[X] Plan:
-[X] Research x2: Anexa (400 RP + 90 Anexa RP + 60 Cogitare RP = 550)
--[X] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (100 RP)
--[X] Immaterium Understanding (200 RP)
---[X] Anexa helps
--[X] Gravity Weapons (200 RP)
--[X] Abacus Manufacturing (50RP -> Complete)
-[X] Diplomacy x1:
--[X] We've collaborated on psy shield design, now it's time to collaborate on void shield construction. Work out a way to integrate Vita into Denva's main Production Management System and start printing ships to patrol the system and shields to cover everything not nailed down. Klyssar, Aetherion, the cities on Secondus while we're at it.
--[X] Transfer incomplete hulls
--[X] Transfer all technology made this turn, and warp travel technology
--[X] Victan Helps
-[X] Construction x1:
--[X] Vita's Budget: 600 (spark) + 7800 (130 factories around Aetherion) + 1,100 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 9,500 VBP
--[X] Finish repairing that shipyard (2814 BP)
--[X] Fit gravity guns to the Spark. Big ones. I haven't figured out numbers yet, but my gravity guns will protect us from math
--[X] Boy I sure hope Denva can design a better ship to use these hulls than candles because that would be a bummer, huh? Make sure those get made.
--[X] V O I D 🛡 S H I E L D S
[X] Crew actions:
-[X] Cia: Passive Improvement
-[X] Victan: Production Management System integration & System defense materiel collab negotiations
-[X] Anexa: Immaterium Understanding
My bet's on medium platforms being just as worthless, because the underlying problem is the core build mechanic. For static defenses to be worth buying they need to be bought at a large discount compared to an equivalent fighting strength of mobile elements, and that's simply not how our rules work. (This can take the form of discounts or of capability boosts or both, but we don't really have either.)
I don't think Denva has a CP shortage, and ships won't be a significant CP draw until they actually have a significant number of them. A destroyer pulls the same CP as a single non-MS manufactory. They've got a lot of manufactories. By the time that's relevant, they'll hopefully have MS destroyers, too, which may not take much CP at all.
And yes, if you were going to spend, say, 10,000 BP on defenses in one turn, you might need...a 3000 BP shipyard instead of a 1000 BP shipyard. But that's not a big problem and not actually the situation. If it was, well, I'd be pretty happy with them building either 4 ships with a small shipyard and some fixed defenses, or a medium shipyard and 4-5 ships but having the shipyard.
And, actually, moving is an enormous advantage even for defending a fixed location. Especially a big fixed location like a planet. Fixed defenses either cluster together to cover each other, but not cover the objective well, or spread out and are exposed to defeat in detail. It's an even more enormous advantage when you have more than one fixed location, which we do, because it means all your defense can be where it is needed instead of being trapped where it isn't.
OMC is said to require decades of training, extensive surgery with expensive implants, and a lot of dedication. Denva is splitting what cogitare it has between instruction, construction, research, and manning platforms. Yeah, CP will be an issue. Note that operating a manufactory, a ship, and a shipyard are different skillsets, and a lot of the people who could do the latter are dead. Fixed defences are cheaper, easier to operate, and Denva can build them right now. But also? I would not say no to tossing Denva a couple of designs for those shipyards they can apparently build immediately. They have something like over 50k bp per action, so I'm sure they can churn it out better than us.
Again, warp comms. ASM is the start of the longer leg, so we should do it first. I'm down for collab R&D, its in my first plan, but we can't keep sleeping on ASM.
--[X] Vita's Budget: 600 (spark) + 7800 (130 factories around Aetherion) + 1,100 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 9,500 VBP
--[X] Finish repairing that shipyard (2814 BP)
--[X] Fit gravity guns to the Spark. Big ones. I haven't figured out numbers yet, but my gravity guns will protect us from math
--[X] Boy I sure hope Denva can design a better ship to use these hulls than candles because that would be a bummer, huh? Make sure those get made.
--[X] V O I D 🛡 S H I E L D S
I'd rather do that as part of a full refit using our new (-ish) weapon cramming tech. Also, I don't think we can get new void shields in without replacing the hull.
I'm going to say no, purely because of the increased complexity that would bring. You kept the ships, they're yours unless you finish them or give them back (which won't earn a boon unless you've finished them). They're already starting to lay the frameworks for new shipyards in Aetherion orbit, though it's not currently their absolute highest priority because you're still here.
I'd rather do that as part of a full refit using our new (-ish) weapon cramming tech. Also, I don't think we can get new void shields in without replacing the hull.
This preference is valid, however I'd personally still rather have gravity guns this turn just in case Necrons show up, because those assholes absolutely can outfight us as we are.
Anyways, I'm passing over the hulls so that we mostly just... don't have to care about the design issue. They have their own designers, and our CAD software, and it'd be pretty hard for us not to get those designs as part of boosting their manufacturing output while we're at it.
I know I said not to resist, and yes, it's still for the best that nobody do that.
Because in truth, I probably needed somebody to try it so I could demonstrate to everyone else that I'm not bluffing.
Adhoc vote count started by Prime 2.0 on Mar 3, 2025 at 8:12 PM, finished with 6 posts and 1 votes.
[X] Plan:
-[X] Research x2: Anexa (400 RP + 90 Anexa RP + 60 Cogitare RP = 550)
--[X] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (100 RP)
--[X] Immaterium Understanding (200 RP)
---[X] Anexa helps
--[X] Gravity Weapons (200 RP)
--[X] Abacus Manufacturing (50RP -> Complete)
-[X] Diplomacy x1:
--[X] We've collaborated on psy shield design, now it's time to collaborate on void shield construction. Work out a way to integrate Vita into Denva's main Production Management System and start printing ships to patrol the system and shields to cover everything not nailed down. Klyssar, Aetherion, the cities on Secondus while we're at it.
--[X] Transfer incomplete hulls
--[X] Transfer all technology made this turn, and warp travel technology
--[X] Victan Helps
-[X] Construction x1:
--[X] Vita's Budget: 600 (spark) + 7800 (130 factories around Aetherion) + 1,100 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 9,500 VBP
--[X] Finish repairing that shipyard (2814 BP)
--[X] Fit gravity guns to the Spark. Big ones. I haven't figured out numbers yet, but my gravity guns will protect us from math
--[X] Boy I sure hope Denva can design a better ship to use these hulls than candles because that would be a bummer, huh? Make sure those get made.
--[X] V O I D 🛡 S H I E L D S
OMC is said to require decades of training, extensive surgery with expensive implants, and a lot of dedication. Denva is splitting what cogitare it has between instruction, construction, research, and manning platforms. Yeah, CP will be an issue. Note that operating a manufactory, a ship, and a shipyard are different skillsets, and a lot of the people who could do the latter are dead. Fixed defences are cheaper, easier to operate, and Denva can build them right now. But also? I would not say no to tossing Denva a couple of designs for those shipyards they can apparently build immediately. They have something like over 50k bp per action, so I'm sure they can churn it out better than us.
Yes, OMC is a big investment. But it's a big investment Denva has already made, and have a lot of, because if they didn't they wouldn't be able to operate their existing economy. Remember, they're a planet with a population similar to modern Earth, and a sophisticated society. They should be able to muster millions of OMC operators.
Denva doesn't rely on cogitare for this, they use their preexisting and growing sector of non-cult technology workers.
No one on Denva has ever operated a shipyard via OMC as best we can tell, for lack of the relevant technology, so that issue is separate from the OMC you're trying to mix it with.
Fixed defenses are only cheaper in direct proportion to their inferiority under the most favorable possible conditions for them, there's no rule about easier to operate unless you're just saying 'cost fewer CP' in a confusing way, and Denva can build ships right now. They just probably didn't.
Oh right, also, Candles don't have to be operated by OMC. They have crew spaces. So in your world where Denva can't scrape up a couple hundred CP they can still use them.
If Denva actually builds ships, I'll stop saying we need to build ships right away and start bemoaning that we need to figure out what to do with all these junk hulls. Until then, I will say we need to build ships right away before our refusal to ever build ships ruins things yet again.
[] Plan: Cogitare Conglomeration
-[] Diplomacy: The government of Denva has recognized our authority over the Cogitare, now it's time to make sure the Cogitare do as well.
--[] Select one of the onboard Cogitare to become the head of the Denva System Branch of the organization.
--[] Announce the new orbital habitat over Aetherion as the headquarters for the organization.
--[] Get the Cogitare as a faction unified and organized, to better assist us in the future.
--[] Get as many as possible setup and familiarized with Collab R&D, and show them what a research institute should look like according to our DAoT memories and records.
--[] Victan and his diplomats will help manage reactions to all this, both from within the Cogitare and from other factions in the system.
-[] Construction x1:600 (spark) + 7800 (130 factories around Aetherion) + 1,100 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 9,500 VBP
--[] Construct a 50,000 Person Orbital Habitat at Aetherion. (1,750 VBP)
--[] Rebuild the Aetherion Large Shipyard (3,000 VBP)
--[] Build 4 Candles using our destroyer hulls (4,000 VBP)
--[] Build 2 Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactories at Aetherion (600 VBP)
--[] Build some combination of bots to work at replenishing our forces (150 VBP)
-[] Research x2 (400 + 85 (Anexa) + 60 (Anexa staff) = 545 RP)
--[] Collaborative Computational R&D (250 RP)
---[] Anexa assist
--[] Abacus Manufacturing (50)
--[] Faith is My Shield (60 RP)
--[] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP)
--[] Design a destroyer? Design a new main combat bot with psy-shielding? Put extra into Int. Coding? (35 RP)
-[] Free Action: Give Denva Improved Gellar Field, Abacus Manufacturing, and Warp Drive technology.
Per the name, the main thrust of the plan is getting the Cogitare effectively organized from a bunch of more-or-less independent science-monks into an actual organization with an actual hierarchy with us at the top so that we'll be able to effectively make use of them going forward.
We also grab Collab R&D, both to help with that and to get the Denva Research Boon next turn (I expect having the Cogitare organized will also help with that). Then we finish up Faith and Abacus Manufacturing, the latter of which immediately nets us another boon with Denva. We get Alternative Shield Meanings to continue making progress on warp comms. The last bit of RP is undecided, but there are plenty of good options.
The main goal of the construction is the new HQ for the Cogitare, but we also finish the shipyard so that we can begin building actual warp-ships for our fleet next turn (Once we actually have Abacus Manufacturing), and build a handful of candles for all the reasons that myself and others have been saying that's a good idea to do asap. The last bit of production goes into a couple of manufactories to keep up the industrial expansion and 150 BP worth of bots, maybe using a new psy-shield design?
This is interesting. I like the Tech- at least, it's interesting and decent enough that I approve of it. And it isn't entirely Warp-focused, which is neat! However. Ditching the ships and giving up a Boon as a result? Not worth it in my eyes.
I really like the planned Boon usage, and it sounds cool, but overall the plan feels… wasteful? So yeah. I'm not going to vote for it. I'll vote for something else that tickles my fancy more.
There's also something… off? I can't place my finger on it, but the demand that I comply is making me feel… rebellious. Hmm… surely this isn't a sign of Tzeentch! How silly of me! Oh well!
I like this plan more than the previously mentioned one. It has Tech research that I love the idea of, and has more focus on properly setting up the Cogitare. I'm a bit nervous about the level of separation that would seemingly occur from the Denva government, but I suppose recreating the Mars-Earth relationship that Big E made, just on significantly friendlier and more progressive terms isn't a terrible thing. Especially with a unified identity rather than the level of separation and distinction that Mars and Terra have.
This is interesting. I like the Tech- at least, it's interesting and decent enough that I approve of it. And it isn't entirely Warp-focused, which is neat! However. Ditching the ships and giving up a Boon as a result? Not worth it in my eyes.
I really like the planned Boon usage, and it sounds cool, but overall the plan feels… wasteful? So yeah. I'm not going to vote for it. I'll vote for something else that tickles my fancy more.
There's also something… off? I can't place my finger on it, but the demand that I comply is making me feel… rebellious. Hmm… surely this isn't a sign of Tzeentch! How silly of me! Oh well!
It's not a boon, actually! Integrating Vita into their production system is just something we can do with the diplomacy action, much like setting up and integrating with their research and development sector.
Ultimately I'm judging that we need to buck up our military since the spark is meant to beat up small things and run from big things, but now we have ground we have to hold so we can't depend on running from big things anymore. This is just the way I see to cover all bases in a hurry - by handing over the hulls and void shield tech and THEN integrating into their main production system, Vita is saying "it's time to do what we did with the psy shields, but for building your navy and protecting your cities and points of interest".
That is to say, we boost their manufacturing by hooking ourselves into it - the whole thing, and then collectively turn that manufacturing towards shitting out a fortress and a fleet to sally out from it.
And also bigass gravity guns for our flag, just in case one really big nasty asshole shows up instead of just a bunch of smaller, faster ones that the spark can't hit all at once.
I need to refine the plan some more to specify that we're stationing our 25k robot army across the different PoIs as boarding defense to go with those new void shields, incidentally. And also that they should get some personal gravity guns, because those are amazing for boarding combat, apparently.
And then next turn rolls around - except then, we have Immaterium Understanding ready to get Warp manufacturing alongside CCR&D, and this is important, Vita will still be tied into their production system. We'll be able to keep boosting their entire industrial base to expand it, and ours, further, making any boons we take before we leave more valuable.
It's not a boon, actually! Integrating Vita into their production system is just something we can do with the diplomacy action, much like setting up and integrating with their research and development sector.
Ultimately I'm judging that we need to buck up our military since the spark is meant to beat up small things and run from big things, but now we have ground we have to hold so we can't depend on running from big things anymore. This is just the way I see to cover all bases in a hurry - by handing over the hulls and void shield tech and THEN integrating into their main production system, Vita is saying "it's time to do what we did with the psy shields, but for building your navy and protecting your cities and points of interest".
That is to say, we boost their manufacturing by hooking ourselves into it - the whole thing, and then collectively turn that manufacturing towards shitting out a fortress and a fleet to sally out from it.
And also bigass gravity guns for our flag, just in case one really big nasty asshole shows up instead of just a bunch of smaller, faster ones that the spark can't hit all at once.
I need to refine the plan some more to specify that we're stationing our 25k robot army across the different PoIs as boarding defense to go with those new void shields, incidentally. And also that they should get some personal gravity guns, because those are amazing for boarding combat, apparently.
And then next turn rolls around - except then, we have Immaterium Understanding ready to get Warp manufacturing alongside CCR&D, and this is important, Vita will still be tied into their production system. We'll be able to keep boosting their entire industrial base to expand it, and ours, further, making any boons we take before we leave more valuable.
I'll not snip this since it has a lot of point to address and I don't wanna forget them all. But I do appreciate the thoroughness of your responses! That's always a treat to read through when I have the time. It shows you put actual thought and care into your responses, especially since they try to address my concerns concisely and correct any misunderstandings I had. So thank you for that! Especially since it's written respectfully.
Seriously, it's easy to get invested in having a discussion when I can tell you're willing to respect and listen to me, even when we disagree.
-
So! First point. I misunderstood, and you AREN'T using a Boon. Which is incredibly cool to realize and I love the idea of it. It's an amazing idea, and rereading a few of your posts let me find the link where that was stated. Very nice!
-
Second point. I agree we need to improve our military efforts drastically. However, I disagree with the usage of the Ships. Is there a reason we can't turn them into Candles or do a minor design of our own for them? It'll be a sticking point for me. Handing over those as completed ships provides a Boon, and that is big. Shaping a society, levels of big. We can do the rest of what you suggest easily, and I encourage it!
But why hand over the incomplete ships and miss out on a Boon? Even ignoring them for now to focus on other things still has them as an option for us later, which leaves us still in a stronger position of having an extra Boon.
Can you explain your thoughts on that more thoroughly? I'm missing whatever connection you've made to make that math function out to be a sum-positive in our favor.
-
Third point, I also agree with. Caltrops and other defensive platforms being produced en-masse sounds amazing, especially as a defensive motion. And I would love to have a Fleet.
-
Fourth point also cool. Like I said, love the Tech Choice. Completely agree with it. Overall decent options, and one I'd be happy with. Love the Gravity tech.
-
Fifth point I hadn't really thought about. It's good to specify, but overall a minor thought in my mind. I'm sure it'll work out great as boarding defenses, though I think we need to spray improve their combat prowess before considering them effective without Vita controlling them. Even with her they struggle, all things considered.
-
Sixth and final point, I like. We need Boons to spend them, but I love the thinking ahead, and I REALLY want Warp Manufacturing. It's always been such a cool idea, and I just love it so much.
-
Like I said. Overall great. However, the Boon wastage feels unnecessary and wasteful.
If Denva actually builds ships, I'll stop saying we need to build ships right away and start bemoaning that we need to figure out what to do with all these junk hulls. Until then, I will say we need to build ships right away before our refusal to ever build ships ruins things yet again.
[] Plan: Cogitare Conglomeration
-[] Diplomacy: The government of Denva has recognized our authority over the Cogitare, now it's time to make sure the Cogitare do as well.
--[] Select one of the onboard Cogitare to become the head of the Denva System Branch of the organization.
--[] Announce the new orbital habitat over Aetherion as the headquarters for the organization.
--[] Get the Cogitare as a faction unified and organized, to better assist us in the future.
--[] Get as many as possible setup and familiarized with Collab R&D, and show them what a research institute should look like according to our DAoT memories and records.
--[] Victan and his diplomats will help manage reactions to all this, both from within the Cogitare and from other factions in the system.
-[] Construction x1:600 (spark) + 7800 (130 factories around Aetherion) + 1,100 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 9,500 VBP
--[] Construct a 50,000 Person Orbital Habitat at Aetherion. (1,750 VBP)
--[] Rebuild the Aetherion Large Shipyard (3,000 VBP)
--[] Build 4 Candles using our destroyer hulls (4,000 VBP)
--[] Build 2 Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactories at Aetherion (600 VBP)
--[] Build some combination of bots to work at replenishing our forces (150 VBP)
-[] Research x2 (400 + 85 (Anexa) + 60 (Anexa staff) = 545 RP)
--[] Collaborative Computational R&D (250 RP)
---[] Anexa assist
--[] Abacus Manufacturing (50)
--[] Faith is My Shield (60 RP)
--[] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP)
--[] Design a destroyer? Design a new main combat bot with psy-shielding? Put extra into Int. Coding? (35 RP)
-[] Free Action: Give Denva Improved Gellar Field, Abacus Manufacturing, and Warp Drive technology.
Per the name, the main thrust of the plan is getting the Cogitare effectively organized from a bunch of more-or-less independent science-monks into an actual organization with an actual hierarchy with us at the top so that we'll be able to effectively make use of them going forward.
We also grab Collab R&D, both to help with that and to get the Denva Research Boon next turn (I expect having the Cogitare organized will also help with that). Then we finish up Faith and Abacus Manufacturing, the latter of which immediately nets us another boon with Denva. We get Alternative Shield Meanings to continue making progress on warp comms. The last bit of RP is undecided, but there are plenty of good options.
The main goal of the construction is the new HQ for the Cogitare, but we also finish the shipyard so that we can begin building actual warp-ships for our fleet next turn (Once we actually have Abacus Manufacturing), and build a handful of candles for all the reasons that myself and others have been saying that's a good idea to do asap. The last bit of production goes into a couple of manufactories to keep up the industrial expansion and 150 BP worth of bots, maybe using a new psy-shield design?
I don't think we need to organise the cogitare. They'll do it themselves, we have an ongoing boon doing that and we aren't going to need them immediately in order to need that action. As for posting them outside Denva, to me that runs contrary to having them help uplift the society from the inside. It makes them more like the Mechanicus, and we went through a lot of trouble to uproot that concentration of knowledge.
It's not a boon, actually! Integrating Vita into their production system is just something we can do with the diplomacy action, much like setting up and integrating with their research and development sector.
Ultimately I'm judging that we need to buck up our military since the spark is meant to beat up small things and run from big things, but now we have ground we have to hold so we can't depend on running from big things anymore. This is just the way I see to cover all bases in a hurry - by handing over the hulls and void shield tech and THEN integrating into their main production system, Vita is saying "it's time to do what we did with the psy shields, but for building your navy and protecting your cities and points of interest".
That is to say, we boost their manufacturing by hooking ourselves into it - the whole thing, and then collectively turn that manufacturing towards shitting out a fortress and a fleet to sally out from it.
And also bigass gravity guns for our flag, just in case one really big nasty asshole shows up instead of just a bunch of smaller, faster ones that the spark can't hit all at once.
I need to refine the plan some more to specify that we're stationing our 25k robot army across the different PoIs as boarding defense to go with those new void shields, incidentally. And also that they should get some personal gravity guns, because those are amazing for boarding combat, apparently.
And then next turn rolls around - except then, we have Immaterium Understanding ready to get Warp manufacturing alongside CCR&D, and this is important, Vita will still be tied into their production system. We'll be able to keep boosting their entire industrial base to expand it, and ours, further, making any boons we take before we leave more valuable.
I must say, when you said you wanted to do the psy shield thing, I thought you meant get void discounts and then put void shields on every building, person, and pet.
Also, thoughts on my research list? I'm seeing a desire to go for warp manufacturing, there. What would you remove from my list of recommendations to make space?
It's not a boon, actually! Integrating Vita into their production system is just something we can do with the diplomacy action, much like setting up and integrating with their research and development sector.
So, this is something I feel like I should gauge the feelings of the thread on. Because here's my reading of what seems to actually be on offer.
We help Denva set up an R&D Sector to the approximate standards of the DAoT, complete with handing them a groundbreaking new technology specifically for R&D purposes (On top of at least one similar technology we've given them before... and all the other technology we've already given them... and the DAoT educational archives we gave them... and the way we've saved their asses several times... etc.)
In return, they give us a single (1) boon, which we could cash in to gain some degree of control over the direction of that R&D (We get to pick two more tech trees for them to focus on, in addition to the two they're already focusing on per our last request on the subject) and access to the fruits of that research (They "will share techs & designs from those trees occasionally" and "they'll share techs from those trees when they get them.").
I'll be honest, while I know a lot of it is down to quest mechanics and dice rolls, and they seem very promising in the long run... Denva has not impressed me thus far on any metric aside from their population and theoretical production capacity. While I do want to continue helping them, I'm starting to feel like the returns might be better if we help the Cogitare first. Especially given that helping the one will help the other, and helping the Cogitare involves a fair degree of reinforcing our actual authority over them, so that we can better direct them in how they can help both us and Denva going forward in a way that doesn't involve this screwing around with boons thing we've fallen into with Denva.
Denva has it's vast population to worry about and needs to cajoled with favor trading to focus on helping us help us all. A properly organized Cogitare will have little to no such distractions to worry about (They're ascetic cyborg science monks), will do what we tell them because we are their recognized leader, are in a perfect place culturally to adopt a religion which will almost certainly recognize us as some kind of prophet even if we decide not to be a god, and have a universal focus on the kinds of skills and activities that we want from our minions (Science, engineering, education, and uplift).
They're probably never going to fully break away from Denva into their own civilization (Ascetic cyborg science monks are unlikely to see much population growth outside of recruitment, and Denva is likely to be by far their most fruitful recruiting ground for the foreseeable future) but that just means they'll always be helping Denva on the side, and I don't really want them competing with Denva in the long term anyway.
I don't think we need to organise the cogitare. They'll do it themselves, we have an ongoing boon doing that and we aren't going to need them immediately in order to need that action. As for posting them outside Denva, to me that runs contrary to having them help uplift the society from the inside. It makes them more like the Mechanicus, and we went through a lot of trouble to uproot that concentration of knowledge.
I mean, you say they'll do it themselves, but we spent a boon to have ourselves recognized as in charge of them and another to permanently increase their recruitment... And have heard absolutely nothing since. Last we heard, when we first got back to Denva, they were a fading faction within the system. We're their nominal leader and we have no idea how many of them exist, where they are, what they're doing, anything. We need to sort that out and I believe we'll profit significantly from doing so in the form of a growing and highly skilled subordinate population that we'll be able to direct to our benefit going forward.
To answer your second concern... The Cogitare see educating others as a divine calling and no part of that education involves forcing the recipients to join up. They couldn't be more different from the Mechanicus if they tried.
I mean, you say they'll do it themselves, but we spent a boon to have ourselves recognized as in charge of them and another to permanently increase their recruitment... And have heard absolutely nothing since. Last we heard, when we first got back to Denva, they were a fading faction within the system. We're their nominal leader and we have no idea how many of them exist, where they are, what they're doing, anything. We need to sort that out and I believe we'll profit significantly from doing so in the form of a growing and highly skilled subordinate population that we'll be able to direct to our benefit going forward. Haven't
To answer your second concern... The Cogitare see educating others as a divine calling and no part of that education involves forcing the recipients to join up. They couldn't be more different from the Mechanicus if they tried.
We haven't asked. But also, they're where we put them when we left Denva: integrated into society on a global scale. I understand undoing part of that work since it turns out their unique blend of science and engineering is useful to us, but extracting them from that integration where they're most useful I find questionable.
I'm pretty sure the IoM and us both already have inertial compensators, or at least inertia is never mentioned as hindering voidship crews that I'm aware of.
Well the Imperium would likely not talk about the potential harm the crew would suffer from things like being thrown about. Likely the Imperium's ships in 40k follow the convention of leaky compensators. They protect from a lot but especially sudden or rough actions (like ramming or emergency maneuvers) would see people get thrown about when such things happen, or the ship seems to shake when struck. And while we are using advanced tech we can probably do better which would give us more flex with maneuvers.
Well the Imperium would likely not talk about the potential harm the crew would suffer from things like being thrown about. Likely the Imperium's ships in 40k follow the convention of leaky compensators. They protect from a lot but especially sudden or rough actions (like ramming or emergency maneuvers) would see people get thrown about when such things happen, or the ship seems to shake when struck. And while we are using advanced tech we can probably do better which would give us more flex with maneuvers.
Yeah, I get the feeling that Ad. Mat. may very well help with studying the Necrons.
I think it would be odd that there's no mention of being beyond our inertial dampeners' abilities in the improved engine tech, if there were such an issue.
And you don't need a feeling—we have word from the QM. I linked to it a bit ago; it's near the end of this post.
I'll not snip this since it has a lot of point to address and I don't wanna forget them all. But I do appreciate the thoroughness of your responses! That's always a treat to read through when I have the time. It shows you put actual thought and care into your responses, especially since they try to address my concerns concisely and correct any misunderstandings I had. So thank you for that! Especially since it's written respectfully.
Seriously, it's easy to get invested in having a discussion when I can tell you're willing to respect and listen to me, even when we disagree.
Second point. I agree we need to improve our military efforts drastically. However, I disagree with the usage of the Ships. Is there a reason we can't turn them into Candles or do a minor design of our own for them? It'll be a sticking point for me. Handing over those as completed ships provides a Boon, and that is big. Shaping a society, levels of big. We can do the rest of what you suggest easily, and I encourage it!
But why hand over the incomplete ships and miss out on a Boon? Even ignoring them for now to focus on other things still has them as an option for us later, which leaves us still in a stronger position of having an extra Boon.
Can you explain your thoughts on that more thoroughly? I'm missing whatever connection you've made to make that math function out to be a sum-positive in our favor.
The goal is for a fleet to be made fast with us paying for only a small part of it - in part BP, but more importantly design RP, because these are oddball hull sizes we wouldn't normally bother with and Candles... are kind of sad, even as a stopgap. I'm hoping that collaborative manufacturing will let us fortify the system more heavily and quickly than building out these hulls ourselves could have, which might come in clutch if the dice keep messing with us like this.
Military assets do a whole lot of nothing right up until the moment you realize you needed them last turn, after all. Neablis has dropped a very large number of worrying hints lately - and in some form since Vorthryn. With all our delays, I'm inclined to treat that with a similar level of caution as I did Bongo when Neablis said a nat 1 with him would be capital B Bad.
Anyways, passing the hulls over to Denva does a couple of things for the goal of motivating Denva to make a system defense ASAP:
It makes Denva producing their own ships more urgent.
Up until now, they've been mashing the numbers go up button, assuming Vita's defensive umbrella had things covered. But now Vita will be saying "that isn't enough, here's something to get you started".
Even if they don't want to believe she won't be enough protection on her own, it is physically putting the point at which she can make ships on her own farther out. It can't be ignored that the ball will be in Denva's courts for getting that fleet made
It makes Denva producing their own ships more convenient.
Fairly obvious.
But most of all, it means anything they contribute towards it is stuff that belongs to them.
And between that motivation, Victan's negotiations, and Vita's contribution, maybe we get some of those ships back as kickback - or some other consideration, like a higher share of their boosted manufacturing output, though the latter might get simplified to being a boon for the sake of easy bookkeeping, lol.
The line between "give them the completed ships" and "give them the empty hulls" blurs a bit when the plan explicitly completes the shipyard, then hooks ourselves into their manufacutring systems to make them go brrrrr, you know?
And that uncertainty should also show... well, how many fiddly details still need to be worked out with Neablis, but I'm waiting on the actual turn update for that. Could flip the table on every one of our plans, wouldn't be the first time.
Boons have to compete with opportunity costs themselves, in the end, and we're on the cusp of massive, nigh-revolutionary breakthroughs in multiple fields, so getting the part where we make sure everybody lives out of the way as fast and cheaply as possible is its own reward even before you get into stretch goals.
There will always be more boons, after all. The ones we get now aren't even going to be the most powerful ones, not by far.
But the opportunity to paint the map in Sector Thrace in Vita and Denva's colors before anyone else got there first and fortifies, getting that sweet loot and saving whatever unique cultures popped up in the calm after the imperial pull-out? That takes prioritizing a bit of speed.
Fifth point I hadn't really thought about. It's good to specify, but overall a minor thought in my mind. I'm sure it'll work out great as boarding defenses, though I think we need to spray improve their combat prowess before considering them effective without Vita controlling them. Even with her they struggle, all things considered.
Eh, it's a stop-gap. Maybe we leave them behind to trade for something else, maybe we take them with as a way to take the anti-cultist show on the road, but for they don't have to be perfect, just good enough.
Also, gravity guns. Can't forget the gravity guns.
I must say, when you said you wanted to do the psy shield thing, I thought you meant get void discounts and then put void shields on every building, person, and pet.
Also, thoughts on my research list? I'm seeing a desire to go for warp manufacturing, there. What would you remove from my list of recommendations to make space?
Generally what catches my interests with techs are specific synergies, and techs that are cross-applicable to different goals. It's easy to line up a bunch of techs that say "do this one thing generally better" - the categories basically already to that for us - but "if we have these priorities, these fires, and this opportunity, these techs can address all of them to some degree" is where the magic happens.
Otherwise, it's about "can we reach a new paradigm on a topic" - sometimes this is just a single tech line, like Warp Comms or warp travel, but other times it's a bunch of stuff coming together to make something weird and cool.
My last take at that in a vacuum was, I think, the mass stealth boarding with ubiquitous sensors supported by tactical information gathering - basically, hyperspecializing towards disabling and capturing ships by putting all our guys on them and using the sensor data we get from that to sucker punch any weapons systems before they fire using the spark. As a research list, excluding things we've gotten since and including a thing or two we've unlocked since, goes something like:
Unit techs
Miniaturized Antigravity (for drones)
Eldar weapons study
Robot Melee
Stealth Boarding techs
Boarding Equipment
Improved Passive Stealth
Eldar ship study
Networked Missiles (assuming it applies to boarding torps)
Sensor Techs
Combat Information Gathering
Better Sensors Are Just Physics
EaR
The Epicure of Chaos
...This is a very large and unwieldy list, and I didn't list everything that would contribute to it (though I did organize 2nd level bullet points in descending priority). There's a reason I haven't brought it up in a while.
Suffice to say though, you never know when weird and wild ideas will become relevant, because opportunities to seize and fires to put out are always changing, even when the tech tree itself doesn't add something new that recontextualizes old items.
I'll be keeping an eye on yours, even if I didn't have time to really dig into it properly. It's late, alas.
So, this is something I feel like I should gauge the feelings of the thread on. Because here's my reading of what seems to actually be on offer.
We help Denva set up an R&D Sector to the approximate standards of the DAoT, complete with handing them a groundbreaking new technology specifically for R&D purposes (On top of at least one similar technology we've given them before... and all the other technology we've already given them... and the DAoT educational archives we gave them... and the way we've saved their asses several times... etc.)
In return, they give us a single (1) boon, which we could cash in to gain some degree of control over the direction of that R&D (We get to pick two more tech trees for them to focus on, in addition to the two they're already focusing on per our last request on the subject) and access to the fruits of that research (They "will share techs & designs from those trees occasionally" and "they'll share techs from those trees when they get them.").
The thing that makes this balance is that Denva is generally aligned with us, and we have more opportunities to put them even further into our pocket.
When they grow and expand, that's generally to our benefit - it is resources that make the boons we can get more valuable, it is land denied to enemy factions, it is leverage for Vita to make deals for her own benefit with other factions that feel like talking.
Right now we're under a lot of pressure because Denva is the crossroads system of the crossroads subsector of Thrace. But when Denva becomes more secure, that script flips and it instead becomes the massive asset that everyone else wishes they had: People have to play nice with Denva if they want to move freely through Thrace, and that means playing nice with Vita.
Denva prospering means a more friendly galaxy, one ripe for us to thrive in. That's the real goal, the real reward.
Boons themselves are just... quest rewards, basically. The adventurer's guild paying out for doing something they wanted done.
It's just kinda weird because we also built that guild.
Tally
[x] Plan: G-1st Counter-Insurgency featuring shields for literally everybody
-[x] The Big Idea: Shielding. Shielding everywhere. I'm making Xon's dream come true, and because every shield is a warp sensor not only will people in their fancy new shielded apartments be safe from chaotic attack, cultists won't go anywhere near them for fear of being immediately discovered before they can do anything. And then a couple dozen thousand shielded robots find them anyways.
-[x] Research x2 (400 + 85 (Anexa) + 56 (Anexa staff, 20 Cogitare assigned to design) = 541 RP)
--[X] The Taste of Chaos (100 RP)
---[x] Anexa assist
--[x] Small-scale design-integrated psychic shielding (aka "SSDIPS") (150 RP)
--[X] Hardware Psychic Encryption (50 RP)
--[x] Machine Spirit Chaos resistance (Boost:75 RP base * 1.25 = 93.75 -> 94 RP)
--[X] Machine Spirit-controlled Psychic Shields (50 RP) --[x] Blueprint: Seeker Light Infantry Bot [>=10 RP, 80 BP, 20 CP] (RP price halved due to 20 assigned Cogitare)
---[x] 10 RP - Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP)
---[x] Humanization - (+15 base BP cost for combat bots)
---[x] Machine-spirits - (+0.5x base BP cost, -0.9x base CP cost)
---[x] Design-Integrated Psychic Shielding - (+?x RP, +0 BP cost for bots)
---[x] Less-than Lethal armament - (+0.5x base BP cost for vehicles and small craft & bots.)
--[x] Assist Denva with SSDIPS-based designs such as shielded housing and personal shielding (Overflow)
--[x] Intelligence Coding (Overflow 2)
-[x][Repair Bay]: spent in Construction
-[x] Construction (600 VBP + 5340 Aetherion MS manus + 1,100 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 7040 / 1000 Repair Bay / 500 Lift Capacity):
--[x] Repair the Spark's structure damage (110 VBP) (15/125 -> 125/125 BP of structure damage repaired)
--[x] Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 221/240 -> 240/240 HP (95 VBP)
--[x] The Spark: Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 666/1215 -> 1215 (549 VBP, 50 CP)
--[x] Fix up 41 Orbital Manufactories to MS-manufactories (4100 BP, 615 CP)
--[x] 4854/7040 BP
--[x] Build 25,000 Seeker bots. (2,000 BP, 500 CP)
--[x] Aetherion Shipyard repair (All remaining BP) (186 BP)
-[x] Orders: Help Denva cleanse the planet of hidden chaos cults
--[X] Idea: Could use psy-shield equipped forces for search and patrol, while stationing reserve forces of unshielded bots/tanks on shuttles that can rapidly insert from orbit onto the scene of a detected cult or cultist attack to reinforce local responders.
--[X] Idea: Shielded housing isn't just for safety - build outwards from major population centers they could rapidly make these areas impossible to operate for cults because omni-present warp sensors risk catching them immediately even if they don't do anything. The targeted use and expansion of "safe zones" and shield-equipped patrols can be used to direct and limit undiscovered cultist cells' movement to make finding them easier.
--[X] Idea: Investigation and counter-terrorism is more Denva's show than yours, and they could definitely use the experience. Consider lending your Seeker bots on request.
-[x] Anexa active Action: The Taste of Chaos
-[x] Victan passive action: Assist with chaos cult clean up
-[x] Cia: Deployment on chaos cult clean up
-[x] Tech Transfer:
--[X] Everything we researched and designed this turn.
You're uncharacteristically silent as your crew enters the observation deck for the now-habitual planning meeting. The Spark is oriented so that the planet of Denva is once more in view, and everybody silently studies the planet as they take their seats. They've all been busy with their work, and none of you expect that to change anytime soon. But there's an air of anticipation in the air, as if they're waiting for big news.
Once they're all seated, a map flashes up on the holoprojector, showing the mapped sector so far in rich green.
"It's become clear that Chaos isn't going to stop being a problem anytime soon. The information off the Echo of Apotheiosis suggests a bunch of warbands have set up shop to the west at the forgeworld of Hearth, in sub-sector Hearth." The corresponding dot flashes a dull red. "The Forsaken Echo was only the first of the problems we're likely to see from them, and we're definitely not ready to go after them. Not yet. They're also expanding south, because the Eldar warned us of chaos in Zerak."
It looks like Anexa wants to say something, but she reigns herself in and lets you keep speaking.
"Then the Knights of the Crimson Vigil are all the way up to the northeast, in Zantor. They've told us there are more demons coming from Duras Reach, which is somewhere to the East, past Y'Kala drift and Myrix." Those systems light up a similar red to Hearth. "I don't know if that means cultists more comfortable summoning demons than building ships or something worse, but it's still something to worry about."
Your eyes flick to other parts of the map, and they light up in their own colors. "There are other threats of course. Necrons to the north, past Red Harbor. Orcs to the south, in and beyond Dornath. I'm sure there's more in other directions. The Aeldari might be a threat, might not." Myralis Shroud turns blue.
"Such as the Drukhari in sub-sector Chrysal," Cia adds, pointing at the dot in question.
You shrug, and it changes color. "Yes, but I doubt they're as big of a problem as these others. Everything I know says that they're content to stay still and raid. Everybody else is going to expand, and that's the problem." What you're talking about is obvious from this angle. You have five different entities marked out in the sector. They're not all exact, but they're close enough.
Locations of known factions are approximate. There may or may not not be Chaos in Y'kala drift, but there is Chaos in that general direction. Same with the necrons.
"But regardless of the strategic position, the presence of two separate sources of Chaos means that we're going to be continuing to deal with them going forward." You gestured out the observation window for the first time so far, indicating Denva below. "This problem we have here at Denva is one we'll have to deal with again, and is an insidious threat unique to them."
"So - we need to treat it seriously?" Anexa asks, not entirely sure where you're going.
You nod. "And develop the tools to deal with it. This won't be a one-time thing. We're going to have to do this over and over. The better the tools we have for rooting out cults and preventing them from spreading, the better we'll be positioned against Chaos going forward."
"Then we're not just doing this once, we're doing it with the intention to do it again," Victan says with a frown "I don't disagree, but it's messy enough as it is. I can't expect this will end well."
You grimace. "We're dealing with an infectious cognitohazard that lets people sacrifice parts of themselves or others for real power. It's the kind of threat I never dreamed about. It's only one of many in this insane galaxy, but it's the one we're facing now. What I had in mind was more about building the tools, then figuring out how to apply them." Your gaze turns to Anexa. "We need to tune the warp sensors to detect the signals the cults give off, well enough we can identify these chaotic blessings. Then we make the shields cheap enough to put everywhere, and robust enough to stand up to whatever gets thrown at them. I'm thinking we go the machine spirit path. It'll be another grind, but at the end of it cults will be a much smaller danger than they are now."
She nods, affirmatively, eyes already flicking back and forth as she accesses her implants to review the preliminary notes you'd made on the topic.
You move onto Victan. "Your job is to get the shields deployed on Denva. Both to help solve the current catastrophe, and to prevent the next one. I want them in every building, all tied together into a planet-wide sensor grid ready to triangulate warp activity."
He presses his lips together, intimidated by the size of the task you've landed in his lap. But his brows are crinkled as he starts to think of ways to accomplish what you have planned.
Finally you pivot to Cia. "And then whenever we find a cult you'll be on standby in case they've managed to whip up some serious mojo. There's no point sending Denvan troops or bots into a meat grinder if you can solve it quickly enough. And I finally plan to build some psychically-shielded bots."
Cia's much more easygoing about all this, but you suppose that's fair. She needs to keep in shape and be ready to spring into action, but she's not going to be grinding out long days for the next several years to make everything work.
"Anything else?" You ask.
Victan looks up. "There's a lot of threads. The Denvan research opportunity, the Vellkar, the warp technology...?" He trails off, his questioning tone making it clear what he's asking.
"We quash chaos first," you reply. "That's the priority. We can help uplift Denva after that's done. We're leaving opportunities on the table, but I want to be certain about this."
Cia speaks up, voice focused and a frown creasing her brow. "Building the tools to combat Chaos is necessary now, but these other threats." She gestures towards the other dots illuminated on the map. "The Orks. The Necrons. The Drukhari. Any others we have yet to find. All of this effort is wasted on them." She pauses. "Against them, we need bigger guns. More ships. Psytech."
You tilt your head from side to side. "Kind of. My impression is that each has their own special tricks that need to be countered. We're fighting Chaos now, so that's whose tricks we'll focus on. But I hear you. It's past time we built more ships with bigger guns."
"Better guns," Anexa interjects. "It seems silly to be building ships with macrocannons when I've seen your hypotheticals on Nova cannons, or fusion weaponry. Let's build that."
You nod. "I agree. After we deal with Denva. Anything else?"
No more objections are made, and soon enough you've all split up to your respective tasks. For you and Anexa that's research, and you're going to be spending a substantial amount of time engaged in it. Not in understanding the deep secrets of reality, or exploring completely novel branches of science, but rather in fine-tuning and optimizing. You need your existing discoveries to work better, to be cheaper and faster. It's all possible, but it lacks the thrill of more fundamental work.
Still, it's what you committed to. The most important things are the ones that will change how you build your psychic shields, so you dive into the problem of psychic encryption first. You left off with a greater understanding of what you needed to do to scramble warp signals passing through your shields, and that it wasn't entirely doable with just software updates. You needed to change the hardware of the shields as well.
You take the models you'd already built to simulate the necessary scrambling and then run them again, this time simulating not just different modulations of the power of the shielding, but also different adaptations of the hardware. It doesn't take you long to land on a slightly different design that does a much better job. It's nothing too complicated - you'd previously built the shields to offer better protection, not to mess with signals. They're different axes, and with a full understanding of both it's easy to find a sweet spot that accomplishes both.
Researched Hardware Psychic Encryption - 46+20=66 Good success. All of the psychic shields you build from here on out will block normal scrying and warp communication. Unlocked new technology - Enhanced Psychic Encryption (250 RP) Requires Immaterium Understanding
Discounted existing technology - Psychic Shield Tuning cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Scrapcode Denial cost reduced by 50 RP
Of course, no matter how good your psychic shielding it won't matter if it's can't get deployed. And you want to deploy this over the majority of a planet.
That means making it easier to build. You've already worked on making your shielding cheaper and more efficient, but it's time to really push that farther. This can't just be cheap, it need to be ubiquitous. That's going to take some crazy ideas, and you settle in for some serious prototyping.
This whole idea came about when you first started printing your shielding in interchangeable panels of various sizes, the increased uniformity allowing you to finely-tune the panels individually instead of the finished product. Now you want to rely on the same approach but taken a step further. Instead of manufacturing the necessary components out of nanoscale molecular circuitry you need to make it work with less rigorous civilian manufacturing techniques. You're willing to lose a little bit of overall strength in return for dramatically easier manufacturing capability.
You iterate, and iterate and iterate, trying different manufacturing techniques to see which ones will work. You need to make a circuit which will narrowly mimic a conscious decision and send the correct signal to the warp. It's a short message, simple and to the point. An unadorned "no." But option after option fails until you hit on one that doesn't. Basic multilayer photolithography with flexible silica-polymer can hit the right specs, and the more layers you add the stronger the resulting shield will be.
It's not a perfect solution, but it's not bad either. It'll never be able to hit the same kind of strength you can with your more advanced techniques, and every new application will require a new design framework. But it'll get the job done at a cost that's multiple orders of magnitude lower, and that unlocks it for the civilian sector.
Researched Small-scale design-integrated psychic shielding 61+20 = 81 Good success! You can design psychic shielding on bots & other small objects that will not increase manufacturing costs. Can't break the rules for multiple layers of shielding. Blueprint Modification Changed - Psychic Shielding BP cost removed, replaced by extra RP design cost).
Existing Technology Discounted - Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding cost reduced by 75 RP
Existing Technology Discounted - Tiny Psychic shielding cost reduced by 50 RP
The entire time you've been focusing on this, Anexa and her staff have been trying everything they - and you - can think of to better detect the taint of Chaos. Luckily between the captured cultists and the various artifacts you have a range of samples to test against, and early results are promising.
This isn't the kind of thing where a great breakthrough heralds amazing results from nowhere. It's steady refinement, distinguishing signal from noise, layering filtering algorithms and developing the theory necessary to add more. You're trying to teach your sensors to pull out the smallest grain of chaotic taint they can find, so that a person touched by the "gift" of their gods will betray themselves by the very signature they give off.
Now that they've broken ground you get more heavily involved, breaking down the thousands of hours of current and historical sensor data to tease out the component that singularly defines chaos. It's a hard line to draw since it comes in many flavors and many rituals, and you end up needing to come up with different methods to detect different kinds of signals.
The downside is that you'll be better at detecting some kinds of chaotic signatures than others, but the upside is that you'll know which. You'll have an idea which Chaos god is being invoked, if any, and potentially be able to distinguish the broad category of ritual or blessing from the signature you detect.
Researched Taste of Chaos, 60+30=90 (Anexa) Your warp-sensors are sensitive to chaos signatures, including chaos blessings & inactive artifacts at close range, and active chaos rituals at long range. You will have some idea of what the blessing/ritual is when you detect it, and who its dedicated to. Unlocked new technology - The Epicure of Chaos (150 RP)
Unlocked new technology - The faintest whiff of the Chaos-Touched (250 RP)
Discounted existing technology - Empathy at Range cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Warp Weather Prediction cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Immaterium Understanding cost reduced by 25 RP
Discounted existing technology - Scrapcode Denial cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Multi-meaning shields cost reduced by 50 RP
"I think that's solved it," Anexa says one day after seeing the most recent presentation from a group of excited Cogitare members. They've managed to fully get over all of the anxiety from actually studying chaos artifacts, mostly by fully realizing that yes, the cognition filters work.
You hum in response. "Yes, I agree. It'll do the job. We can detect cultists now , but I'm worried about what will happen afterwards. On Klyssar's Nest we got a teaser of what a desperate group of Chaos worshipers can accomplish. I'm a bit scared of what they might accomplish with multiple years to prepare and a whole planet to hide on."
"But without actual military control, they won't be able to just round up sacrifices in the open," Anexa points out, but she's nodding along. "It'll take me some time to deploy this package into something Denva can use. What are you thinking?"
"Machine spirits," you reply decisively. "The Imperium uses them for a reason, and part of that is that they're harder for Chaos to influence than a normal cogitator. But we haven't tried to enhance that capability yet, and if I can then the first person to blast past the psychic shields on my bots will be in for a rude awakening. And then I'll try to tie them into the psychic shielding, to actively control it. Hopefully, it all works out, but we'll have to see."
"Well, I look forward to seeing what you can do with it," Anexa replies, looking a bit disappointed she won't be able to dive into the next project right alongside you.
"Thanks. See you on the other side."
You've played with the design of machine spirits multiple times before. It's a bit more of an art than a science, but at this point it's an art with established techniques and known tricks for desired results. However, every time you go for a new approach you risk destroying all of the previous improvements you've made. The tactical improvements, the potential for your bots to use nonlethal force, all of it might be incompatible if you change the layout of their machine-spirit brains too much.
Fortunately, it looks like that's not going to be a problem. You're optimizing for a parameter that's a bit difficult to define - so you're just going to call it "willpower." It's a bit of an odd phrase to use to describe something that doesn't have free will, but it fits. The whole point of machine spirits is that there's no singular way to gain control of it. You can't just change its directive, you need to corrupt it much like you would corrupt a person. But people vary widely in how resistant they are to that sort of thing, and your goal is to push your bots toward the more stubborn end of that line.
The trick is doing that without jeopardizing their ability to take orders. It's all well and good to make a bot that's too stubborn to be corrupted, but it also needs to listen when you tell it what to do. You try to imagine how you could build bots that would be able to distinguish real orders from fake orders. But that's a very short skip to true intelligence, and that's both not what you're going here and not a problem you've got enough time to solve.
Instead, you look back at the recordings of what happened when your previous bots were corrupted, and what that looks like. From the invasion of Klyssar's Nest, you have a wealth of examples to choose from. Examining those readings, the best word you have is "insanity." They stop being logical, start recursive chains of thoughts that lead to nonsensical conclusions, or just straight up start hallucinating a new reality.
That's the angle of attack you can take here. Willpower in terms of "certainty of thought" and inability to be disconnected from the real world so easily. It's easier said than done, but you manage it by mostly adding connections and modules that will interrupt and prevent the problems you're facing now. Along the way you get some ideas for how you might use an implant to do the same thing in human brains, which is pretty exciting.
Researched Machine Spirit Chaos Resistance - 73 + 20 = 93 Critical success! Your machine spirits are much harder for Chaotic and other kinds of warp-based attacks to corrupt. Unlocked new technology - Machine Spirit Chaos Immunity? (250 RP)
Unlocked bonus technology - Sanity Module (150 RP)
Discounted existing technology - Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention cost reduced by 100 RP
Discounted existing technology - Machine Spirit Hallucinations cost reduced by 50 RP
The final step, the pièce de résistance of your new research, is going to be integrating those new and enhanced machine spirits into your psychic shields. You've noticed that intentionally controlling the settings on your psychic shields can have an effect on how useful they are. You've only done it a few times - mostly in response to Bongo's escape attempts. But you're hoping that integrating machine spirits will enhance the psychic shields and help them better respond to chaos threats.
To start you simply hook a machine spirit up to a psychic shield and see what happens. What happens is that the machine spirit gets stuck in the same loop as the psychic shield, with "no" on repeat. You test it out and see a very slight increase to the capability of the shield, but that machine spirit won't exactly be good for anything else. Your goal here is for the machine spirit of a combat bot to be hooked into the psychic shield, actively use it as a defense and be able to sense when it's under attack. Ideally, it'll be able to use the warp sensor integrated into the shielding to detect psychic attacks and rituals before they happen, and respond appropriately.
You try a few approaches. Nothing is perfect, but you come up with two workable solutions. In one, you tie the machine spirit of a combat bot into existing psychic shielding. This has the benefit of enhancing psychic shielding a bit, but more importantly, it lets the bots "feel" it. They know when they're under attack, they can detect warp effects, and they know to react to them differently.
The second thing you achieve is to effectively tie in machine spirits throughout the psychic shielding, as an extra component to the shielding. It does nothing else other than enhance the "no" effect, but it does quite a good job at that. It's not cheap to add the extra effect, but it's an option you have to make your shielding stronger per unit area.
Researched Machine-spirit controlled psychic Shields - 44+20 = 64 Success. The psychic shielding & machine-spirit blueprint modifications are now synergistic. Anything you spend BP on for psychic shielding HP, you can now spend twice as much. (including shipboard equipment & installations). Unlocked new research - Self-repairing psychic shielding (200 RP)
Discounted existing research - Better Psychic Shielding Efficiency cost reduced by 50 RP
Finally. Finally you're done. The edifice of anti-chaos research is complete, and now you can cheaply build combat bots that will be protected from the vagaries of the warp, unable to be scried and able to detect any kind of Chaotic shenanigans in their vicinities. In other words, the perfect troops to root out hidden cults and prevent them from doing much damage.
Now the only thing left is to actually design them. But before you do that, you want to hear how it's going down on the planet. You've been in a research-fugue for a few years, and you haven't been keeping closely abreast of external events. You ping Victan for an update and he sends you back a running file that his team has kept up to date in preparation for your request. It's a well-detailed report on Denva and what's going on, not just covering the struggle against Chaos but also their other efforts.
It's nice to have competent underlings. And for those underlings to themselves have competent underlings. The little conveniences.
You start with the bigger picture. Denva is doing everything it can to get started on filling out the somewhat aspirational title you gave it before you first left - The Stellar Ascendancy. They're making a solid effort, and achieving solid results across multiple sectors. The orbital platforms over the planet have been rebuilt, and new shipyards are starting to take shape in Aetherion, the bustling skeletons standing on sharp comparison to the inactivity of the yards you captured from the Forsaken Echo.
Their research institutions are also starting to take shape. They're separated into two categories, with the more everyday education and research done by a large class of civilian engineers and scientists who are part of the normal civilian population. They're starting to figure out the basics of scientific enterprise, but there's still a long way to go.
The other half is formed of the Cogitare, who've grouped themselves into "Ivory Towers" that are commonplace near other centers of learning. You're amused to learn that the name comes from an offhand joke you made some time ago, but these towers are far from the distant stereotypes that image conjures. The Cogitare are relatively small in number, but their priestlike devotion to acquiring and spreading knowledge, along with the self-modification to enhance the capability for such things, makes them a welcome part of Denvan society. They're growing in size quickly, and you can't help but wonder what the ivory towers will develop into over time.
Still, the more relevant piece of the report is on the state of the "second" Denva, the one that suffered under direct Chaos occupation. It's... going. The quarantine is holding, and it's clear in reading the report that it's a necessary quarantine. The Denvan security forces are succeeding in unearthing constant signs of corruption, but they're less finding the cultists and more finding clear signs of continual cult activity, as well as suffering the occasional attack. Serial killings have grown to be a greater problem and also become more coordinated.
The problem seems to be that the cultists have settled in for the long game and gotten smart. They're striking where Denva is weak, and using every trick in the Chaotic arsenal to recruit new members and sacrifices. It's the kind of thing that would grind on forever and define half of Denva. If you weren't here. But you are.
... but there's one more distraction before you can actually get to the part where you fix this problem, and that's your own cultists. They've been sitting in your brig for a while, and some of them have started to regret their surrender. They've been deprived of most of the tools necessary to take up their old habits, but some haven't let that stop them. Luckily, the shielding and lack of advanced knowledge has made it mostly a non-issue.
-78 Cultist Prisoners
-9 Brig Psychic HP
That might be something to deal with sooner or later, either by releasing them into Denvan captivity or coming up with an alternate means of holding them.
Still, now that you're all caught up it's time to start fixing the problem. The first step is to design an appropriate bot chassis with your new technologies, so you whip up a light bot frame with the necessary specs.
Seeker Bot (80 BP, 20 CP). 1000 light infantry bots, light arms, and armor intended to fight lightly armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine spirits, equipped with psychic shields and basic nonlethal weapons mostly consisting of basic knockout gas that sometimes causes fatal side-effects.
As soon as the design is finalized, you start cranking them out. You'd previously set the Voidforge miners on fixing up the remaining manufactories around Klyssar's nest, but the rest of the manufactories are mostly free to produce the thousands of bots you'll need to make a dent in the quarantined Denva. After making sure your ship is fixed up to snuff.
Spark of the Ancients Fully repaired!
+41 Orbital Machine Spirit Manufactories
25,000 Seeker bots Built
Aetherion Shipyard repaired - 186/3000 BP
You check in with Victan as the bots start to come off the lines, ready to figure out where to deploy them. Once more he - and his staff - have a plan ready and waiting for you, and it's a good one. You'll start deployment in the city centers once you've built up a critical mass, aiming to have sufficient coverage to catch the cultists off-guard with the sudden number of warp sensors.
You tweak their plan slightly, both knowing the overall plan and deciding that it's ok to have slightly worse coverage of the city centers to have a presence in the outlying towns sooner. If you were running a hidden cult you would be more likely to keep your gathering places out of the hearts of the cities, especially when the troops are out in force.
The other thing you work on is helping Denva deploy your psychic shielding broadly, to integrate it into various buildings. It's extremely challenging to work it into already standing buildings, though they manage to do it for several critical governmental and defensive installations. But mostly it'll be integrated into every piece of new construction going forward as part of regulation. As standard as fire sprinklers and only a little bit more expensive.
Export good blueprints upgraded with psychic shields: Light Infantry Armor, Medium Infantry Armor, Heavy Infantry Armor, Light crewed tanks, Medium crewed tanks, Basic Crewed artillery, Manned Manufactory, Residential Space, City & Orbital habitat blueprints all modified with basic psychic shields.
When the bots do deploy, they do in numbers, and early successes are good. The bots are able to detect warp signatures independently, and are backed up by human soldiers capable of investigating and detaining. Similar scenes are replicated across the quarantine zone as your bots point their handlers at various people, and they're investigated.
Thousands of cultists are caught, those running around with active Chaos blessings mostly. Office workers with chaotic scarification, doctors dripping pus into medicine, even some soldiers with mixed allegiances. Dozens of rituals are broken up, sometimes rescuing those about to be sacrificed, sometimes not. Several times the cultists involved manage to flee before the pincers close in, or prepare defenses and manage to put up a fight before being taken out by heavy fire support. It's clear that even if your bots can't be scried the same isn't true for the cultists themselves, or maybe the soldiers who are assisting your efforts.
Soon enough the rising tally of captured and killed cultists slows to a trickle. Chaotic killings are way down and by the numbers, it seems like the problem is solved. But it isn't. You know it, Victan knows it, W knows it. You've caught thousands and thousands of cultists, but thousands more remain. People are still disappearing faster than they should be, but now the disappearances are targeted at the vulnerable, and they either aren't being sacrificed or the sacrifices are done in small rituals too far away from your bots to detect. The brazen attacks halt entirely, but it's less a matter of the cultists losing the capability than them choosing to hold off.
Attempts to Suss out the Cultists - rolled 23. Poor success.
In their place is a rising sense of civil dissatisfaction. After all, isn't the problem solved? The cults eliminated? The quarantine has lasted several years, and it was accepted as necessary by those who saw the bloodshed, who knew somebody who'd been corrupted or sacrificed. But now they want to be free of the restrictions. Able to travel, able to live without a constant surveillance state watching for any sign of harmful thinking.
The ongoing crackdown and sight of heavily armed soldiers patrolling the streets has led the populace to start to see the soldiers as the problem more than the cultists, and protests have broken out. They started small, but when there wasn't a crackdown in response it started to become more popular, especially in the former nation of Estrana. It's all been mostly peaceful so far, though they're escalating and it's only a matter of time until something nasty happens, like a breach of quarantine or a bunch of dead civilians.
You're all pretty certain that the cults are encouraging the protests, but you can't be too invasive into the organizers. Furthermore, the cultists seem to be smart about it, and there's not a trace of chaotic behavior at the rallies. A series of popular personalities pop up espousing the end of the quarantine, and even those outside of it start to feel sympathetic.
Keeping the lid on the diplomatic side - rolled 2 + 27 = 29. Poor success!
Victan sums it up after one meeting. "We're in an information and opinion war. They changed the game on us, so they had a headstart."
You mull that over for a little while. "Then we need to change it back. They seem to have decided that direct action is off the table because of our bots and sensors. Now they've switched to a much more subtle infiltration of Denvan society than previously. We're integrating moderate psychic shields and sensors into all of the new construction, but it's going to take a couple of generations to cover the planet. That's good for the long term, but not for the short term. How do we convince them to change back to the old game?"
"What advantages do we have that they don't know about?" Victan asks in response.
"The bots are extremely chaos resistant," you offer up. "Even if the psychic shield get broken then they're still very hard to take over. I'm not sure how to use that."
"I have an idea," Victan says, speaking slowly. "It's risky. But it just might work."
You hear him out, then get excited. "Let's get W on the line. Start setting it up. I'll redeploy the bots."
Several months later a grand ceremony takes place in the city of Estrana, in the old governing buildings of that nation - which are not equipped with psychic shielding. Several of the leaders of Denva are making a grand entrance and a series of televised speeches before a public debate. The stated topic is the timeline for raising the quarantine. Several of the notable personalities and protest leaders have been invited, and most have decided to attend - especially since you framed the whole thing as an open forum to decide how to lift the quarantine.
Security is almost unilaterally provided by your bots, with only a moderate presence of Denvan security forces. The city is very much not on lockdown, with transit provided from other quarantined areas. There's almost a carnival vibe, with free food and various entertainment provided, almost all of it also secured by your bots. There's hope in the air, the feeling that at long last the suppression of the quarantine may finally be coming to an end.
There's also been a drawdown of bots and other security forces across the planet, though the borders of the quarantine are still in full effect. It's like an indrawn breath, the pause before a great change. But while the general populace expects a relaxation, you're fully prepared for a storm.
In fact, hoping for it. And hoping that the response is within the scope of what we can control.
The first sign of enemy action is the activation of dozens of Chaotic rituals. They spring to life in abandoned warehouses and rented rooms across the city arrayed in a mystical formation around the focal point - the governmental chambers where the talks themselves are getting underway. Your bots respond and run into heavy resistance, each location defended by troops armed with weaponry much heavier than civilians should have access to. The kind of weaponry that has to be in short supply. This is clearly important, and the cult is throwing everything they have into ensuring that it works.
Rituals light up across the quarantined half of the planet. Some are in cities and towns, but most are in remote areas, the kind of places where you shouldn't have military forces. Still, they're tuned properly to feed power to the network of rituals - the grand ritual - taking place in Estrana. When all of those are linked together and swelling with power, a third string is released. A final, focal ritual lights off in the subbasement of the government building, directly underneath the gathering of civilian leaders and representatives taking place above.
The entire planet's worth of warp energy concentrates into that one place. It's less than the power that was unleashed on Klyssar's nest, since they lack the raw quantity of sacrifices, the time to properly desecrate the space and the powerful blessed tools that enabled that ritual. Still, it's more than enough power to cause quite a bit of trouble and it erupts upwards with a specific focus in mind - your bots. They must be targeting the ritual on the Seeker bots somehow, because the power hones in on every bot in the building and then spreads outwards using them as conduits to assault every bot in the city.
The psychic shielding holds, the machine spirits working overtime to protect the bots from whatever the ritual is trying to do. Then the grand ritual ramps to full strength - and the psychic shields start to fracture. Depictions of death and murder assail your bots, pleas and entreaties and commands to kill forcing themselves into their minds. The machine-spirits resist the urge, and psychic tripwires act on those who fail, disabling them before they can turn their weapons on the representatives. But they're not perfect, and it's a numbers game. Sooner or later one failsafe will fail, and then your bots are going to open fire on the civilians they're supposed to be protecting.
Then Cia cuts her way through the ceiling, falling into the subbasement from above. Her armor speckled with ash from the contingent of vaporized cultists that blocked her path from the shielded saferoom, and she lands in the center of a circle of cultists chanting as they gouge out their eyes and offer them to a central figure, which consumes them with one of its many mouths.
The room becomes flame, and the ritual ends as every living thing is burnt to charcoal. The Chaotic influence on your bots ceases, and you resume control. They're... the worse for the wear, but between the enhanced shielding, the machine spirits and the tripwires you managed to avoid any fatalities in the civilians. Even if it was a bit closer than you'd like.
The governmental representatives are looking around in confusion, clearly aware something has happened, but unsure what. A few of the civilian representatives have seized the stage and begun denouncing your bots as indiscriminate murder-machines, but when nothing happens they quickly run out of steam. They clearly didn't expect to get through their full speech before your bots started their indiscriminate murder, and they're quickly detained.
"Do you have them?" Victan asks from his tense position in the conference room. He's studying the globe of Denva, paying special attention to the dusting of red lights that now inhabit its surface.
"Yes. All of them," you reply with a satisfied voice. "The grid profile was perfect. Assaults going in now."
From there it's merely cleanup. You have the location of every single chaos ritual across Denva, and they put everything into this effort. Every cultist was participating in defending a ritual site, every sacrifice was expended to empower the ritual, and the follow-up that would have come from your bots massacring the civilian population of Estrana.
But now Denva is conducting airstrikes on all of the rituals in remote areas and you're assaulting all of the ones in more urban settings with the bots that were waiting in assault shuttles scattered across the planet.
-3100 Seeker Bots from assorted Denvan activities
-119 Specter Light infiltration bots
-18 Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
"We've got them. The cults of Denva are broken."
Victan leans back with a heavy sigh. "Good. Now we just need to take care of everything else." With a wave of his hand he pulls up the sector map, gesturing to the colored dots scattered across it that represent other likely foes.
You blow a raspberry, though not at Victan. Just at the situation in general "Let's enjoy the victory first, before we go borrowing trouble. There's going to be a next enemy, but this one is defeated. Denva can release the quarantine, and focus their real strength outwards, on everything they need to do to earn the name of The Stellar Ascendency."
+1 Denva boon
Current capabilities:
Command Points 4,824/14,500
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Total Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Total Void Build Capacity: 600
Research Capacity: 200+
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 240/240 HP, Vita Core 135 HP, Crew Quarters (203/500) 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 540/540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP, Captive Holding cells (500/500) 41/50 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 24/??? 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:
338 Specter Light infiltration bots (20 CP)
252 Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (20 CP)
794x Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (20 CP)
21,900 Seeker Bots (22x20 = 440 CP)
37 Light Machine-spirit tanks (4 CP)
28 Medium Machine-spirit tank (2 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.
Current Installations:
130 Machine-spirit orbital Manufactories. +7800 Void BP/turn (20x130=2600 CP), around Aetherion
1 Large Shipyard, damaged. (186/3000 BP to repair), around Aetherion
Contains hulls for 2x Light Cruisers (1800 BP size), 4x Frigate (900 BP size), 12x Destroyers (450 BP size)
Warp research lab, 200 inner shielding, 200 outer shielding. Far orbit of Aetherion
Military:
2 Caltrop Defense stations (2x10=20 CP), around Aetherion
In progress construction:
none
In-progress research:
Abacus Manufacturing (50/100 RP)
Intelligence Coding (170/400 RP)
Faith is My Shield (15/75 RP)
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. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governor's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots. A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor. Pieces of Chaos Spare Marine bodies & armor, Warp-Resonant Crystal. 410 surrendered Chaos Cultists.
Outstanding: 1 Boon Opportunities: Give them the capability for interstellar travel and your knowledge of the local stars. Get their R&D system up and running (requires rolling well, or appropriate tech, or multiple actions). Refit a full fleet of ships you acquired for their use and hand them over before they get their own fleet up and running. Do big favors for civilizations to earn Boons. Most recent list of boons. Most of them will still be valid, ask if you want something else. Ongoing boons:
Voidforge Miners, +1250 bp/turn in Denva.
Sharing General Design & Industrial techs.
Large Cogitare presence, continuing to expand.
The Stellar Ascendancy. "Be for others as I have been for you."
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 4x 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.
Crucible manufacturing craft (550 void BP, 60 CP, 1 ship construction slot) Voidborne craft with small crew compartment. In-system only, no defenses but relatively hard to chase down. Gives +100 void build capacity, very mobile.
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 destroyer (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.
Flame torpedo frigate (2500 void BP, 2 ship construction slots) 2000x500 meters, 6 gravities, light shields, medium armor. Living Space. Psychic Shields (40 HP) Medium Torpedoes, 2x point defense, Prow ram, Light macrocannons. High-maneuverability thrusters, melta torpedo payloads, Alloyed Armor, Light Boarding preparations.
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
Seeker Bot (80 BP, 20 CP). 1000 light infantry bots, light arms, and armor intended to fight lightly armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine spirits, equipped with psychic shields and basic nonlethal weapons mostly consisting of basic knockout gas that sometimes causes fatal side-effects.
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.
Machine Spirit Ocean Remediation Ship (75 BP, 1 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. Controlled by a very serene machine spirit.
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
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 (I'm not going to keep this up to date, so the numbers here may not reflect the numbers as you improve the modifications available with future research
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. Synergistic with Psychic shields. 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 - (+2x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds psychic shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability against warpy threats. Synergistic with Machine Spirits. 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.
Less-than Lethal armament - (+0.5x base BP cost for vehicles and small craft & bots.) Arms a unit with dispensers for drugs to render human foes unconscious instead of dead. Will be improved by research for flexible . 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.
15 RP - Anti-orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
10 RP - 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.
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 1/2 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the 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 Stealth 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 (1/20 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50). 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 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 (125 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 (100 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)
-[] Chaos Space Marine Armor Investigation (100 RP) Between the dozen corpses you can almost certainly piece together a full suit or two of armor from the chaos space marines. What does it do? Why is it covered with horns? (Significant discounts on space-marine power armor research, potential discounts on robotics and cybernetics, may unlock further research to improve power armor. Potential identification of strengths and weaknesses of Black Legion 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.
Necrons
-[] Necron Initial Investigations (200 RP) You've got these scary robots lying in prison cells as if you're afraid they'll come to life and attack. Which you are. But the reason you have them is to study them, so start studying them. Everythign about them is fascinating, from the matierals they're made from to their mode of articulation to their processing units and even some faint radiation they're giving off. (Begins the necron research tree). Requires advanced technological research lab.
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 (150 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).
-[] Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (175 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 cheaper 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.)
-[] Self-repairing psychic shielding (200 RP) Once you have a thinking, even if non-sapient, being in the loop on your psychic shielding, you can start to think about building it out of a material that'll let it self-repair after damage. (Your psychic shielding will repair when not in combat).
-[] Tiny Psychic shielding (350 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 (250 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 (300 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 (150 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.)
-[] Enhanced Psychic Encryption (250 RP) You can block normal scrying and warp communication, as if you were encrypting everything. But it's possible that really good scryers could unscramble the signals somehow. Maybe? You're not sure. Still, it would be good to cut off the possibility. (New versions of psychic shielding that block even scrying & communication by expert seers. Likely to unlock specialized research to build installations that will deny scrying and foresight over a larger area - like a planet or system.) Requires Immaterium Understanding
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 Epicure of Chaos (150 RP) You can bin warp signatures into blessings, artifacts or rituals, as well as distinguish what god they came from. But you're not sure if you could tell apart a ritual of summoning from a ritual of empowerment or a ritual meant to attack an enemy. Work on that. (Allows you to detect what kind of ritual/blessing/artifact you're dealing with on the fly. Unlocks new intelligence when dealing with chaos, as well as the potential for actively countering or interfering with chaos when paired with alternative shielding meanings).
-[] The faintest whiff of the Chaos-Touched (250 RP) Warp signatures linger on objects and people. It'll be a short range-sensor, and may end up being some kind of scanner, but you can probably tease out the passive remnants of a ritual or even association with chaos-blessed objects on a person. (Unlocks improvements to sensors that will let you detect people who've been in proximity to a chaos ritual or have touched a chaos artifact, even if they bear no blessing.)
-[] Shards of Humming Gemstone (100 RP) The shards of crystal you recovered from the ritual don't carry an inherent chaos taint of their own, but they resonate with the warp somehow. The largest piece you have is the size of a human hand, maybe you can figure out what it is and how to use it? (May unlock new options for using, finding or synthesizing this warp-reactive substance, as well as discounts to technologies that involve resonance with the warp.)
-[] Empathy at Range (150 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 (150 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 (350 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.)
-[] Warp Manufacturing (150 RP) The laws of physics break down in the warp, and in spaces influenced by the warp. This includes creating impossible structures and pushing materials beyond their limits. Figuring out how to use that might be tricky, but will probably be quite rewarding. (Figure out ways to use warptech to improve mundane manufacturing, unlocks techs for both mass-production and relic-tier artificing). Requires Immaterium understanding.
-[] 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 further understanding of relics and their usage.)
-[] Demonology (100 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 (200 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 (250 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 (250 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 (50 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 machine 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 Immunity? (250 RP) You might be able to make your machine spirits "super-sane" and nearly impossible to hack with chaos shielding. It's likely to make them more expensive, but it may be worth it. (Unlocks blueprint options for ships & smaller units that makes them virtually immune to chaos takeover.)
-[] 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.)
-[] That's two levels of augmentation too many (150 RP) The Chaos Space Marines you fought are not really intact anymore, but there's enough accumulated gore spread around that you should be able to get a decent sample of their genetics and stuff like extra organs and surgical enhancements. And maybe mutations? (Discounts genetics, mutation, augmentation research. May unlock special researches around geneseed and space marine-specific augments.)
-[] 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 (150 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 (300 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)
-[] Perfect Knockout (75 RP) Your knockout gas is good, but it could be great. Increase dosage window, increase duration, decrease side effects. Make it absorb through exposed skin. (Dramatically improves effectiveness of knockout gas).
-[] Superhuman Uppers (100 RP) Pushing beyond the realm of what's normally possible for the human body is a recipie for disaster - unless you design the drugs right. (Unlocks drugs to boost human mental and physical characterstics beyond norms. Includes basic psytech drugs. Half of unlocking further psytech drugs).
-[] Juvenat Beginnings (325 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 (150 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.)
-[] Sanity Module (150 RP) By integrating your learnings from chaos-resistant machine spirits into implants, you can help ensure that people with your implants keep a firm grip on sanity. (Reduces the vulnerability of people with your implants to corruption of all kinds, as well as more normal psychoses. Helps stabilize psykers). Requires Companion Cogitators.
-[] Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (300 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 harmful thoughts, then a 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 (75 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 (75 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.)
-[] Collaberative Computational R&D (250 RP) You've set it up so that humans can help you with research and development, but the gains are limited because there's only so much they can help you with before you get diminishing returns on team size. Figure out better ways to utilize your research teams and let bigger teams contribute to projects. (Increases size of research team before RP/turn limit is reached. May assign more technical staff to further reduce design costs.)
-[] Streamlined OMC interface (125 RP) Your Organic-machine control implants are a beast to learn how to use, and the learning curve to true mastery is measured in decades if not centuries. With a further redesign focused on effective tooltips, detailed tutorials on every facet of their function and further optimization to work with various kinds of robots you can help new operators figure out the ropes and get up to speed quickly. (Increases effectiveness of humans equipped with OMC implants, both for combat and manufacturing)
-[] Gameified OMC (75 RP) You have the combat simulation part of it down, but a game is more than just fighting. You need a framework for why the fighting is happening, some kind of tie-in to manufacturing and the ability to make people care about the results of the combat. You can solve all of those problems, but doing it properly so that people actually learn useful skills and enjoy doing it will be tricky. (Create a game that teaches OMC-skills to the general populace, both providing basic training and helping find individuals with above-average proficiency. Synergizes well with Lower OMC Implant Specs)
-[] Interchangeable OMC control (100 RP) Right now it's somewhat tricky for somebody to take over a new OMC system. There's a lengthy process of familarization & customization as they feel out the new system and get it all running. All of this means that it's hard for people to easily switch off between constructs or take over new ones when the old ones are destroyed. If you can streamline the user interface and make everything more standardized, then it'll be possible for operators to "plug and play" with new hardware. (Makes it possible for people with OMC implants to quickly swap between controlled systems, letting them do things like just jump control to a new fighter when the old one is destroyed, keep manufactory systems operating through multiple shifts and ease collaboration.)
-[] Lower OMC Implant Specs (150 RP) Your OMC implants are fairly intense, and only growing more so as you improve their capabilities. If you figured out how to dial down the requirements for the software, then it would be possible for less-sophisticated and invasive implants to also work with the system. They wouldn't operate at the same capabilities of control, but it would allow people with civilian-grade implants to control a CP or two worth. (Dramatically lowers the barrier to entry into OMC-style work, allowing a much larger fraction of the population to work with organic-machine control, and likely accelerating training as lower-scale implants are required to successfully work with OMC-technology. May unlock future technology to allow implant-less people to operate OMC effectively through normal cogitators).
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 17
-[] 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, a success will discount an amount similar to her +5xLevel RP bonus but modified with the roll. Will receive the specialty bonus, and a crit will result in a level-up and unlocking a new bonus technology, like what you get for a crit on a research action.
Specialties (3/4): Machine Spirits. The Warp, Cybernetics. Grants a +10 bonus when doing research rolls in the relevant category. Staff: 100 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +20 CP each (2000) & 1 RP each (60) per turn, with people beyond 50 providing 0.2 and people beyond 100 providing 0. For design, 20 can be assigned to a design task to halve its RP cost. Those so assigned will not produce RP
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. Staff: 100 assorted diplomats, analysts and spies from Aevon Intelligence & Counterintelligence. Will provide narrative bonuses to spying, diplomacy, infiltration, etc. (It's now valid to insert them covertly and you'll be provided more information on new worlds you talk to.)
Cia Steblin, FocusedPyromancer Psyker
Level 15
-[] 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.
At this point it should be pretty clear what the two hidden factions were - Orcs & Heretics. I thought about combining the heretics with the demon world and making them a super-faction, but decided it would be more interesting if they were separate factions. The Drukhari exist but are effectively a minor faction, and won't be expanding dramatically. You have no idea where the Tyranids are. Have fun with that!
Cia's comment towards the start is notifying you of something important. You're still rocking pretty much the base ship combat equipment you started the quest with. Which is high Imperial, and not terrible so much as not impressive. If you want to do anything more than run away from the big powers as soon as the midgame starts, you're going to need some force multipliers. In terms of void combat, a lot of those are down the physics tree.
A follow-up point about research. I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again. This is a tech tree. The better techs are farther down the tree. You're currently exploring the depths of the psychic shielding & machine spirit branches of the tree, and there's some good stuff there. But every tree has equally juicy stuff this far along. You're also working on specific application techs right now, and critting on them improves the applications, but doesn't give you a lot of research discounts like you've been used to.
I worry that because the current research options are shiny, you're going to ignore the trees you haven't looked at yet. Then you will have woefully imbalanced capabilities when the midgame rolls around. Ork Rokks don't care how good your psychic shields are.
Part of the challenge for this quest is planning for the future. And yes, I know it's tempting to just get grav weapons because they don't have a prereq, but that won't be enough to completely fix this problem on its own. Grav weapons are a tree of their own, and the first level will get you extremely short-range, very powerful anti-armor guns that are a good tool - but they're a specialty weapon. Not a generalist one.
All of the above also shouldn't mean you abandon all of your current plans and crash weaponry research. This isn't a this turn or a next turn issue. But it will be an issue, and it'll take more than one turn. You need to do the prereqs, do the actual weapons research, then design and build the ships. If you wait for the enemy to actually arrive then it'll be too late to do anything but crash-build ships to your current designs, which are honestly pretty meh. Something that happens commonly in Quests is wanting to solve every problem to perfection, which means you're caught with your pants down when the next problem rears its ugly head.
That hasn't happened yet. But part of my premise of clear communication to y'all is to warn you when it might, and I'm doing that now. The clock is ticking, and whiling away your time on "nice to have" research instead of prioritizing "need to have" research is a danger. Identify which is which, and if you want the truly powerful shit, start thinking about it now. What that means to you is the question, as is what you do with it. But big gun is a fairly multipurpose tool.
If you implant a sanity module into an alpha-level psyker that would... be a very big deal.
Keeping the Chaos cultists around can have narrative benefits, as seen from the research action where you used them to detect Chaos signatures. Up to you if you want to put in the effort to keep them stable. (That's either putting them in stasis for 2bp/each or fixing the Chaos taint with a research).
The Chaos cultists of Denva aren't entirely eradicated, but their coordination is broken, their most skilled ritualists dead, their stockpiles of equipment and bases destroyed. Combined with the psychic shielding spreading across the planet, it's going to be hard for them to get much done.
I decided to give the level-up to Cia because once again, she was on the pointy end. Also, she's still lower-level than the others. They're all at the point where they need a crit to really level up, and I may institute other requirements as well. Cia likely needs more psytech to level much more, Anexa needs Companion Cogitators to go past 20. I was going to say that Victan needed a staff, but he has one now.
Note that I added building out the fleet and giving it to Denva as a way to get a boon. They're antsy for military progress, and between their inexperience with void combat and the need to design all their own ships it's moving a little slow. This opportunity may expire this turn, or it may not. Similarly for the R&D, they're working on it. It might be that they get it all set up before you can help, though you've got some research that might help dramatically.
You don't need to worry about wayfarer. Vita will start complaining about feeling tied-down in-character when I want to prod you about that.
We're going to do 44 hours of moratorium and 48 hours of voting, I think.
OK we should shove those cultists into stasis already, they are a needless flaw in our defenses
We should use the boon for a diviner, the sooner we get one the sooner they can start working and thus leveling
Other than that of the techs unlocked this turn none seem urgent, we should do void abacus and hand it and the warp engine over while focusing on more material tech, specifically getting ships up and running.
The thing to keep in mind is that most imperials do not really know or care about things to do with the Machine Cult, it comes from being their own siloed off bunch of weirdos. Your average Administratum bureaucrat or Astra Militorum general will make the right mouth noises about the holy machine, but if you give them +20% and you aren't growing face tentacles or something they are going to wave it though and gladly. The thing about using the warp in manufacturing is that it's face tentacle/xenos territory. The people who are not ad mach do not care about the theology of the machine cult, but everyone even the downright cynical care about keeping the warp at a distance.
Inquisitors would, so would anyone filling in the role in societies out here. I'm not saying they are likely to find it, but there are absolutely people who are looking for Chaos in out of the way places and if this ever comes out it sure as hell if going to look like they found it.
Dogmatic Inquisitors also rely on the infrastructure of the Imperium both physical and cultural to be able to do that. We're in the Imperium Nihilus, the average lifespan of a Dogmatic Inquisitor is going down and it will stay down.
The conversation is unlikely to materialize in a while given the warning we just got, but my point wasn't that Inquisitors do not meddle with the warp, it's that the tend to react to other people meddling with the warp with flame throwers if they can even remotely get away with it. From the PoV of a more mainstream Imperial successor state Denva is already dangerously radical, adding 'BTW we are using the Warp in manufacturing' would be terrifying.
