AIUI 40k teleportation is for small elite forces, not bulk transfer. In naval combat, it is used for small-number lightning strikes, while other methods perform larger-scale boardings.
Depends on how the techs turn out, I think. Heavy Teleportariums 'only' cost 400 BP and are stated to be able to teleport a 'large' amount of organics or synthetics onto an enemy ship, so if we improved our ship's sensors enough and specced into bringing down shields, it might end up being more efficient to teleport units in, and only using boarding torpedoes to land forces that will bring down the shields.
There are so many tempting branches on the tech-tree, and it's a hefty investment, but the more I think about it the more I think we should prioritize Really Good Robotics.
At least 90% of everything we do is robotics. To quote the tech itself...
"(Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost."
That's not exactly a short list and every item on it is more tempting than the one before. 600 RP isn't cheap, but "advanced robots" to find samples of are not at all thick on the ground, so I feel like we may as well get started sooner rather than later.
Depends on how the techs turn out, I think. Heavy Teleportariums 'only' cost 400 BP and are stated to be able to teleport a 'large' amount of organics or synthetics onto an enemy ship, so if we improved our ship's sensors enough and specced into bringing down shields, it might end up being more efficient to teleport units in, and only using boarding torpedoes to land forces that will bring down the shields.
True, it's possible that that can work if we put more teleport in. I'd expect straightforward boarding to do more boarding/bulk, but we don't have the stats yet.
I see no reason whatsoever to believe this claim. They're the ones who make it extremely obvious that that happens in the setting. But they aren't actually vast outliers in boarding capability. At least a couple other fleets have boarding as a major conceit. (Space Marines, Drukhari)
Stealth boarders punch up. Way up. And if you want torpedos that can actually deliver their payload to the large things you want to stop existing, stealth would help those out considerably too.
Don't forget adding teleportation into the mix! With good enough stealth we could get into Long range with the target's shields down and teleport strike teams into critical spots.
Edit: read through the completed techs, glad I added some extra BP budget for the new robots. Looks like they will be 100 BP per 1,000. So the plan will have 400 BP towards Stankberg, unless their are other costs.
Aka the ones that are capped at 1000 per chapter and the other that focus on lighting raids and small unit tactics when boarding.
Neither truly overun a ship in sheer numbers and are characterized by having low numbers and heavy on elites.
I can't see how using them as your examples really helps you argument.
That's not exactly a short list and every item on it is more tempting than the one before. 600 RP isn't cheap, but "advanced robots" to find samples of are not at all thick on the ground, so I feel like we may as well get started sooner rather than later.
Honestly I think we may have just gotten some new ones just now. The gov mansion was filled with automated defenses and we just got 4 different things from its loot table - high chance of some qualifying samples being there.
Put it simply, this isn't so much to the benefit of a conversation. Go on over explicitly narrative that does not covey the point in a consise form will Invariably result with people talking over one another and go with heir own conclusions anyways.
When someone is talking about A, but on the answer the other introduces. B, C D the debate loses focus. At this point we are talking at each other and not talking with one another. And to be honest i simply don't have the bandwidth to ever escalating debates that can take all day and multiple pages.
Nah, dude. I get what you're saying, but for me to only focus on point A would imply that that's the best thing to discuss, that topic A is the only thing that's relevant, and most of all, it would mean me falsely implying that you winning the argument about topic A would convince me of your main position.
I do value your time. I sympathize with not wanting to be stuck in here for hours, or days, because it's definitely easy for that to happen if you don't set limits.
But those are, ultimately, your limits, not anyone else's. Your personal time constraints and how you'd like them to be accommodated is not common sense, nor is it common quest etiquette. If you want people to accommodate them, please don't dress it up as a general truth about quest debate that other people should obviously know.
In general, if you say you only have time to discuss one thing, I will do my best to not drag you into broader topics.
But I'm not going to change what my position is for anyone's convenience, and part of respecting your time means making what you can get for spending that time on me clear.
I have more that I could say about the original topic, but I'll try to leave it here.
Honestly I think we may have just gotten some new ones just now. The gov mansion was filled with automated defenses and we just got 4 different things from its loot table - high chance of some qualifying samples being there.
I genuinely feel like I'm missing something at this point, can you or someone else fill me in on why the thread at large seems to be expecting the Sector Governor's Summer Beach House to be so heavily defended? Or even still defended at all at this point?
Rereading the update, all I'm seeing is that there are maybe some anti-orbital guns around the site. Ultimately though, it's an imperial civilian site that's been abandoned for centuries? I wouldn't be totally surprised if there are a handful of combat servitors nominally meant to secure the place (A little surprised if they still work), but I feel like it'd be unusual for the anti-orbital guns to be capable of automated action and cramming the place with turrets and servitors seems like it would defeat the point of a nice vacation spot.
The station where we found navibean had a much better reason to be as well secured as it was.
I genuinely feel like I'm missing something at this point, can you or someone else fill me in on why the thread at large seems to be expecting the Sector Governor's Summer Beach House to be so heavily defended? Or even still defended at all at this point?
Rereading the update, all I'm seeing is that there are maybe some anti-orbital guns around the site. Ultimately though, it's an imperial civilian site that's been abandoned for centuries? I wouldn't be totally surprised if there are a handful of combat servitors nominally meant to secure the place (A little surprised if they still work), but I feel like it'd be unusual for the anti-orbital guns to be capable of automated action and cramming the place with turrets and servitors seems like it would defeat the point of a nice vacation spot.
The station where we found navibean had a much better reason to be as well secured as it was.
Because a planetary governor is not a civilian - they are in charge of the planet's military, and can generally be counted on to reserve the best of that military's defenses for themselves. If the governor could afford those anti-orbital guns and also to make their mansion a secret underwater volcano base, they definitely could afford to have some nice automated defenses on the inside.
And whatever mechanicus presence this agriworld once have, it's not a bad bet to say that some of their stuff will be located deep in this compound where they can benefit from those same defenses, the anti-orbital guns at the very least. That's setting aside the political advantage of keeping the levers of planetary power close to your own center of power.
-[] Habitation Requires Correct Ingredients (200 RP) If a planet lacks an essential element, there's not that much you can do about that. Well, there isn't unless you lack imagination. You could crash comets and asteroids into the planet and get volatiles that way - but it would take a lot of them. Still, doable, if expensive. (Unlocks the ability to add essential elements to planets that lack them. Likely expensive, though further research will reduce the cost).
-[] Temperature? Let's talk Albedo (150 RP) To change the temperature of a planet, you simply need to change how much it's absorbing and re-radiating, then let the energy of a local star do the rest. (Unlocks projects to heat or cool planets over decades with surprisingly minimal investment. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] Bootstrapping a magnetic field (200 RP) If a planet's magnetic field is dead then in the short term it'll be bombarded with hazardous levels of radiation, and in the long term whatever atmosphere is present will get blown off into space by stellar wind. But there might be a way to fix that? (Unlocks a rather expensive semi-megastructure project to start up magnetic fields. Unlocks further research to cheapen the process. May lead to some crazy research into utilizing or messing with star or gas-giant magnetic fields.) Requires gravity weapons & Advanced Materials.
-[] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP) Calderath is an interesting case of a planet that doesn't need to be terraformed so much as ecologically engineered. You think you know how to do it - make a microbe that sinks the stupendous amount of seaweed standing up the oceans and buries it in ocean sediment. Actually making and deploying such a thing and having it do what you want is a different matter. (Potentially makes Calderath livable to humans again without breathing masks. Will cross-synergize with MICROBES, and both techs will discount each other) Write-in a risk tolerance. Depending on how well you roll you might not release it and instead get a follow-up action to further improve your solution. Even if you roll poorly and release it there will be a subsequent roll to determine success or failure.
-[] MICROBES: Miniaturized climate regulatory and optimized biogeochemical engineering symbionts (250 RP) Microbes are the chemical factories that reshape the chemistry of the planetary surface and atmosphere to your liking. Delving into the techniques used in the distance past to figure out how to engineer them would let you design better, faster terraforming organisms, as well as let them be applied to more extreme starting conditions (Improves, cheapens, accelerates and broadens the terraforming projects you have available. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
EDIT: also I forgot to mention that we have two new producible units for Calderath specifically
In our units tab:
Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP, 10 CP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it, and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. Also can turn the seaweed into moderately palatable food for the crew. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
I'm a little surprised that there's no mention of processing the seaweed for bioplastics, textiles and chemicals but guess that it must be unsuitable for that.
Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP, 10 CP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
Aka the ones that are capped at 1000 per chapter and the other that focus on lighting raids and small unit tactics when boarding.
Neither truly overun a ship in sheer numbers and are characterized by having low numbers and heavy on elites.
I can't see how using them as your examples really helps you argument.
Because they have the same impacts as the factions you admit can overrun ships. There are game rules for this, and they don't say 'tyrannids and orks can turn ships into hulks with boarding, but nobody else'. You can mash any two ships together and have them decide things hand-to-hand.
Rereading the update, all I'm seeing is that there are maybe some anti-orbital guns around the site. Ultimately though, it's an imperial civilian site that's been abandoned for centuries? I wouldn't be totally surprised if there are a handful of combat servitors nominally meant to secure the place (A little surprised if they still work), but I feel like it'd be unusual for the anti-orbital guns to be capable of automated action and cramming the place with turrets and servitors seems like it would defeat the point of a nice vacation spot.
I'm not sure about any automated defenses, but the last discount we got for Really Good Robotics was from... pleasure robots... which very well might be at a summer beach house.
What's even weirder is what else is in the robotics workshop. They're robots all right. Humanoid robots of advanced construction, along with all of the equipment needed to maintain them and build more. But they're not just any humanoid robots. They're... well. They're sex robots. In a stupendous number of configurations, appearances. Every conceivable combination of age, skin color, sexual organ, whatever.
You can't help but look back at the Magos and wonder. But eventually you find a... cleaning log and see that it wasn't the Magos using them. It seems like they were for the express and encouraged use of the denizens of the station, and the Magos was in fact closely coordinating with the research staff on transferring samples from and to the sexbots.
You repeat. Weird.
Anyway. None of what's here is more advanced than what you can do. But it comes at it from a pretty different direction, and there's definitely a lot you can learn from this workshop. Regardless of its purpose.
Research discounted - Avatar self-customization cost reduced by 100 RP
Research discounted - Really good Robotics cost reduced by 300 RP
Research discounted - Improved Armor Articulation cost reduced by 50 RP
Research discounted - Advanced Combat cybernetics cost reduced by 50 RP
Additionally, I think I have a plan to cut down the planets recovery to just 130 years for the cost of 2 actions and some tech priests. I'll post a full version once the update drops in case details change, but here's the gist:
Research Basic Automated Manufactories (150 RP) and build 5 manufactories set to make:
Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it, and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. Also can turn the seaweed into moderately palatable food for the crew. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
5 factories = 300 BP (assuming no efficiency gain) or 6 ships per turn.
Leave behind 10 priests to run the factories and train the crew.
Each ship fixes 1% over 100 years or 0.01% per year.
Over 26 turns (130 years) 156 ships built will solve the problem.
edit: This would cost 1 more action than the dedicated research fix, but would get us an interesting tech as well. Food for thought until the update drops.
Research Basic Automated Manufactories (150 RP) and build 5 manufactories set to make:
Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it, and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. Also can turn the seaweed into moderately palatable food for the crew. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
5 factories = 300 BP (assuming no efficiency gain) or 6 ships per turn.
Leave behind 10 priests to run the factories and train the crew.
Each ship fixes 1% over 100 years or 0.01% per year.
Over 26 turns (130 years) 156 ships built will solve the problem.
If we're going to leave behind a bunch of techpriests behind then we might as well just make some machine spirit manufactories instead of jumping for the automated ones.
If we're going to leave behind a bunch of techpriests behind then we might as well just make some machine spirit manufactories instead of jumping for the automated ones.
I think it depends on how the action economy for OMC/Cogitare controlled manufactories compares to fully automated ones.
I'm pretty sure the rules currently give anyone but us controlling a manufactory only one action per turn to do so, which means in a given turn we can theoretically be four times as productive at minimum with the same industrial base. With an automated manufactory though, I don't see any obvious reason we couldn't get equivalent productivity even if we still need a minimal level of organic oversight.
We'd need to see how the tech turned out probably, but it's worth investigating.
I'm still leaning heavily towards just establishing an exclave of as many Cogitare as are willing to stay and letting them up-tech the planet while we head back to Denva.
Turn 28:
-[] Basic Active Stealth (75 RP) Just deflecting away and hiding your signature only helps so much. Then next step is to overlay a hologram over your small craft to make them effectively invisible, and even counter passive sensors. It'll still be a hazy outline, but this is the path towards being able to close to actual combat ranges unobserved (Unlocks improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures, though they will be expensive. Unlocks further research for improved active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research. Critical Success The Basic Stealth blueprint modification now includes active stealth.
-[] Basic Ground force stealth (50 RP) Tanks show up pretty well on scanners, and it would be nice to change that. You might also be able to make your bots hide better. (Unlocks new design options for tanks and ground forces that are less obvious. Unlocks further research towards better ground force stealth. Will be able to take advantage of some other stealth technologies.) Good success. The Basic Stealth blueprint modification now can be applied to combat bots & vehicles. The cost is 0.5x base BP cost for bots, 0.25x base BP for vehicles.
-[] How to Build a Biosphere (100 RP) Back when you were made terraforming was incredibly common, and one of your more common trade goods was terraforming technology. But you're not sure how you would do it - but it wouldn't be that hard to catch up on the literature. (Unlocks blueprints for slow/expensive terraforming, as well as the terraforming tree, which will include research to make terraforming cheaper, faster and applicable to a broader set of planets). You'll have some idea of how to improve the livability of various worlds you run across with basic methods. Nothing radical yet, but any planet you run into you can do a project to tune temperature and basic chemistry.
The stealth stuff sounds like we're on our way down the same path as the Eldar for holofields and the like. Obviously we're not all the way there yet, but I'll be interested to see how our captured Dark Eldar craft will combine with what we've got when we get around to it.
And saying that, it occurs to me that reverse engineering those may also give us at minimum a discount on better propulsion in general...
If we're going to leave behind a bunch of techpriests behind then we might as well just make some machine spirit manufactories instead of jumping for the automated ones.
Pending us discovering what the automated ones actually do, anyway. (But yes, I wouldn't leave a techpriest anywhere without at least one general-purpose manufactory. It's just inhumane.)
Pending us discovering what the automated ones actually do, anyway. (But yes, I wouldn't leave a techpriest anywhere without at least one general-purpose manufactory. It's just inhumane.)
Well I mean if we actually read the description of it then you will know exactly what it does (produce exactly one thing until told to stop with the basic version being unable to produce installations, ships or other such large objects so basic ones will produce things like tanks but no destroyers for example) it's how well it does it and how many projects we have to go through to get it to a point that we like that's in question
Well I mean if we actually read the description of it then you will know exactly what it does (produce exactly one thing until told to stop with the basic version being unable to produce installations, ships or other such large objects so basic ones will produce things like tanks but no destroyers for example) it's how well it does it and how many projects we have to go through to get it to a point that we like that's in question
That tells us what it doesn't do, mostly. Less flip, without knowing anything about its BP cost, CP cost, or BP output there's pretty much no situation where we can actually say it's useful. We could use basic automated factories instead of generalist MS manufactories to build the harvester ships, but we have no way to judge whether doing so is advantageous.
BFG rules do seem to put that right on the money. Imperial battlecruisers have stats matching cruisers but with slightly more armament (usually in the form of long-ranged lance turrets and extended weapon ranges). Grand cruisers are a substantial step up in defenses, half-way to battleship level. (With somewhat odd-duck armament loadouts.)
[x][Cia] Focus
[x] Plan: Beach Episode
-[x][FREE] Refit the 7x manufactories to 7x Machine-spirit Manufactories (630 BP), Outer Hull 232/240 HP -> 240/240 HP (40 BP), Bongo Oubliette 535/540 HP -> 540/540 HP (25 BP), 305 BP left, reinforce the Chaos Artifact cold-storage with as much as possible with the remaining budget.
-[x] Research (295 RP)
--[x] Finish Basic Active Stealth (34 RP)
--[x] Basic Ground force stealth (50 RP)
--[x] Design Specter – Light infiltration bot 88 BP per 1000 (20 RP) (Light (25BP, 10 RP), Humanized (15 BP base), Jammers (10 BP base),[50 BP base] Machine Spirit (+1/2 [25] BP), Stealth (+.25x [13] BP, +1x [10] RP)
---[x] Include Active stealth if possible, budgeting up to 16 additional RP on the design
--[x] How to Build a Biosphere (100 RP)
--[x] Combat Neural Implants (25 RP)
---[x] Anexa Assists
--[x] Intelligence Coding (0 -> 50 RP) + Overflow
-[x] Orders: Operation Quiet Caldera
--[x] Send in a stealth-detachment of infantry bots, fly low and land stealthily. First, the team will establish a safe perimeter at the caldera's rim, scanning for hidden weapon systems or failsafes. Onsite bots will carefully dismantle or neutralize any discovered defenses without triggering alarms, while Vita monitors sensor feeds, remotely hacking system overrides. Once the shuttlepad area is secure, the infantry bots will proceed to the lagoon, where they will subtly map and probe the submerged structure. Throughout the operation, prioritize minimal damage to preserve any artifacts or records; only engage destructive measures if failsafes cannot be bypassed quietly. Cia will be deployed nearby with a detachment of medium and heavy bots if the operation needs to go loud.
--[x] Cia Assigned
-[x] Diplomacy: Introduce yourself to the natives and offer to help them with the fungal problem. See what they need and help build it for them. Short term this is an aid mission, we are helping because we can. Mid term we do want to setup a base on planet somewhere, but aid is not contingent on this. Long term goal is to uplift them and incorporate them into the Ascendency.
--[x] Victan Assigned
-[x] Construction (600 VBP, 500 Lift):
--[x] Build 2x detachments of the new infiltrator (176 BP as written, up to 300 BP if active stealth increases costs)
--[x] Operation Quiet Caldera has resource priority and can pull in another 200 BP as needed
--[x] Remaining BP (currently 424 BP, 100 BP min) to assist locals, default to what they ask for/will solve the problem. If no guidance then:
---[x] Repair the spaceport of 'Stankberg' to make supply delivery easier (50-100 BP)
---[x] Setup a small local hospital (50 BP)
---[x] Repair their comms system (25 BP)
---[x] Build lots of masks and medical supplies for the locales (remaining BP)
---[x] Build some shuttles for their spaceport if we get masks for everyone.
-[x] Free action: Have dinner on a nice beach with your Crew
-[x] [Quorath] Bots (703 Light Machine-spirit humanized infantry bots, 840 Medium Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots, 491 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers, and 143 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots)
The view of Calderath Primus out of the observation bay windows is gorgeous, a blue jewel of shimmering waves speckled with white clouds and draped with the dark spots of islands. It looks like the tropical paradise that it is - though the omnipresent stank of the world mostly isn't visible. The seaweed that causes it is a bit more apparent as faint green shadows dappled across the oceans.
"It's not Oladeer, but it'll do," you say as you turn away from the view to take in your crew. There's still just the three of them, and they all appear to be the same age as they were when they joined you, but they've been seasoned in ways that are hard to capture with mere age.
Anexa is still a beautiful young woman whose augments could be mistaken at a distance for an aggressive overlay of jewelry. The golden filagree reaches down the sides of her neck and follows her collarbone, marking places where she's replaced various bones with additional cogitor units. She's also replaced her hair - it's still the same shining black but flashes an iridescent silver when the light catches it. The primary purpose is as a heat radiator, but you can't knock the aesthetic.
Victan's changes are less obvious, though you know his implants have also been upgraded over the years. His gaze carries weight now, and when he speaks it's with surety and purpose that belongs to somebody much older than his appearance would portray. If you were to boil the change down to a simple word you'd say that he has grown wise, and it's clear to anybody who has a conversation with him.
In contrast, Cia appears almost less physically impressive than she used to be, but that's because she doesn't train for brute strength and the raw bulk that comes with it anymore. Now she trains for speed, endurance, and explosive power, and it has left her muscles less defined. But none of that is noticeable in the face of her burning gaze, which focuses on whatever catches her interest with predatorial intent.
"I find the view more pleasing, knowing that it is a living, breathing world instead of a dead amalgamation of gas and rock floating in the void," Victan answers matter-of-factly, then gestures towards the planet below. "What is our plan for Calderath prime? How will we shape the world to our liking?"
You quirk your lips at his response. "Yes, yes. We'll talk to the locals. Figure out what they need and ask if they need help with the stank issue, see if they know anything that could help us. We might want to build a base here. It would be nice to have permission. And if Denva starts expanding this way then we could set up smooth interactions there."
Victan nods and leans back, looking satisfied.
Your gaze pans to Cia next. "I want into what I can only assume is the sector governor's villa." You'd already included a brief datapacket on your findings that they've seen, but now you pull up a zoomed-in image and mark the extent of the underwater buildings you can find, as well as the shuttlepad and probably defensive installations. "It's luxurious, defended, and probably has something useful in it. We'll try to get in stealthily, but I want you on the planet and ready to bust in if it goes badly."
Cia's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "There's nobody living there? Why should it go badly?"
You respond dryly. "The last time I poked something left behind by Imperial elites when they pulled out of this place there were hundreds of combat servitors, heavy plasma guns and scrapcode being run by our dear Bongo. I don't know what to expect, but I think it's the most likely place for combat. Unless you want to spend your time up here practicing?"
She thinks about it for a second, then shakes her head. "I can use the consideration time." Then she flashes a smile. "And I look forward to having real soil underfoot again. I've always wanted to run on a beach."
"Can I help?" Anexa asks quickly as you turn your attention to her. "With the villa I mean. You want to get in quietly, right? I've been reading about the hacking and want to try it out?"
You shrug. "I won't say you can't, but your focus should be on the research we're planning.
"Terraforming?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
You nod. "I'll be working on that, along with some better stealthtech to be sure that we can get close to the villa unobserved. But I want you working on combat implants. If Victan's getting in a fight - or if you do - then I want you to be at your best."
She frowns but accepts the assignment without overt complaint. You know she understands your reasoning - she's more experienced in implants than she is in biology, though you're not surprised that she's more excited to figure out how to alter the biosphere of a planet than she is in figuring out how to make neural implants calculate impact trajectories for firearms.
After the meeting, you dive immediately into the first piece of prepwork you have - which is improving your stealth technology. You've still got the Drukhari objects burning a hole in one of your vaults, but you aren't looking at those yet. If you're operating on the level of figuring out how internal combustion works those things are rocket engines headed for the next planet over.
Still, you saw how they disrupted your sensors, and you want that. The ability to use active projection of signals to mess with sensor technology isn't new, but seeing it applied gives you a goal to aim for. From that point on the problem is mostly signal processing. If you have incoming radar or lidar that's trying to reflect off of you to reveal your position, then you can detect what's hitting you and send back a signal that destructively interferes with the return signal to prevent you from being noticed.
It's never going to be perfect because EM reflection from a complex object is a chaotic solution space, but even a simple approximation of the solution should let you reduce the signal return dramatically. And seeing how it's done also gives you some ideas on how to counter it in your next round of sensor technology.
The second problem is of course generating the appropriate signal - but of course, there's already technology for this. You can build pretty good hologram projectors but that's not quite what you need here. Still, the principles are close enough - and the signal strengths are much weaker because the signals you need to generate are so small. You go through a few rounds of design, miniaturizing it again and again because you keep building something that's just stronger than what you need. Still, along the way you come up with several designs that would probably be sufficient to project an actual hologram over the surface of your units to make them harder to spot with the naked eye.
But that's not what you're going for right now. Eventually, you decide enough is enough and take your most recent design as the final version. At its smallest, it's about the size of a thumbnail and needs to be mounted semi-regularly over the surface of any given design. The tricky part is that the system needs to be calibrated depending on the sensor profile of the unit it's going to be mounted to, which you measure anyway as part of applying basic stealth to a unit.
Researched Basic Active Stealth, 94+20 = 114 Critical success! The Basic Stealth blueprint modification now includes active stealth. Unlocked new technology - Improved Active stealth (150 RP)
Unlocked bonus technology - Optical Camouflage (300 RP)
Finished prereqs for Better Sensors are just Physics & Active Spaceship Stealth
Discounted existing technology - Active Spaceship Stealth cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Low-Emission equipment cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Better Sensors are just Physics cost reduced by 50 RP
The next step - which you've been working on in parallel by making the projectors so small - is to make all of your stealth capabilities apply to your ground units, and your combat bots specifically. This mostly means figuring out how signals reflect from the small and complex surfaces of bots and vehicles, but that's something you solve pretty trivial with copious simulations and having a few of your bots obediently step into a box that bathes them with various wavelengths and measures the reflections with exquisite suites of sensors.
Then you tune your previous models to work with them. You'd been expecting some sort of hiccup in the process, but there wasn't any.
Researched Ground force Stealth, 55+20 = 75. Good success. The Basic Stealth blueprint modification now can be applied to combat bots & vehicles. The cost is 0.5x base BP cost for bots, 0.25x base BP for vehicles. Unlocked new technology - Ground force stealth standardization (150 RP)
With that done it's time to whip up a design using your new capabilities, and you put together a light bot type that's equipped with the new capabilities, as well as upgrade your existing stealth shuttles with the new technology.
Designed Specter (100 BP, 20 CP). 1000 infiltration bots, light arms and armor intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine-spirits, equipped with machine-spirit jamming, and are both passively and actively stealthy.
Constructed 2000 Specters.
You also take the moment of attention to make some revisions to your internal structure, upgrading your internal manufactories, finishing the psychic shielding repairs and building a small psychic shield around the vault holding the chaos artifacts and corpses you recovered from the Auric Burden.
Manufactories replaced with Machine-spirit Manufactories.
Outer Hull 240 HP
Bongo Oubliette 540 HP
Secondary Vault built - 50 HP
Meanwhile, you and Cia have been planning your approach to the volcano lair. You've started referring to it as the "lair" instead of "villa" because - well, it's in a volcano. And it belongs to somebody powerful and reclusive and probably evil. Maybe not explicitly a villain, but close enough that you're comfortable with the label.
It's hard to sneak up on something surrounded by the open ocean, but you're pretty sure there's a blindspot off a promontory that sticks out into the ocean. The terrain is rough there, but if you can establish a foothold you can work your way in from there.
Cia's watching alongside you through your implants as the shuttles scream in low over the water towards the island. There are definitely active sensors over there trying to ping anything approaching, but the new stealth capabilities and the low approach are sufficient to avoid attention, and a trio of shuttles deposits hundreds of Specters directly onto the beach before they turn around and leave the same way they approached.
The bots start working their way into the jungle, scaling the rough terrain and triangulating in on the sensor platform looking out over this stretch of the island. They find it atop the nearby cliff a few days later, masterfully camouflaged inside a large rock.
You need to disable the sensor system, but you want to avoid setting off any alarms when you do so. You dutifully tap Anexa to watch your attempt to hack into the relay and disable it without the central security system knowing. You're worried that you're going to make a mistake while she's watching and embarrass yourself, but the process goes smoothly and you succeed in making it seem like the system is still online even after you power it down.
The process wasn't too fast though, and there are more systems out there covering the long climb up the volcano and down the far side. You're also pretty sure there are anti-orbital guns in there, so you've avoided coming into their arc after your initial scan. It would be nice to have those offline, and your bots should be capable of it.
Still, this beach is safe enough, and soon enough more shuttles make slightly higher and safer approaches to unload more bots and gear to support them. Cia also disembarks, fully clad in her armor. She looks around at the idyllic beach and tropical jungle. "Wow, this place is gorgeous. Shame about the stank."
"Can you smell it through your armor?" You ask, worried all of a sudden. You're pretty sure you can treat the lung damage it causes, but it should't be able to penetrate the seals on her armor.
"No," she replies quickly to soothe your anxiety. "I just want to smell the beach, and the ocean."
"Oh. Ok." You withdraw your attention as she directs construction bots to start setting up her lodgings as the Spectors slowly work their way through the steep jungles high above.
Cia's mention of the stank has reminded you of the other thing you meant to do, and that's looking into geoengineering. Or at least climate engineering. Nearly every habitable world has been altered in some way, either intentionally or unintentionally. In your time it was par for the course for newly discovered planets to be terraformed to be habitable, though such processes could take hundreds of years.
You'd even carried the gear for it a time or two, though you hadn't been too interested in the process at the time. But now it's time to fix that, and you dive into the literature on the subject.
Your first lesson is that planets are big. Which is kind of obvious - it's a planet. But often when you think of terraforming the things you want to change are the temperature, atmosphere, and life on the planet. And it's easy to think about the atmosphere as a thin layer over the surface of a planet. But that's deceiving. The atmosphere covers the entire surface area and is about a hundred miles deep. Even if it's just gas, that adds up. Changing the composition of a normal planet's atmosphere by one percent means adding or removing about 5*10^16 kilograms, which for a more normal terrestrial planet is fifty times the amount of mass of all biomass on that planet.
Not so true here, what with all the seaweed everywhere. But Calderath is an exception in a few ways.
Usually, the most effective way to interface with a planet is with relatively small changes that have outsized effects. To warm or cool a planet the best method is to change how it absorbs or reflects light from space - most simply by spreading aerosolized nanoparticles through the upper atmosphere to reflect visible light back into space if you want cooling or infrared light back towards the ground if you want heating.
After that, it's all biology, since the best, and essentially only, way to change a planet's chemistry is with self-replicating systems that are effectively chemical factories. You start with a suite of microbes engineered for the task at hand, then add larger and more complex life as the conditions change and before you know it you end up with a living, breathing world that's ready for settlers.
Of course, Calderath is already livable, it's just got a minor issue with overabundant seaweed whose natural decay is throwing everything out of wack. The solution is probably to engineer a microbe that shortcuts the process somehow, and you see a few references in the literature to some similar ocean-biomass modifications, though usually those were geared to add biomass to the ocean, and the research was focused on preventing this kind of issue.
You spend some more time reading about ocean chemical cycles, and come up with a potential solution. You need to sink the seaweed, bury it in the ocean sediment so its not actively being degraded. Over millennia it'll turn to coal and then oil, but that's not the point, you just need it to stop decaying now. One path to do that would be to make a microbe that could anaerobically degrade the seaweed, focused not on perfect recycling but rather on breaking up and sinking most of it. If the process works you could release it to spread on its own, and the world could be livable again in as soon as twenty years. If it all works.
Or you could just build a bunch of ships that do the same process manually - which would be less risky but slower.
Researched How to Build a Biosphere - 35+20=55. Success. You'll have some idea of how to improve the livability of various worlds you run across with basic methods. Nothing radical yet, but any planet you run into you can do a project to tune temperature and basic chemistry. Unlocked new research - Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (150 RP)
Unlocked new research - MICROBES: Miniaturized climate regulatory and optimized biogeochemical engineering symbionts (250 RP)
Unlocked new research - Temperature? Let's talk Albedo (150 RP)
Unlocked new research - Habitation Requires Correct Ingredients (200 RP)
Unlocked new research - Bootstrapping a magnetic field (200 RP) Requires gravity weapons & Advanced Materials. Unlocked new blueprint - Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP, 10 CP)
Unlocked new blueprint - Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP)
However, whether you will actually go to those efforts is to some extant dependent on the opinions of the locals. They certainly seem friendly though all of the surveillance you can do, and you're not detecting any warp signatures that would indicate an active chaos cult or anything.
"Think we should just pop down and introduce ourselves?" you ask Victan one afternoon, perusing the stack of data you've accumulated on Stankberg.
Victan shrugs. "Yes? We don't even need to play the 'ancient' card. We can just say space travelers and it's probably all the same to them. I don't see reason for much subterfuge here. We're from space and we'd like to help them out.
"Ok. But you're not in the first shuttle down. Or even the third. I'll send my older avatar. It's more expendable."
He smiles wryly. "I don't think they have orbital weaponry. This should be a tad safer than going to do diplomacy with a convent full of Sororitas. But I won't push on this."
After that little chat you send a shuttle down the the planet. It's got some humanized combat bots aboard but most of the cargo is you and a box of masks as an introductory gift.
You choose a slow day and land on the outskirts of town, quickly gathering a crowd of excited and curious locals. It's hard to read their exact expressions through their masks, but they seem to be very emotive with their hands and the amount of wild gesticulation suggests that this is the most exciting thing to happen all year.
The ramp drops and your older woman avatar walks out, already dressed in a mask. The avatar doesn't need it, but if you don't have it they'll think you're crazy.
The crowd quiets down a bit as you walk out, though the rapid gesticulation continues. Then an elderly man steps out of the crowd and addresses you in a slow and slurred version of low gothic. "Y'all'd be from space, wouldn't ya. Watcha come hereabouts for?"
You blink at him and respond slowly yourself, enunciating carefully to be sure everything gets through the mask. "I'm travelling by, and can't help but notice you're having some trouble." You spread your hands wide, showing that they're empty. "Can I help? I have boxes of masks and can help you repair other things."
The man squints at you suspiciously. "What'd'ya be wantin' for all that?"
"To know I helped fellow humans. The right to build a base somewhere on the planet. Good relations with others in the sector."
He studies you for a second longer, then gives a decisive nod. "If'n you'd be wantin' the council to distribute the goods I'd hold onto um' a sec. Otherwise ya can just pile 'em out here and they'd be appreciated."
You take a second to parse that and then shrug and gesture for your bots to carry your welcoming gifts down onto the ground, throwing open the lids to reveal stacked piles of masks. Thousands of them, made with advanced materials science to block out the stank without overly hindering breathing.
The people of Stankberg meander forward in an anarchic mass once your bots withdraw, reaching into the boxes and picking out the masks. You note that nobody grabs more than a few, though a middle-aged woman with a baby in a sling counts out nine and then hustles away. Few try them out, though some of the teenagers do fairly quickly, making a show of holding their breath while they get the new masks snug across their faces and then exclaiming at how easy it is to breathe.
The elderly man watches the whole process, even as somebody hands him a mask. He feels it between his fingers and brings it up to his eyes to study it, then looks back to you and gives you an approving nod. "I'd be named Old Pete. You'all'd be wanted a tour?"
You give an uncertain nod and he turns and limps away, gesturing for you to follow. A few more older people who appear to be part of this "council" drift up in the next half-hour and you're introduced. None of them have titles, and instead they all introduce themselves with familiar-sounding nicknames like "Fisher Martha" and "Weaver Bill." They allow Old Pete to take the lead, but you can feel their weighty stares judging you quickly.
Over the next few hours, you and a few of your combat bots you'd brought along as bodyguards are given a fairly thorough tour of Stankberg. You see the old spaceport, the water purification center, the docks, the refrigerated warehouse that failed two decades ago, and the old spaceport. It takes you longer than it should to realize that he's highlighting the areas of the town that need improvement and repairs, and you're quick to suggest that you might be able to help with all of those and suggest that you could set up a more modern hospital as well as repairing the comms system so they could speak to anybody in orbit.
That seems to earn their approval, and they bid you a fond farewell when you move back to the shuttle. Old Pete gives you a firm handshake and makes eye contact. "I reckon you'd be welcome to set up on one of the other islands. We'd welcome somebody else around, if'n they were you."
Vitan seems pleased with the whole affair, speaking to your green-haired avatar in the conference room as you look at a holographic model of the city. "Not cultists, then."
You shake your head. "I got a thorough tour. If there are cultists then they'd hide it from each other too. I'm surprised by how friendly they are."
He shrugs. "They're limited by labor, not so much resources. They're encouraged to cooperate, and everything I've been reviewing from the local databases suggests that they were always a friendly place. The tithe was lower here than it should have been."
"The governer's villa, you think?"
"Maybe," he replies uncertainly. "I'm dying to know what we find in there."
You chuckle. "I hope not. But let's make true on our promises. I'll send the first-contact avatar again the first time we deliver substantial aid, and if that goes well you can take over. Keep the combat bots with you, I don't want you getting held ransom or anything ridiculous."
He snorts and replies in the tone you use for an overly protective parent. "Yes Vita."
You roll your eyes but lower the amount of attention you're paying to the Stankberg situation. They're a local population that knows how to live and operate on the planet but there's only a million or so of them, and from you can see it's going to be a while until they're relevant on the interstellar scale.
You turn your attention back to the volcano infiltration and are pleased to see that your forces have made rapid progress. The terrain is steep and the defenses paranoid, but careful piloting of stealth bots over a long period of time is the perfect solution to this kind of unmanned defense. Between you and Anexa you've successfully prevented any of the defenses from sending out an alert, and to the central system, it still looks like everything is normal.
Cia on the other hand is very much enjoying her vacation. She's figured out how to rig a smaller rebreather so she can explore the pristine natural beauty without her full armor, and has been badgering all of you to come down and enjoy it yourself.
Your response has so far been "Maybe when we capture the villa." Which looks like it might not be too far off. You've recently captured about a third of the circular ridge around the caldera and your bots have started to make their descent. There aren't very many sensors or defenses that could hinder your bots in here since most of the anti-personnel systems are outside the defenses. What's inside is the anti-orbital defenses, including a hidden void shield. At full power these defenses are tough, and you're glad you're not assaulting it in the open.
Not that I expect it to be incredibly well-defended given that it's unoccupied, but even so. This wouldn't be a bad place to build my own base.
Nonetheless, you move carefully until your bots reach the beach on the far side. You consider trying to get into the base by going underwater, but the easier entry is probably just the main entrance near the shuttle landing pad. It's well-defended, but a careful approach and systematic hacking neutralize the automated systems. In a tense series of parallel hacks, you and Anexa work your way into the systems on the entrance and disable the monitoring software while opening the doors. Then the bots go in.
Cia's on alert nearby with a contingent of heavier bots, ready to make a hot entrance if it's needed, but you don't think it will be. The first thing your bots see is a palatial entrance hall clearly designed to dazzle anybody who enters with the underground display of glamour and elegance. But it's all dark, without any signs of occupation. The surfaces of the entrance hall shine in the light from the open front door, the spotless wooden floors gleaming dully as your bots step forward on metallic feet.
Those scouts move on quiet feet through the halls, their darkened frames blending into the blackness even as night vision lets them see clearly. The villa branches out into a dizzying array of corridors, passages and rooms, everything as opulently decorated as that entrance foyer. You start your bots moving more quickly, scanning every room and moving onto the next.
It's right as you see a glimmer of blue light up ahead that Cia sends a message through the link she shares with Anexa and yourself, a feeling of uncertainty and suspicion coming along with the message.
> (Cia) Why is everything so clean? If it's been abandoned for a hundred years shouldn't there be dust everywhere? [Concerned]
You realize she's right. Something's keeping this place clean. You slow your bots down and have them move carefully and quietly. It slows you down, but here at the finish line you can tolerate a small delay. You notice that Cia's begun moving forward and you almost scold her for it, but in the end decide against it. She's not a child, and you need to trust her.
Moments later one of your forward bots enters the part of the villa that's underneath the lagoon proper. The ceiling is made of glass and vibrant blue light filters in from up above while the water all around is alive with vibrant fish swimming through patterned coral.
The room itself is set up as a kind of small theater, with a bar off to one side and a stage at the other. But moving among the overstuffed couches that form the seating is a maid, carefully dusting each of the seats in turn. She's dressed in a tight maid costume, with a half-apron, knee-length dress and frilled headpiece.
You hesitate at the anachronistic sight, trying to work out exactly what's going on here. At that moment the maid catches sight of your bot - which is clearly illuminated by the light filtering down from above.
She drops the duster and pulls a long knife from between her breasts, screeching wordlessly and charging at the bot. It shoots her, and she falls lifeless to the ground.
There's a moment of frozen silence, and you consult with your crew.
> (Vita) Made contact inside the villa. Do we go all-in? Or keep it quiet? [Uncertain]
> (Anexa) Go go go. They probably heard that and are setting up their response. That might include a self-destruct. [Excited]
> (Cia) I concur. Entering. Set all bots to aggressive, and watch them to make sure they don't shoot anything important. [Focused]
All of your bots break into a sprint, trying to get deeper into the villa before the enemy can fully realize they're under attack. You quickly run into more people dressed like servants, going about general maintenance on the manor. There aren't many of them but to a one they attempt to attack your bots, even when it's clearly suicidal to do so.
The resistance is light for a little while until it very much isn't. The locals have realized they're under attack and opened their armory, picking the positions with the perfection of people defending familiar terrain. You're still facing butlers and maids, but now they're dressed in flak armor and wielding weapons that any guardsman would be proud to carry.
Victan calls for them to surrender multiple times but each and every time is met with wordless screeches of denial. Then Cia hits the frontline with her armored bots. She hurls a ball of psychic flame at the defenders, breaking through the makeshift line of defense, and is among them in moments, her blade carving a path deeper while the medium bots fill in behind her. They're heavily armored enough to survive most hits, and the enemy defenses fall apart. But they don't run.
The strongest defenses are around what must be the command center, and a bevy of serious servants are clustered around a few of the channels, chanting hymns as they wait for the cogitator to process the command. Cia cuts them apart and then plugs a remote access cable into the console, giving you direct access to the system. They were trying to set every system to maximum aggressiveness, and rousing the machine spirit of the reactor. You don't think they could have triggered a self-destruct, but now that you have direct access you can ensure that the machine-spirit stays quiescent and doesn't consider detonating the whole villa with one of your crew inside.
You're trying to take captives, but they're unwilling to surrender and your bots aren't programmed for nonlethal takedowns. In at least one case Cia cuts the weapon out of somebody's hand and then backhands them to lie moaning on the ground. But when you direct a few bots to attempt to take them prisoner they draw a knife and cut their own throat.
In short order, Cia breaches the last defenses and finds the servants quarters - and it's a scene of bloodshed. A woman stands before an altar and stabs herself in the heart while mouthing prayers, and behind her dozens more people of all ages are kneeling, heads against the floor as if in prayer. But the spreading pools of red around them tell the true story.
Cia blinks at the scene and sighs. "Fanatics. Of the emperor this time. But damn if it doesn't remind me of the cultists."
It takes nearly half a day more to root out all of the servants, who perish to a one by their own hand or by the guns of your bots. But finally, the villa is yours, and what a place it is. A sprawling complex of luxurious rooms capable of sleeping hundreds in the highest opulence and many more in slightly less luxurious settings, it is geared to receive the governor and an enormous entourage without warning. There are a dazzling array of amenities provided, from the glorious beaches to hot mud baths to a plethora of sex dungeons and other, variably lurid entertainments.
Still, what you're most interested in aren't the luxuries, as revealing as they are of the Governer's taste - and that of his ancestors, if you're reading the names on the portraits correctly. No, what you're after are some of the rarer valuables and eccentricities scattered about, which have all escaped the fighting untouched.
The first piece of loot is in the very sanctum where most of the local death-cult-slash-servants killed themselves. Above the altar, placed in a place of pride where every worshiper can see it, is a skeletal hand.
You'd be very confused by that, but the inscription underneath is it very clear. This is the hand of Saint Agatha, the Saint of Burning Tears - and a hundred other titles, as the writings all around the temple indicate.
Isn't that the one the Sororitas had a connection to?
You'd be tempted to dismiss it as some kind of weird relic worship and not very relevant - but the warp sensors on Cia's armor indicate it's got a warp signature. One that's very different from the ones you've seen from Chaos. Strange.
Acquired the Hand of Saint Agatha. To investigate it, research Faith is My Shield?
Second loot roll - 2. Wealth.
The next most obvious place to check is the obvious vault off of the governor's own personal quarters. To your mild dismay, they're full of money. A lot of money, in the local currency. It's a kind of smooth gold-plated coin called an Aquila, and the vault is literally piled with them. There's also a heated tub full of them, in case the governor ever wanted to swim in money. There are other valuables of course, from artworks to rare spirits. Altogether it's not inherently useful to you, but a massive pile of treasure tends to be a useful bargaining chip, so you transfer it up to the ship.
The rest of the villa is depressingly empty until you follow the map to a place simply called the Hall of Wonders. It's a cavernous open room full of various oddities and pecuilarities. None of it strikes you as especially rare - most of it looks to be occupied by taxidermied hunting trophies or fossils or beautiful gems. There's a random tank sitting in the middle of the hall.
But at the far end of the hall raised above everything else, is clearly the place where the true treasures are kept. There are three exhibits. The first is labeled as "Collection of Xenos artifacts known as spirit stones. Known to contain their filthy souls. Confiscated from Guardsman after the battle of Ayltryn."
The display case is empty, without a trace of anything inside. You have a bot physically open the case and ensure that yes, there is in fact nothing there.
Well, that's unfortunate.
Third & Fifth loot roll - 1, 1. Risky but high-potential.
The next section occupies the back wall, and at first, it looks like a bunch of metallic humanoid skeletons each in their own separate cases. Their arms are crossed in front of them and they appear to be completely inert. But the proportions are wrong for a human, and the metal is more of a full body than a ribcage. Their surfaces are etched with intricate sigils, and a quick spectroscopic analysis confirms that this isn't a metal you've run into before.
The description simply says. "Ancient Xenos Warbots from beyond the expansion of Humanity beyond holy Terra. Purchased from a Rogue Trader Factor in Red Harbor."
Still, something about them is unsettling, and you wouldn't be surprised if the bots came to life unprompted. You'll need to be careful of this.
Vote below on what to do with the necrons.
Third/fifth loot roll - 6. Priceless.
And finally, resting in a place of pride under a dozen spotlights, is a twisted fragment of golden metal. It's about the size of a human's spread hand and looks like it was shattered from something larger under extreme force. There once may have been decoration to it, but the violence of whatever ripped it from the larger chunk has rendered it useless.
The inscription is simple. "Fragment of the Emperor's Armor."
Cia's been drawn to this room, and she looks down on it. "I can feel it. It's... singing to me."
You can feel it too, through the warp sensors on her armor. You wouldn't say "singing," but you can see how she got there. It's certainly resonant with psychic energies, and you're curious to investigate something totally beyond your experience.
Unlocked new research option - The Golden Metal (200 RP)
With that, you believe you've stripped the villa bare of most things that interest you, though you make sure to grab an array of spirits and other luxuries for your crew. No reason for them to go to waste, after all. Still, the base is nearly untouched and still protected by powerful defenses, including a solid void shield, anti-orbital lances, and strong ground defenses you could reactivate with the push of a button under your control. It wouldn't be a bad place to build a base of your own.
It's definitely a good place for a bit of a vacation, and you bring all of your crew down for a day on the villa's primary beach. It's a stunning place, with the high volcano all around but an uninterrupted splash of waves from the tunnel directly opposite the beach. Truly idyllic.
A few tech-priests join in the fun, but most complain about sand, and its coarseness and tendency to get everywhere. So it's just you and your crew, lounging in the sun. You're the only one not wearing a mask, and you have to admit that it seems to be a bit of a downer to try to enjoy yourself here with the constant reminder that unfiltered air would be dangerous, along with the everpresent stink that's almost impossible to completely filter out.
Still, everybody's in a good mood, and you talk about the events of the past few years.
Victan's solidified a friendship with Stankberg. They don't do formal treaties, since everything's based on consensus and collaboration. Their council doesn't have any real power, but they're recognized as the wisest people around so people will usually do what they say, unless they disagree with it.
You had wanted to try to get them to expand across their planet again. Your plan was to offer to make them shuttles, but after a bit of negotiation they rejected the offer and asked for more ocean-going instead. It took you a little while to accept their viewpoint - but they're more comfortable with ships and are better at operating and maintaining them. Besides, they've got a limited number of decently built hulls and adding more both helps them acquire more resources and is actually the bottleneck on Stankberg's expansion. It's yet to see if it happens, but there's certainly more chance of it than there was before you built more ships for them.
Then there's the thousands and thousands of masks you've dropped off, which have eased the most challenging task of Stankberg's society, and already there's been a population boom as people do other things with their time, confident that there will be enough masks to go around.
Between the ships, the masks and the repairs to their docks, the refrigeration unit on the warehouse, the spaceport, and the comms system you've amassed a massive amount of social credit with them. It would be possible to make a pretty strong suggestion and have it listened to carefully. They wouldn't accept it unless they thought it was a good idea, but you've clearly got their best interests in mind so they're willing to go out on a branch.
Stankberg Diplomacy - 88+26 = 114. Critical success! +1 Victan level.
Vote below on any suggestion you have for Stankberg.
When it comes time for Anexa to report on her research she looks down and kicks at the sand with a bare foot. "Ah, yeah. It - didn't work. The computational requirements were too much."
You raise an eyebrow at her. That's partially correct. What she's leaving out is that the reason it didn't work is that she spent too much of her time on the infiltration of the manor, helping you with the hacking. You didn't say anything at the time because she was genuinely useful and you thought that she was making fine progress and would be able to finish it later. But then she hit a stumbling block and didn't have time to recover, and now you're here.
"The issue is that it's too computationally heavy, and I was providing too much information. Wind speed, trajectories of all possible projectiles, options for melee combat... too many features. We need to scrap it, then sit down and figure out what is actually important for these kinds of implants," Anexa explains, then shrugs. "It's a bigger problem than I thought, is all."
Researched Combat Neural Implants - 1+ 30 = 31. Failure. You do not get combat neural implants. The tech remains on the tree and now costs +25 RP.
You all enjoy another few days in the sun before you get an alert that somebody has jumped into the system from the direction of Aestron, in sub-sector Tiràn
Does anybody visit? - rolled a 9.
Sensor readings - rolled a 50. Success!
It's a moderately-sized ship, about the size of an Imperial Frigate. But from what you're seeing it's much cruder. The ship has a face, and it's a grinning mass of teeth that would do fairly well in a ramming operation. The rest of it isn't much better. When people say "rustbucket" they're usually talking metaphorically. For this ship it's literal. Most of it seems to be made of rust, and you wouldn't be surprised if more than a few buckets were involved in the construction of that ungodly heap of scrap.
Still, it's enough for you to know what's going on. That's an orkish scouting craft heading towards the planet, and you need to decide what to do about it.
Vote below for how to respond to the orkish ship.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 1,780/12,900
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 600
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 240/240 HP, Vita Core 135 HP, Crew Quarters 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 41/??? Represented as approximate damage potential.
Juvenat usage: 3/50 people's worth (cannot be stockpiled)
Shipbuilding capacity: 0 ship construction slots (treat it as capacity. You can only be building ships that fit within your construction slots)
Available ships: none, beyond your flagship.
Available ground forces:
1589 Specter Light infiltration bots (2x20 = 40 CP)
2000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (2x20 = 40 CP)
2000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (2x20 = 60 CP) CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. Khornish Cultist corpses & artifacts. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governer's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots (pending vote). A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor.
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular. Don't do this just because it's free. Do it if you want to know something. Writing those sections delays the updates. If you want Vita to get more done, don't ask for this.
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
[] Travel/Explore: Pick a system on the Map to travel to/explore. Currently, you may travel 1 system as part of an explore action, or 3 systems if you don't explore. You can explore a place you've already explored, or focus your exploration on a specific feature of a place you've already explored. Or explore two systems next turn and then the turn after go back for specific POIs without costing an action. Jumping a single system over as part of an exploration action is free, a number which will increase with better navigation.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method)
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what you spend them on.
Installations
Installation default is to be built in full view. Basic stealth (building under cover, sensor-absorbing materials) can be applied with 2x BP cost. Ground-based installations can be built entirely underground for 3x BP cost.
For non-military installations, you can upgrade them with psychic shielding by spending extra BP up to the 2x the base cost of the installation. The more you spend, the stronger the shielding will be.
Basic Biology Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic biological samples, such as flora & fauna. Or captives.
Basic Technological Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic technological samples, to understand their electronics, materials, etc.
Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab (200 BP, 50 CP) Will allow for safer experimentation with psytech and general psyker powers, at the very least confining the damage from perils of the warp. Can be outfitted with inwards-facing psychic shielding.
High-Energy Physics Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Will allow you to conduct research on more... excitable branches of physics. Maybe don't put it close to anything you want to keep. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place)
Warp Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Anexa's brainchild. Half mad science lair, half sensible warp research setup. Will allow you to conduct research on the warp, miniature portal generator and all. Will likely help contain poor results, though maybe give it some psychic shielding. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place in addition to any psychic shielding you add.)
Captive Holding cells (25 BP, 10 CP) will allow you to hold 500 captives and keep them fed and watered while you interrogate/indoctrinate/talk to them.
Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP) 50 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Directional-control Radio tower (25 BP, 5 CP) improves signal reception quality and allows you to send your own signals across the planet, as well as giving you the capability to bounce them off the atmosphere to disguise their origin.
Observatory (100 BP, 25 CP) Built on a nearby mountain. Will unlock research projects to map the current system.
Manufactory (100 BP, 50 CP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity.
Machine Spirit Manufactory (120 BP, 20 CP) As a manufactory, but controlled primarily by machine spirits. +60 ground-based build capacity.
Industrial Aquaculture Plant (50 BP, 10 CP) Produces all of the food necessary to feed 5000 people. The food is very spicy.
Rocket Launch facility (50 BP, 10 CP) Uses chemical rockets to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to half that amount of void build capacity per action. The opposite of stealthy.
Spaceport (100 BP, 25 CP) Allows you to use shuttles to convert ground build capacity to Void build capacity with no loss, or as a base to host and rearm fighters. Can host 10 fighters or 10 shuttles, each capable of converting 50 ground BP to void BP per action, built separately. Stealthier than rockets, but not invisible.
Magnetic Catapult launch system (1000 BP, 50 CP) Allows you to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to void build capacity per action with no loss. Actually quite stealthy.
Medium Void-shield Installation (1000 BP, 50 CP) A void shield capable of stopping medium orbital bombardment, approximately fifty heavy strikes.
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.
Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
Anti-personnel Bunker, Psychic Shielding (40 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor. Modified with psychic shielding.
Machine-spirit Jammer (100 BP, 10 CP) A bank of cogitators capable of jamming a large number of small machine spirits (weapons, doors), several medium machine spirits (vehicles) or one large machine spirit (small ship). Effect is temporary and resistance will build up.
Basic Juvenat Production Facility (250 BP, 50 CP) A set of carefully-managed vats capable of supplying 50 people with a perennial supply of Juvenat.
Void Installations
These are built in space. They require 'void BP' which is associated with lift capacity. This is a detail we'll abandon eventually, but for now your lift capacity is limited.
Orbital Aquaculture Plant (250 BP, 25 CP) Produces all the food necessary to feed 25,000 people. The food is very spicy.
Orbital Manufactory (250 void BP, 40 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +50 void build capacity.
Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactory (300 void BP, 15 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +60 void build capacity.
Deep Space Manufactory (750 void BP, 40 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +100 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Machine Spirit Deep Space Manufactory (900 void BP, 15 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +120 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) 4 Ship construction slots
Medium Shipyard (3000 void BP, 100 CP) 16 Ship construction slots
Large Shipyard (10,000 void BP, 250 CP) 64 Ship construction slots
Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP) Rests steailthily in orbit, until activated, at which point it can attack nearly any target in orbit. One-shots satellites, many are needed for ships or larger platforms.
Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Requires a spaceport for rapid transport of troops.
Tiny system monitor (950 void BP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1500x300 meters. 7 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Light Shields. 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 light lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Small system monitor (2375 void BP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots) Frigate, 2200x600 meters. 5 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. 4x Medium Macrocannons, 1x Medium Lances, 2x Point Defense.
Candle (1450 void BP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1600x350 meters. 8 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. Living Space, Psychic Shields (20 HP) 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 Medium Lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
Specter (100 BP, 20 CP). 1000 infiltration bots, light arms and armor intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine-spirits, equipped with machine-spirit jamming and are both passively and actively stealthy.
Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor, mostly intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Good in tight corners and rough terrain. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control.
Light Machine-spirit infantry bots (35 BP, 20 CP). As light Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Light Humanized Machine-spirit infantry bots (60 BP, 20 CP). As light Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look like humans. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger.
Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Good all-rounders. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control.
Medium Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (75 BP, 20 CP) As Medium Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (100 BP, 20 CP) As Medium Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look like humans. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots.
Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good in open field combat against heavily armed foes.
Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (150 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Heavy Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (175 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look human. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots.
Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (190 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look human. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots. Can jam the weapons and equipment of foes who use machine spirits.
Light Machine-spirit tanks (150 BP, 5 CP) As Light tanks, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Medium tanks (200 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor.
Medium Machine-spirit tanks (375 BP, 5 CP) As Medium tanks, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Basic Artillery (300 BP, 50 CP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Basic Machine-spirit Artillery (450 BP, 5 CP) As Basic Artillery, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP, 10 CP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
Export Goods
Light Infantry Weapons (5 BP) Enough light weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Mostly intended for anti-personnel use. Lasguns, a few stubbers, some grenade launchers and supplies of frag grenades.
Light Infantry Armor (5 BP) Enough light armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial guard Flak armor, though with better communication abilities.
Medium Infantry Weapons (10 BP) Enough medium weapons to outfit 1000 humans. A mix of anti-armor and anti-personnel use with greater specialization. Hotshot las-gun equivalents, some lascannons, some autocannons, some flamers, some sniper rifles, a supply of krak grenades.
Medium Infantry Armor (10 BP) Enough medium armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial carapace armor.
Heavy Infantry Weapons (20 BP) Enough heavy weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Primarily focused on anti-armor, will work well on power-armored foes. Plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
Heavy Infantry Armor (5 BP per unit) Enough heavy armor to equip 1000 humans with armor slightly superior to Sisters-of-Battle grade armor. Can be built with integrated void-shields by doubling the price.
Basic Force Weapons (5 bp for a personalized one, or 10 for 1 bp for general-purpose) A force weapon in the shape of a sword, axe, spear or glaive. Ideally it gets personally fitted to the user, which is difficult but has a better result, or you can mass-produce weapons that will work but won't be all they could be.
Man-portable Machine-Spirit Jammers (10 BP) Enough small devices in the forms of vox-units, bluescreen grenades and directed antennae to arm 1000 humans with gear that increases their effectiveness against enemies using weapons, armor and vehicles with machine spirits.
Personal Void Shields (5 bp per unit) A void-shield projector capable of protecting a person or bot from weapons fire. Can be fit into an amulet or be a larger unit attached to armor for greater shield strength.
Personal Psychic Shields (25 bp per unit) A person-sized set of psychic shields, that must be attached to the inside of a stiff suit of armor, increasing bulkiness and decreasing flexibility unless properly integrated by Armor Device Integration.
Light crewed tanks (100 BP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Need crew. Roughly equivalent to the Imperial Chimera.
Medium crewed tanks (200 BP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor. Roughly equivalent to the Leman Russ.
Basic Crewed artillery (300 BP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Trade goods (Any cost you wish to spend) A mix of medical supplies, civilian equipment, vehicles and appliances tailored to your trade partner's needs. 5 is a small amount of goods, 10 is decent, 20 is a fair number, 50 starts being quite a lot.
Manned Manufactory (100 BP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity, to be spent as the people running it desire.
Residential Space (10 BP)
Enough living space for 1000 people. Beds, plumbing. Temperature control.
City (1000 BP per 50,000 people)
The complete package for a city. Residential space, power generation, sewage treatment, transit, and offices. No food production.
Orbital habitat (1750 Void BP per 50,000 people) As city but in space. Includes Hydroponics.
Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it, and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. Also can turn the seaweed into moderately palatable food for the crew. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
[] 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.
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, suggest them in the thread 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.
Blueprints Design
Blueprint Modification Options
New blueprint Modification system: We've unlocked various additions to ground blueprints. Instead of attempting to list all possible combination below I'll list the base options, and you can trick them out with the following modifications. In general BP & RP should round up to the nearest 5. CP does not. Note that these are calculated off "base cost," not total cost, so it is not compounding, though some upgrades increase the base cost.
Here's an example of me designing a fancy assault shuttle.
The base blueprint is 25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP), but I want to make it fancy. First, let's make it machine-spirit controlled. That gives +0.5x base BP, -0.9x CP, or +15 BP, -4.5 CP. So the blueprint is now:
25 RP - Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (40 BP, 0.5 CP)
Then I want to give it void shields. That costs +1x base BP cost because it's a small craft, then +1x RP. So +25 BP, +25 RP. Now it's:
50 RP - Void-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (65 BP, 0.5 CP)
Now I want to give it psy shields. That's +4x base BP cost for small craft (which was 25, so +100 BP), and +1x base RP cost (which was 25, so +25 RP). So now it's:
75 RP - Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (165 BP, 0.5 CP)
Oh and screw it, might as well make it stealthy too, which is +1x base RP cost, +0.25x base BP cost, so that's +10 BP (round up to nearest 5) & +25 RP cost, which leaves us with:
100 RP Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (175 BP, 0.5 CP)
And of course that's a bit of a mouthful, so I'm going to rename it the "Icarus," and the blueprint should look like:
100 RP - Icarus (Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle, 175 BP, 0.5 CP)
If we'd wanted to also make it humanized (so it looks like it's piloted by people, for example if you wanted to transport allies without them knowing it was flown by robots) then this all changes, since that adds +5 BP to the base cost. That doesn't change the RP or CP cost at all, but it does change BP. Instead of 25+15(0.5x)+25(1x)+100(4x)+10(0.25x)=175 you'd do (25+5)+15(0.5x)+30(1x)+120(4x)+10(1.25x)=205 BP. And then you'd have
100 RP - Basic Stealth Humanized Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (205 BP, 0.5 CP)
Humanization - (+15 base BP cost for combat bots, +5 base BP for vehicles, small craft & defensive installations) Makes a unit appear to be operated by fully-armored humans. Slightly increases strength and armor of those units. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine Spirit Jammers - (+10 base BP) Adds machine-spirit jamming equipment to the blueprint, enhancing capabilities against forces that use machine spirits. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine-spirits - (+0.5x base BP cost, -0.9x base CP cost) Make this blueprint controlled by machine spirits, making it slightly corruption resistant and reducing the load on your systems. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Void Shields - (+1x base BP cost for tanks & small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds void shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft.
Psychic Shielding - (+4x base BP cost for tanks, small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base BP cost for defensive installations +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds psychic shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability against warpy threats. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Basic Stealth - (+0.25x base BP cost for vehicles and small craft, +0.5x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP cost, ) Makes a unit harder to detect with both active & passive means. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Combat Bots
10 RP - Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor.. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at either.
25 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Vehicles
15 RP - Light tanks (100 BP, 50 CP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium tanks (250 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons & antipersonnel weapons to fight enemy armor and infantry. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at any.
25 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Small Craft
25 RP - Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) A single shuttle which converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity, and shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking for it. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
25 RP - Bomber (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
25 RP - Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Cannot deliver troops to space targets.
Defensive Installations
10 RP - Anti-armor Bunker (50 BP, 5 CP) A bunker with a heavy melta cannon, able to take out most armor in a single shot.
5 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (20 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor.
25 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
25 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
25 RP - Nuclear warhead (25 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a city-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in.
10 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
Utility
50 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien origin. Has advanced scanning, modeling and processing capabilities.
10 RP - Maglev System (5 bp/mile, 50 flat CP) A high-capacity maglev system to transport large amounts of goods across a planetary surface, linking various surface installations together into a single network so production from any of them can be applied at all of them.
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 amount of space inside the ship, which is represented by the number of BP spent on the hull. That's your "Budget"
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 cramming.
Pick hull equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards cramming.
Choose weapons, combat equipment & noncombat equipment to add to the ship. 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.
Have a vote win which spends the necessary RP to design the planned ship.
(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.
Light defense Platform, 10 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, 25 RP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slots (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, 50 RP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150)
Light Cruiser, 75 RP, 200 CP, 8 ship construction slots (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/150/300) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Heavy Cruiser, 100 RP, 300 CP, 32 ship construction slots (2000-6000 BP, 4500x600-6000x1200 meters) Engines: (2/3/4 gravities) for (300/400/500 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400)
Available Hull Equipment:
These do not count towards hull cramming.
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.
Void Abacus (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can navigate through the warp slowly, at a rate of 3 systems per action. Requires Abacus Manufacturing technology.
Psychic Shielding (Between 1/10 to 1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, that thinks "no" as hard as possible, answering the question for any warp-corruption for any beings or objects within the hull. HP of the shield is 1 HP per 5 BP spent on it.
Basic Passive Steath Profile (1/5 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has it's sensor profile reduced with special coatings and a shape that reduces the cross-section in response to active sensors. It can reasonably expect to stay hidden at long ranges (outside weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Improved Passive Stealth Profile (1/2 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is heavily dedicated to stealth, with not just coatings and a shape but also significant amounts of sensor bafflers and other passive systems designed to prevent it from being spotted. Should be able to stay hidden at medium ranges (or long weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Advanced Passive Stealth Profile (Doubles base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship tries it's hardest to be a void in space, and so long as it's not moving it generally succeeds. Should be able to stay hidden at close ranges as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Probably not good enough to get into boarding range.
Available Weapons:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Multiple the final weapon cost by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of weapons, it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for final ship cost.
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. Heavy Plasma Cannon 1000 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 armor. Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Heavy Melta cannon 800 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability. Basic stealth automatically applied. Shuttles 100 BP, 50 CP. 10 Shuttlecraft, combined capacity of 500 lift to or from a planet. Assault Shuttles 150 BP, 50 CP. 10 Assault shuttles, with combined capacity of 1000 troops or 10 tanks in one trip. asic stealth automatically applied.
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. Large Torpedoes 600 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck cruisers, hurt grand cruisers and make battleships 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 Equipment:
These do count towards hull cramming.
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.
Improved Sensors 250 BP - increased size and density of sensors, backed up by the necessary computational support, will make it more difficult for anybody to sneak up on this ship. Excellent Sensors 500 BP - You would say it's impossible to sneak up on a ship with this many sensors, but you saw what the Eldar did, and now it's merely incredibly improbable. Superb Sensors 1000 BP - This ship has enough sensors of enough modalities that it's basically a mobile scientific research platform. Anything weird will get noticed, investigated, and if it's an enemy ship, pinned down.
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 Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for tuned shields, so if shields costs 100 bp, then tuned shields cost 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for alloyed armor, so if armor costs 100 bp, then alloyed armor costs 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). 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.
Light Machine Spirit Jammers (1/20 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Enough to cause significant degradation in an enemy ship's sensors, maneuvering and targeting. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Medium Machine Spirit Jammers (1/10 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same as light jammers, plus will also effect total thrust, weapons firing rate. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Heavy Machine Spirit Jammers (1/5 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same effect as medium, but may also effect friend-foe designation and reactor stability. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class.
These do count towards hull cramming.
Troop compartment (50 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 severely injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Cargo Bay (No cost, free. Designate an amount of BP to fill for cramming purposes) Allows transport of an amount of BP equivalent to the cramming amount from one system to another.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost. Can be used to refit the ships as well with a +50% markup. Cannot be used to make new ships, bots, manufactories.
The ways to get new research options are to:
Do research. That'll unlock more research.
Build appropriate installations & potentially acquire samples to research in them (samples could be anything from 'a human' to 'a Norn queen' in rarity).
Ask for them. Often I'll tell you what you need to do to unlock specific research options,
Ship Design
-[] Grand Cruisers (400 RP) Making a ship design that's not spaghetti takes time and effort. It's still boring. But if you want to make queens of the void, its necessary. (unlocks grand cruisers, half of the prereq for battleships)
-[] Medium Defense Platforms (50 RP) You've already got most of the tools you need to build bigger defensive platforms, but these would be a larger platform to stick guns on, with more ability to withstand damage. (Unlocks medium defensive platforms, potential for other void-based installation options)
-[] Improved Engine Designs (150 RP) Based on your understanding of physics and a few old research papers you think you can improve engine reactor thrust velocities. (Enhances ship speeds at every level. Unlocks further speed, maneuverability & stealth technologies)
-[] Streamlined ship design (150 RP) You can improve your tools for ship design to make it easier to design ships in the future. That might be nice (Halves the RP cost to design new ships, may unlock other ship design improvements)
-[] Efficient Equipment Distribution (100 RP) Let's see if you can apply the benefits from weapon packing to equipment (Equipment costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing. Especially effective for cargo holds.)
-[] Extremely Efficient Weapon Distribution (200 RP) You did a good job already in packing more weapons into less space. But you think you see ways to make it even better (Weapons cost at 0.75 for ship capacity packing)
-[] 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 new iterations of your ship)
-[] Boarding Capabilities (100 RP) Apparently it's common for ships in this day and age to board each other and for the crew to fight hand-to-hand. Instead of, you know, chucking enormous missiles at each other. Insane. Well, it might be a nice capability to have in case you want to capture ships intact. (Unlocks boarding torpedoes, drop pods, and boarding craft for hangers, may combine with stealth research to unlock stealth borders)
-[] Networked missiles (100 RP) The biggest danger to missiles is that they'll get shot down by fighters and point defense. If you can network them together to cooperate against those threats, more of the warheads will reach their targets. (Unlocks new combat equipment to make missiles more effective. May unlock more technology to make missiles smarter, longer ranged and generally more effective)
General Design
-[] Large-scale Void Manufacturing (100 RP) Unlike ground factories, which have to deal with gravity and atmosphere, there's little stopping you from just... scaling up the principles of void manufacturing. Besides the annoying spaghetti of logistics, but that's a solvable problem. (Allows you to design large void manufactories that are more efficient, improves the manufactories on your ships to be 1/5 instead of 1/10 production. Potential for other void-based platform technologies).
-[] Ground Manufactory Efficiency Improvements (50 RP) You dramatically improved the efficiency of your void manufacturing by stripping out the dumb stuff that was required by stellar federation bureaucracy. There's probably some stuff like that in your ground manufactories too. (Reduces the CP cost but not BP cost of your ground manufactories. Unlocks follow-on tech to build ground manufactories in more challenging conditions such as extreme temp/pressure planetoids).
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, dreadnaughts, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Mothballing (50 RP) Keeping a bunch of systems functional and ready requires attention that is swiftly running out. Maybe you can figure out how to spend less attention on things that are mostly inactive (Unlocks the ability to mothball an installation for 10% of it's build cost, free reactivation that takes a few weeks. May unlock techs to allow you to freely turn things on and off, as well as increasing the speed of reactivation enough for you to keep military installations mothballed until they're needed.)
-[] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP) You understand all of the physical parts of an abacus. Now you need to figure out all of the manufacturing techniques needed to actually put one together. (Unlocks the void abacus ship equipment)
-[] Habitation Requires Correct Ingredients (200 RP) If a planet lacks an essential element, there's not that much you can do about that. Well, there isn't unless you lack imagination. You could crash comets and asteroids into the planet and get volatiles that way - but it would take a lot of them. Still, doable, if expensive. (Unlocks the ability to add essential elements to planets that lack them. Likely expensive, though further research will reduce the cost).
Stealth
-[] Improved Spaceship Passive Stealth (200 RP) Your current stealth systems are effective, but it would be nice if they were a little bit more effective. And maybe a bit cheaper. (Improves the effect and cost of stealth hull equipment. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth.)
-[] Low-Emission equipment (150 RP) Hiding a ship's profile versus active and passive sensors is one thing, but hiding engine signatures and head dumping is entirely another (Unlocks new non-combat equipment to allow ships to maneuver and do other things without destroying their stealth. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. May unlock technology to allow weapons fire without breaking stealth.)
-[] Active Spaceship Stealth (150 RP) Not returning a sensor signal is one thing, but actively providing false signals is another, and something that the Drukhari are evident masters of. (Unlocks new equipment to improve ship stealth against various sensors that you can't trick any other way. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. May unlock technology to hide your position and prevent enemies from getting good targeting.)
-[] Ground force stealth standardization(150 RP) It takes some time and effort to design stealth versions of various units, and they end up more expensive to produce. If you take another look at the process with an eye towards standardizing it you could probably improve that. (Reduces the BP & RP cost of stealth modifications for ground forces, potentially to zero.)
-[] Improved Passive Stealth (50 RP) Ok, you've figured out the basics of hiding your small craft, but you have ideas on what you can do better, that might allow them to hide from even fully-alert enemies. They probably won't be able to close all the way to attack range, but they'll be able to get a lot closer (Unlocks improved stealth designs with improved performance. Unlocks further research for advanced passive stealth technologies. Will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Improved Active Stealth (150 RP) Again, moving towards the idea of actively countering sensors so they can't see you. It's a cat-and-mouse game with sensors, and you want to be the cat. (Improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures. Unlocks further research for advanced active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Optical Camouflage (300 RP) Covering your units with holograms to make them harder to see with the naked eye sounds like a simple concept, but it very much is not. You need to know where the watcher is, project an image of what's behind you, and make it account for the movement of both the viewer and object. Unless you can think of a better idea. (Unlocks a blueprint modification to make your units harder to see. Unlocks further visual camouflage capabilities that might be closer to true invisibility)
-[] Examine the Dark Eldar Craft (150 RP) The Dark Eldar boarding craft showed incredible stealth capabilities. If you can figure out how it works that would be a great way to improve your own stealth capabilities (Discounts all stealth technology, may unlock unique stealth research and let you see through Eldar stealth better) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
Shields
-[] Heavy Void shields (150 RP) Your current shields are good, but they could be better. Specifically, you want to make multi-layered shields, which could be applied to anything larger than a destroyer (Unlocks heavy void shields for ships and stations, as well as further research for void shielding improved for recharge speed, layered defenses, etc.)
-[] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (100 RP) Well, the void shields you have are nice. But it would be nice to be able to build bigger ones, that can shrug off essentially any possible orbital bombardment. You need to figure out how to take advantage of the ridiculous energy and heat dissipation capabilities of being on a planet. (Unlocks heavy and super-heavy void shield installations. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding.)
-[] Void Shield Layering (400 RP) If you could layer multiple shields together, then when one failed the second could take damage while the first recharged. Right now there's harmonics that prevent this, but you are sure you can figure it out... with a full redesign. (Unlocks the ability to layer two sets of shields. Will unlock research for more layers of shielding, weirder shapes of shields and other specialty modules)
-[] Void Shield Discounts (300 RP) You have some ideas on how to swap out materials or simplify designs to reduce the costs of void shields. (Reduces the cost of void shields across the board. May lead to new kinds of mundane applications for void shields, such as manufacturing modules, shielded fighters or shuttles)
Materials & Armor
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks. Prerequisite for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Advanced Materials (250 RP) You know there are exotic elements with absurd physical properties. But it's also possible to build absurdly strong materials with common elements. How does that work? Time to dust off some ancient research projects and figure this stuff out. (Unlocks improved armor, as well as research to unlock megastructures. Also required for battleships and larger walkers)
-[] Heavy Armor Production Line (100 RP) You can make Heavy armor, but you solved the problem by effectively making each suit into a custom-crafted suit full of expensive actuators. Maybe a redesign will make it cheap enough to mass-produce, and unlock follow-on research. (Dramatically reduces cost for heavy armor, and subsequent superheavy armor. May unlock more options for heavy armor, including integrated mobility options)
-[] Armor Device Integration (200 RP) Your armor blocks blows, which is its basic purpose. Still, it would be great to be able to integrate different devices into it - void shields, psytech, mobility options like jetpacks, holdout weapons and more. (Unlocks the ability to design specialty types of medium, heavy and superheavy armor that contain additional functions, many of which will be unlocked by other technology.)
-[] Temperature? Let's talk Albedo (150 RP) To change the temperature of a planet, you simply need to change how much it's absorbing and re-radiating, then let the energy of a local star do the rest. (Unlocks projects to heat or cool planets over decades with surprisingly minimal investment. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] The Golden Metal (200 RP) On Calderath, inside the Sector Governer's Hall of Wonders, in place of pride, you found a piece of golden metal supposedly from the Emporer's armor. What is it? What can it do? Why does it react stragely to psychic energy? Can you shape it into something for Cia? How can you find more? (A basic understanding of auramite and how to work it. Will unlock further research to prospect for it more efficiently - or potentially synthesize it eventually). Write in if you'd like to fashion what you have into the edge of a weapon or part of a piece of psytech for Cia.
Robotics
-[] Avatar self-customization (100 RP) Your previous avatar was capable of changing its appearance at your whim, changing the hair, eye and skim color rapidly. Hair length and body size changes took a bit longer but were also possible. Is this worth figuring out? It might just be you being vain. (Unlocks some disguise-style cybernetics... once you get good cybernetics and can do things like skin/eye replacements).
-[] Improved Armor Articulation (50 RP) From your research on humanizing combat bots you have some ideas about improving the points of articulation on armor to increase the range of motion and make the suits more responsive. (Increased performance & mobility for heavier armor, both for combat bots & people wearing heavy armor you make. May unlock further armor upgrade techs)
-[] Combat Bot Melee Combat (150 RP) Your bots aren't armed for melee combat, and don't really have the articulation for it. If you could fix that, maybe they wouldn't be so vulnerable to close-range combat. (Gives your combat bots melee weapons and basic proficiency with them. Will unlock technology for improved melee proficiency, as well as synergize well and potentially unlock technology for improved melee weaponry.)
-[] Really good Robotics: (600 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.
AI research
-[] Intelligence Coding (400 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, also unlocks personality-checking research)
- [] Personality-Checking Routines (200 RP) All of this chaos-corruption is making you nervous. People changing according to the will of some warp-entity? Becoming different in ways that would disgust their past selves? That gives you the heebee-jeebies. Maybe - just maybe - it would be good to develop some ways to automatically check if aspects of your personality are diverging ways you don't want them to. Then you might be able to fix the problem before you become somebody who doesn't want (Gives you some algorithms to check for personality divergence in AIs. Doesn't do anything, just alerts you to changes and lets you decide what steps to take. Unlocks further research to prevent/rollback personality change, as well as potentially extend this research to humans with neural implants). Locked behind Intelligence Coding.
Psychic Shielding
-[] Better Psychic Shielding Efficiency (200 RP) You've figured out how to make your shielding modular, but each panel is still tricky to make. If you spent some time iterating that design you think you could make them even easier to make, and potentially power powerful (Further Improves the BP/HP ratio for psychic shields, may improve the HP of shielding you can pack into a unit of space.)
-[] Psychic Shielding Reliability (100 RP) Trying to make tripwire-versions of your shielding that could be installed in everything has revealed a weakness - the circuits can spontaneously fail. You fixed that problem by making them tougher, but now they won't always trigger. You're confident you can fix this issue, but it'll require you to make them more failure-proof. On the plus side, this should mean that your psychic shielding can last longer without maintenance. (Makes psychic tripwires more accurate, potentially to the point where it's impossible to corrupt your tech without you knowing about it. Also likely to make your psychic shielding last long time periods without maintenance. Will unlock research to use this on ships, and to make civilian-grade versions that could be put into literally everything).
-[] Small-scale design-integrated psychic shielding (150 RP) You could take this approach a step further, and integrate the psychic shielding into the designs of bots, vehicles and small installations from the start. (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for bots, vehicles and small installations. Will likely improve the quality of shielding available and unlock research for further shielding improvements)
-[] Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (250 RP) Start installing this shielding into hull plates as the norm. Every ship will have psychic shielding (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for all ships and platforms. Will unlock research to make this shielding better)
-[] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP) Your current shielding says "No" at all times, which seems to work against most warp threats. You think you might be able to modify it for a different meaning, which may have different effects. You're not sure exactly what, but you'd kind of like to try "Aboslutely not" or maybe even "You're not real" and see what happens. (Unlocks new types of psychic shielding with different/improved effects, as well as further research into more powerful psychic shielding - some of which may be less "shielding" and more of an offensive weapon.)
-[] Machine Spirit-controlled Psychic Shields (50 RP) You think it's possible to integrate machine spirits into your chaos shielding, which would probably make it more effective in almost every way except cost. (Unlocks new kinds of psychic shielding that are more resistant to damage, potentially self-repairing and more) Requires Machine Spirit Chaos resistance.
-[] Tiny Psychic shielding (400 RP) You were able to make your smaller psychic shielding by stacking the components and using the interference caused to generate the proper effect. However, you don't understand that interference well enough to go any smaller. Once you do, you can start to try to make actually tiny versions of the psychic shielding, small enough to fit in implants, or potentially into totems that project the shielding effect outside of themselves. (Fixes the issues with personal psychic shields, unlocks the ability to create implants with psychic shielding capability and potentially allows you to make amulets with psychic shields. May unlock additional technology to make all of that better.) Requires Triple Nested Psychic shielding
-[] Triple Nested Psychic shielding (200 RP) You've had two shields, yes. What about three? (Allows you to have three layers of shielding active at once. May unlock tech to allow inner shields to boost outer shields to be greater than the sum of their parts)
-[] Multi-meaning shields (300 RP) Your current shields say "No." Other sayings probably exist, and saying multiple things at the same time might have more esoteric effects, such as damaging attackers or defending better against certain types of attacks. Combining multiple of those into one shield could be powerful. (Allows you to combine two shield types together into one shield. May unlock further research for further combination, or to say one meaning EXTRA HARD.) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Scrapcode Denial (400 RP) Scrapcode - and psychic corruption in general - is a difficult opponent. It's hard to enforce mistakes when it can magically see through your defenses. But if you could incorporate psychic encryption into that approach, it becomes viable again. (Makes your shielding Extraordinarily resistant to potentially completely immune to scrapcode-based attacks. Does not apply to machine spirits yet. May unlock technology to apply to other kinds of corruption. Likely synergistic with generating your own scrapcode)
-[] Psychic Shield Tuning (200 RP) Your new scrapcode defenses help against scrapcode, but not necessarily other threats. This research would potentially allow you to tune the capabilities of your shielding on the fly to improve performance against other angles of attack. (Resistance to specific types of attack will improve with exposure, up to a cap. Unlocks more research to allow for more flexible shielding that can target specific weaknesses of various psychic enemies. Synergizes with mutli-meaning shielding.)
-[] Psychic Encryption (150 RP) Warp-based shenanigans can clearly steal information they shouldn't be able to get. You think you have the solution to prevent that, and it's encryption. Modulate your psychic shielding so anything coming through it is so garbled and compressed that it can't be understood even to the most sensitive psychic. (Blocks scrying of information protected by your shielding. Likely unlocks better versions that will defeat more powerful seers, and may unlock specialized research to build installations that will deny scrying and foresight over a larger area - like a system)
The Warp
-[] Teleportation is like skipping a stone (150 RP) Teleporters work by skipping a cargo across the shallow warp, linking two places for a moment. They are limited in many ways. Now that you understand that, you can find the limits to extend range, capacity and think about other ways to utilize the same general idea. (Improves teleporters for boarding, may lead to the ability to directly teleport to planetary surfaces. Unlocks further research for further improving the teleporter, as well as potentially leading to warp portals, which is likely required for webway understanding).
-[] The Taste of Chaos (300 RP) When investigating the stations in Vorthryn, you found a flavor to the warp signatures hanging around the chaos-corrupted stations. If you do more analysis on it, you might be able to discern some filters that can tell you when a signature is chaos-associated or identify active Chaos-cults through sensors alone (Makes your warp sensors more sensitive to Chaos-associated markers. More useful in detecting cults than individuals, though may unlock further research to screen for cultists who have participated in warp-rituals).
-[] Empathy at Range (200 RP) Your warp sensors work well on things that are nearby, but they're definitely not able to detect anything large beyond combat range, or smaller things beyond very close range. Maybe it's a matter of improving sensitivity, maybe you need to specifically build some parts of your psychic shield to extend range. (Makes your warp sensors active at longer range, unlocks further research to pinpoint psychic activities from across the solar system. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication)
-[] Yelling into the Warp (175 RP) If you can receive signals from the warp, how do you send them? It probably involves modulating your psychic shielding somehow. Does that mean a new thought? Probably. (Unlocks the ability to cast signals into the warp, though that may attract attention. May allow you to signal psychically-sensitive allies... or enemies. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Warp Weather Prediction (450 RP) The Warp has been said to have "weather." Well, at least storms. But if you're constantly monitoring the signals from your psychic shielding, you can start to make predictions about what will come. That... might be useful. (Likely to give you advance warning of significant warp-effects, especially warp storms. May unlock further research to improve warp navigation, and if you crit again, a strange kind of warp-based technological foresight.)
-[] A Curio Cabinet of Khornish Cultists (150 RP) You have a haul of items and bodies from the Chaos cult aboard the Auric Burden. Investigate them, and see what you can learn. (Improved knowledge about Chaos Cults. May lead to enhanced detection of Chaos cults & cultists. May lead to some understanding of how to use warp rituals to enhance items. May unlock further research once you have more samples.)
-[] Vortex Weapons (250 RP) When you first read about them vortex weapons sounded... terrifying. Now you're even more scared. Still, that might be a nice thing to have in your arsenal at some point. (Unlocks basic vortex weaponry. Likely further research for larger and smaller vortex weapons). Locked behind High-energy Physics
-[] Reliable Gellar Fields (300 RP) Your gellar field technology is capable, but for something that important you want it to be rock-solid. That'll probably require a full redesign, but having a gellar field that cannot be knocked out with destroying a good chunk of your ship seems like it might be a good investment. (Improves your gellar field technology to make it more reliable and redundant. Will help you resist demonic attacks in the warp.)
-[] Faith is my shield? (75 RP) Clearly the Imperium believes that faith can protect you from warp gribblies. It even seems like it might be true. How? Is there a way you can harness the effect without having to dedicate yourself to the Imperial creed? Also, what's going on with this skeletal hand you found? (Understanding the benefits of Faith. May unlock further research to allow Vita to design a less objectionable faith optimized for warp protection, and help develop better psyker training programs. Likely to unlock fu)
-[] Demonology (150 RP) Demons. They can be summoned, bound and banished. Preferably in that order. How? That knowledge could be powerful... and dangerous. (Allows you to do basic demonology to summon/bind/banish demons. Unlocks further technology around all of that, including potential better protection from demons.) Price will triple without the Scrapcode generator to experiment on.
-[] Immaterium Understanding (225 RP) Anexa believes she understands something fundamental about the warp. Do some experimements to see if she's right. (Further discounts on all warp-related research, potential to unlock a research from farther down a warp research tree while skipping prerequisites) Anexa must work on this action. Guaranteed level(s) for her. Requires Warp Research Lab.
-[] Improved Void Abacus (125 RP) You understand how the Void Abacus works now, and you think you can tweak it to be better. That involves some amount of expanding and improving its connection to the warp though, so you're far from certain (Improves your Void Abacus design to be faster and better at warp jumps, though still inferior to an average navigator. May unlock further optimization of Void Abaci, including for cost/unstable warp jumps).
-[] The Basics of Psychic Computation (400 RP) You have several examples of different kinds of cogitators that interact with the warp in some way. They all share some kind of neural network system, but are very different in other ways. If you can figure out the minimal requirement for something to be psychically active - well. That would have implications. (Improves psychic shielding research, psytech research, some machine spirit research, may improve scrapcode research. Will help genetic manipulation to create psykers. May lead to a research tree to make psychic AIs or implants that grant psychic powers).
Psytech
-[] Help Cia's Training (50 RP) By spending more time with Cia, actively monitoring her use of her powers and providing feedback, you can improve the quality and outcomes of her training (Gives a +10 to any Cia training dice this turn, and may result in new kinds of outcomes. Can be improved by further pyromantic research. Repeatable)
- [] Basic Psychic Amplification Devices (100 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic amplification, but to actually confirm that you need to build one and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic staffs or other personal psychic amplification devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic amplification, as well as larger amplification constructs)
- [] Basic Psychic Suppression Devices (150 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic suppression, but to actually confirm that you need to build some and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic hoods or other personal psychic protective devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic nullification, as well as larger nullification constructs)
-[] Complex Psytech Implants (250 RP) Adapting what you know from organic-machine control implants, you can give a psyker greater control over their implants, in turn allowing you to give psytech implants more capabilities and more power that requires active tuning on the fly. (Improves psytech implants in terms of both precision and raw power.) Requires either Basic Psychic Suppression Devices or Basic Psychic Amplification Devices
- [] Improved Psychic weapons (300 RP) You are starting to understand how force weapons work, but you're far from perfecting them. There's definitely work to be done on the composition of the main weapon, and if you can figure out how to grow crystals into the proper orientation that will help, and the psi-convectors and... well. It's almost easier to list the ways you can't improve them. (Further improves force weapons in every way. Potential to unlock specialized kinds of force weapons, such as versions specialized to fight specific foes and maybe large-scale force weapons such as ship rams).
- [] Psychic Aegis (250 RP) Psychically enhancing a weapon in combat is an obvious application, but the equally-obvious follow-on is enhancing armor. Or shields. Whatever. General defensive measures. It would be significantly more complicated than a simple weapon, and shields are probably the first step. But still - that would be a path to near-invincibility. (Allows you to create force shields and armor. Unlocks further research for improved force armor and other kinds of large-scale defensive psytech).
- [] Psychic Materials (300 RP) Silver. Specific kinds of crystals. Chitin? What unifies those things? What is it that makes them warp-conductive? If you can figure that out, maybe you can start designing new warp-capable materials that are better. (Psytech improvements across the board in terms of new materials, likely follow-on research into specific specialty materials and applications. Will be improved by samples of additional psionically active materials).
- [] Pyromancy Staff (200 RP) Amplifying a specific kind of psyker powers should allow you to amplify them even more. (Allows you to build pyromancy-focused psychic amplifiers, with the most common one being in the shape of a staff. Will unlock further pyromancy-specialized equipment, including larger-scale and more powerful amplifiers that may be relevant in ship combat.)
- [] Improved Pyromantic understanding (300 RP) Cia's eager to delve further into the secrets of pyromancy, and if you tried you could follow along for the ride. Any maybe figure out how to model this specific kind of psychic power. (Improves all pyromancy-focused psytech, improves the Help Cia's Training action and may unlock research towards influencing young psykers towards pyromancy.)
-[] Destructive Scrapcode Investigation (200 RP) Well, if Bongo doesn't want to play ball, maybe you need to go in there and figure out what makes the scrapcode generator tick. Time to bring out the power tools. (Discounts existing scrapcode research, may unlock new research around psytech/psychic shielding. Gives better understanding of Chaos Demons. Destroys the scrapcode generator and likely banishes Bongo back to the warp.)
-[] Scrapcode Generation (400 RP) You have the barest hints as to how you might start generating scrapcode. You need to imbue psychic meaning into code. You're not quite sure how you might go about that, but it's an interesting avenue to chase down. (Unlocks the ability to create and hack with your own brand of scrapcode) Requires psytech past Basic Psychic Amplification Devices, as well as Rapid hacking
Physics
-[] Dark Eldar Weaponry (150 RP) You have a few examples of Dark Eldar weaponry. Some of it just uses esoteric poisons, but other parts seem based on physical princples you can't identify. That's exciting (Unlocks new weapons based on Dark Eldar small-arms weaponry) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
-[] Gravity Weapons (200 RP) You know it's possible to use gravity as a weapon, though it sounds a bit crazy. But still, it might be worth trying? (Unlocks basic graviton weapons for infantry, vehicles and warships, as well as research for more advanced graviton weapons. Half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] Bootstrapping a magnetic field (200 RP) If a planet's magnetic field is dead then in the short term it'll be bombarded with hazardous levels of radiation, and in the long term whatever atmosphere is present will get blown off into space by stellar wind. But there might be a way to fix that? (Unlocks a rather expensive semi-megastructure project to start up magnetic fields. Unlocks further research to cheapen the process. May lead to some crazy research into utilizing or messing with star or gas-giant magnetic fields.) Requires gravity weapons & Advanced Materials.
-[] The Biggest Boom (150 RP) So. There's no actual upper limit for how big a fusion warhead can get. But it does get more complicated to build bigger and bigger bombs. Let's figure that out. (Unlocks bigger, exterminatus-grade warheads for nukes. The other half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] Superconductive Shenanigans (100 RP) Room-temperature superconductors are a thing. But only kind of, and they still need to be highly pressurized to be stable. You know some people cracked this problem, but they didn't publish on it, which was annoying. But you think you might have an idea how they did it. Figuring it out would be great for manufacturing, and drop costs across the board. (A flat production boost of 5-15% depending on rolls).
-[] Miniaturized antigrav (50 RP) You can make antigrav that reduces the weight of things like shuttles to make them able to make orbit. But there's a floor on how small you can make that technology. The Imperium seems to have solved that. (Unlocks drones, jump-packs etc, as well as additional research to make antigrav vehicles/walkers)
-[] High-energy Physics (300 RP) There's some pretty crazy stuff you can do with physics. Especially when the energy exponents really start getting insane. However, that's going to take a bit of testing - maybe on a planetoid you don't care too much about. Or in space. (The next steps towards bigger, badder weapons, such as fusion beamers, volkite weapons, disintegration weapons. Half of the research for vortex weaponry.) Locked behind a High-Energy Physics Research Lab
-[] Better Sensors are just Physics (150 RP) You've made some progress on better sensors, but if you're really going to go to the next level you're going to start looking for edge cases. Things that are hard or downright impossible to hide, and will give away an enemy ship no matter its stealth. (Unlocks better basal sensors across the board, as well as improves specific stealth technologies. Synergizes with stealth research, unlocks even better sensors and may unlock long-range sensors to do detailed scans from across the system).
-[] Combat Information Gathering (200 RP) Many ship weapons are slow-firing and demand specific responses. If you can tell what an enemy ship is going to do before it does it, that will give you a tactical advantage. (Allows you to detect and decode energy signals to predict enemy ship activities, giving an advantage in combat. Will help more the better your sensors are. Will synergize well with boarding, may unlock targeted-teleportation technology and technology to target weak-points).
Machine Spirits
-[] Machine Spirit Ground Strategy (300 RP) Your bots can coordinate on the small scale, but being able to manage larger battles and fights is beyond them. If you can figure out how to connect individual squad networks together you can improve their performance. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued infantry & vehicle forces over the scale of theaters. Will unlock further technology for improved strategic coordination.)
-[] Machine Spirit Combat Bot Flexibility (250 RP) Your bots can do one thing, and that's win fights with lethal force. If you want them to do things like take captives, or avoid collateral damage, then you're going to need to teach them to do that. (Enables enhanced flexibility of orders for your combat bots. May unlock greater creativity in problem-solving on the part of your combat bots, as well as the capability for the bots to be effective at medicine or other tasks)
-[] Machine Spirit Void Tactics (125 RP) Fighting a ship is a very different thing from fighting on the ground, but many of the principles are similar. Adapt them. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued ships and void fighters. May unlock technology for improved strategic coordination. If you want to point your fleet at a system and say "Conquer it, spare the civilians" this is a good tech to have.) Requires Large-Scale machine spirits
-[] Large-scale Machine spirits (75 RP) As it stands, you can integrate machine spirits into small things. Expanding that to military installations and ships is going to require designing even more complex networks and figuring out how to make them work. With Anexa's insights you think it's eminently possible thought (Unlocks machine-spirit equipped versions of frigate-sized or smaller ships and platforms, as well as most defensive installations. Unlocks more research for machine spirits for larger ships & platforms.)
-[] Independent Manufactories (400 RP) Your manufacturing machine spirits are pretty good at being independent but still require some direction on sourcing materials, and various types of blockages. If you give them more independence then they'd need even less management. But at the same time, building in that much independence would require appropriate safeguards so they didn't go off the rails. (Further reduce CP requirements of machine-spirit manufactories).
-[] Machine Spirit Shipboard Manufactories (75 RP) The constraints on shipboard manufactories make them different enough that you haven't been able to apply the machine spirit technology to them. (Improves the BP produced by the shipboard manufactory equipment, likely by about 20%. May unlock tech allowing better cramming for ship manufactories).
-[] Basic Automated Manufactories (150 RP) If you tool a factory and install a machine spirit optimized to make just one thing, then it can just keep doing it without your oversight. (Unlocks automated ground/orbital/deep space manufactories, which will continue to produce a single kind of product without requiring actions. Will require CP, and cannot make starships or installations. Unlocks further research to increase productivity, and flexibility, remove the CP requirement, as well as allow the automated manufactories to produce ships, installations and eventually megastructures).
-[] Machine Spirit Ship Design Improvements (200 RP) By encouraging creative and complex solutions to problems you can use the design-specialized machine spirits to improve your ship designs in exciting new ways. (Allows you to cram more things into void ships, depending on rolls. May unlock further research to further optimize cramming, as well as discount the absolute cost of various categories of ship components).
-[] Machine Spirit Hallucinations (300 RP) Your new mechine spirits are capable of incredible creativity when you push them to solve impossible problems. A lot of it is silly and impossible, but buried within the morass are occasional nuggets of gold. Every good idea starts as a bad idea, so let's generate more ideas. (Improves the number of RP you get per action, though not by a huge amount. May unlock more research to further improve this number).
-[] Machine Spirit Chaos resistance (75 RP) You think the reason that the machine spirits resist chaos is because they understand their purpose to some extent, and the entire neural network needs to be corrupted to corrupt that purpose, which is harder. There's also emotional simulation that's going on in there. (Improves the basal resistance of machine spirits to chaos corruption. May unlock further technology down this chain, as well as half of the requirements to integrate machine spirits with psychic shielding.)
-[] Psytech Machine spirits (100 RP) You don't think that machine spirits can be psychically active. However, from what you understand of psytech it's a temperamental and difficult discipline, and you think that integrating machine spirits into the construction of psytech might improve its reliability and performance. (Improves psytech, at the cost of making it somewhat more expensive. May lead to more advanced versions for more advanced psytech, and may contribute to better psychic shields)
Biology
-[] Servitorization (50 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Variety is the Spice of Life (50 RP) Your current foray into aquaculture production is fully effective at feeding large numbers of people, but it also makes them try to drink an ocean the first time they eat it. And several times after that. And kind of kills their taste buds toward anything else. Maybe get some other versions of aquaculture working that don't do that? (Fixes the spice problem).
-[] Enhance the Agriculture! (200 RP) 5000 people being fed from one facility sounds like a lot. But it's really not when you start to consider things like star systems. So far you've been playing with the hobby-version of aquaculture. More commercial versions used heavier food-manufacturing systems that are closer to organic printers. They'd probably be much more effective for feeding extremely large numbers of people. (Unlocks blueprints for extremely efficient methods to produce large amounts of food. Unlocks research to install tiny systems that fully substitute food needs, such as installing something onto a spacesuit that fully converts waste into delicious food).
-[] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP) Calderath is an interesting case of a planet that doesn't need to be terraformed so much as ecologically engineered. You think you know how to do it - make a microbe that sinks the stupendous amount of seaweed standing up the oceans and buries it in ocean sediment. Actually making and deploying such a thing and having it do what you want is a different matter. (Potentially makes Calderath livable to humans again without breathing masks. Will cross-synergize with MICROBES, and both techs will discount each other) Write-in a risk tolerance. Depending on how well you roll you might not release it and instead get a follow-up action to further improve your solution. Even if you roll poorly and release it there will be a subsequent roll to determine success or failure.
-[] MICROBES: Miniaturized climate regulatory and optimized biogeochemical engineering symbionts (250 RP) Microbes are the chemical factories that reshape the chemistry of the planetary surface and atmosphere to your liking. Delving into the techniques used in the distance past to figure out how to engineer them would let you design better, faster terraforming organisms, as well as let them be applied to more extreme starting conditions (Improves, cheapens, accelerates and broadens the terraforming projects you have available. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] Complex genetic enhancement (150 RP) The complexity of human genetics lies in the epistasis between multiple different alleles. Put more simply, this shit is complicated. Figure it out. (Unlocks more advanced enhancements, including significantly improved strength, intelligence, etc. Unlocks research for even more dramatic engineering, and is likely required to try to make psykers)
-[] Psyker genetics (300 RP) What makes somebody psychic? You have a psyker, and some genetic samples from others acquired from various trips to the monasteries. (Allows you to develop a test to determine psychic ability, though it won't be perfect. Unlocks further technology to improve psychic potential in adults and embryos.)
-[] Understanding Mutations (150 RP) The mutations that occasionally pop up in Denva's population are... weird. Complex, and have bizarre phenotypes. Why? What's causing them? Why are they so hard to treat? Maybe look into that. (Potential cures for more difficult mutations, as well as further research into why they occur, and treating other kinds of genetic deterioration.)
-[] Adult genetic engineering (100 RP) Genetically modifying an adult comes with all sorts of complications. Doing it without killing them or incapacitating them for months is even harder. (Allows your genetic enhancements/therapies to apply to adult humans. Likely required for a full understanding of juvenat.)
-[] Does in vitro have something to do with wine? (100 RP) Unlocks the ability to clone basic humans (Unlocks the cloning bay, as well as further technology to clone things other than baseline humans, like humans without brains for organs or humans with more dramatic genetic mutations. Along with brain implants may lead to personality backups).
-[] The key to Expert surgery is Ego (200 RP) You can do fairly effective surgery, but the most complicated surgeries are beyond you. From all of the literature you have available, to truly break into the next level you merely need confidence. The confidence of somebody who believes they cannot be wrong. (Unlocks further discounts for advanced medical tech, cybernetic augmentations and more. Unlocks very advanced medical care, and further technology for reviving technically-dead bodies and brain transplants).
-[] Physical Apperance is Skin-deep (100 RP) Being able to do surgery on somebody's inside is one thing. But what about their outsides? (Unlocks cosmetic surgery to fix scars, alter appearances and even change skin tones. Unlocks follow-up research to allow you to disguise humans as xenos species whose biology you understand, or vice versa. May discount juvenat research.)
-[] Regeneration is just a matter of applied Growth (400 RP) You can make sure everything lines up properly to stimulate natural growth, but you can't actually accelerate it. Trying is a quick path to cancer and needs to be tweaked for every patient. That's why it wasn't common even in your time. But it should be possible, and you don't have to worry about pharmaceutical patents. (Your medical treatments have vastly accelerated healing timelines. Normally a prereq of juvenat, but in this case will simply have synergy. Unlocks further research for video-game-like med-kits and the ability to give people new organs without surgery)
-[] Drugs? Drugs. (75 RP) Human biochemistry is... weird. You've got a standard list of recipies for basic drugs, but if you wanted to get further into it you could start pulling out some stranger and more illicit ones from your research databanks. (Unlocks a wide variety of drugs for things like interrogation, combat, sedation, etc. May lead to research for things like perfect knockout gas, super-adrenaline, psytech drugs, etc.)
-[] Juvenat Beginnings (400 RP) Ok. Juvenat is complicated. You're able to make it by following a formula that is at times precise, at times general and at times just - what? Maybe start to delve into the science of that. (Unlocks a basic understanding of juvenat, and may make it more efficient to produce. Tech cost will be reduced by other biomedical researchers. The start of the juvenat research tree.)
-[] Navigator Genetics (400 RP) So... you have some navigator genetic material. You can poke at that, see if you can figure out how it works. They had a reputation even back in your day, and it only seems to have gotten worse. Still, tempting. (Unlocks basic understanding of navigator genetics. Will unlock further technology to improve the health of navigators, as well as technology to allow you to clone navigators.) Locked behind Complex genetic enhancement
-[] Navigator Gestation (200 RP) You have a navigator fetus. You don't know what to do with that beyond the obvious. So, how would you do it? Well, you doubt you could just implant it into somebody. From the traces left behind on Klyssar's nest you should do this in a tank. (Allows you to turn the navigator fetus into a navigator baby) Locked behind the Does in vitro have something to do with wine? and maybe a followup tech depending on rolls.
-[] Dubious Dark Eldar Dissections (75 RP) You've got some corpses of Dark Eldar. Time to take them apart and see what you can learn! (Gives you some details on Dark Eldar physiology. May provide bonuses towards psyker genetics, or develop medical techniques, drugs or implants for Eldar)
Cybernetics
-[] Combat Mobility Cybernetics (100 RP) Sticking rockets and grappling hooks into cybernetics isn't just cool. It's also useful - it'll let the wearers utilize more of the strength of their new limb without tearing apart their organic body. It'll also give them new maneuverability options. (Unlocks new parts for augments that enhance the wearer's strength and mobility. Synergizes with other technology, may unlock enhanced mobility for bots & armors)
-[] Combat Neural Implants (50 RP) Allows you to install neural implants to calculate trajectories, assist with aiming, further improve reaction time and generally improve human capabilities in combat. (Unlocks combat-focused neural implants. Will synergize with other cybernetics and neural implant technologies)
-[] Advanced organ replacements (100 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, but not quite. But they can't adjust to shocks in body homeostasis and they do need to be replaced every decade or so. You think you can make them as good or slightly better than the real thing, including the potential to grow with the bearer. (Unlocks organs which actually just replace normal organs almost perfectly. Likely to synergize with other implant/cybernetics/enhancement techs).
-[] Superhuman organ replacements (300 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, and have some useful auxiliary functions. But there's another level of improvement that's possible here. You could make organs that conveyed superhuman characteristics on the wearers. Improved oxygen transfer rate, improved bone density, immunity to most toxins, improved healing rate. (Unlocks advanced organs implants which grant superhuman capabilities. Not quite space-marine-level, but that's the next tech, though these are still artificial). Locked behind Advanced Combat cybernetics.
-[] Companion Cogitators (350 RP) Your implants are good. But they still rely on external computers for any heavy lifting. But with a good deal of work, and some effort at miniaturizing computation, data storage and power units you could fit a full computer into somebody, giving them access to a full suite (Powerful neural implants capable of incredible amounts of data crunching/cryptography, as well as full virtual presences. Further improves Organic-machine control, unlocks very powerful types of implants, including implanted machine spirits, personality-backups and depending on other technology minor AIs).
-[] Mood Regulators (100 RP) Interfacing the implant with the brain's emotional centers will allow it to regulate emotional states. Potentially useful to help the bearer regulate dangerous emotions like fear, lust, anger, greed, sloth, as well as emotional outbursts when such would be dangerous for them. Also potetnialyl useful for interrogation. (Your implants that can help with - or destroy - mental stability. Useful for those engaged with Chaos, and for unstable psykers. May unlock more technology geared towards ensuring a stable mental condition). Locked behind Drugs? Drugs.
-[] Pain Controller (100 RP) Pain is an incredibly deeply seated stimulus, and it's hard to block it without destroying a lot of senses. But if you manage it it could help immesurably with combat implants. (Your implants allow the deadening of pain, allowing people so implanted to fight or last through injuries and other bad feedback).
-[] Advanced Combat cybernetics (150 RP) Your cybernetics can easily contain light and some medium weapons, but they're not really suited to heavy combat. Yet. You could make them tougher, beefier, and figure out how to fit the power sources for larger weapons inside. (Unlocks advanced combat augments. Half of the technology for excellent combat augments, unlocks further cybernetics/research). Locked behind Really good Robotics.
-[] Advanced Cognition Filter (150 RP) Your existing Cognition Filter works very well, but you worry that it's prone to remove important details. It's hard to see how long an enemy's sword is when that sword is covered with Chaotic sigils, for example. Some amount of modelling and virtual reality augmentation could just replace that with an unadorned sword, circumventing the drawbacks of the first-generation cognition filter. (Improves Cognition filters to remove any downsides to filtering out chaotic information from perception.)
-[] Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (400 RP) Chaos corruption is a lot of things. However, it almost certainly involves some amount of neural rewiring to think more Chaotic thoughts. With your neural implants, you believe you might be able to reverse that, using warp sensors to detect combination of memory editing, negative feedback and induced plasticity to undo the Chaotic brain patterns. This is unlikely to return them to how they were before, but it'll give them a chance to be somebody new without demons twisting their brain. (Your brain implants can slowly un-corrupt the mental side of chaos corruption). Requires Companion Cogitators& Understanding Mutations
-[] Improved Organic-Machine control (100 RP) You think you can about double the capacity of the machine-control implants with a full redesign. (Approximately doubles the capacity of organic-machine control, letting a single human command more CP worth of units. Leads to further follow-on improvements.)
-[] Large-Scale organic-machine Control (100 RP) A manufactory is one thing, a shipyard or gas refinery is another. But at this point it's mostly a matter of scale and networking. (Allows OMC implants to control any kind of industrial production, including shipyards and non-military megastructures. Leads to further technology to improve the amount of CP one person can control.)
-[] Human Design Interfaces (200 RP) You've adapted your simulation software to work with advanced neural implants, but what about your design software? If humans could play with your auto-cad as well as you can then that would help you design or even entirely farm out the design of things. (Discounts design options, may unlock technology to improve the RP generated from humans with simulation implants, either per-person or simply raising the cap.)
-[] Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP) Simulation of the organic-machine control interfaces is tricky, but it has some pretty significant benefits. Not only will it make it far easier to train people on how to use the OMC technology, it'll let people virtually fight each other to discover new strategies. Besides, that might be fun. (Dramatically improved OMC competence. This may result in an increase in manufacturing efficiency for OMC-controlled manufactories, and will result in increased effectiveness of OMC-controlled military units.).
-[] Void Organic-Machine control (100 RP) A voidship can be thought of as a living creature, with veins of coolant, a reactor heart and an undying thirst for fuel. How can a single human understand it, much less understand it? (Allows OMC implants to control voidships. Leads to further research to boost CP capacity of OMC specifically for controlling voidships, as well as improvements to allow improved piloting)
-[] Remote Organic-Machine control (50 RP) One of the current limitations of the OMC technology is that it requires the controller to be on-site. But if that wasn't true, then you could imagine truly bloodless wars, or operators living in comfortable cities while they controlled factories in orbit. Something to look into. (Allows OMC implants to control installations or units within the same system. Leads to further research for interoperable units, as well as making it possible for human staff to directly contribute to Vita's CP cap.)
Hacking
-[] Rapid hacking (400RP) You need to figure out a new approach to subverting machine spirits. It might involve some combination of confusing them with a burst of signals, then showing up and 'relieving' the issue. But it would take a lot of trial-and-error to get right. (Improves hacking of imperial tech. Potentially enough for use in combat situations? Will unlock further hacking technology).
-[] Improved Machine-spirit Jamming (300 RP) Well, you can't combine it with hacking, but you can still try to improve what you have to be more efficent, target more machine spirits at a time, etc. (Improves success rate of jamming imperial tech, decreases failure penalties. May unlock further jamming technology)
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 15
-[] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[] Anexa passive action: Exploratory Research - Roll to discount a random tech from one of her specialties. Will receive the specialty bonus, and crits will result in a level and bonus technology. Specialties (3/4): Machine Spirits. The Warp, Cybernetics. Grants a +10 bonus when doing research rolls in the relevant category.
Has a staff of 20 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +400 CP & 20 RP per turn.
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 17
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens.
Cia Steblin, FocusedPyromancer Psyker
Level 11
-[] Active Psyker improvement: Cia will actively attempt to practice her powers. Roll two d100s. Take the higher roll for determining level-up, but take the lower for perils of the warp. (DCs are unknown but context-dependent. They are currently favorable and will get less favorable as she levels)
-[] Passive Psyker improvement: Cia will take lower-risk actions to improve herself, including meditation, study and augmentation. A single level-up roll, with only a very low roll resulting in perils of the warp. Focus: Combat. Cia is now armed with custom heavy armor and a large but crude two-handed force sword. Abilities: Cia is able to use minor psytech without risk. She's learned the value of carrying around a few mundane ways to make fire for when she doesn't want to rely on her abilities, but is focusing on improving her pyromancy, which is currently ranked at Epsilon.
What to do with the Necrons? (separate from plan vote)
-[][Necron] Leave them. They've been sitting in that display hall for centuries at least. Just leave them there and wash your hands of it.
-[][Necron] Take them. They're ancient bots from before humanity went to the stars. What kind of technology might they possess? Gain a research option to investigate them.
-[][Necron] Destroy them. There's bad juju here, you can feel it. Blow them up and they can't awaken and cause problems for you.
Stankberg Suggestion (part of plan vote)
-[][Stankberg] Expansion Encourage Stankberg to expand across their planet, using your new masks
-[][Stankberg] Learn You'll provide technical primers and a starting manufactory. If they can operate it they can generate limitless masks and bootstrap themselves to space and beyond.
-[][Stankberg] Fix your planet. It's possible to fix their planet, and you'll help. Get buy-in to operate the ships necessary to eliminate the Stank.
-[][Stankberg] Favor Bank the favor for a request for later.
-[][Stankberg] Write-in. Some other idea.
Orkish response (part of plan vote)
-[][Orks] Destroy. Do your damndest to destroy them. Pretty likely to succeed but there's a chance they'll run away successfully or even get through to the planet.
-[][Orks] Capture Try to board and capture the ship. Risky, and likely to result in losses.
-[][Orks] Ward off Position yourself between them and the planet and scare them off with a show of force, then let them flee. The least likely to let them through.
-[][Orks] Observe Let them do what they want, observe and leave open the option to interfere later. You might learn a lot by watching them do what they normally would.
-[][Orks] Write-in (includes talking)
I was originally going to make passive and active stealth into different blueprint modifications that each increased design & production costs. But you crit, so now they're bundled together. We'll see if that remains true.
The cost to apply stealth technologies to bots was also going to be pretty nasty. Now it's only 0.5x because of the good success.
The Specter was upcosted in BP because most blueprint modifications are more expensive when applied to bots. So the new math was (Light (25BP), Humanized (15 BP base), Jammers (10 BP base),[50 BP base] Machine Spirit (+0.5x [25] BP), Stealth (+.5x [25] BP) = 100 BP.
The nanoparticle aeresols thing is real. My research area is adjacent to terraforming, so I know quite a lot about it. Thus the complexity of the terraforming tree. Please don't be dissuaded how much is there - you're currently at a state where Vita could terraform Mars to be minimally habitable with 5-6ish actions of effort. If you research the microbes and the warming tech that'll halve and would also unlock the terraformation of Venus. Going even a little way into the tree will pay off if you ever want to terraform things, and it'll also be useful for other planetary-scale ecology projects. Such as reseeding a Tyranid-devoured planet or de-orking a planet, though those techs will actually unlock once you have firsthand experience with those problems. If you go a ways down the tree there won't be a lot of planets you can't terraform fairly easily. Pretty much the only requirement is a ball of rock with sufficient gravity to hold an atmosphere, and somewhere there's a forcefield tech that'll let you green an asteroid belt.
I've discounted the cost of the Orbital Habitat because you researched mechanized agriculture. Meant to do that last turn.
The people of Calderath probably can barely operate the remediation ships, but they'd have trouble staffing more than about 30-50 of them. That would also potentially allow them to become an exporter of food since the ships can harvest as well as sink the seaweed.
I generally believe in failing forward on rolls. I thought about constructing a whole elaborate storyline around the failed neural implants requiring more processing power, but at the end of the day decided it was fine to have this be a flat failure and price increase. That happens too occasionally, and I think you got enough plot and research hooks this update.
The villa wasn't going to have this much loot in it, but such are the powers of crits.
I'm back on the slower posting schedule, so I'll open moratorium for 48 hours, then close the vote sometime in American Friday afternoon/evening.
