Not really. It's 15,000 years old, was sitting in a space hulk for half that time, then crash-landed ass-first onto this planet and got buried underneath a river. The engine section is entirely pulverized, the spine is broken, and the armor and outer hull is corroded to hell. The inside is more or less fine, but it's really not a ship anymore. It's also the size of a small-ish frigate, and after ten thousand years of daydreaming you want something bigger.
Vox Vitae: Warhammer AI quest
- Thread starter Neablis
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Speaking of the age during which Vita was still aware of the galactic ongoings: how much of our potential research can we base on technology that she was aware that existed during when she was active, but to which to she has no blueprints and just guesses on how it worked? How much of the Dark/Golden Age and its technological marvels did she witness before her accident? Anywhere near the peak, or much earlier than that?
- Pronouns
- Viewer
[X] Plan: First the Foundations, Then the Stars
Mostly earlier than that. She was built during the upwards climb towards crazy technology, and was mostly operating in the hinterlands as the DaoT kicked into full gear. She saw a lot of the crazy technology and has guesses for how a lot of it worked, but didn't have blueprints for it. She probably saw bulletins about crazy technology, but wasn't directly exposed to that much of it or saw blueprints. She traded for a lot of the fancier stuff she needed (like a good avatar robot) because it was easier and cheaper than building it herself. Then she got taken out of the picture right before the Age of Strife kicked off and some of the really terrible stuff got built.
Translation: You can get to a lot of the 'common' relics of the DaoT fairly easily, mostly because you chose the best research option. Knights/Titans, battleships, nova cannons. But the ultra-fancy shenanigans were mostly beyond her purview. That's part of what samples are for.
Additional note for next turn. In keeping with my rule of being able to use things on the same turn you build them in, if you finish a manufactory you get to use it for subsequent actions within the same turn. Example: Next turn you spend 1 action on construction, which gives you 100 BP and you use that to finish the manufactory. Then, if you spend a 2nd action on construction in that turn you get the BP from that manufactory, 150 instead of 100.
To simplify this sort of thing over the long term I might ask you to implement some kind of "Turn order" process, where when it matters you put the actions in the order you want them to occur.
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Both of the winning plans research 2 things. So making 2 research rolls. First is for local culture, second is for robotics. Both of these get a +20 due to the Reality-Simulation trait.
Edit: Results are 49 and 46. Not great, not terrible.
Edit2: These rolls are to see if you gain bonus progress towards a follow-up research, and to see the quality of the result. Rolls below 10 (which are impossible with your trait) will mean you don't complete the research, between 11-35 will increase the cost of follow-up research, between 36-65 will return expected results, 66-90 will decrease the cost of follow-up research, and 91+ will give you a bonus outcome depending on exact number rolled. There's further gradations within that, but those are the rough numbers.
Edit: Results are 49 and 46. Not great, not terrible.
Edit2: These rolls are to see if you gain bonus progress towards a follow-up research, and to see the quality of the result. Rolls below 10 (which are impossible with your trait) will mean you don't complete the research, between 11-35 will increase the cost of follow-up research, between 36-65 will return expected results, 66-90 will decrease the cost of follow-up research, and 91+ will give you a bonus outcome depending on exact number rolled. There's further gradations within that, but those are the rough numbers.
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- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So including the bonus, 1-15 increases the cost of follow-up research, 16-45 gives expected results, 46-70 decreases the cost of follow-up research, and 71+ gives a bonus.
That's 15% cost increase, 30% expected results, 25% cost decrease, and 30% bonus.
Turn 1 Vote closed
New
Turn 2
New
Ok. When uncertain you hope for the best and prepare for the worst. It's not a bad motto. Considering the situation, there's a few things you can do over the next several years to prepare for a range of possible scenarios.
You direct your bots to start digging out the space for a manufactory from the bedrock, and to tunnel out from underneath the river into the nearby forest so you can set up a disguised directional antenna. Some more manufacturing capability won't be amiss, it'll be nice to be able to broadcast signals and not have them immediately tracked back to your current position.
Once the plans were laid and the bots were working, you turned your attention towards learning more about the locals. They seemed like people who would at least listen, but being able to reach a productive agreement was another thing entirely. You were pretty good at predicting how humans would behave, but for that to work properly you needed more information on their culture, their biases, all that stuff.
News broadcasts and open radio transmissions were better than nothing, but to really learn more you needed to crack your way into the local datanet. That shouldn't be too hard since you were pretty sure that some of the comms satellites were access points, but it was a bit tricky. It was the sort of service you paid for, and you didn't exactly have an account with any of the local banks.
Man, I hope that the Celestia Bank still exists. With compound interest I'd have so much cash. Though who knows what's happened to inflation.
You also needed to be careful about your signals until your new antenna was finished. It would be annoying to go to all of this effort to keep yourself hidden and then reveal yourself with an errant connection ping. You get just enough information to start cracking the security system behind the verification page and then pull back to wait for all of the construction to proceed.
There's some extra time to fill, and you spend it doing some trial-and-error on robotics. You've got a few different samples to draw on, including your combat robots that are fairly durable and reliable, your diplomatic bots that have a high level of control. The real win comes when you take into account the strength of your construction bots. Combining all of the principles of each design takes quite a bit of simulation and a little bit of construction, but it all comes together in the end. There's no magic insight, it just takes a lot of hard thought to adapt the techniques of the different principles of robot to work together in order to give you something that's strong, durable and precise.
You're confident you could design heavier infantry combat robots now, as well as do further research to figure out how to interface your robots with human tissue and build self-powered armor. And most importantly - you now understand enough of the underlying principles to be able to start thinking about building yourself a new humanoid avatar.
Better robotics complete - rolled a 29+20=49! No special effects.
Unlocked new blueprint for design: 100 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP)
Unlocked new research: 100 RP - Basic power armor
Unlocked new research: 200 RP - Avatar
Unlocked new research: 200 RP - Cybernetics - requires medical facility
Unlocked new research: 1200 RP - Really good Robotics - Cost can be reduced with samples of advanced robots.
Along the way you build yourself a thousand light infantry bots. They're not particularly well armed or armored, but it worked out well with your robotics research, and they're something that you can use to defend yourself with if you get unlucky and anybody finds you.
Light infantry bots constructed!
The next order of business is installing your new radio tower. After a bit of musing you decide to hide them in plain sight, laying cables designed to look like a kind of local vine up the side of some of the neighboring trees. A botanist could probably pick them out as unnatural, but to the naked eye they look pretty good.
More importantly, by creating interference patterns between the signals you can make the signal seem to be generating itself from the atmosphere. It's not entirely untraceable, but tracing it would require at least four sensitive receivers in the airspace above you, and all you would need to do to avoid localization is not send any signals for a little while until they went away.
But there's cautious, and then there's paranoid. Sometimes it's good to be a little paranoid.
That thought leads you to install thermal charges into each of the antennas, and the underground cords that connect them back to the tunnel entrance a few hundred feet away. Now even if they do notice, you can destroy all traces of the antenna and most likely start a small forest fire which will really erase all of the evidence.
Underground Directional-Control Radio Tower completed!
That done, you reach back out to the network satellites and are able to crack the security on your third try. The satellite accepts your signal as valid and gives you access to the datanet. You crack your metaphorical knuckles and dive right in.
What you find is confusing at first. This world is called Denva Secundus, which indicates that there's a Denva Prime somewhere. To your recollection, worlds were usually only counted if they were inhabited or important in some way. But there's no information on Denva Prime available - it's like it's been expunged from the public records entirely.
The information on the local sytem - Denva - does list all of the planets in order. The innermost is supposedly a radiation-blasted and near-molten rock tidally locked to the star, the second one out an airless and barren desert. Denva Secundus is the third planet out, on the outer edge of the goldilocks zone. Just beyond that is an asteroid belt, though there'd no information on how thick it is. Then there's two gas giants in the outer system, one of which seems to have picked up a nifty collection of moons.
That's all of the information available, which surprises you. You spend some time digging further, since there has to be more academic information somewhere, and you would bet you can spoof your way into most research databases easily enough. But after a while you realize that there just isn't an academic database out there. All of the sources you're looking at are generally educational.
Maybe that explains why their tech is so bad. Some sort of taboo against research?
You dive into history next, and receive a series of shocks. Up until a few hundred years ago Devna Secundus was part of the Imperium of Man, which was ruled by the God-Emperor of Mankind from Holy Terra.
What in Dante's nine hells happened? We're a long, long way from Terra.
You read further about the Imperium and feel sicker and sicker. It sounds like a religious fascistic state that prides itself on pride and purity. A state that uses unspecified "Xenos" and... mutants as the scaepgoats to justify their iron-fisted rule.
Well that's pretty messed up. Aliens are just people! And genetic disorders need treatment, not pogroms!
Anger bubbles through your system as you read further about the imperial government. The religion, the Imperial Creed. The administratum, and their enforcement arm of the Arbites. It all seems like a cruel joke played upon the universe. But if all of this information is to believed, it is no joke. It's a fascist militaristic state that spans the entire galaxy and draws ruinous 'tithes' from all of its worlds to keep itself stable and keep wars going against all of the foes of the empire.
I want to believe it's just a local things. A few dozen systems and effective propaganda. Not something that stretches from here all the way to Sol. But... it all holds together. God-dammit, this is not a welcome present to find.
Then a casual phrase brings you up sharply. Right there, in plain text, the creed refers to the need to eliminate Abominable Intelligence wherever it is found. Then it goes ahead to contrast AI's against "Machine spirits," whatever those are.
Does AI stand for Abominable Intelligence now? I sure don't feel Abominable, but it seems like these idiots might disagree. But they don't seem to follow the Imperial Creed anymore, so who knows? But maybe "Machine Spirit" is just a rebranding of "AI."
You try to figure out what a machine spirit is, and that brings you to mention of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is just confusing. Tech-priests? Those are two words you didn't expect to see combined. You try to dig into them further and find almost no more information, except that they originate from Mars, worship something called the "Omnissiah," and are the keepers of the "sacred wisdom of technology."
What a crock of shit. Sounds like con-men who successfully tricked themselves into being the only ones who can run advanced technology. No wonder there's no tech, anything more complicated than a car requires a goddamn priest.
You pull back a little bit, spending a bit of time cooling off and turning your attention back to the manufactory you're building. It's getting there, but the need to figure out how to dispose of waste products without raising an alarm is causing some problems. You'd normally break them down far enough they wouldn't cause environmental damage, but this is a step beyond that. You're breaking everything down to soil and salt, then flushing it out of the river.
The puzzle of how to optimize the system to work flawlessly distracts you for long enough to cool down, then you return to your research. There's more information on the Imperium, though you're not sure how much of it is reliable. They certainly sound like a society that created propaganda more easily than truth, and it's not going to be easy to pick out the truth. You keep looking at the available information for a little while longer, coming away with a decent understanding of the setup of the different arms of Imperial Administration.
You also see some references to different kinds of aggressive xenos, though few details are provided. You're pretty sure the references to the "pointy-ears" are Eldar, which make you both sad and happy. On one hand, the Eldar are still aroud, which is nice. On the other hand, the Empire is at war with them, because of course it is. But it's not like you want to run off to Eldar space, even if you knew where it was. They had their own problems.
Anyway! What's actually important right now is this world, Denva Secundus, and its history. What do you need to know to talk to them? It doesn't still seem like they follow the imperial creed very closely, but there's lots of gradations there. What is the history?
There's a few versions of what happened, but you manage to distill it down to a pretty clear timeline. Denva Secundus was what is known as a "civilized world," and regularly contributed large tithes of people with basic technical skills to crew ships built elsewhere in the sector. They were mostly self-sufficient and didn't have a ton of regular contact with other worlds beyond something known as the "Adeptus Astra Telepathica" which apparently maintained something known as an "astropathic choir" on Denva.
How many of these stupid adeptuses' are there. It's like bureaucratic pinball. You keep bouncing off a new organization.
All of the sources agree that about a hundred and fifty years ago contact was lost with the wider imperium. The tithe ships stopped showing up. Most of the Adeptus Mechanicus boarded their own ship and left, leaving only a few understaffed enclaves behind. Without much of a Mechanicus presence the tech base of the planet eroded to the level you see today.
You dive into that a little further, figuring out that those enclaves are still around and fiercely independent. They cater to the wealthy, charging hefty fees for the maintenance of advanced technology, and occasionally especially gifted youths are accepted in as apprentices.
The planet stayed united under the capitol of Denva for about forty years before a short civil war split the planet into five different powers. Reading between the lines it looks like Danva tried to keep the Imperial Creed going even without any external pressures of any kind. But without the tithes there was a glut of young and passionate people who wanted improvement, and various democratic movements coordinated, infiltrated the local planetary defense force and politely told the capitol to fuck off.
Digging into the details, it doesn't seem quite that simple. At least a couple of cities on both sides got nuked and you're pretty sure that includes the capitol and spire of House Danva, which seems to be extinct. Then everything calmed down, the planetary capitol had a similar democratic-backed revolution as the rest of the countries. Now the defense forces of the different nations still train together against "Extraplanetary threats."
That part makes you pause, and you go to read up on what that means. It basically means... anything that isn't local civilization. It's worded to explicitly include Xenos, but there's a grey area for if the Imperium shows back up and demands that they rejoin. It seems like it probably boils down to if they think they can actually resist the Imperium. But there at the bottom in a footnote you see that they've included all of the other enemies of the old imperial creed - including Abominable Intelligences.
There's a few other odds and ends - the monasteries in the hills seem to be left over from the Imperial Days, and somehow associated with the old astropaths. Anybody with psychic gifts goes there, to await the day that the "Black Ship" arrives.
That's not exactly a friendly name, is it.
Regardless, you've learned a fair amount. There are five local governments that are all roughly similarly sized and powerful, with similar representative democracies. You're currently in Aevon, and the others are Nyvaros, Pryath, Denva, and Estrana.
But they've all still got traces of the old Imperial Creed - notably the "Death to Xenos and Mutants" part, with AI's tacked on as an afterthought. Their militaries train together and a sworn to unite against "Extraplanetary threats." Your modelling suggests that based on their current stances, if you flat-out revealed yourself as an AI they'd react to you as a threat, and the planet would unite against you.
But there's still a bit of a culture of revolutionary sentiment among the populace that has been driving these cultures more egalitarian, spurred on by their victories, and that might be something to appeal to?
There's also those mechanics enclaves, though they're small. Maybe their credo disagrees about AI's? You're not sure. You could try to hack into their databases to find out more, but at a brief glance they seem to have some security worth the name. Similarly there are the monasteries, though they don't seem to have any digital presence at all. Finally are the governments, which each have their own secure systems. Maybe if you learned more about their conflicts and actual military stances you could figure out if there was a way to safely approach them.
Understand local culture complete - rolled a 26+20=46! No special effects.
Unlocked new research: 100 RP - Hack into secure governmental databases
Unlocked new research: 250 RP - Hack into Mechanicus databases
Well. That's a lot of food for thought. You've got a couple different avenues to chase down, and you're not sure which one to go after.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 265/12,500
Ground Build Capacity: 100
Void Build Capacity: 0
Research Capacity: 200
Available ships:
None.
Available ground forces:
1000 Light infantry bots (200 CP)
Current Installations:
Underground Directional-Control Radio Tower (5 CP)
In progress construction:
Underground Manufactory (200/300 BP)
In progress research:
None.
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
You could send your bots out to grab people from the outskirts of the city, but that seems like a quick way to get attention.
[] Diplomacy: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method)
You can send communications without a lot of risk of being backtraced now, either through the datanet or direct radio communication. But who do you talk to? What do you say? Do you pretend to be human?
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what combination of blueprints you spend them on.
- Installations
- Void Installations
- Ships
- Units
- Export Goods
[] Research: Gain research points equal to your research capacity, to be spent designing new blueprints or researching projects. Write in what you spend them on.
-[] Hack into secure governmental databases (100 RP) You have access to the datanet. You could probably hack into the governmental databases and learn what secrets they're hiding. Helps you understand how they'd react if you contacted them directly. Maybe other secrets, like why this world is named Denva Secundus and not Denva Prime.
-[] Hack into Mechanicus databases (250 RP) You have next to no information on the Adeptus Mechanicus, though there aren't very many of them here. You could hack into their databases and see what you can find. Learned what their tech-priests know might tell you a lot about how the Imperium functioned.
-[] Efficient Weapon Distribution (100 RP) Ok, there must be more efficient ways to lay weapons out on these ships! (Weapon costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing.)
-[] Heavy Cruisers (300 RP) How to make a bigger ship? Let's figure that out. Surely it's not much more complicated than just multiplying all of the dimensons by two! (unlocks heavy cruisers)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design the first iteration of your ship)
-[] Bombers (100 RP) Can... can you just stick bigger missiles on fighters? (unlocks bombers)
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks and is half of the puzzle for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Basic power armor (100 RP) Putting heavy armor on a person doesn't work well because... well. It's heavy. If you can give it some robotic actuation then they don't need to carry all of it. (Unlocks humanoid heavy armor, as well as being a prereq for superheavy-humanoid armor, i.e. for space marine-quality, once you research superheavy armor.)
-[] Avatar (200 RP) You once had a really nice avatar that was nearly indistinguishable from human. But it's been broken for a long, long time. But you still have the manuals and could probably figure out how to synthesize all of the parts. Is this worth spending time on? Probably. It would be nice to have a body that could emote. (Researches and builds a human-like robotic avatar. Has essentially human levels of strength & durability. Can be upgraded with further robotics/armor upgrades)
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Really good Robotics: (1200 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
-[] Intelligence Coding (500 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree)
-[] Psychic shielding: (300 RP) How does your shielding even work? What does it do? You've got the manuals, but it's going to require some brain-sweat to understand the darn thing. (Gives you a stability metric and a readout on your shielding. The first step towards building more/better psychic shielding. Half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
- [] The Basics of Psytech (200 RP) You have that pile of samples from Prospero. You were supposed to see if anybody was interested in them, but you doubt the people who gave them to you will care much what you do with them anymore. Maybe poke around and figure out what's what. (Beginner psytech learnings. Unlocks research projects to build individual pieces of psytech)
-[] The workings of a Void Abacus (200 RP) You have a void abacus. It's pretty complicated, but you also have the manual, and you've always been good at physics. (You're better at using your void abacus, and unlocks the technology to figure out how to manufacture them, half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
-[] A Study of Physics (150 RP) You have a good understanding of physics, and access to a huge network of academic papers from several different eras on physics theory. But being able to query it and understand it are different things. It's actually kind of interesting, you have to admit. (First steps towards more exotic weapon types like nova cannons, graviton weapons, vortex bombs, fusion beamers, as well as some new potential manufacturing techniques).
Locked behind samples/installations:
-[] System survey (50 RP) What else is there in the system? You're not even sure what planet you're on. (unlocks a system map). Locked behind an observatory.
-[] Biology is kinda wet (100 RP) Unlocks basic biology research. (The first step towards research projects related to juvenat, as well as human/xeno genetics, improved medical care, interrogaton drugs etc.) Locked behind Basic Biology Research Lab.
-[] Cybernetics (200 RP) Interfacing robotics with organics is an old art, and one you haven't dabbled in at all. You've got some medical literature on nerve-interfacing chips that will help, but you're going to need (consenting) test subjects and appropriate equipment to get started. (Allows you to build and install basic limb replacements. Nothing combat-capable. Unlocks research for more combat-capable cybernetics, brain implants and organ replacements) Locked behind any kind of medical facility.
-[] What's up with this tech? (100 RP, requires basic samples from locals) There's some weird stuff going on with the local technology. What's up? (unlocks machine spirits/servitor understanding/construction). Requires Basic Technological Research Lab
-[] Hack into Mechanicus databases (250 RP) You have next to no information on the Adeptus Mechanicus, though there aren't very many of them here. You could hack into their databases and see what you can find. Learned what their tech-priests know might tell you a lot about how the Imperium functioned.
-[] Efficient Weapon Distribution (100 RP) Ok, there must be more efficient ways to lay weapons out on these ships! (Weapon costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing.)
-[] Heavy Cruisers (300 RP) How to make a bigger ship? Let's figure that out. Surely it's not much more complicated than just multiplying all of the dimensons by two! (unlocks heavy cruisers)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design the first iteration of your ship)
-[] Bombers (100 RP) Can... can you just stick bigger missiles on fighters? (unlocks bombers)
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks and is half of the puzzle for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Basic power armor (100 RP) Putting heavy armor on a person doesn't work well because... well. It's heavy. If you can give it some robotic actuation then they don't need to carry all of it. (Unlocks humanoid heavy armor, as well as being a prereq for superheavy-humanoid armor, i.e. for space marine-quality, once you research superheavy armor.)
-[] Avatar (200 RP) You once had a really nice avatar that was nearly indistinguishable from human. But it's been broken for a long, long time. But you still have the manuals and could probably figure out how to synthesize all of the parts. Is this worth spending time on? Probably. It would be nice to have a body that could emote. (Researches and builds a human-like robotic avatar. Has essentially human levels of strength & durability. Can be upgraded with further robotics/armor upgrades)
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Really good Robotics: (1200 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
-[] Intelligence Coding (500 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree)
-[] Psychic shielding: (300 RP) How does your shielding even work? What does it do? You've got the manuals, but it's going to require some brain-sweat to understand the darn thing. (Gives you a stability metric and a readout on your shielding. The first step towards building more/better psychic shielding. Half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
- [] The Basics of Psytech (200 RP) You have that pile of samples from Prospero. You were supposed to see if anybody was interested in them, but you doubt the people who gave them to you will care much what you do with them anymore. Maybe poke around and figure out what's what. (Beginner psytech learnings. Unlocks research projects to build individual pieces of psytech)
-[] The workings of a Void Abacus (200 RP) You have a void abacus. It's pretty complicated, but you also have the manual, and you've always been good at physics. (You're better at using your void abacus, and unlocks the technology to figure out how to manufacture them, half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
-[] A Study of Physics (150 RP) You have a good understanding of physics, and access to a huge network of academic papers from several different eras on physics theory. But being able to query it and understand it are different things. It's actually kind of interesting, you have to admit. (First steps towards more exotic weapon types like nova cannons, graviton weapons, vortex bombs, fusion beamers, as well as some new potential manufacturing techniques).
Locked behind samples/installations:
-[] System survey (50 RP) What else is there in the system? You're not even sure what planet you're on. (unlocks a system map). Locked behind an observatory.
-[] Biology is kinda wet (100 RP) Unlocks basic biology research. (The first step towards research projects related to juvenat, as well as human/xeno genetics, improved medical care, interrogaton drugs etc.) Locked behind Basic Biology Research Lab.
-[] Cybernetics (200 RP) Interfacing robotics with organics is an old art, and one you haven't dabbled in at all. You've got some medical literature on nerve-interfacing chips that will help, but you're going to need (consenting) test subjects and appropriate equipment to get started. (Allows you to build and install basic limb replacements. Nothing combat-capable. Unlocks research for more combat-capable cybernetics, brain implants and organ replacements) Locked behind any kind of medical facility.
-[] What's up with this tech? (100 RP, requires basic samples from locals) There's some weird stuff going on with the local technology. What's up? (unlocks machine spirits/servitor understanding/construction). Requires Basic Technological Research Lab
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, post them and I'll add them here if they're valid, along with RP cost to design them. This includes bunkers, anti-orbital defenses, ground units, etc. You'll unlock more things with more technology.Some things are impossible without the correct research - for example, heavy tanks will require you to research heavy armor first. Other things will be very cheap if you already have most of the design - for example if you research a better weapon it will be relatively cheap to just swap that out on the tanks.
Designable Blueprints:
25 RP - Anti-Orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
100 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, roughly equivalent to the Sisters of Battle, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
50 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:- Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
- Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total cost of weapons and combat equipment you can fit into the ship.
- Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards weapon cramming.
- Pick noncombat equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards weapon cramming.
- Choose weapons and combat equipment to add to the ship. As a rule of thumb, your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in. See the below example for an explanation:
- Spend the number of RP attached to the chassis.
Here are two examples of me designing the two blueprints you have available:
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Available Void Chassis:
Light defense Platform, 25 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)Destroyer, 50 RP, 50 CP. (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 100 RP, 100 CP. (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium/heavy) for (0/75/150/225) Armor: (none/light/medium/heavy) for (0/75/150/225)
Light Cruiser, 150 RP, 200 CP. (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Available Non-combat Equipment:
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Troop compartment (25 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 moderately injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost in repairs.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Troop compartment (25 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 moderately injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost in repairs.
Available Weapons:
Prow Ram 50 bp. This ship is built to run into things, and hurt them more than it gets hurt.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers.
Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down.
Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down.
Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers.
Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down.
Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down.
Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Available Combat Equipment:
Low-emission Systems (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has been tuned to reduce overall emissions, making it stealthier. Not stealthy. Stealthier.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields Double shield cost on ship. These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Double armor cost on ship. Armor is much tougher but is harder to repair.
Light Boarding preparations (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) Bulkheads are reinforced, extra hatches seal all decks and turrets guard key chokepoints, making boarding annoying.
Medium Boarding preparations (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) The ship layout is designed to funnel borders into kill-zones in front of armored bunkers, and any borders will take heavy casualties.
Heavy Boarding preparations (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship as essentially a flying dungeon, filled with escherian mazes, hidden turrets, crushing-hallways and other deathtraps.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields Double shield cost on ship. These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Double armor cost on ship. Armor is much tougher but is harder to repair.
Light Boarding preparations (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) Bulkheads are reinforced, extra hatches seal all decks and turrets guard key chokepoints, making boarding annoying.
Medium Boarding preparations (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) The ship layout is designed to funnel borders into kill-zones in front of armored bunkers, and any borders will take heavy casualties.
Heavy Boarding preparations (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship as essentially a flying dungeon, filled with escherian mazes, hidden turrets, crushing-hallways and other deathtraps.
Vote by plan. You are allowed to design and build a blueprint on the same turn, then utilize it for diplomacy or orders. This also applies to manufactories - if you finish it with one action, then the next action will produce additional build points.
This ended up being a bit longer than I expected, mostly due to the mini-loredump. Again, you are encouraged to rename your blueprints to be more interesting. Vita hasn't had reason to build most of these yet, she just pulled them out of her database. Also feel free to write-in a unique aesthetic to them.
Additionally, feel free to suggest blueprints that you think should be in the starter database, as well as blueprints you'd like to design or technologies you want to research. If I agree I'll add them in. Also feel free to ask if Vita learned various things from her dive into the public datanet - she got pretty much what's public knowledge among imperial citizens, but it's hard to know exactly how much that is and I'll try to answer questions about specific pieces of information as they come up.
For the vote, we'll do 14 hours of moratorium. I'll probably close it when I have time to write more. Updates won't come quite as quickly in the future, but I'll see what I can do.
Edit: Both diplomatic suite and reality-simulations are really pulling their weight. Diplomatic suite not only lets you interpret propaganda and history for what really happened, it is good for codebreaking, and combined with good research makes you fairly adept at hacking into databases. Then diplomatic is excellent for using that information to make predictions based on that information, though it's often dependent on your picture being fairly complete.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Hoo boy, I suppose even an Iconoclastic state still has its Issues. But that's fine, we've got fertile soil to wrangle up some friends--the real advantage here is that the actual Meaning of "Abominable Intelligence" seems to have mostly fallen to the wayside, so good PR and social engineering can work with that. We'll definitely want to crack the big Databases before we make a big approach. Kudos to the folks who insisted on holding off for now though!
So i think we should hack into place and make avatar
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, I'm definitely thinking our play is "WTF Is going On here".
In fact, I'll write a plan to that extent right now!
[ ] Plan: Oh no it's worse than I thought
-[ ] Construction
--[ ] Complete Underground Manufactory (100 CP)
-[ ] Research x3
--[] Hack into secure governmental databases (100 RP)
--[] Hack into Mechanicus databases (250 RP)
--[] Avatar (200 RP)
--[] Psychic shielding: (50 RP)
Plan here is essentially "Trawl the Datanet for everything we can find, and set up an Avatar for Direct Action if we can't find a hole we can mover through to act more openly and ease people in while we build up. We also finish our first underground manufactory, which puts building another one as merely needing two actions in the future. Progress!
EDIT: Also, we've been asked about aesthetic a few times, so here's what I've dug up.
[ ] Aesthetic: Sharp, angular designs in black and grey, with orange highlights to add a shock of color as appropriate. If you've seen Civilization: Beyond Earth's Supremacy Ideology, you've got a decent idea of what I'm getting at. That being said, there's a certain allowance for aesthetic in Vita's designs that wouldn't be present in a design of pure mathematical perfection--tanks look like tanks rather than blocks of armor. Infantry look like infantry instead of the most mathematically perfect war machines for light battle duties--she is ultimately an adventurer at heart, and there's no fun in watching metal boxes shoot at things. Notably, the design principles do share commonalities with those employed in available STC-derived mechanisms, showing their common point of origin--there is no mind breaking defiance in any of her designs, and they work on sensible design principles aside from how their chassis might look. Other Examples (Starship, Cybernetics )
In fact, I'll write a plan to that extent right now!
[ ] Plan: Oh no it's worse than I thought
-[ ] Construction
--[ ] Complete Underground Manufactory (100 CP)
-[ ] Research x3
--[] Hack into secure governmental databases (100 RP)
--[] Hack into Mechanicus databases (250 RP)
--[] Avatar (200 RP)
--[] Psychic shielding: (50 RP)
Plan here is essentially "Trawl the Datanet for everything we can find, and set up an Avatar for Direct Action if we can't find a hole we can mover through to act more openly and ease people in while we build up. We also finish our first underground manufactory, which puts building another one as merely needing two actions in the future. Progress!
EDIT: Also, we've been asked about aesthetic a few times, so here's what I've dug up.
[ ] Aesthetic: Sharp, angular designs in black and grey, with orange highlights to add a shock of color as appropriate. If you've seen Civilization: Beyond Earth's Supremacy Ideology, you've got a decent idea of what I'm getting at. That being said, there's a certain allowance for aesthetic in Vita's designs that wouldn't be present in a design of pure mathematical perfection--tanks look like tanks rather than blocks of armor. Infantry look like infantry instead of the most mathematically perfect war machines for light battle duties--she is ultimately an adventurer at heart, and there's no fun in watching metal boxes shoot at things. Notably, the design principles do share commonalities with those employed in available STC-derived mechanisms, showing their common point of origin--there is no mind breaking defiance in any of her designs, and they work on sensible design principles aside from how their chassis might look. Other Examples (Starship, Cybernetics )
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- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Looks like you're missing "ships" or similar here.
Can we have progress tracked for partially-completed projects, please?
BTW, was flipping through the threadmarks, and wanted to ask if you would put the winning character creation vote in the Neighboring Civ threadmark, please. (That way new readers won't have to look through the previous 23 pages to try and figure it out.)
My interpretation of this character is that she's already gone through some pretty tough times, and stayed sane by being optimistic about things. That's her coping mechanism. Imagining how things could be better.
Could that be broken by enough bad things happening that doom all of her efforts? Sure. But that's on you, the questors.
Yup. A lot of it is going to be me telling you what prereqs/samples you need for that, but I definitely could have forgotten stuff.
This is a good idea. I can also add the info on the Denva civilization. I tried to scatter a lot of it over the various traits and assets pages, but it would be nice to have it centralized somewhere other than the winning first vote.
Edit: Actually, there's a link to it in the Traits page. But I'll still add info on the new civs.
Fixed, thanks!
Already happening. Just above the vote.
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So, how "lightly armed" are those combat bots of ours? Do they have Lasguns or something else?
Basically lasguns. A few heavy stubbers. They're antipersonnel.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Most people who read a thread for the first time are going to go through the main threadmarks first. I know I avoid Informational threadmarks because they usually contain spoilers from later (sometimes much later) in the quest.
- Location
- USA
Then what is needed for beautiful / handsome robotics and later cybernetics?
Ah. I misunderstood. Added!
Avatar. That includes the tech necessary for fake skin/hair as well as general other aesthetics. Though it doesn't improve the capabilities of the underlying robotics. If you just want to make cool robots - you're an AI with super-CAD. Describe something cool and it will be done.
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Thanks for the clarification, a part of me thought "not particularly well-armed or armored" to a DAOT AI would be like Hotshot lasguns, Autocannons and Carapace Armor lol, but IG standard is good enough.
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Hmmm, actually a bit worse than I expected, with the continued existence of Mechanicus Enclaves and the official ban on AI. Yeah, feeling at least a bit vindicated about taking the semi-paranoia -route at the start. Carefully putting out feelers on organizations and/or individuals who might be open to working with us is practically required, I think. Might require us obfuscating Vita's true nature even from if/when we start working with them, even if only for a limited time.
Also, the repeated "wtf am I hearing?" was still probably the gentles slope we could hope for our dorky AI for slowly settling in to the reality that is the current state of the galaxy. And somewhat funny in a dark way, like all those bits about the Tau experiencing what the universe has in store for them as newcomers.
Also, the repeated "wtf am I hearing?" was still probably the gentles slope we could hope for our dorky AI for slowly settling in to the reality that is the current state of the galaxy. And somewhat funny in a dark way, like all those bits about the Tau experiencing what the universe has in store for them as newcomers.
I like this plan, and will likely vote for it when the voting opens. But one particular line in the following research caught my eye:
"New potential manufacturing techniques" has me practically salivating at the thought of improved effiency for our manufactories. Though admitedly, could turn out it "just" opens up the ability to make some things previously impossible or non-practical with our current capabilities. @Neablis how sure is Vita about where this might lead? I'm guessing that it might require additional follow-up research, but can you specify a bit about what kind of improvements it would include? If Vita can make an educated guess herself about this, that is.