To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

[OneirosTheWriter]

End of Year Report Card - 2308

Starting Resources
810 Bulk Resources
365 Special Resources
139 Political Will
144 Research Points

Starting Personnel Pool
Standard Starfleet: 27.9 Officer, 36.4 Enlisted, 20.95 Techs
Explorer Corps: 7.75 Officer, 8.90 Enlisted, 10.25 Techs

Spent During the Year
Expenditure
(for 1 Excelsiors, 1 Centaur-A, USS Yukikaze refit)
325 Bulk Industrial Resources
235 Special Industrial Resources
197 Political Will
144 Research Points

Casualties
Standard: - 1 Officer, 1 Technician
Explorer: -

Career Casualties
Standard: 9 Officer, 17 Enlisted, 11 Technician
Explorer: 3 Officer, 3 Enlisted, 2 Technician

1 Constellation, 1 Centaur, 2 Miranda

Gained During the Year

Political Rewards

Outpost Expansion in Amarkia Complete
Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards Complete
Beta Corridan Mining Colony Complete
7 programs started

USS Enterprise
----

+30br
+5pp
+10rp

Discover +20br/year colony option at Fenris IV
Oversaw Betazoid Ratification
Met the Qloath
Did not cause temporal mayhem


USS Courageous
----

+10rp
+5pp


Oversaw Betazoid Ratification
+25 Relations with Apiata, cleared road-blocks to integration
+25 Relations with the Indorians

USS Sarek
----


+20pp
+10rp

+25 Relations with Apiata
+25 Relations with Seyek
+10 Relations with the Qloath
-10 Relations with the Lecarre
Met new race, the Lecarre

USS Miracht
----

+30br
+20pp
+20rp


Apiata Colony Saved
+25 Relations with the Gaeni
Crew Rating improved to Blooded

Other Ships
----

USS T'Mir - Located colonies

USS Kearsage - +25 Relations with Caldonians
USS Dryad - +25 Relations with Caitians, -50 with Dawiar
USS Endurance - Gain +5 pp, +10 Relations with Rigel
USS Docana - +10sr
USS Cheron - +15pp

Ship Movements

As per player choices

Ships Lost
USS Polaris - Constellation-class, Lost in combat with Dawiar

Ships Damaged
None

Ships Scrapped
None

Ships Laid Down
1 Excelsior
1 Centaur-A

Ship Commissioned
None

Final Stockpile with Annual Income
810 - 550 + 315 + 490 = 1035 Bulk Resources
365 - 430 + 240 + 330 = 470 Special Resources
139 - 197 + 110 + 61 = 113 Political Will
144 - 144 + 90 + 98 = 188 Research Points

New Personnel Pool
Standard Starfleet: 32.65 Officer, 41.05 Enlisted, 24.95 Techs
Explorer Corps: 3.5 Officer, 5.60 Enlisted, 7.25 Techs

 

[Sightsear]

Ah but Lone Ranger Doctrine, or at least Way of the Elephant, provides significant bonuses to our ships when outnumbered. So that, with enough investment, notably reduces the need for our ships to out perform the competition by such a wide margin.

Click to shrink...

I was hoping someone would bring that up! Let's compare:

9 / 25 Attack Pattern Echo I (+5% Fleet Combat when outnumbered)
14 / 25 Rapid Shield Roll I (+1 Shield when Outnumbered 2:1 or more)

Click to shrink...

From this, we learn that our first level of Giant gives us a percentage buffnwhen out numbered, and a point of sheild when outnumbered 2-to-1. While those stats will likely improve, let's now lookmat an example I collected earlier:

C7 S7 H5 L7 P6 D8 97.97% Reliability
C8 S7 H5 L7 P7 D8 94.72% Reliability

Click to shrink...

In exchange for ~3% reliability, we get a permanent buff of +1 C (which stacks with Giant) and +1 P. Still not convinced? mAlright, let's go full Doc Brown, and drop reliability by ~23%!

C8 S8 H5 L9 P8 D9 84.49% Reliability

Click to shrink...

+1C(Giant be praised), +1S(to better solve it's own problems), +2L(try an kill me now, asshole!), +2P(would you mess with it?), +1D(they have a booze to fuel converter), and (not shown) 30 SR cheaper.

That's right, on top of having an extra 7 points, they only charge you half as much for the SR! everything else, bar Reliability (and maybe research time), remains the same.

 

[aledeth]

Those RP gains... spend 144 this year and still end up with more than we started. WE REQUIRE ADDITIONAL TECH TEAMS.

 

[Void Stalker]

Oh and we have the newest explorer corps ship commission next quarter... and wow we have a ton of resources. And PP income is up. We won't have as much PP as last snakepit but we should still be able to start another affiliate on membership path.

 

[Theunderbolt]

USS Enterprise
----

+30br
+5pp
+10rp

Discover +20br/year colony option at Fenris IV
Oversaw Betazoid Ratification
Met the Qloath
Did not cause temporal mayhem

Click to shrink...

Nash is falsifying reports I see.

 

[Nix]

Final Stockpile with Annual Income
810 - 550 + 315 + 415 = 1010 Bulk Resources
365 - 430 + 240 + 285 = 455 Special Resources
139 - 197 + 110 + 61 = 113 Political Will
144 - 144 + 90 + 98 = 188 Research Points

Click to shrink...

This seems to be using outdated resource income.


Basic resources:
Sol +75 Betazed +25 Vulcan +25 Andoria +25 Tellar Prime +25 Amarkia +50 Ferasa +15 Rigel +20 Apinae +20 Indoria +10 Caldonia +10 Josephine III +(20+5) Pygmalion 337 IV-3 +(20+5) Beta Corridan +(10+5) Budget Increase +100 trade deal Caldonians 2305.Q2 +10 trade deal Indorians 2306.Q2 +15
490br

Special resources:
Sol +25 Betazed +15 Vulcan +50 Andoria +12.5 Tellar Prime +12.5 Amarkia +25 Ferasa +15 Rigel +10 Apinae +15 Indoria +5 Caldonia +5 Hophos III-2 +(20+5) Biroth +(15+5) Beta Corridan +(10+5) Budget Increase +60 trade deal Indorians 2306.Q2 +15 trade deal Apiata 2307.Q2 +5
330sr

Political Will:
Sol +10 Betazed +5 Vulcan +5 Andoria +5 Tellar Prime +5 Amarkia +10 Ferasa +5 Rigel +5 Apinae +5 Indoria +2 Caldonia +2 Valentina Sousa +5 Nash ka'Sharren -5 T'Lorel +2
61pp

Research:
Sol +5 Betazed +5 Vulcan +10 Andoria +5 Tellar Prime +5 Amarkia +5 Ferasa +5 Rigel +5 Apinae +5 Indoria +2 Caldonia +(5+5) Biroth +(5+2) Aelin +(5+2) Athos V +(5+2) Fashieran IV +5 research agreement Betazed 2301.Q4 +5 Research Net I +5
98rp

Standard Officers:
Sol +1(*) Betazed +(0.5+0.1) Vulcan +0.5(*) Andoria +1(*) Tellar Prime +0.5(*) Amarkia +(1+0.25+0.2) Ferasa +(0.1 + 0.2) Rigel +(0.1 + 0.1) Apinae +(0.1 +0) Indoria +(0.1 +0.1) Caldonia +(0.1 +0.1) other affiliates +3*0.1 Academy expansions +1.5
7.85

Standard Enlisted:
Sol +1(*) Betazed +(0.5+0.1) Vulcan +1(*) Andoria +1(*) Tellar Prime +1(*) Amarkia +(1+0.25+0.2) Ferasa +(0.1 + 0.2) Rigel +(0.1 +0.3) Apinae +(0.1 +0.8) Indoria +(0.1 +0.2) Caldonia +(0.1 +0.1) other affiliates +3*0.1 Academy expansions +1.5 recruitment priorities -1
8.95

Standard Technicians:
Sol +1(*) Betazed +(1+0.2) Vulcan Andoria +0.5(*) Tellar Prime +0.5(*) Amarkia +(1+0.25+0.2) Ferasa +(0.1 + 0.05) Rigel +(0.1 +0.15) Apinae +(0.1 +0.2) Indoria +(0.1 +0.1) Caldonia +(0.1 +0.2) other affiliates +3*0.1 Academy expansions +1.5 Science Academy +1 recruitment priorities +1 Certunn Guk +0.5
11.15

Explorer Corps Officers:
Sol +0.25(*) Betazed +0.25 Vulcan +0.25(*) Andoria +0.25(*) Tellar Prime +0.25(*) Amarkia +(0.25+0.25)
1.75

Explorer Corps Enlisted:
Sol +0.25(*) Betazed +0.25 Vulcan +0.25(*) Andoria +(0.25(*) + 0.2) Tellar Prime +0.25(*) Amarkia +0.25
1.7

Explorer Corps Technicians:
Sol +0.25(*) Betazed +0.25 Vulcan +(0.25(*) + 0.2) Andoria +0.25(*) Tellar Prime +0.25(*) Amarkia +0. Certunn Guk +0.25
1.95

(*) Split of crew supply from the original members is just a guess, there never was any breakdown for the original 3/4/3 (standard) and 1/1/1 (Explorer Corps).

 

[Derek58]

Nash is falsifying reports I see.

Click to shrink...

Well, irreversible mayhem

 

[HearthBorn]

Did I miss the official numbers for our three new advanced affiliates? I didn't notice them on the front page, or the recent posts.

 

[OneirosTheWriter]

Basic resources:
Sol +75 Betazed +25 Vulcan +25 Andoria +25 Tellar Prime +25 Amarkia +50 Ferasa +15 Rigel +20 Apinae +20 Indoria +10 Caldonia +10 Josephine III +(20+5) Pygmalion 337 IV-3 +(20+5) Beta Corridan +(10+5) Budget Increase +100 trade deal Caldonians 2305.Q2 +10 trade deal Indorians 2306.Q2 +15
490br

Special resources:
Sol +25 Betazed +15 Vulcan +50 Andoria +12.5 Tellar Prime +12.5 Amarkia +25 Ferasa +15 Rigel +10 Apinae +15 Indoria +5 Caldonia +5 Hophos III-2 +(20+5) Biroth +(15+5) Beta Corridan +(10+5) Budget Increase +60 trade deal Indorians 2306.Q2 +15 trade deal Apiata 2307.Q2 +5
340sr

Click to shrink...

You've come up with an extra 25br and sr that I can't account for, and your tally of SR comes to 330, not 340...

Edit: I haven't applied the Mineral Tech boosts yet, hang on.

 

[Briefvoice]

Final Stockpile with Annual Income
810 - 550 + 315 + 415 = 1010 Bulk Resources
365 - 430 + 240 + 285 = 455 Special Resources
139 - 197 + 110 + 61 = 113 Political Will
144 - 144 + 90 + 98 = 188 Research Points

New Personnel Pool
Standard Starfleet: 32.65 Officer, 41.05 Enlisted, 24.95 Techs
Explorer Corps: 3.5 Officer, 5.60 Enlisted, 7.25 Techs

Click to shrink...

What is our actual new yearly income as calculated by you with all these new affiliates and stuff? I need to plug it into my spreadsheet for re-baseline for out years, and trying to back-calculate it form these totals is making my head hurt.

Just a quick
Xbr/Xsr/XO/XE/ET/XOex/XEex/XTex would be fine.

 

[Briefvoice]

You've come up with an extra 25br and sr that I can't account for, and your tally of SR comes to 330, not 340...

Click to shrink...

The extra br and sr might be from the researched mining colony techs giving an extra +5 to the br/sr income from mining colonies.

 

[Nix]

You've come up with an extra 25br and sr that I can't account for, and your tally of SR comes to 330, not 340...

Click to shrink...

The 340 was a mistake when adding the new affiliate values just now, the other thing maybe mining tech?

 

[OneirosTheWriter]

Okay, updated EOY and front page tallies

 

[Simon_Jester]

The downside is that's fairly random so we don't get to choose our affiliates. The upside is it doesn't doesn't require political will. But it's not accurate to say that "on the long term we get nothing", because arguably we have our hands full with just the Affiliates generated by Events.

Click to shrink...

I think that would stay true if the diplomatic realities stayed those of 2305. But by 2310-ish, we're dealing with the Cardassians eroding our diplomatic standing with the neutrals on that border. The supply of "free" affiliates is likely to dry up in the near future, at least on that flank... and the Cardassians have actively recruited three affiliates of their own, on or very close to our space, all of which are making trouble in their own special ways.

If we wait for a series of fortuitous random events to bring the remaining neutrals into our camp, then we may find that the Cardassians don't have just three proxies to harass us with, but five or six.

Ominous...

The coming war between the Klingons and The Romulans will be odd to consider. We certainly wont be getting pulled in right away. While the Romulans are not opposed to Alpha strikes, they are smart enough to know that an "Unprovoked" attack leading to a full scale war (Instead of traditional raids) will activate the Khitomer Accords and brings us in. That leaves the Klingons attacking and us not following them because I doubt the Federation would ever sign a treaty requiring them to fight an offensive war.

We might consider spending time an resources now to try to delay it, until tensions cool down, especially if we end up equally friendly with both sides.

Click to shrink...

I think there's some definite merit to this. We're on the cusp of making meaningful friendship with both our TOS-era rivals, something better than the canon Federation ever really achieved. Being forced to choose between them would be rather tragic.

considering the cardassians are also making pushes(in their own way). diplomatic pushes might not be best used pushing associates to affiliated status, but rather improving relations with associates to above 100, where a single bad event won't draw them into cardassian hands. use the pushes to get everyone up to above 100, then left over pushes to push the highest up to affiliated status.

Click to shrink...

We're already doing a lot of that, which is how the Apiata, Indorions, and so on wound up as high on the scale as they are. The trick is that the Cardassians seem to have a hard time turning one of our affiliates against us, whereas it is easy to turn a neutral against us. That's what they've done to the Dawiar and the Lecarre, both of whom are harassing us.

In exchange for ~3% reliability, we get a permanent buff of +1 C (which stacks with Giant) and +1 P. Still not convinced? mAlright, let's go full Doc Brown, and drop reliability by ~23%!

+1C(Giant be praised), +1S(to better solve it's own problems), +2L(try an kill me now, asshole!), +2P(would you mess with it?), +1D(they have a booze to fuel converter), and (not shown) 30 SR cheaper.

That's right, on top of having an extra 7 points, they only charge you half as much for the SR! everything else, bar Reliability (and maybe research time), remains the same.

Click to shrink...

In exchange, we will set a new galaxy-wide record: first ship to explode from an accidental warp core breach while in drydock.

No, seriously, this 'buffed' ship will generally beat the reliable ship one on one, but it won't win a two-on-one battle against the reliable ships. And much of the time it WOULD be fighting two on one, even if it started out two on two when the ships were built, because one of your unstable flying bombs suffered a critical existence failure due to unreliable spatiotemporal whozit... and neither of mine has.

I can get behind the idea of shaving reliability a little for a little increase in performance, especially with ships we can afford to expend and replace. But our ships are supposed to last decades. Anything that has a major engineering failure more than once every ten years or so is almost certain to get destroyed by its own mechanical defects eventually, even if the enemy never comes within a light year of it.

 

[Nix]

@OneirosTheWriter how does the demarcation of the new Apiniae Sector vs the Cardassian Border Zone look like? It's hard to see how Apinae and Indoria could be in the same sector without at least also including Aelin and surroundings, which would mostly cut off the CBZ from being on the border? I'm still not sure where to put the Lecarre either, somewhere below the Seyek?

 

[Artemis1992]

The Romulan/KKlingon trouble is good news for us, right?
If they are busy fighting each other they wont want to bring us in on the side of their enemy, so we can concentrate on the Cardassians.
That makes me a bit more confident about a war in hopefully more than one decade against them.

 

[Briefvoice]

I think that would stay true if the diplomatic realities stayed those of 2305. But by 2310-ish, we're dealing with the Cardassians eroding our diplomatic standing with the neutrals on that border. The supply of "free" affiliates is likely to dry up in the near future, at least on that flank... and the Cardassians have actively recruited three affiliates of their own, on or very close to our space, all of which are making trouble in their own special ways.

If we wait for a series of fortuitous random events to bring the remaining neutrals into our camp, then we may find that the Cardassians don't have just three proxies to harass us with, but five or six.

Click to shrink...

Though it's not totally random either. A certain amount of these Events are "planned missions" which are assigned according to the narrative rather than just rolled. So for instance, this Intelligence turn we got the word that the Cardassians might be trying to draw in the Yrillians. That means that we may get directed Events with Explorers sent to try and interfere with that, even if we as players don't have the ability to actually make such assignments.

What I'm trying to say is, we shouldn't view it as "if we don't vote a diplomatic push on this species, nothing will be done about it other than as a result of a random roll". Because diplomatic pushes are the only thing we as players vote on, it feels like if we don't do it nothing is going to happen from the Federation. But that's not necessarily true.

 

[Yeangst]

Don't think of it as going full doc brown. It's also making the Star Trek equivalent of the Millenium Falcon.

 

[HearthBorn]

@OneirosTheWriter how does the demarcation of the new Apiniae Sector vs the Cardassian Border Zone look like? It's hard to see how Apinae and Indoria could be in the same sector without at least also including Aelin and surroundings, which would mostly cut off the CBZ from being on the border? I'm still not sure where to put the Lecarre either, somewhere below the Seyek?

Click to shrink...

Also, just to check, the Caldonians. Are they in a new sector, still in the KBZ, or some sort of no man's land?

 

[random_npc]

personally, I would be willing to accept a 95%-90% reliability build so long as the hull and warp core are reliable. It's in theme for the federation and it sounds like we would be able to get a lot of extra performance out of it.

 

[Nix]

Also, just to check, the Caldonians. Are they in a new sector, still in the KBZ, or some sort of no man's land?

Click to shrink...

They are explicitly listed as in the KBZ.

 

[OneirosTheWriter]

@OneirosTheWriter how does the demarcation of the new Apiniae Sector vs the Cardassian Border Zone look like? It's hard to see how Apinae and Indoria could be in the same sector without at least also including Aelin and surroundings, which would mostly cut off the CBZ from being on the border? I'm still not sure where to put the Lecarre either, somewhere below the Seyek?

Click to shrink...

The CBZ now pushes out beyond Apinae. As other Federation members join in the Indorians will probably be shifted to a more convenient sector.

 

[Sightsear]

In exchange, we will set a new galaxy-wide record: first ship to explode from an accidental warp core breach while in drydock.

Click to shrink...

Nah, pretty sure that the Gaeni have beat us to that, if it's possible at all.

No, seriously, this 'buffed' ship will generally beat the reliable ship one on one, but it won't win a two-on-one battle against the reliable ships

Click to shrink...

Isn't the whole point of the Lone Ranger doctrine that it WOULD pull out the win, even when stacked against near peer opponenets? And if not, doesn't it become MORE important to overstat our ships, so that there are no near peer ships?

And much of the time it WOULD be fighting two on one, even if it started out two on two when the ships were built, because one of your unstable flying bombs suffered a critical existence failure due to unreliable spatiotemporal whozit... and neither of mine has.

Click to shrink...

When our doctrine is planning for us to be outnumbered, I fail to see the disadvantage of being outnumbered. *stubborn*

personally, I would be willing to accept a 95%-90% reliability build so long as the hull and warp core are reliable. It's in theme for the federation and it sounds like we would be able to get a lot of extra performance out of it.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, the ~85% is meant more to demonstrate that it makes a meaningful difference, rather than as a target number. I just don't like how the Design team refuses to accept anything below 98% reliability, even though less than a full persent of drop would net another point, or save 5 SR per hull. True story!

 

[lbmaian]

Okay, was about to post this before the latest updates, and now is as good a time as any.

She's on the ship, she came through with us, I've finally done it, I've blown up history, my mothers always said this would happen!

Click to shrink...

[Gain +10 rp, +5pp, do not irrevocably ruin Andorian history]

Click to shrink...

Semi-serious question: If Nash failed this event roll, would it have been game over?

Apparently, there is no such thing as a routine mission in the Explorer Corps. Good to know.

Click to shrink...

This guy... It's like he's on this fine line between realism and depression that fuels his sanity in the face of insanity.

If there's any argument why we need Betazoid ship councilors, this is exhibit A. Well, maybe exhibit B after Nash.

However, from this point onwards, I'm stopping overflow, because an unintended side-effect of the new branching research tree is that handling overflow just went from easy to nightmarish. I'm considering having an internal overflow, whereby the extra points can be assigned within the same tech node like an inspiration bonus, which I think will help reduce the number of orphaned techs. But if there's nothing left within a tech card to assign to, those points are lost.

Click to shrink...

I need some clarification, since I haven't been following the exact mechanics of overflow closely.

First, do any of the already fully researched techs in a tech node get "overflow" that's redirected to other tech(s)?

Second, do all the accumulated overflow go into a single randomly chosen tech? If that tech then overflows, does it go to another tech? Or is it allocated 5 at a time (like the inspiration bonus) randomly to potentially multiple techs?

Suppose we have a tech node that currently has:

8/20 dance
20/20 party
20/20 camping
18/20 frumple
12/20 sauce

And we assign a research team with 4 total skill (no preference bonus for simplicity) to this. Does applying that result in:

12/20 dance
20/20 party (4 overflow)
20/20 camping (4 overflow)
20/20 frumple (2 overflow)
16/20 sauce

or

12/20 dance
20/20 party
20/20 camping
20/20 frumple (2 overflow)
16/20 sauce

For sake of example, let's assume the former. Now, is overflow allocated like the following:

20/20 dance (2 overflow) <- randomly chosen
20/20 party
20/20 camping
20/20 frumple
16/20 sauce
->
20/20 dance
20/20 party
20/20 camping
20/20 frumple
18/20 sauce <- "randomly" chosen

or this:

17/20 dance <- randomly chosen 1st, allocated 5 overflow
20/20 party
20/20 camping
20/20 frumple
20/20 sauce (1 overflow) <- randomly chosen 2nd, allocated 5 overflow
->
18/20 dance <- "randomly" chosen
20/20 party
20/20 camping
20/20 frumple
20/20 sauce

In fact, wouldn't we want to be shifting research teams around every once in a while anyway? Just to make sure we had better basic tech coverage. This more incentivizes us to do the shift about a turn sooner than we normally would, and lore-wise could represent a team essentially finishing the project their working on, and leaving the small amount of fine tuning to another team, while they sink their teeth into something more engaging.

Click to shrink...

And this reminds me of another partial solution. @OneirosTheWriter, do you still plan to introduce generic research teams?

Because of their lack of preferences, they would be great for finishing up a tech node, while potentially simplifying research team assignment in this case to:
1) find generic research team that's researching something not as critical
2) switch it to the nearly finished tech node
3) switch the original research team to another tech node it has preferences for

 

[Briefvoice]

Yeah, the ~85% is meant more to demonstrate that it makes a meaningful difference, rather than as a target number. I just don't like how the Design team refuses to accept anything below 98% reliability, even though less than a full persent of drop would net another point, or save 5 SR per hull. True story!

Click to shrink...

If we ever actually do a custom ship, it'll probably happen by people posting their own stat blocks and reliability percentages to the thread and then everyone gets to vote for whichever one they like. Feel free to post your lower-reliability/high-stat design at that point and get people to vote for it. You might win! But it seems kind of pointless to complain this thread* that other people playing around with the design spreadsheet refuse to put a lower reliability in their designs. The "Design Team" is entirely self-appointed and their designs don't have any greater priority than the ones you make.

*Complaining in the ship design thread might sway the minds of other people working with the spreadsheet and at least be an interesting debate.