DragonParadox estimated it as about 1/4 of our actions for the last several turns going to bongo and cleaning up after bongo, so it seems like it's been a steady ongoing distraction. We also know we are getting a TON of discounts from the immaterium research tree, while scrapcode is a much more limited subject.
Please don't make me bring out the mathpost that logged and tallied all bongo expenditures and discounts as of the end of turn 19
yet again.
Bongo-applicable does not mean "would not have happened without bongo".
Chargen was very clear that we
had to research upgrades to our shielding for it not to fold like tissue paper to an actual directed threat, and everything that's happened so far backs that up. A disconnected scrapcode generator with zero support or external power was able to dish out 130 damage - when hooked up to klyssar station with no time to study, he was able to deal 5s and 10s to over and over again every few minutes, and we only didn't fold back then because we had the ability to dip out of his range and he couldn't chase us to keep the pressure on.
A chaos-aligned ship will neither be without support and significant power, nor unable to keep up the pressure. Against more than one or two? We'd have been completely and utterly trashed before we could escape.
So - would all of that psy shield research have happened without bongo?
Yes. 100% yes. Before we even so much as heard bongo existed I was lobbying constantly for it, and would have fought tooth and nail against any plan that left without improved psy shields at least, and I wasn't alone. It was already on our docket, bongo just gave us a way to do it faster.
Without the scrapcode generator it would have taken more than 2 actions longer and we would have gained none of the bonus techs the scrapcode generator gave - more effort for less payout. The navigator fetus would still be as far away from coming to term as he is now, if not moreso.
Because chaos is in the neighborhood, and chaos is our weakness.
Chaos. Is. Vita's. Weakness.
Everyone else, who primarily attacks using material means, that's Vita's wheelhouse already. She can spin up to deal with that fast, and has already managed to do so enough to at least be able to run away - remember those 6 actions we spent back to back on that? On our grand cruiser?
Nothing is being neglected. But covering for a weakness is harder than playing to a strength.
Will chaos try to adapt and find weaknesses in our new countermeasures? Of course! But they will be limited by the briefness of their exposure to it and lack of samples to study, and if I have anything to say about it they'll also be limited by Bongo being true killed instead of allowed to pass on what he's learned from staring at psy shield tech for over 20 years and counting straight.
While having to reiterate all of this, rather than advancing to some new point made in response to it is annoying, there's something else that bugs me more.
Take this:
If you want to believe that the demon is now narratively powerless, that's on you.
I believe it's only a matter of time until a nasty shock. And given how the last shock was laughed off by the thread, I do expect it will take something like the death of corruption of a crew member to give it sufficient narrative impact that people will respond emotionally.
I'm going to set aside that few have said the demon is now narratively powerless, and most are still stating a preference for mid-term disposal plans - the race has almost certainly not ended, we've just probably gotten a massive lead that can let us focus on other things for a bit.
I'm starting here because to me, what happened
wasn't a shock. The most shocking part about it was that we hadn't thought about our orbital assets, and the d'oh moment of never asking Neablis if the scrapcode demon would get to roll again before the research happened.
It was, on the face of it
even before the rolls happened a completely intentional "yolo" move, seizing on a false opportunity. It was a deviation from the slow, safe, and certain plan of "be a woman of stone and just upgrade shielding for a bit before going in to wildly outpace the scrapcode generator's adaptation".
Emergent story telling at its best. We had a moment of arrogance, and paid for it.
But we survived and the lesson was clear - stop doing things by half measures and take safety seriously. I've said "do the research to outpace bongo or toss it into the sun" more times than I can count. Now, the first time we really,
actually stayed committed to it, things appears to be turning out just fine.
Or, so it seemed to me, but at first you appeared to disagree.
I'm not going to count chickens until the update drops.
[A quote not included]
Last time, when we rolled a 16 [sic], he got his hands on two destroyers, corruption bombs inserted into our entire manufacturing chain, and a hundred some stealth missiles. We rolled a 4 this time. I would not bet on no consequences, not when this is narrative driven and we just mucked up bad on our 3rd interaction.
And I just have to ask - what is the scrapcode generator's narrative power, to you?
How much does it trump? Mechanics that say shields have HP that must be depleted and that bongo is safer at rest than during experimentation? The narrative of us building a prison never before seen with everything we could possibly muster?
The direct statements of the quest master?
Where does it end? At what point does bongo stop operating on fairy tale parable logic and start being a problem that can be addressed by means other than acting out the role of that fairy tale's good child?
Because from where I'm standing, I've exhaustively addressed both the opportunity cost and the risk from every angle imaginable
before I made this post. But still, the idea that this is an unhedgeable, untenable risk that no amount of build order and research success can make worth it comes back up.
Still, the idea is repeated that if not for bongo, we'd have researched all these other things that you're more excited for instead of what we need to survive against the faction that killed every last one of our kin.
I'm tired of going in circles. What is your actual bottom line, Glau?
