles.
To that end, we had VCS Suurok and OUS Nelhiar's Honor support the Federation Diplomatic Service in hosting conferences with Liao defense and diplomatic officials in order to forestall further violence. Their efforts were largely successful.
But our main focus has been on the Licori. We have transported two new Ambassadors to Morshadd - Dawind Byis of Alukk, who arrived on the Dasrut, and Ambassador Merrazamma of Alrizzine IV, transported by the Nocodon. The crews of those vessels were tasked with assisting in establishing the new Ambassadors, particularly to the sections of Licori society they would be working with. Byis was given the task of outreach to the lower and middle classes of the Licori, in particular the merchant class with its ascending wealth. Byis and the Orion crew are very experienced with this sort of demographic, Byis being a major fundraiser for the Congressional Alliance and the Dasrut having frequently funded its missions through private capital and special missions.
The Nocodon and Merrazamma faced a slightly more difficult challenge, in gaining frequent audiences in the Imperial Court. But Merrazamma is a gifted socialite, and would be as comfortable in a dive bar full of angry Gorn as she would be at one of her many daughters birthdays. With the help of some flashy science 'edutainment' from the crew of the Nocodon, Merrazamma has firmly carved out a position in court and is currently the toast of the town. She is quite optimistic about turning that into more sustainable progress.
USS Pleezirra and BDS Wonderstruck lead a team to meet with Lady Asgort Bene, the current leader of that house. After the Battle of Ioji, there were rumors that the Emperor was planning to replace his current Marshal, Halkh, with a Bene in an attempt to bring them into the war. We wanted to confirm these rumors and work to keep Bene out of the war.
The House of Bene prides itself on social games, on poise and delicacy. It made discovering the truth difficult.
Ultimately, Captains Volkov and Aluren were able to piece the mind games and uncover some of the truth. As she told it, there had been some discussions between Halkh and the Emperor where it was Halkh who suggested a Bene marshal, but the Emperor would not consider putting aside his most experienced commander for politics. There had been some rumblings in the court to revisit a Bene marshal, particularly from houses Herbe and Rithe, but House Bene itself is quite happy to remain out of the conflict. Now that Lady Asgort knows we view them staying on the sidelines in a favorable light, she is more likely to avoid going to war in order to curry favor with us.
Elsewhere, the BDS Starlight and Talaxana hosted a meeting with House Rithe, to try and convince them to give peace a chance. They however initially took some offense to being sent two Betazoid ships, believing a mentat who claimed they could perform 'psionic witchery, and 'sap the vital fluids.' Luckily, an intervention by the Federation Diplomatic Service team about Talaxana was able to soothe the Rithe hosts, and they ultimately agreed that a longer ceasefire would benefit all parties, particularly OSA law enforcement investigating the corporations.
On that note, USS Opportunity paid a visit to Ikeigenoi under a diplomatic flag, to assist Commander Zitlal's ongoing investigation. Commodore Makpol apparently is quite popular on Ikeigenoi, and used this status to help his crew turn over leads into corporate malpractice. A few Ikeigenites were sufficiently awed by his presence that several chose to discuss their discomfort with some of the things they had been asked to do. One individual gave evidence that led the Opportunity to investigate a small station outside OSA space, where they discovered a torpedo stockpile, the torpedos inside manufactured just before the Odanner incident. We have turned over this evidence to the OSA government, and a few of our contacts have agreed to testify.
[+98 on At War, now 160/???], [+15 on Corps are Lying to Us, now 98/100]
B- Intelligence - The general reports make for interesting choices and are a great chance to ask IC questions and get more about the parts from Captain's Log that most interested people. Like the Haruka system with the Gorn or those Gretarians with the headphones.
My biggest problem is that the major power reports feel kind of foolish. We pretty much always want to know who is talking to who for what reasons and we would expect that it's pretty basic knowledge and we know that IC. It feels like every time we ask it's a case of someone going to poke the FDS and saying "Hey, get back to work and give us some basic info." rather then us getting something valuable.
For fixing it maybe scrap the major powers diplomatic posture and shipyard reports and instead just write a basic briefing about each one at the start of the intel vote. Something like "Romulans reaching out to Bolians for war support, blah blah. Cardassians building new embassies on multiple Gorn worlds, their relationship seems to be improving because of blah. Klingons announce completion of the Ha'kPhlegm Yard with 6 berths, at least 2 are 2 MT or larger." and then if we want more specific info we can ask for it.
It's a bit ridiculous that we get drip-fed information we have to vote for by parcel. Any power we have a dedicated desk for I feel we should automatically get updates each year, and maybe putting more resources into that desk, or proccing our listening rolls or passing certain events (or the focus of the Intel Admiral), some of that information would be higher quality, with a note or rating so we know how good it probably is, poor quality might note no update from last year, etc.
That would leave discretionary reports, where maybe we could order the same thing as the major report for a minor power, or to investigate something specific? That has the side effect of greatly simplifying the vote too, and adding more of a point to snakepit intel resources (we could order resources for a specific desk or for general investigative teams), as well as intel improvement techs and foreign analysis.
Since we're talking about issues with deployment I wanted to bring up something that annoys me about it; a lack of information concentration. If you look at past Deployment updates they don't even list all the sectors we need to deploy let alone all the ships we have to deploy. So straight up if someone wants to create a deployment even before the intricacy of crafting the plan they have to go searching for the information needed.
I don't think it's unreasonable to say a part of the game is failing to perform when the relevant updates don't even contain the basic information needed to form a vote. Even the Ex Astris, Scientia updates contain, or link to, all the information necessary to form a vote. The process is certainly complex enough to put people off but it is at least possible without crawling through the thread and associated spreadsheets.
Task Force Commander's Log - Task Force Boldly, Commodore Straak
USS Kepler and IGS Akad-Noa cooperated effectively this quarter. Both uncovered ancient Bajoran ruins, a long-extinct colony. Analysis revealed this colony was once a thriving population center, split along seven distinct interpretations of the Bajoran religion. Unfortunately, tensions between the seven factions proved irreconcilable, and led to a devastating war that caused total ecological collapse, the survivors either evacuated or eaten by the aggressive wildlife. The incident has been recorded in surviving Bajoran archives, and eventually led to reformations of their Vedek Council to better ensure doctrinal unity. The Bajorans are very glad to rediscover a bit of their history.
USS Excalibur discovered a deposit of zownium on 109 Apizza XIV, in the outer fringes of the 109 Apizza system. The deposit is geologically fascinating, having been formed by thermal conduction brought on by a meteor impact on the opposite side of the dwarf planet, which lead to unusual formations of… [shortened for length]
USS Dryad explored the 98 Onidesin system, finding several bodies that exhibit cryovulcanism, with interesting impacts on local geology and the prospects for life. Beginning with 98 Onidesin IV-18, we find ... [shortened for length].
USS Hawking shadowed the unknown Cardassian ship, which proved a difficult task, as its sensor suite appears to be superior to Hawking's own. In the 201 Apizza system, the unknown ship attempted to force a confrontation with Hawking for the offense of being caught scanning in the same system, but ultimately elected to back down after Captain Lakun temporarily disabled the Cardassian ship's tractor beam via a forced graviton pulse. The Cardassian ship left the system after consultation with Senior Gul Danel, who privately assured me that she does not seek a confrontation in the Adrazzi Gulf.
Zorirazza explored the 58 Azzadi system, encountering life on 58 Azzadi IV, where the apiata survey team encountered an unusual life-form - a giant carnivorous plant. Not especially dangerous, though one worker was briefly trapped by it, but quite fascinating to study.
-Mission [Explore the Adrazzi Gulf: 305/355]
-Straak - +15 BR/SR on the first resource gain of each quarter
-Attachments: All Pyllix Geological Institute Team. Cost: Free. Effect: Reroll first failed mapping roll each quarter. (All rolls for this TF are mapping rolls)
-Lt. Sadd-Har's Cadet Field Training Team: 3pp on purchase, 3 pp per year. Effect: Increased experience gain for missions involving S rolls.
-Tellar Prime Academy of Mineral Science Team: 10 rp on Purchase, 10 rp per year. Effect: +5BR or +5SR on the first resource gain each quarter
-Henn-Makad Mineral Engineering Institute Team: 10 rp on Purchase, 10 rp per year. Effect: +2 on the first mapping roll each quarter.
-Igata Nikelda: 10 rp on purchase, 10 rp per year. Effect: Increased chance of finding resource colony sites.
USS Excalibur C7 S6 H4 L6 P6 D6
IGS Akad-Noa C4 S6 H4 L6 P4 D4
USS Kepler C2 S7 H2 L4 P5 D5
USS Dryad C4 S3 H3 L4 P2 D2
USS Hawking C2 S6 H2 L3 P2 D1
Zorirazza C2 S6 H1 L2 P2 D3
Intelligence report: Kapit Scientist variant. C2+ S6+ H? L? P? D2+. >800kt. Unknown crew.
Gain 32 SR, 14 rp, 7 pp.
Mission complete - final result 335/305.
Task Force Commander's Log - Task Force Unity, Rear Admiral Michel Thuir
This quarter, Task Force Unity pushed hard to secure an extension of the cease-fire and make progress towards a final peace treaty. Our principal focus was diplomacy with the Licori, as they were the faction most inclined towards resuming the war. The Laio have been questioning their choice of ally after the discovery of Licori torture of the Elakus prisoners, the OSA are trying to work towards a reduction of corporate power and need time to do so, but factions within the Licori, particularly the leaders of House Rithe, have been urging Emperor Lugis to resume the war in order to achieve the complete victory they believe to be within their grasp.
At the beginning of the quarter, USS Opportunity ferried Ambassador Nikael Dalera to Morshadd for talks with the partial-Mentat Hawat, a key advisor to Emperor Lugis. Reportedly, Dalera found Hawat to be a fascinating challenge - mentats think so fast that it's hard for even the most well-trained betazoid to keep up, and they love their mind games and verbal traps. Still, he believes he made a good impression on Hawat, convincing him to recommend negotiating for peace.
Soon after, Suurok visited Laian, and found herself sucked into a political firestorm.
Captain's Log, USS Pleezirra - Captain Maria Volkov
We have arrived at Laian to help our Vulcan friends, who have gotten into something of a sticky situation. Licori political authorities have encouraged the Laio to detain a Kwuida citizen, who once lived in Licori space before emigrating to the Unity. The Licori have accused this man of being a spy, and worse, a war criminal who sent the flight data for the Antinoc, and are demanding he be arrested and charged. The Suurok's Captain expressed skepticism about the charges, the man's status as a spy, and very Vulcanly told them such accusations are a dangerous path.
The Licori representative has now accused our good Vulcan friend of aiding and abetting a war criminal and undermining the neutrality of the Federation. Given how charged the situation is, I have fully depolarized the hull of the Pleezirra so as not to cause any sparks.
[Operation's Officer's note: Captain Volkov is attempting humor here through metaphor. She did not seriously believe that the physical sparks produced via a polarized hull interacting with certain particle effects could cause greater political tensions, and that depolarizing the hull would actually have an impact on operational success. Instead she was employing some common human wordplay -- a 'charged situation' as in one that is emotionally volatile and often marked by a divisive issue, and a 'spark' of some minor incident that would ignite social tensions as if they were a flammable substance.]
[CoS Note: okay.]
Captain's Log, USS Pleezirra - Captain Maria Volkov
I have managed to calm the Licori delegation down, thanks in part to the Laio being accommodating. After the revelations about the Elakus Twelve, they are being a little more wary about charges of criminality from the Licori. We have assisted Liao investigators in their own, independent analysis of their Kwuida citizen and we have determined that he likely did not have contact with corporate elements during his time in Licori space, using some of our intelligence assets on Morshadd. The Kwuida has agreed to stay on Laian for now, and the Licori have decided to settle for this outcome rather than push the issue further.
The prospect of a Bene or Ixira warmaster replacing Halkh in order to secure their participation in the war, thought dead last quarter, seems to have re-emerged. I took active steps to counter this ploy. First, Gessir and Talaxana went to the Ixaria system to meet with major military figures loyal to Menach Ixira, including their former warmaster, Gessir Klin, who rumor now had it was about to be called out of retirement to replace Imperial Warmaster Halkh. Klin was by no means enthusiastic about the prospect of returning to frontline service, and it proved easy enough to dissuade him.
My three remaining Betazoid Centaurs went to Gesseria once again. Lady Asgort remains as prone to puzzles and tangled webs of conversation as ever, by Captain Aluren's account, but she nonetheless seemed disinclined to take a more active stance in the war. Aluren thinks this is in no small part due to not wanting to risk her House's newest ship, the Coyote-class cruiser AHS Insight.
OUS Dasrut and OUS Nelhiar's Honor went to Ikeigenoi proper for continued investigation into the misdeeds of the Outer Space Alliance's space exploration corporations. Union Navy hackers digitally infiltrated Gumco's corporate networks and gained access to their secret archives, finding further evidence of prewar piracy. Importantly, they also got in contact with Nporso, a jellom who had served as a torpedo control officer on the private yacht Cool Runner since before the Odanner incident and who has agreed to come forward.
I am dispatching Nocodon and OUS Burdina, who were fortunately ferrying a detachment of Aerocommandos to a training exercise, to ensure Nporso's safety as we make arrangements for him to publicly testify about the Odanner incident and other pirate attacks on a popular talk show.
-Mission: Observation & Communication (Task Force Unity's mission changes to observation and maintaining lines of communication for peace talks)
-Commander: Rear Admiral Michel Thuir- Reroll first event failure each quarter
--Subordinate: Commodore Huth fop Makpol (Opportunity)
-Attachments:
Free FDS Diplomatic Team attachment. Effect: Reroll first failed Diplomatic Roll each quarter;
Ambassador Sarek: 5 pp per year. Effect: Reroll the first failed diplomatic roll each quarter; add +1 to the reroll.
Ambassador Nikael Dalera: 8 pp on purchase, 5 pp per year. Effect: Double progress on the first passed Diplomatic event each quarter.
Rixx Scrutineers: 5pp on Purchase, 5pp per year. Effect: Re-Roll Presence Tests during criminal investigations.
Task Force Commander's Log - Task Force Royal, Commodore Leaniss Larai
There was relatively little activity this month, with only two events of note and relatively little Cardassian interference in our work. We were additionally blessed with excellent positioning, allowing most of our ships to mutually support each other.
USS Avandar, USS Revival, CAS Riala, and CAS Kundaia all worked on mapping the XRJ-22 anomaly, an interaction between a supernova and a energized gas pocket that has drifted together in the last 500 years, and is obscuring a major trade and communications route between the Gorn, the Dawiar, and by extension, us. The task mostly consisted of sensor sweeps and predictive modelling for best communications relay placement. The Cardassians arrived with the CDF Yrmak and a Dylaarian Voyager-class scout cruiser to lend 'assistance.' I am not sure if they wished to sabotage our efforts, or simply show us up, but we had enough vessels to do the job efficiently and keep an eye on them. The Gorn have shown appreciation for our efforts to help better connect them to the larger universe.
We also attended a trade summit on Ghidar. With my largest vessels working on the communications issue, I decided to send another quartet of ships to the summit to make sure we made a suitable impression. USS Haquita Nin, RDS Endurance, TSS Thruq, and TSS Achlanacht arrived with the delegation. To our surprise, the Cardassians declined to attend the event. Apparently Home One and a support vessel were busy with industrial assistance on Seudath to bother attending. We made a good impression with the Gorn, but I fear the Cardassians have not been idle.
Social unrest on Seudath is reported to be on the rise. The people, agonized in their slums, and choked by pollution, are beginning to make their displeasure known. On Gornar, there is rumors of extensive fighting between Reclaimer and Florist partisans. Right now it's street-scuffles and duels, perhaps some sword-swinging melees at worst, but there's the potential for things to escalate. Bygoth remains a relative mystery to us, but the Gorn rumor mill is very active, and we've heard there are rumblings of discontent from the Bygoth nobles, chafing under a Ghidarian governor, appointed at the behest of the Prince of Ghidar. Who has, all of a sudden, disappeared. Much like Admiral Grannar would have, had we not been there to 'observe'.
I am going to request at the next deployment meeting we consider adding more, and more capable, Intelligence assets to this mission. I feel like I'm fighting blind.
-Mission: Resolve [Militarist Foreign Policy: 120/300] and [Distant Stars: 35/100] tags on Gorn. If a [Cardassian Influence: 0/100] tag emerges, resolve that tag as well.
-Commander: Leaniss Larai - May add one additional member fleet frigate to this task force, separate from other ships called up [adds Amarkian Centaur-B]
-Attachments:
Free FDS Diplomatic Team attachment. Effect: Reroll first failed Diplomatic Roll each quarter
Langa Mbeki: 5 pp on purchase, 5 pp per year. Effect: +2 to the lowest diplomatic roll each quarter
Intelligence Report: Voyager-R class scout cruiser: C? S6 H? L? P? D4+, >1200kt, unknown crew
Results: +17 on Militarist Foreign Policy (now 137/300), +15 on Distant Stars (now 50/100)
Task Force: Forward
We have made clear that attacking the Trill is a dangerous prospect, and that attacking Starfleet is even more so. The latest Trill military exercises, using our little task force as an opposing force, shows a much more impressive grasp of tactics than when we first met them.
Aside from the exercise, our major task was to assist the Trill with driving off the berserkers that the Hishmeri are so fond of hunting. The robots made an attack on a Trill science outpost, and we responded in force. Our assistance proved mostly cursory, as the Trill have grasped most of the fundamentals of Berserker-hunting. It is now our hope that the Bersekers will move on, and take the Hishmeri with them. Though this may not be necessary -- for their part, the Hishmeri have not engaged in any further hostile actions, the peace with the Perfect apparently cemented. That being said, Trill vessels plying the trade lanes still go missing, and we have reports of small numbers of Trill slaves among the Hishmeri. This distresses the Trill government greatly, and they have taken to diverting assets to simply paying for their people back. Fortunately the Gorn of all people appear to have stepped in to help secure Trill trade lanes, as their trade lines to the Dawiar run along a similar course.
Meanwhile, the Ittick-Ka made a significant move towards the border deploying two task groups. One consisted of a cruiser and four frigates, the other an Outrider and a combat frigate. We think perhaps they were seeking to provoke the Trill. But the Trill are more wily than that and stood their ground, ignoring the flagrant provocations. Our vessels arriving and conducting some stern diplomacy convinced the Ittick-Ka to turn around, and based on signal intercepts they appear to have given up on waging war agains the Trill.
But we must remain vigilant! While it is good the Ittick-Ka have decided to no longer harass the Trill, no doubt they will seek new vassals corewards, and we may have to consider deterring their aggression. This is also a state of affairs that may eventually be tested again by the Ittick-Ka or Hishmeri. It is my suggestion that the Ruby Eyes Folly patrol zone be significantly reinforced, to continue to signal to all possible predators that Starfleet and her allies are keeping a careful watch on our friends. This would be firmly cemented by a formal alliance as well, which could be the focus of a new task force.
But until then I believe a nice hike in the Urals is just what the doctor ordered.
-Mission: [Discourage attacks on the Trill: 285/300]
-Pavel Chekov - Nullifies the first 2pts of crew casualties per year, reroll the first failed Away Team Combat each year
-Attachments:
FDS Diplomatic Team. Cost: 5pp on Purchase, 5pp per year. Effect: Reroll first failed Diplomatic Roll each quarter;
Yoyodyne Research Team: 10 rp per year. Enables reroll on first failed D-Test each quarter.
Pallas-Abat Institute Ship Design Team: 20 rp on purchase, 10 rp per year. Effect: Ships in this task force get +1 to shield and hull checks to resist damage.
Kedaia Naar Institute Doctrine Team: 20 rp on purchase, 10 rp per year. Effect: +1 to the first space combat roll each quarter.
+40 on [Discourage Attacks on the Trill], now 325/300.
[Mission Accomplished!]
Commodore's Log, Task Force Beyond, Rear Admiral Min-Jee Lee
I feel very satisfied in the performance of my Task Force's crews in the face of very difficult circumstances. The Harmony of Horizon continues to operate with a very heavy presence, which allows for opposition to most of our operations. Nonetheless, we were able to carry out a number of successful operations. During the last quarter we have either instigated or supported four different summits, with strong results. The Salnas and Oslo - the latter supported by Nelhiar's Pride - both ran separate successful diplomatic meetings with the OSA. Anyone even slightly engaged in the Federation's diplomatic outreach will tell you this has been a difficult time with the OSA, who are feeling no small hurt and bewilderment over the sudden flurry of war on their doorstep. Our progress over the last few months emphasised our role in bringing about the ceasefire, and our continued interest in promoting peace.
The Endurance carried out sterling work, reaching out to House Rithe to push systemic changes to increase the liberty and freedoms of the lower classes there. They were opposed by a visit from the HSDV Nalaar han Veralos, a Harmony cruiser. However, Commodore zh'Pohren with the Endurance and her crew were able to maintain control of the situation, and helped bring about a new series of local reforms. Unfortunately, the Caitian Hrvass was less successful when their trade mission to the Felis was opposed by the HSDV Anura vas Colarai, where they were gazumped by the Harmony delegation. Commodore O'Hara with the Cheron joined a Honiani Monastery-class frigate in a separate meeting hosting a Felis merchant envoy, where they a concluded a deal that will see a new flow of unique goods between the two powers.
The Iprimazzi conducted an anti-piracy sweep on the rimward side of Arcadian space, where they found a rogue Klingon civilian ship rigged with weapons that had been conducting attacks on in-system craft in outlying colony worlds. This ship was detained, and the crew arrested. It came narrowly before a Harmony cruiser arrived, looking for our wanted pirates. The USS Defiant worked with the Tauni, and provided a specialist away team to one of their Patroller-As to help carry out another outreach to one of the smaller OSA colony worlds.
Aside from their interactions with us, we did learn the the Harmony has made great inroads with the Arcadians and the Bolians over the last three months. One piece of welcome news, however, was the news from our Felis friends that one of the Harmony cruisers made a complete debacle of their attempt at a trade summit with the Felis. However, I am growing gravely concerned about their degree of influence over Arcadian Empire figures. Developing a close alliance with a defeated foe may have always been a difficult ask, but if something is not done we may need to decide if we'd prefer a Harmony or Romulan dominated Morshadd.
Commander: Min-Jee Lee - +1 P on flagships
-Subordinates: Tomiq zh'Pohren (Endurance), Michael O'Hara (Cheron)
Attachments:
Free FDS Diplomatic Team attachment (Reroll first failed Diplomacy roll)
Starfleet Tactical Brass: 0pp per year. Enables coordination events with other powers
Molchenek-Danashad: 3 pp per year. Effect: +1 to the first diplomatic roll involving a capitalist society each quarter
Sam Jones: 10 br on purchase, 10 br per year. Effect: Gain both sr & relations on trade summit missions for this task force.
Harbind-Attu Institute Research Team: 40 rp on purchase, 20 rp per year. Effect: Receive a bonus to a technology related to the Task Force's activities each year.
+37 to OSA [Harmony Influence] tag (now 282/300)
+15 to Licori [Harmony Influence] tag (now 127/300)
+22 to Felis [Harmony Influence] tag (now 119/300)
+5 to Licori [Unequal Feudal Society] tag (now 23/500)
+5 SR
Commodore's Log, Task Force Breen, Commodore Diego Zaardmani
Thanks to signals intelligence gathered by SS Rocinante at the end of last quarter, we were able to determine that the Breen warfleet was preparing for a major offensive. USS Yukikaze and USS T'Mir distracted Breen listening posts, while I took the rest of the task force to discreetly shadow the Breen warfleet. Between our ships and a report from Ferash th'Koalthyk, a retired Andorian Guard officer serving aboard a Yrillian mercenary ship attached to the Romulan fleet, we were able to determine the flow of events in the battle that ensued in the Khazara system towards the end of the first month of this quarter.
Currently, the Breen hold Khazara's orbitals, and have taken the opportunity to raze the shipyards. However, some disabled Romulan ships have been recovered, either on the surface of Khazara proper or deep within the system, although they cannot be repaired until the Breen leave the system. There have been no signs of any planetary invasion of Khazara proper, nor of any preparations being made to launch such an invasion.
Commander: Diego Zaardmani - +1S on Flagship, Re-roll first failed Science check each year
Mission: [SIGINT on Breen: 80/??]
Attachments: Hallad-Wel Institute Computing Team: 10 rp on purchase, 8 rp per year. Effect: Reroll the first failed Science test of this task force each quarter, but at -1 to the roll.
SS Winter: Reroll first failed SIGINT test
SS Rocinante: Reroll last failed SIGINT test
USS Stalwart C4 S6 H3 L4 P4 D4
IGS Hadd-Mal C4 S6 H4 L6 P4 D4
USS Inspire C1 S5 H1 L2 P1 D1
USS T'Mir C3 S7 H3 L4 P3 D1
USS Yukikaze C5 S5 H3 L5 P5 D5
That battle is the second planned Outside Agitators omake I need to get to. I had hoped to have it ready to go right after this, but then life happened. Look for it within a couple days if all goes well. That was a pretty interesting battle. Hopefully my retelling will adequately capture it.
Unless next quarter something badly bungles OSA's horizon influence will be removed. And depending on weather the At war tag is 300 or 500 if may be closed as well soon.
Social unrest on Seudath is reported to be on the rise. The people, agonized in their slums, and choked by pollution, are beginning to make their displeasure known. On Gornar, there is rumors of extensive fighting between Reclaimer and Florist partisans. Right now it's street-scuffles and duels, perhaps some sword-swinging melees at worst, but there's the potential for things to escalate. Bygoth remains a relative mystery to us, but the Gorn rumor mill is very active, and we've heard there are rumblings of discontent from the Bygoth nobles, chafing under a Ghidarian governor, appointed at the behest of the Prince of Ghidar. Who has, all of a sudden, disappeared. Much like Admiral Grannar would have, had we not been there to 'observe'.
I am going to request at the next deployment meeting we consider adding more, and more capable, Intelligence assets to this mission. I feel like I'm fighting blind.
Definitely a good idea to allocate additional SFI assets if we can spare them. Reinforcing the task force with more ships may also be necessary...if we can spare any, that is.
However, I am growing gravely concerned about their degree of influence over Arcadian Empire figures. Developing a close alliance with a defeated foe may have always been a difficult ask, but if something is not done we may need to decide if we'd prefer a Harmony or Romulan dominated Morshadd.
Well, a Romulan controlled Licori Empire doesn't seem to be in the cards with their current woes. However, if the Harmony were to take control we could be fairly certain they'd take measures to alleviate the grievous inequality of Licori society, possibly by supporting revolutionaries that guillotine all the noble houses, and we should consider that Lugis Tartresis is unlikely to ever be a "good neighbor" with us, with his warmongering tendencies, lack of moral character, and societal inclination towards militarism.
Currently, the Breen hold Khazara's orbitals, and have taken the opportunity to raze the shipyards. However, disabled Romulan ships have mostly been recovered, either on the surface of Khazara proper or deep within the system, although they cannot be repaired until the Breen leave the system. There have been no signs of any planetary invasion of Khazara proper, nor of any preparations being made to launch such an invasion.
The Hallad-Wel Institute Computing Team has assisted Starfleet Tactical BRD in analyzing the battle recordings the Romulans sent us, and have this to say about Breen ship capabilities:
Breen Frigate
participated in: scout, skirmish
C2 S5-7 H2 L3 P? D4
S - 10 to 16 on rolls, S4 to S8, S7 on mine clearing, S5 to S7 possible
D - 6 to 16 on rolls, D4
O1 E2 T3
mines got nerfed. by the old rules, they would have lost way more ships going through a minefield like that. Only one ship hit a mine, and it mostly shrugged off the 16 damage, which is equivalent to losing 1.6 shield points.
that said, I think that the Breen may not have had much of a strategic victory here. Their losses are 2 frigates, 1 cruiser disabled and had 3 other cruisers badly mauled, 1 capital ship destroyed and another heavily damaged. Given that we've heard that the breen are very low on screening elements 4 cruisers being yard bound for a long time may be a serious blow.
While last quarter was our worst result for Task Force Beyond this quarter was our second best both in terms of overall gain and gain per ship. It doesn't really make up for last quarter but it's a start.
And so Task Force Boldly comes not to a victorious climax but a limping victory across the finish line. This quarter ties for last place in terms of both overall gain and per ship. Not a great finish considering we're supposed to be superior to the Cardassians in sensors and mapping but we only came out a little ahead (4.69% victory).
Remember how I said last quarter was the worst performance we've seen for Task Force Forward? Well now this is the worst performance they've gotten. Seriously this was less then half their average gain. So much like Task Force Boldly; Forward has limped its way to a close.
Wow. I think I want last quarter's repeat results back. 2/Ship is Opposed Taskforce levels of terrible performance. Clearly all our luck this quarter went into Task Force Beyond.
The worst performance for Royal so far but well within expected lines for an Opposed Task Force. Hopefully this is just down to poor event count rolls rather then poor performance rolls.
It seems Thuir has really turned things around here since we cut his ship count. Currently he's pretty much dead center between the averages for Opposed and Unopposed Task Forces. Still another quarter like this and the war should be over if it's a 300pt tag.
