[x] Plan: Something Hinky is afoot, let's kick its shin
-[X] [Free] Fix damage to psychic shields. Vita Core (75/135->135/135 @ 300 BP), Bongo Oubliette (303/540->443/540 @ 700 BP) [1000/1000BP repair bay expended, 485BP of damage left]
-[x] Research 2x (400 + 70 + 42)
--[x] Machine Spirit Ground Tactics (150 RP)
--[X] Personal-sized Psychic shielding (100 RP)
--[x] Cognito Filters (250 RP)
---[x] Anexa Assists
--[x] Overflow to Basic Active Stealth then Machine Spirit Hallucinations
-[x] Construction
--[x] Build Personal Psychic Shields for all Crew
--[x] Build an elite squad of 4 Light, 4 Medium, and 4 Heavy machine spirit humanoid bots all with Void Shields
---[x]This squad will be assigned to Cia as bodyguards
--[x] Remaining BP spent on mission gear / repairs to the transport as needed.
-[x] Orders/Diplomacy: Get the transport ship under your control by diplomacy or violence (or a combination). Try to get the people on the transport ship to surrender. Send troops against anyone not willing to surrender. Send bots in the first wave, but let Cia go with the second wave of bots so she can get some experience in. Find out who could be propped up against chaos with the information gained from the transport ship, iconoclasts highly preferred, imperials willing to learn might have to suffice. Cause you won't stay here forever. The goal is to only prop them up enough against chaos, not nearly as much as the Denvans, especially if besides chaos there are only hardcore imperialists left.
--[x] Victan and Cia assigned
--[x] use Avatars for diplomacy where possible
--[x] Stretch Goal: After we take control of the transport ship use the psy shielding of the elite squad to sweep for chaos.
You're studying a hologram of the Vorthryn system with a pensive expression as your crew files into the observation lounge.
What to do? Do I really want to stick my oar in here? There are things that need doing but is it really on me to do them?
They wait in silence for you to start the meeting, but when you don't acknowledge them Victan clears his throat politely. "What are you thinking?"
You gesture towards the system map, filled with the blown-up asteroid belts. They're studded with the glowing gems of active stations housing human populations - and the dull icons of dead stations full of vacuum-cold bones. "What do we do with this place? Millions of people barely surviving in the darkness of space. They need help, but the situation is complicated enough that helping them is hard."
"We can't help everybody in this galaxy." Victan's voice is soft, but with a solid certainty to it. "We shouldn't even try. That implies that we're so certain of our victory that we can spend effort on aiding our enemies."
"Are they our enemies?" Cia asks with a frown.
Victan shrugs. "They'd fight us if they had the chance. So - yes?"
Your expression is stuck in a frown, and you wave your hand towards the hologram. "I agree, but there's such a power imbalance here right now. We could take over and make everything better. We could turn this into a center of industry, a shipyard to put anything else the Imperium has to shame."
"Denva would be better for it," Anexa says. "There are what, eight million people or so here? There's a thousand times as many in Denva. Plus the kultrinium of Denva primus. If we're going to make somewhere into a shipyard, it should be there."
"Why not both?" you reply with a sardonic smile, then shake your head. "I don't know. But there's definitely chaotic stuff going on here, and I don't want to leave it behind us. Right now things are degenerating, but I don't trust they'll be like that permanently. I also think this is a way for us to test fighting against chaos in a more controlled setting."
You're warming up to the idea the more you think about it. "We can accomplish multiple goals at once. Get this system back onto a more humane and positive path, prevent chaos from gaining a stronghold and also test our our countermeasures in a real fight. I've been meaning to upgrade the combat bots too - this would be a good test for that. And upgrade the chaos defenses for all of you. We had a close call when Bongo broke his cage, but my personal protection saved me. We should get something like that online for all of you."
You nod decisively, then look around at your crew to gauge their reactions. They're all positive, though Victan seems unsure, his gaze fixed on the hologram of the system. "Can we really deal with the whole system? That's a lot of stations. And while some of them are obviously hostile, that's not all."
You shake your head. "No, the stations aren't the key to the system." A quick command dulls their color so one point stands out amongst the floating lights. "The ship is. It's the only thing connecting those stations together. If we can turn the ship into a functional society, it'll drag the rest of the system up with it. That's our target."
Cia cracks her knuckles with surprisingly loud popping sounds. "So we take it."
"By force and diplomacy both," you reply. I'm pretty sure there's multiple factions aboard, and while some of them are probably hostile, I'm hoping that at least one is friendly."
Anexa's chewing on her lip slightly, thinking about something. But now she asks a queit question. "Will this mean I can study Chaos? Finally? I know it's dangerous, but everything I've seen about the warp - it's where physical laws become mutable. And anything involving the warp draws in Chaos."
You hesitate. "We'll develop cognitive filters, I think. Things that will help protect us from cognitohazards, and I'll develop personal psychic shields. That and better bots should be enough that we should be comfortable fighting chaos. But if we figure out a way to protect ourselves from the cognitohazards of chaos - then yes, we'll do more study of it."
Anexa takes your acceptance for what it's worth. "Alright."
You turn to Cia and Victan. "While we prep gear for this, you should study that ship and plan out our attack. We don't want to get too close - but our sensors are good enough to get a decent scan of them from here, and definitely see if there are any blips on the warp sensors too. Learn what you can about their cultures and figure out who we're killing and who we're friends with."
There are more details after that, and you pay them your attention. But most of your attention is already on the new research you have in mind. After all, your goal is nothing less than developing the capability to trounce Chaos cultists, regardless of what tricks they pull.
Well, I'm not sure I could handle summoned demons quite yet. But my warp sensors aren't picking up anything particularly crazy, so I don't think that's an issue just yet.
Your first order of business isn't explicitly to fight Chaos, but it's something that you're going to need to do regardless, and that's improve the tactics and capabilities of your combat bots. They're certainly competent with their weapons but when facing skilled foes in suboptimal conditions they're prone to getting torn apart and not being able to adapt.
The issue is that each bot makes decisions on its own. They get some information from the other bots but it's pretty bare-bones. If one bot gets destroyed by something - like a sororitas with a chainsword - the next bot won't really understand that it will share the same fate in the same circumstance.
Fixing that isn't easy - each bot isn't all that smart. It's like teaching a group of dogs advanced military tactics. But dogs know how to hunt in packs instinctually, and that's what you're trying to teach them. They're networked together, now you just need them to be able to share information and respond as a unit instead of a bunch of individuals.
It more or less works. You end up having to play teams of machine-spirit combat bots off against various simulated opponents with subtly tweaked network infrastructures until you hit on something that works, then optimize that by playing them against each other. You were hoping for something that would let you control their behavior a bit better for specific tasks, but for now all the network does is make them better at combat. But it's not a particularly small improvement, especially in more complex battlespaces, so you'll take it.
Researched Machine Spirit Ground Tactics: 19+20 = 39. Barely a success. Your machine spirit combat bots are more effective at coordination at the squad and company level (200 bots). Unlocked new technology - Machine Spirit Ground Strategy (300 RP)
Unlocked new technology - Machine Spirit Combat Bot Flexibility (250 RP)
Discounted existing technology - Machine Spirit Void Tactics cost reduced by 25 RP
The next thing you want to do is minimize the size of your psychic shielding. If Cia's going to be fighting Chaos cultists in person you'd prefer she did it from behind some kind of protection. Not to mention that the same protection would likely apply if she whiffs with her psychic powers again.
All of that sounds good, but the process of actually miniaturizing your psychic shielding is easier said than done. It's already got detailing on the miniature scale, and just scaling it down isn't going to work. Furthermore, you need to figure out a way to make it flexible. Your current psychic shielding can't flex and move very much, and you don't really have any ideas for how to figure it out.
With a sigh you dive back into the crazy simulations you've figured out to approximate the psychic shielding. They're not exact, but they're the best you got. You try iterating the designs to come up with something that can tolerate flexing and bending, you try applying the harmonics you'd figured out earlier. Neither of those approaches get you anywhere.
The one that does is going further down the path of interference that allowed you to layer the shields. You don't want to "layer" two weak shields atop each other, but by stacking the various components you can both increase the density of the tiny circuits necessary to broadcast the necessary thought and rely on constructive interference to increase the strength beyond what you could normally pack into such a small package.
What you get out is... workable. It barely avoids interfering with another shield wrapped around it, and it's decently strong for the reduced size. But it's expensive and you never did figure out the flexibility thing. What you have now is more of a static layer that needs to be grafted onto the inside of stiff armor. It works and you're satisfied with the strength, but it's both restrictive of movement and somewhat vulnerable to damage.
Researched Personal-sized psychic shielding: 10+20 = 30. Poor success. You can make personal psychic shields as an inner layer to armor, though it's vulnerable to damage and restricts flexibility. Unlocked Blueprint Modification - Psychic Shielding
Unlocked Utility Blueprint - Personal Psychic Shields (25 bp per unit) Makes armor less flexible. Can be fixed by Armor Device Integration Unlocked New Technology - Tiny Psychic Shielding (400 BP) Requires Triple Nested Psychic shielding
Well. It works. It's not ideal, but it works. And you've set aside time to implement it before your boarding action. Cia protests somewhat at some of the modifications you make to her armor, as they make it notably less flexible and durable. But she sees your point that the armor needs to be able to defend against psychic attacks as well as physical and resumes her practice with the newly encumbered armor.
You also outfit the suits of armor you've made for Victan and Anexa with the shielding, but there's a lot less complaining from them because they almost never wear it. Still, if there's ever another situation where the ship gets attacked you hope it'll make a difference.
You'd also been hoping that you'd be able to integrate the psychic shielding into the combat bots to make an elite bodyguard squad to accompany Cia, but you'll have to settle for just slapping some void shields onto existing bots. They're not as good as what you'd get if you purpose-designed some combat bots for the purpose, but they're significantly more survivable than past versions and with the new machine-spirit tactics they'll be much more capable of using that durability to help protect Cia.
Bodyguard Squad built - 12/12 void-shielded bots.
You also check in on the psychic shield repairs. Your repair bay is churning away to fix all of the shielding damaged by Bongo's escape attempt, though it's not going to finish anytime soon. There was a lot of damage, after all. Still, your own shielding is well on its way to completely repaired, and that's something.
Vita Core Psychic HP repaired to 135/135 HP
Bongo Oubliette Psychic HP repaired to 443/540 HP
Still, there's one more avenue you have for prepping your crew to face Chaos, and it's something you've been working on this whole time with Anexa. Once you strip away a lot of the bombastic language from the old Inquisitorial primer you found, it seems like a lot of the insidious danger of Chaos boils down to a simple fact.
It is, by its very nature, a cognitohazard. A Chaotic-aligned symbol or phrase can serve to attract the attention of demons and also just inherently has corruptive power of some kind. So by simply displaying a specific sigil, a chaos-aligned opponent can be passively launching psychic attacks against their foes that can distract and in extremis corrupt their opponents into joining Chaos.
The Inquisitorial answer seems to be raw faith and willpower, along with various tricks and a fanatical drive to destroy anything chaos-aligned. You're using psychic shields, which are a more certain but also more expensive capacity - and if they break then you're fully exposed to the dangers that it previously protected against.
But you're wondering if there isn't a different approach. With your new neural implants hooked deeply into the sensory inputs of the brain it's entirely possible to edit the perceptions to remove the chaos-aligned information. That should decrease the load on the psychic shields and may also block several kinds of direct psychic attack.
You and Anexa dive into the problem, first solving the problem of editing perception. Your new implants already create a sort of "augmented reality," editing icons and information into perception in useful ways. But that's very much not designed to obscure the physical reality, and that's the goal here. It doesn't turn out to be a large barrier, since it's not hard to figure out the right set of filters that'll blur an objectionable shape, or muffle a specific sound.
However, there are two issues that crop up, that of targeting and collateral damage on important information.
First is targeting. You don't exactly have an exhaustive list of all of the chaotic sigils, slogans and other brainworms that can cause problems, and even if you did, that wouldn't be a database you wanted to load into somebody's neural implants even as just a warning list. This stumbling block seems potentially terminal until Anexa comes up with a wonderful idea - use the warp sensors. Most of the time when people are exposed to chaos they'll have psychic shielding - and the way you've tuned your psychic shielding to detect warp shenanigans means that it can be used to detect corruptive influences, communicate that to the implant, which can then isolate the signal and block it.
In theory - synchronizing the various algorithms and setting the heuristics right takes a while, but you're able to get it working in practice as well. You use the various symbols on Bongo's shrine as a test case, without loading any prior information into it. After a split-second of clear vision the eight-pointed star is blurred into a smudged circle, and a few other parts of the shrine get a bit fuzzy as various barely visible symbols are blotted out.
Huh. I hadn't really realized those were corruptive. Good to know.
You still have a version that's got some signal recognition and brain activity monitoring to be able to block chaos symbols if the wearer doesn't have a psychic shield or it gets broken, but it's not as good as the near-perfection of the version hooked up to a psychic shield.
The second problem is the issue of deleting important information. It's all well and good to prevent the sight of a demon from causing psychic damage, but it's besides the point if that means you can't see it before it sticks a blade into you. This part is a harder problem to solve, and requires some level of signal processing to try to cut out the smallest amount of information possible while being sure to remove the dangerous details.
It's a balancing act, and one you address in a number of ways. First, you add an outline around anything that's being blocked, so that it's obvious there's something dangerous there. Second, you tune down the passthrough filter when the wearer is in combat. It's more important to be able to see clearly when you're actively in combat than otherwise, and it's not as big of a deal if you catch a brief glimpse of a chaos sigil while you're cutting a cultist's head off.
But time marches onwards, and eventually you have to declare that part of the process done and move onto the second bit - which is adding a cold-storage portion to the implant's memory as a way to manually sequester dangerous memories without deleting them entirely. It's a simple matter to hook that up to the same warp-sensors, so that the implant can flag specific memories that are dangerous and should be stored away until they can be accessed slowly, carefully and safely.
Eventually, you and Anexa study the gigantic collection of data with pride. What you've built is more of a series of software packages than a piece of hardware, but all of the tests you've done show that they do a fine job preventing the more harmful pieces of corruption, and that all gives you some ideas as to how you might think about reversing it.
Researched Basic Cognition Filter: 75+30 = 105. Critical Success. Anybody equipped with one of your implants will be much less vulnerable to warp-based cognitohazards. Dramatically more effective when paired with psychic shielding. Reduces combat capability somewhat when fighting Chaos. New Technology Available - Improved Cognition Filter (150 RP)
Bonus Technology Available - Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (400 RP) Requires Companion Cogitators& Understanding Mutations Discounted existing technology - Companion Cogitators cost reduced by 100 RP
Discounted existing technology - Pain Controller cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Mood Regulator cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Combat Neural Implants cost reduced by 25 RP
Discounted existing technology - Machine Spirit Chaos resistance by 25 RP Anexa level +1.
And with that, you've achieved the last of the new capabilities you wanted. You make sure everybody gets the new software, and run a dozen checks to be sure the new cognition software is interfaced properly with Cia's implants. She was a slow adopter of the brain implants that Anexa's perfected, but at the point they start to enhance her combat prowess she stopped objecting, and at this point her implant is as advanced as Anexa can make it.
With that done, it's time to make final plans for assaulting the ship. Or negotiating with it, but that's looking less and less likely to succeed. Your crew meets once more to study a detailed hologram of the target that you've assembled, and make your plan of attack.
"You know, I hadn't really realized how large it was," Anexa says, studying the vaguely delta-shaped ship. "It's nearly as big as the Spark of the Ancients."
"But not nearly as dense," Cia corrects, highlighting the dozen enormous doors spread down each side of the massive ship. "These cargo holds are nearly three-quarters of the volume, and it has almost no weapons." The next thing she highlights are approximately fifty point defense turrets and a single macrocannon turret. It would be a decent armament... for a destroyer, not something the size of a grand cruiser.
"They're inoperable anyway," Victan notes, bringing up power readouts for each of the weapons. "This ship is little more than a flying ecosystem at this point, inhabited by several different factions. But that's the value of it, the population and the way it ties together all of the different stations throughout the system."
You cock your head towards him. "So what are the different factions? Any that we can get along with?"
He shrugs. "It's hard to tell from outside except for a few things. There's not a lot of easy ways to tell what's going on inside. There's a fairly regular broadcast hailing the God-Emperor, but I don't know if it's automated or simply some kind of ritual. Regardless, it's coming from the upper decks, where the officer class would have lived." He highlights the area around the bridge.
Cia breaks in. "However, we've been picking up some warp signals from the center of the ship bays." She notes, then her eyes flick up to meet yours. "Not sure exactly what, but it's regular, and strong. Like a ritual."
You purse your lips and frown. "Constant signal, like we get from Bongo?"
She shakes her head. "There's a steady level of background, but not as much as from Bongo. It's hard to get any more details from this distance, but it's not a demon. Warpy stuff, but I don't know enough to be more specific."
"None of us do," you reply slowly. "Ok, those are definitely priority targets. But we want to clear the rest of the ship too, and see if there's anybody over there we can talk to. What are the good breach points?"
Cia waves a hand, and a dozen different locations highlight themselves. "We don't have proper boarding craft, but they aren't shooting back or maneuvering, so we can take our time. Dock assault shuttles here, cut our way in. Then the shuttles come back for more. It's going to take a little while to even get all of the bots in. But..." she shrugs, "I don't think there's much they'll be able to do about ten thousand bots with modern weapons."
"Don't jinx it," you reply dryly. "How many in the ship? What's it called, anyways?"
Victan snorts. "It's named the Auric Burden, and we're not sure how many people are aboard. Somewhere around a million?"
You study the suggesting boarding locations, quickly flipping between different filters. "Let's space these out a bit. Some of them should go in the dark areas like you suggest, but I think some of them should be more... central. We won't have surprise forever, and we might be able to seize somewhere central before anybody realizes we're there. Then we can demand surrenders and see where it goes." You raise an eyebrow towards Victan. "Do you have a plan for diplomacy?"
You're half-expecting him to say that he'll go over personally, and you're trying to decide if you'll let him.
But Victan has something else in mind. "I can speak through the bots. I'll be keeping an eye on their networks, and I should be able to control them so long as the control signal stays good. Then I can negotiate, potentially in several places at once, though I'll need help to manage that."
"Sensible, and together we should be able to handle that. Sounds good. Let's get the bots loading."
Cia seems taken aback. "Just like that?"
You nod. "Just like that."
It takes longer than you expect to get everything ready, but that's more becuase you haven't done this kind of operation before. Each shuttle's needs gear to cut through the hull or hack through airlocks, and you shuffle the entry points a little bit more before you're happy, then change out the exact composition of the assault forces.
But then it's time, and there's no more prep work to do. Everybody's gathered in a secondary meeting room near the shuttle bay, watching a very detailed display of the Auric Burden as the first wave of shuttles approach. Cia towers over everybody in her armor, the hilt of the blade you built for her sticking over her shoulder from where it's magnetized to her back. Her armor is shiny and the recessed lights glow slightly, and you find yourself hoping it won't get used at all.
The plan is for her to go in with the second wave and reduce any holdouts the bots can't deal with. But what kind of resistance can the people of this system really present? Every indication is that their weapons of choice are sharpened scrap.
You carefully don't hold your breath as the bots enter the ship in synchronicity, and the tactical maps update. Each of them makes contact with scattered locals involved in various activities and you and Victan try to speak through them, asking to parlay in low gothic.
Their responses are universal, fleeing away from the advancing bots and deeper into the ship. You follow, and soon enough your bots are ambushed in close quarters. Well-prepared positions open up and dirty, starving people swarm out to attack your bots with clubs and blades.
But the tactical upgrades to your bots shows its value, and they stabilize, gain distance and open fire. These people haven't fought enemies whose primary armament is ranged and it shows, and scenes of massacre repeat themselves across the ship.
The shuttles dock once more, and another two thousand combat bots disembark into the cavernous ship, even as your first set make their way deeper into the ship. You break into several of the larger spaces and find... squalor. Various fungal or plant ecosystems have taken over several areas, and the locals seem to be farming some and battling others. Regardless nobody returns the diplomatic openings you give, and the best sign you get is when a group scampers down into the maintenance hallways and you don't get attacked by hordes of barbaric warriors.
That scene repeats itself several times across the ship, and your bots start coming up against further resistance. Either you interrupted a major set of conflicts or your attack triggered a wave of violence across the ship, as you find fresh battlegrounds and the victors picking over them. Almost universally those victors bear various chaos sigils, and you worry about your bots being corrupted.
But this isn't scrapcode, and the screeching of cultists falls on the deaf ears and angry guns of thousands of combat bots. In places your advance is stalled, but the combat bots automatically find new paths or figure out how to flank the chokepoints, driving forward.
That is, until they start progressing into the spine of the ship. What was clearly once a series of hab-blocks for the crew of the giant vessel have become a sprawling maze of scrap and rubble, and it's infested with inhumanly muscled cultists who leap out of windows and crawl out of the sewers to surround your bots and club several groups down. More bots rush in and it becomes clear that this is a hotbed of resistance.
Even as you watch, your warp sensors ping. Some kind of ritual is powering up in the very center of the spinal area, and you frown at it.
"That looks like my job," Cia says, putting on her helmet and giving a casual salute. "See you on the other side." She stomps out of the door and is followed by her bodyguard squad. They commandeer the next shuttle to depart, steering it with its cargo of drones to be as close to the ongoing ritual as they can get.
You drop your attention from other things, allowing Victan to take over more of the attempted diplomacy as your bots form a cordon around the cultist stronghold and begin applying pressure. There are few clear sightlines and inhumanly strong cultists seem to blend into the shadows of every corner, waiting to leap out and pummel your bots while lamenting the lack of blood to spill.
Then Cia arrives. She's navigated to the point of the cordon closest to the ongoing ritual. You watch through the eyes of one of your bots as she stops to take in the area for a moment before reaching back and grasping her force blade. She holds it vertically up in front of herself and the blade activates, flaming lightning licking off the blade with a crackling hiss. Then she charges straight forward.
Her bodyguard bots follow behind, luckily not as frozen in panic as you are. There are hundreds of cultists between her and the ritual. Your bots can't see them but they're definitely there, and the ritual is ramping up higher and higher.
The first cultists leap towards Cia and she cuts through them nearly casually. Then more come, and more. They strike blows on her armor with muscles bulging with unnatural strength - and achieve scratches. Her sword faces no resistance at all as it slices through the crowd, arcing bolts of psychic power reaching out to hammer down those skilled enough to dodge the scything blade.
They try to swarm her, bear her down under the weight of bodies. But the bodyguard droids take the opportunity of a clear target and open fire into the mass, clearing the swarm in seconds so that Cia can resume her charge.
In the end it takes her less than a minute of fighting, during which every cultist in the area turns to try and get in on the action, knowing in their corruption that there is one enemy on this battlefield that can bleed.
You take the chance to order the rest of your bots close in at the best speed they can manage, gunning down the cultists as they abandon their ambush positions to weigh in on the fulcrum of the battle. Most do not make it, and when they do they find themselves hopelessly outmatched - not that they seem to care, as they scream cries to their God that go unheard as the implant programs kick in to block out the corruptive chants.
Despite the weight of bodies, Cia's the first to breach into the inner sanctum. You're watching the feed from her implants when she does so, and all you can tell is that some kind of amphitheater has been turned into a cauldron of blood, and something is taking form inside as a circle of cultists stand up to their ankles in the blood, cutting their throats one by one. From the circle of bodies it looks like they're about halfway done and you almost reach out to tell Cia not to complete their ritual for them.
But she's way ahead of you, and you see as she pauses before she steps into the pool herself, calling forward the heavy bots among her bodyguard. They arrive within moments and she directs them to unleash their heaviest weapons on the cultists, vaporizing them from the ankles up to deny their blood to their patron.
In the meantime she carefully opens a compartment on her armor and pulls out a few melta charges, priming them and tossing them into the cauldron of blood. You'd been curious why she packed them, and her response had been a shrug and a comment about never turning down more fire where she could get it.
The results are immediate, as the blood goes from steaming to a true frothing boil. The creature taking form inside goes from a gurgling chuckle to a scream, and red mist begins to gush into the air.
Cia and her bots beat a hasty retreat out of the building, to be joined by the rest of your bots outside. She clears her throat and pants out an order. "Level it."
You don't hesitate to comply. Every bot armed with heavy weaponry lowers it and unleashes everything they have on the amphitheater. The building falls into rubble and then that rubble starts to melt and burn while emitting red mist... before that too dissipates into the cavernous maze.
Cia steps away, reattaching her immaculate blade to her back before finding a spot to rest.
Your voice sounds quietly in her implants. "You ok?"
She nods, still panting as her attention goes to the gauge on her psychic shielding. It's down to about ten percent... but it held. "I might want to get this repaired before I do any more fighting."
"I don't know that there's going to be much more. It looks like this group was going through all of the others, there's not much resistance left." You say that more out of a desire to keep Cia out of actual combat than actual knowledge, but as you check the statistics across the ship it's looking like it's more or less true.
Military takeover of Transport ship - rolled 75. Good success!
+2 Cia Levels
-297 Light Machine-spirit humanized infantry bots
-160 Medium Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots
-509 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers
-559 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
Various groups are hunkered down in secured areas, and it appears as if Victan has made making some inroads in talking to a few of them. It hasn't gone farther than simply promising not to kill them if they stay put until you figure out something new, but it's a start.
Of more significance is that you have bites from the last two coherent organizations that are left aboard the ship, both of which seemed to have been saving their strength and declined getting involved in the maelstrom of violence triggered by your boarding action. As a result they both still have most of their manpower and coordination left, and could take over the ship and incorporate most of the survivors from the various other tribes or clans or whatever.
As a bonus, each of the groups even has a claim to the ship, though in different directions. The first is the Ductsworn, and they live in the tight spaces and maintenance corridors that make the rest of the ship look like a well-planned city. They claim descent from the original workers of the ship, and as Victan plies their leaders with decent food they open up about their beliefs.
They appear to have rejected the emperor and all forms of "bosses" with the exception of their own fathers. They live in large familial clusters bound by marriage and favor, and still retain some knowledge of the maintenance rituals to keep the reactor running and the air breathable.
However, they seem to have a few traditions that make you wary and would have an inquisitor reaching for their sidearm. There's no smoking gun, though the reverence for the "engine-cast blindness" that results from being blinded by a plasma-flash is not something you're a fan of. It's something that could be fixed with implants, though you'd need to convince them that having eyes is important. Fixing the lighting might help with that.
The second group is the Bridgeborn, whom live in the well-fortified upper decks. They still have a stock of Imperial weaponry and speak in a bastardized form of high gothic, wearing tatters of uniforms and fancy clothing from generations past. They hold to a bastardized version of the Imperial Creed that names the Emperor as the "Captain of Mankind" who is incarnated in their leader, a grizzled old woman named Annalictaus.
They're a haughty bunch, and the habit of marking promotions with ritual scarring makes you a little nervous, but at the end of the day they're the ones who have been steering the ship around according to their "Holy Duty." They understand most of the higher-order operations even if they're clueless as to how the engine works, and they've got the best idea of what groups live on each other station.
The trick is that neither of the groups get along, and they make sure you know it. The Bridgeborn want the Ductsworn to acknowledge their hereditary authority, while the Ductsworn spit on the very idea.
Victan suggests that dividing the ship into spheres of engineering and command might be a way to get them to coexist, but he admits that making it stick would be a long shot. Still, at least both groups are talking to you and willing to engage in negotiations of all sorts.
Diplomacy of Transport Ship - rolled 44+25=69, good success!
Still, you're contemplating the various ways you could help. After the extended fighting there's still nearly half a million people on the ship, and they can use all of the help they could get. You could certainly designate a group in charge and provide them with a modicum of support so they could dominate the ship, but that's not necessarily a stable situation if the ship keeps being a melting pot from all of the other situations. It probably wouldn't be hard to sweep aside either group, break their hierarchies and institute something new in their place, and you're not convinced that's the worst option.
If you're willing to spend some effort you could probably start turning this ship around, though it's going to be a tricky balance to walk. Everybody here could use some medical care, and even more than that the ship could use some actual repairs. More than anything else what the ship and people need is some damn tech-priests, since it's the loss of the original tech-priests that caused all of this spiraling failure in the first place. But you've only got so many of those left, and you're not sure you want to give them up like this.
Decisions, decisions.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 1920/13,340
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 1000 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 350
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 240 HP, Vita Core 135/135 HP, Crew Quarters 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 443/540 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 18/??? 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:
1703 Light Machine-spirit humanized infantry bots (2x20 = 40 CP)
840 Medium Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots (20 CP)
2491 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (3x20 = 60 CP)
3131 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (4x20 = 80 CP)
12 Void-Shielded Machine-spirit infantry bot Bodyguard squad (20 CP) CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft.
In progress research:
Basic Active Stealth (34/75 RP)
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.
You can add psychic shielding to an installation by spending any cost between half its BP and its BP, gaining shielding on it with HP equal to the number of BP spent divided by five.
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.
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. +50 ground-based build capacity.
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.
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 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 +50 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 +100 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) 4 Ship construction slots
Medium Shipyard (3000 void BP, 100 CP) 16 Ship construction slots
Large Shipyard (10,000 void BP, 250 CP) 64 Ship construction slots
Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP) Rests steailthily in orbit, until activated, at which point it can attack nearly any target in orbit. One-shots satellites, many are needed for ships or larger platforms.
Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Requires a spaceport for rapid transport of troops.
Tiny system monitor (950 void BP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1500x300 meters. 7 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Light Shields. 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 light lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Small system monitor (2375 void BP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots) Frigate, 2200x600 meters. 5 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. 4x Medium Macrocannons, 1x Medium Lances, 2x Point Defense.
Candle (1450 void BP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1600x350 meters. 8 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. Living Space, Psychic Shields (20 HP) 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 Medium Lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
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.
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, offices. No food production.
Orbital habitat (2000 Void BP per 50,000 people) As city but in space. Includes Hydroponics.
[] Research: Gain research points equal to your research capacity, to be spent designing new blueprints or researching projects. Write in what you spend them on.
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, suggest them in the thread and I'll add them here if they're valid, along with RP cost to design them. This includes bunkers, anti-orbital defenses, ground units, etc. You'll unlock more things with more technology. Some things are impossible without the correct research - for example, heavy tanks will require you to research heavy armor first. Other things will be very cheap if you already have most of the design - for example if you research a better weapon it will be relatively cheap to just swap that out on the tanks.
Blueprints Design
Blueprint Modification Options
New blueprint Modification system: We've unlocked various additions to ground blueprints. Instead of attempting to list all possible combination below I'll list the base options, and you can trick them out with the following modifications. In general BP & RP should round up to the nearest 5. CP does not. Note that these are calculated off "base cost," not total cost, so it is not compounding, though some upgrades increase the base cost.
Here's an example of me designing a fancy assault shuttle.
The base blueprint is 25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP), but I want to make it fancy. First, let's make it machine-spirit controlled. That gives +0.5x base BP, -0.9x CP, or +15 BP, -4.5 CP. So the blueprint is now:
25 RP - Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (40 BP, 0.5 CP)
Then I want to give it void shields. That costs +1x base BP cost because it's a small craft, then +1x RP. So +25 BP, +25 RP. Now it's:
50 RP - Void-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (65 BP, 0.5 CP)
Now I want to give it psy shields. That's +4x base BP cost for small craft (which was 25, so +100 BP), and +1x base RP cost (which was 25, so +25 RP). So now it's:
75 RP - Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (165 BP, 0.5 CP)
Oh and screw it, might as well make it stealthy too, which is +1x base RP cost, +0.25x base BP cost, so that's +10 BP (round up to nearest 5) & +25 RP cost, which leaves us with:
100 RP Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (175 BP, 0.5 CP)
And of course that's a bit of a mouthful, so I'm going to rename it the "Icarus," and the blueprint should look like:
100 RP - Icarus (Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle, 175 BP, 0.5 CP)
If we'd wanted to also make it humanized (so it looks like it's piloted by people, for example if you wanted to transport allies without them knowing it was flown by robots) then this all changes, since that adds +5 BP to the base cost. That doesn't change the RP or CP cost at all, but it does change BP. Instead of 25+15(0.5x)+25(1x)+100(4x)+10(0.25x)=175 you'd do (25+5)+15(0.5x)+30(1x)+120(4x)+10(1.25x)=205 BP. And then you'd have
100 RP - Basic Stealth Humanized Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (205 BP, 0.5 CP)
Humanization - (+15 base BP cost for combat bots, +5 base BP for vehicles, small craft & defensive installations) Makes a unit appear to be operated by fully-armored humans. Slightly increases strength and armor of those units. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine Spirit Jammers - (+10 base BP) Adds machine-spirit jamming equipment to the blueprint, enhancing capabilities against forces that use machine spirits. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine-spirits - (+0.5x base BP cost, -0.9x base CP cost) Make this blueprint controlled by machine spirits, making it slightly corruption resistant and reducing the load on your systems. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Void Shields - (+1x base BP cost for tanks & small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds void shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft.
Psychic Shielding - (+4x base BP cost for tanks, small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base BP cost for defensive installations +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds psychic shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability against warpy threats. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Basic Stealth - (+0.25x base BP cost, +1x base RP cost, ) Makes a unit harder to detect. Can be applied to: Small craft.
Combat Bots
10 RP - Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor.. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at either.
25 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Vehicles
15 RP - Light tanks (100 BP, 50 CP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium tanks (250 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons & antipersonnel weapons to fight enemy armor and infantry. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at any.
25 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Small Craft
25 RP - Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) A single shuttle which converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity, and shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking for it. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
25 RP - Bomber (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
25 RP - Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Cannot deliver troops to space targets.
Defensive Installations
10 RP - Anti-armor Bunker (50 BP, 5 CP) A bunker with a heavy melta cannon, able to take out most armor in a single shot.
5 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (20 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor.
25 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
25 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
25 RP - Nuclear warhead (25 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a city-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in.
10 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
Utility
50 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien orgin. Has advanced scanning, modelling and processing capabilities.
25 RP - Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
10 RP - Maglev System (5 bp/mile, 50 flat CP) A high-capacity maglev system to transport large amounts of goods across a planetary surface, linking various surface installations together into a single network so production from any of them can be applied at all of them.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:
Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total amount of space inside the ship, which is represented by the number of BP spent on the hull. That's your "Budget"
Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards cramming.
Pick hull equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards cramming.
Choose weapons, combat equipment & noncombat equipment to add to the ship. Your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in.
Have a vote win which spends the necessary RP to design the planned ship.
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Light defense Platform, 10 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Destroyer, 25 RP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slots (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 50 RP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150)
Light Cruiser, 75 RP, 200 CP, 8 ship construction slots (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/150/300) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Heavy Cruiser, 100 RP, 300 CP, 32 ship construction slots (2000-6000 BP, 4500x600-6000x1200 meters) Engines: (2/3/4 gravities) for (300/400/500 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400)
Available Hull Equipment:
These do not count towards hull cramming.
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Void Abacus (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can navigate through the warp slowly, at a rate of 3 systems per action. Requires Abacus Manufacturing technology.
Psychic Shielding (Between 1/10 to 1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, that thinks "no" as hard as possible, answering the question for any warp-corruption for any beings or objects within the hull. HP of the shield is 1 HP per 5 BP spent on it.
Basic Passive Steath Profile (1/5 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has it's sensor profile reduced with special coatings and a shape that reduces the cross-section in response to active sensors. It can reasonably expect to stay hidden at long ranges (outside weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Improved Passive Stealth Profile (1/2 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is heavily dedicated to stealth, with not just coatings and a shape but also significant amounts of sensor bafflers and other passive systems designed to prevent it from being spotted. Should be able to stay hidden at medium ranges (or long weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Advanced Passive Stealth Profile (Doubles base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship tries it's hardest to be a void in space, and so long as it's not moving it generally succeeds. Should be able to stay hidden at close ranges as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Probably not good enough to get into boarding range.
Available Weapons:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Multiple the final weapon cost by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of weapons, it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for final ship cost.
Prow Ram 50 bp. This ship is built to run into things, and hurt them more than it gets hurt.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor. Heavy Plasma Cannon 1000 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Heavy Melta cannon 800 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability. Basic stealth automatically applied. Shuttles 100 BP, 50 CP. 10 Shuttlecraft, combined capacity of 500 lift to or from a planet. Assault Shuttles 150 BP, 50 CP. 10 Assault shuttles, with combined capacity of 1000 troops or 10 tanks in one trip. asic stealth automatically applied.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers. Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched. Large Torpedoes 600 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck cruisers, hurt grand cruisers and make battleships cruisers know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down. Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down. Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Available Equipment:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Low-emission Systems (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has been tuned to reduce overall emissions, making it stealthier. Not stealthy. Stealthier.
Improved Sensors 250 BP - increased size and density of sensors, backed up by the necessary computational support, will make it more difficult for anybody to sneak up on this ship. Excellent Sensors 500 BP - You would say it's impossible to sneak up on a ship with this many sensors, but you saw what the Eldar did, and now it's merely incredibly improbable. Superb Sensors 1000 BP - This ship has enough sensors of enough modalities that it's basically a mobile scientific research platform. Anything weird will get noticed, investigated, and if it's an enemy ship, pinned down.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for tuned shields, so if shields costs 100 bp, then tuned shields cost 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for alloyed armor, so if armor costs 100 bp, then alloyed armor costs 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). Armor is much tougher but is harder to repair.
Light Boarding preparations (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) Bulkheads are reinforced, extra hatches seal all decks and turrets guard key chokepoints, making boarding annoying. Medium Boarding preparations (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) The ship layout is designed to funnel borders into kill-zones in front of armored bunkers, and any borders will take heavy casualties. Heavy Boarding preparations (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship as essentially a flying dungeon, filled with escherian mazes, hidden turrets, crushing-hallways and other deathtraps.
Light Machine Spirit Jammers (1/20 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Enough to cause significant degradation in an enemy ship's sensors, maneuvering and targeting. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Medium Machine Spirit Jammers (1/10 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same as light jammers, plus will also effect total thrust, weapons firing rate. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Heavy Machine Spirit Jammers (1/5 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same effect as medium, but may also effect friend-foe designation and reactor stability. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class.
These do count towards hull cramming.
Troop compartment (50 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 severely injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Cargo Bay (No cost, free. Designate an amount of BP to fill for cramming purposes) Allows transport of an amount of BP equivalent to the cramming amount from one system to another.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost. Can be used to refit the ships as well with a +50% markup. Cannot be used to make new ships, bots, manufactories.
The ways to get new research options are to:
Do research. That'll unlock more research.
Build appropriate installations & potentially acquire samples to research in them (samples could be anything from 'a human' to 'a Norn queen' in rarity).
Ask for them. Often I'll tell you what you need to do to unlock specific research options,
Ship Design
-[] Grand Cruisers (400 RP) Making a ship design that's not spaghetti takes time and effort. It's still boring. But if you want to make queens of the void, its necessary. (unlocks grand cruisers, half of the prereq for battleships)
-[] Medium Defense Platforms (50 RP) You've already got most of the tools you need to build bigger defensive platforms, but these would be a larger platform to stick guns on, with more ability to withstand damage. (Unlocks medium defensive platforms, potential for other void-based installation options)
-[] Improved Engine Designs (150 RP) Based on your understanding of physics and a few old research papers you think you can improve engine reactor thrust velocities. (Enhances ship speeds at every level. Unlocks further speed, maneuverability & stealth technologies)
-[] Streamlined ship design (150 RP) You can improve your tools for ship design to make it easier to design ships in the future. That might be nice (Halves the RP cost to design new ships, may unlock other ship design improvements)
-[] Efficient Equipment Distribution (100 RP) Let's see if you can apply the benefits from weapon packing to equipment (Equipment costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing. Especially effective for cargo holds.)
-[] Extremely Efficient Weapon Distribution (200 RP) You did a good job already in packing more weapons into less space. But you think you see ways to make it even better (Weapons cost at 0.75 for ship capacity packing)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design new iterations of your ship)
-[] Boarding Capabilities (100 RP) Apparently it's common for ships in this day and age to board each other and for the crew to fight hand-to-hand. Instead of, you know, chucking enormous missiles at each other. Insane. Well, it might be a nice capability to have in case you want to capture ships intact. (Unlocks boarding torpedoes, drop pods, and boarding craft for hangers, may combine with stealth research to unlock stealth borders)
-[] Networked missiles (100 RP) The biggest danger to missiles is that they'll get shot down by fighters and point defense. If you can network them together to cooperate against those threats, more of the warheads will reach their targets. (Unlocks new combat equipment to make missiles more effective. May unlock more technology to make missiles smarter, longer ranged and generally more effective)
General Design
-[] Large-scale Void Manufacturing (100 RP) Unlike ground factories, which have to deal with gravity and atmosphere, there's little stopping you from just... scaling up the principles of void manufacturing. Besides the annoying spaghetti of logistics, but that's a solvable problem. (Allows you to design large void manufactories that are more efficient, improves the manufactories on your ships to be 1/5 instead of 1/10 production. Potential for other void-based platform technologies).
-[] Ground Manufactory Efficiency Improvements (50 RP) You dramatically improved the efficiency of your void manufacturing by stripping out the dumb stuff that was required by stellar federation bureaucracy. There's probably some stuff like that in your ground manufactories too. (Reduces the CP cost but not BP cost of your ground manufactories. Unlocks follow-on tech to build ground manufactories in more challenging conditions such as extreme temp/pressure planetoids).
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, dreadnaughts, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Mothballing (50 RP) Keeping a bunch of systems functional and ready requires attention that is swiftly running out. Maybe you can figure out how to spend less attention on things that are mostly inactive (Unlocks the ability to mothball an installation for 10% of it's build cost, free reactivation that takes a few weeks. May unlock techs to allow you to freely turn things on and off, as well as increasing the speed of reactivation enough for you to keep military installations mothballed until they're needed.)
-[] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP) You understand all of the physical parts of an abacus. Now you need to figure out all of the manufacturing techniques needed to actually put one together. (Unlocks the void abacus ship equipment)
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 (200 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 (200 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.) Requires basic active stealth
-[] Basic Ground force stealth (50 RP) Tanks show up pretty well on scanners, and it would be nice to change that. You might also be able to make your bots hide better. (Unlocks new design options for tanks and ground forces that are less obvious. Unlocks further research towards better ground force stealth. Will be able to take advantage of some other stealth technologies.)
-[] 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.)
-[] Basic Active Stealth (75 RP) Just deflecting away and hiding your signature only helps so much. Then next step is to overlay a hologram over your small craft to make them effectively invisible, and even counter passive sensors. It'll still be a hazy outline, but this is the path towards being able to close to actual combat ranges unobserved (Unlocks improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures, though they will be expensive. Unlocks further research for improved active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research.
-[] Examine the Dark Eldar Craft (150 RP) The Dark Eldar boarding craft showed incredible stealth capabilities. If you can figure out how it works that would be a great way to improve your own stealth capabilities (Discounts all stealth technology, may unlock unique stealth research and let you see through Eldar stealth better) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
Shields
-[] Heavy Void shields (150 RP) Your current shields are good, but they could be better. Specifically, you want to make multi-layered shields, which could be applied to anything larger than a destroyer (Unlocks heavy void shields for ships and stations, as well as further research for void shielding improved for recharge speed, layered defenses, etc.)
-[] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (100 RP) Well, the void shields you have are nice. But it would be nice to be able to build bigger ones, that can shrug off essentially any possible orbital bombardment. You need to figure out how to take advantage of the ridiculous energy and heat dissipation capabilities of being on a planet. (Unlocks heavy and super-heavy void shield installations. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding.)
-[] Void Shield Layering (400 RP) If you could layer multiple shields together, then when one failed the second could take damage while the first recharged. Right now there's harmonics that prevent this, but you are sure you can figure it out... with a full redesign. (Unlocks the ability to layer two sets of shields. Will unlock research for more layers of shielding, weirder shapes of shields and other specialty modules)
-[] Void Shield Discounts (300 RP) You have some ideas on how to swap out materials or simplify designs to reduce the costs of void shields. (Reduces the cost of void shields across the board. May lead to new kinds of mundane applications for void shields, such as manufacturing modules, shielded fighters or shuttles)
Materials & Armor
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks. Prerequisite for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Advanced Materials (250 RP) You know there are exotic elements with absurd physical properties. But it's also possible to build absurdly strong materials with common elements. How does that work? Time to dust off some ancient research projects and figure this stuff out. (Unlocks improved armor, as well as research to unlock megastructures. Also required for battleships and larger walkers)
-[] Heavy Armor Production Line (100 RP) You can make Heavy armor, but you solved the problem by effectively making each suit into a custom-crafted suit full of expensive actuators. Maybe a redesign will make it cheap enough to mass-produce, and unlock follow-on research. (Dramatically reduces cost for heavy armor, and subsequent superheavy armor. May unlock more options for heavy armor, including integrated mobility options)
-[] Armor Device Integration (200 RP) Your armor blocks blows, which is its basic purpose. Still, it would be great to be able to integrate different devices into it - void shields, psytech, mobility options like jetpacks, holdout weapons and more. (Unlocks the ability to design specialty types of medium, heavy and superheavy armor that contain additional functions, many of which will be unlocked by other technology.)
Robotics
-[] Avatar self-customization (100 RP) Your previous avatar was capable of changing its appearance at your whim, changing the hair, eye and skim color rapidly. Hair length and body size changes took a bit longer but were also possible. Is this worth figuring out? It might just be you being vain. (Unlocks some disguise-style cybernetics... once you get good cybernetics and can do things like skin/eye replacements).
-[] Improved Armor Articulation (50 RP) From your research on humanizing combat bots you have some ideas about improving the points of articulation on armor to increase the range of motion and make the suits more responsive. (Increased performance & mobility for heavier armor, both for combat bots & people wearing heavy armor you make. May unlock further armor upgrade techs)
-[] Combat Bot Melee Combat (150 RP) Your bots aren't armed for melee combat, and don't really have the articulation for it. If you could fix that, maybe they wouldn't be so vulnerable to close-range combat. (Gives your combat bots melee weapons and basic proficiency with them. Will unlock technology for improved melee proficiency, as well as synergize well and potentially unlock technology for improved melee weaponry.)
-[] Really good Robotics: (600 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
AI research
-[] Intelligence Coding (400 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree, also unlocks personality-checking research)
- [] Personality-Checking Routines (200 RP) All of this chaos-corruption is making you nervous. People changing according to the will of some warp-entity? Becoming different in ways that would disgust their past selves? That gives you the heebee-jeebies. Maybe - just maybe - it would be good to develop some ways to automatically check if aspects of your personality are diverging ways you don't want them to. Then you might be able to fix the problem before you become somebody who doesn't want (Gives you some algorithms to check for personality divergence in AIs. Doesn't do anything, just alerts you to changes and lets you decide what steps to take. Unlocks further research to prevent/rollback personality change, as well as potentially extend this research to humans with neural implants). Locked behind Intelligence Coding.
Psychic Shielding
-[] Better Psychic Shielding Efficiency (200 RP) You've figured out how to make your shielding modular, but each panel is still tricky to make. If you spent some time iterating that design you think you could make them even easier to make, and potentially power powerful (Further Improves the BP/HP ratio for psychic shields, may improve the HP of shielding you can pack into a unit of space.)
-[] Psychic tripwires (50 RP) Standardizing the shielding has given you another idea - you could try to install a very basic version of it into all of your technology, just about the simplest thing that would still generate the desired effect. It wouldn't do much to hinder any warp-corruption of other psyker powers, but it could serve as an alarm or deadman switch setup. (Anything smaller than a ship has psychic tripwires that will alert when warp-based shenanigans happen to them. Will unlock research to use this on ships, and to make civilian-grade versions that could be put into literally everything).
-[] Small-scale design-integrated psychic shielding (150 RP) You could take this approach a step further, and integrate the psychic shielding into the designs of bots, vehicles and small installations from the start. (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for bots, vehicles and small installations. Will likely improve the quality of shielding available and unlock research for further shielding improvements)
-[] Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (250 RP) Start installing this shielding into hull plates as the norm. Every ship will have psychic shielding (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for all ships and platforms. Will unlock research to make this shielding better)
-[] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP) Your current shielding says "No" at all times, which seems to work against most warp threats. You think you might be able to modify it for a different meaning, which may have different effects. You're not sure exactly what, but you'd kind of like to try "Aboslutely not" or maybe even "You're not real" and see what happens. (Unlocks new types of psychic shielding with different/improved effects, as well as further research into more powerful psychic shielding - some of which may be less "shielding" and more of an offensive weapon.)
-[] Machine Spirit-controlled Psychic Shields (50 RP) You think it's possible to integrate machine spirits into your chaos shielding, which would probably make it more effective in almost every way except cost. (Unlocks new kinds of psychic shielding that are more resistant to damage, potentially self-repairing and more) Requires Machine Spirit Chaos resistance.
-[] Tiny Psychic shielding (400 RP) You were able to make your smaller psychic shielding by stacking the components and using the interference caused to generate the proper effect. However, you don't understand that interference well enough to go any smaller. Once you do, you can start to try to make actually tiny versions of the psychic shielding, small enough to fit in implants, or potentially into totems that project the shielding effect outside of themselves. (Fixes the issues with personal psychic shields, unlocks the ability to create implants with psychic shielding capability and potentially allows you to make amulets with psychic shields. May unlock additional technology to make all of that better.) Requires Triple Nested Psychic shielding
-[] Triple Nested Psychic shielding (200 RP) You've had two shields, yes. What about three? (Allows you to have three layers of shielding active at once. May unlock tech to allow inner shields to boost outer shields to be greater than the sum of their parts)
-[] Multi-meaning shields (300 RP) Your current shields say "No." Other sayings probably exist, and saying multiple things at the same time might have more esoteric effects, such as damaging attackers or defending better against certain types of attacks. Combining multiple of those into one shield could be powerful. (Allows you to combine two shield types together into one shield. May unlock further research for further combination, or to say one meaning EXTRA HARD.) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Scrapcode Denial (400 RP) Scrapcode - and psychic corruption in general - is a difficult opponent. It's hard to enforce mistakes when it can magically see through your defenses. But if you could incorporate psychic encryption into that approach, it becomes viable again. (Makes your shielding Extraordinarily resistant to potentially completely immune to scrapcode-based attacks. Does not apply to machine spirits yet. May unlock technology to apply to other kinds of corruption. Likely synergistic with generating your own scrapcode)
-[] Psychic Shield Tuning (200 RP) Your new scrapcode defenses help against scrapcode, but not necessarily other threats. This research would potentially allow you to tune the capabilities of your shielding on the fly to improve performance against other angles of attack. (Resistance to specific types of attack will improve with exposure, up to a cap. Unlocks more research to allow for more flexible shielding that can target specific weaknesses of various psychic enemies. Synergizes with mutli-meaning shielding.)
-[] Psychic Encryption (150 RP) Warp-based shenanigans can clearly steal information they shouldn't be able to get. You think you have the solution to prevent that, and it's encryption. Modulate your psychic shielding so anything coming through it is so garbled and compressed that it can't be understood even to the most sensitive psychic. (Blocks scrying of information protected by your shielding. Likely unlocks better versions that will defeat more powerful seers, and may unlock specialized research to build installations that will deny scrying and foresight over a larger area - like a system)
The Warp
-[] Teleportation is like skipping a stone (150 RP) Teleporters work by skipping a cargo across the shallow warp, linking two places for a moment. They are limited in many ways. Now that you understand that, you can find the limits to extend range, capacity and think about other ways to utilize the same general idea. (Improves teleporters for boarding, may lead to the ability to directly teleport to planetary surfaces. Unlocks further research for further improving the teleporter, as well as potentially leading to warp portals, which is likely required for webway understanding).
-[] Empathy at Range (200 RP) Your warp sensors work well on things that are nearby, but they're definitely not able to detect anything large beyond combat range, or smaller things beyond very close range. Maybe it's a matter of improving sensitivity, maybe you need to specifically build some parts of your psychic shield to extend range. (Makes your warp sensors active at longer range, unlocks further research to pinpoint psychic activities from across the solar system. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication)
-[] Yelling into the Warp (175 RP) If you can receive signals from the warp, how do you send them? It probably involves modulating your psychic shielding somehow. Does that mean a new thought? Probably. (Unlocks the ability to cast signals into the warp, though that may attract attention. May allow you to signal psychically-sensitive allies... or enemies. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Warp Weather Prediction (450 RP) The Warp has been said to have "weather." Well, at least storms. But if you're constantly monitoring the signals from your psychic shielding, you can start to make predictions about what will come. That... might be useful. (Likely to give you advance warning of significant warp-effects, especially warp storms. May unlock further research to improve warp navigation, and if you crit again, a strange kind of warp-based technological foresight.)
-[] 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. (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.)
-[] Demonology (150 RP) Demons. They can be summoned, bound and banished. Preferably in that order. How? That knowledge could be powerful... and dangerous. (Allows you to do basic demonology to summon/bind/banish demons. Unlocks further technology around all of that, including potential better protection from demons.) Price will triple without the Scrapcode generator to experiment on.
-[] Immaterium Understanding (225 RP) Anexa believes she understands something fundamental about the warp. Do some experimements to see if she's right. (Further discounts on all warp-related research, potential to unlock a research from farther down a warp research tree while skipping prerequisites) Anexa must work on this action. Guaranteed level(s) for her. Requires Warp Research Lab.
-[] Improved Void Abacus (125 RP) You understand how the Void Abacus works now, and you think you can tweak it to be better. That involves some amount of expanding and improving its connection to the warp though, so you're far from certain (Improves your Void Abacus design to be faster and better at warp jumps, though still inferior to an average navigator. May unlock further optimization of Void Abaci, including for cost/unstable warp jumps).
-[] The Basics of Psychic Computation (400 RP) You have several examples of different kinds of cogitators that interact with the warp in some way. They all share some kind of neural network system, but are very different in other ways. If you can figure out the minimal requirement for something to be psychically active - well. That would have implications. (Improves psychic shielding research, psytech research, some machine spirit research, may improve scrapcode research. Will help genetic manipulation to create psykers. May lead to a research tree to make psychic AIs or implants that grant psychic powers).
Psytech
-[] Help Cia's Training (50 RP) By spending more time with Cia, actively monitoring her use of her powers and providing feedback, you can improve the quality and outcomes of her training (Gives a +10 to any Cia training dice this turn, and may result in new kinds of outcomes. Can be improved by further pyromantic research. Repeatable)
- [] Basic Psychic Amplification Devices (100 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic amplification, but to actually confirm that you need to build one and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic staffs or other personal psychic amplification devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic amplification, as well as larger amplification constructs)
- [] Basic Psychic Suppression Devices (150 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic suppression, but to actually confirm that you need to build some and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic hoods or other personal psychic protective devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic nullification, as well as larger nullification constructs)
-[] Complex Psytech Implants (250 RP) Adapting what you know from organic-machine control implants, you can give a psyker greater control over their implants, in turn allowing you to give psytech implants more capabilities and more power that requires active tuning on the fly. (Improves psytech implants in terms of both precision and raw power.) Requires either Basic Psychic Suppression Devices or Basic Psychic Amplification Devices
- [] Improved Psychic weapons (300 RP) You are starting to understand how force weapons work, but you're far from perfecting them. There's definitely work to be done on the composition of the main weapon, and if you can figure out how to grow crystals into the proper orientation that will help, and the psi-convectors and... well. It's almost easier to list the ways you can't improve them. (Further improves force weapons in every way. Potential to unlock specialized kinds of force weapons, such as versions specialized to fight specific foes and maybe large-scale force weapons such as ship rams).
- [] Psychic Aegis (250 RP) Psychically enhancing a weapon in combat is an obvious application, but the equally-obvious follow-on is enhancing armor. Or shields. Whatever. General defensive measures. It would be significantly more complicated than a simple weapon, and shields are probably the first step. But still - that would be a path to near-invincibility. (Allows you to create force shields and armor. Unlocks further research for improved force armor and other kinds of large-scale defensive psytech).
- [] Psychic Materials (300 RP) Silver. Specific kinds of crystals. Chitin? What unifies those things? What is it that makes them warp-conductive? If you can figure that out, maybe you can start designing new warp-capable materials that are better. (Psytech improvements across the board in terms of new materials, likely follow-on research into specific specialty materials and applications. Will be improved by samples of additional psionically active materials).
- [] Pyromancy Staff (200 RP) Amplifying a specific kind of psyker powers should allow you to amplify them even more. (Allows you to build pyromancy-focused psychic amplifiers, with the most common one being in the shape of a staff. Will unlock further pyromancy-specialized equipment, including larger-scale and more powerful amplifiers that may be relevant in ship combat.)
- [] Improved Pyromantic understanding (300 RP) Cia's eager to delve further into the secrets of pyromancy, and if you tried you could follow along for the ride. Any maybe figure out how to model this specific kind of psychic power. (Improves all pyromancy-focused psytech, improves the Help Cia's Training action and may unlock research towards influencing young psykers towards pyromancy.)
-[] Destructive Scrapcode Investigation (200 RP) Well, if Bongo doesn't want to play ball, maybe you need to go in there and figure out what makes the scrapcode generator tick. Time to bring out the power tools. (Discounts existing scrapcode research, may unlock new research around psytech/psychic shielding. Gives better understanding of Chaos Demons. Destroys the scrapcode generator and likely banishes Bongo back to the warp.)
-[] Scrapcode Generation (400 RP) You have the barest hints as to how you might start generating scrapcode. You need to imbue psychic meaning into code. You're not quite sure how you might go about that, but it's an interesting avenue to chase down. (Unlocks the ability to create and hack with your own brand of scrapcode) Requires psytech past Basic Psychic Amplification Devices, as well as Rapid hacking
Physics
-[] Dark Eldar Weaponry (150 RP) You have a few examples of Dark Eldar weaponry. Some of it just uses esoteric poisons, but other parts seem based on physical princples you can't identify. That's exciting (Unlocks new weapons based on Dark Eldar small-arms weaponry) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
-[] Gravity Weapons (200 RP) You know it's possible to use gravity as a weapon, though it sounds a bit crazy. But still, it might be worth trying? (Unlocks basic graviton weapons for infantry, vehicles and warships, as well as research for more advanced graviton weapons. Half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] The Biggest Boom (150 RP) So. There's no actual upper limit for how big a fusion warhead can get. But it does get more complicated to build bigger and bigger bombs. Let's figure that out. (Unlocks bigger, exterminatus-grade warheads for nukes. The other half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] Superconductive Shenanigans (100 RP) Room-temperature superconductors are a thing. But only kind of, and they still need to be highly pressurized to be stable. You know some people cracked this problem, but they didn't publish on it, which was annoying. But you think you might have an idea how they did it. Figuring it out would be great for manufacturing, and drop costs across the board. (A flat production boost of 5-15% depending on rolls).
-[] Miniaturized antigrav (50 RP) You can make antigrav that reduces the weight of things like shuttles to make them able to make orbit. But there's a floor on how small you can make that technology. The Imperium seems to have solved that. (Unlocks drones, jump-packs etc, as well as additional research to make antigrav vehicles/walkers)
-[] High-energy Physics (300 RP) There's some pretty crazy stuff you can do with physics. Especially when the energy exponents really start getting insane. However, that's going to take a bit of testing - maybe on a planetoid you don't care too much about. Or in space. (The next steps towards bigger, badder weapons, such as fusion beamers, volkite weapons, disintegration weapons. Half of the research for vortex weaponry.) Locked behind a High-Energy Physics Research Lab
-[] Better Sensors are just Physics (200 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). Requires Basic Active Stealth.
-[] 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)
-[] 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.)
-[] Machine Sprit Production Improvements (75 RP) Your machine spirits seem to be able to suggest more optimal choices than the default under some situations, but you're not confident enough to standardize it. Investigate that, and figure out how to encourage that behavior. (Improves productivity of machine-spirit manufacturing systems, may unlock further boosts to manufactory production or CP discounts).
-[] 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 (175 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, flexibility, remove the CP requirement, as well as allow the automated manufactories to produce ships, installations and eventually megastructures).
-[] Machine Spirit Ship Design Improvements (200 RP) By encouraging creative and complex solutions to problems you can use the design-specialized machine spirits to improve your ship designs in exciting new ways. (Allows you to cram more things into void ships, depending on rolls. May unlock further research to further optimize cramming, as well as discount the absolute cost of various categories of ship components).
-[] Machine Spirit Hallucinations (300 RP) Your new mechine spirits are capable of incredible creativity when you push them to solve impossible problems. A lot of it is silly and impossible, but buried within the morass are occasional nuggets of gold. Every good idea starts as a bad idea, so let's generate more ideas. (Improves the number of RP you get per action, though not by a huge amount. May unlock more research to further improve this number).
-[] Machine Spirit Chaos resistance (75 RP) You think the reason that the machine spirits resist chaos is because they understand their purpose to some extent, and the entire neural network needs to be corrupted to corrupt that purpose, which is harder. There's also emotional simulation that's going on in there. (Improves the basal resistance of machine spirits to chaos corruption. May unlock further technology down this chain, as well as half of the requirements to integrate machine spirits with psychic shielding.)
-[] Psytech Machine spirits (100 RP) You don't think that machine spirits can be psychically active. However, from what you understand of psytech it's a temperamental and difficult discipline, and you think that integrating machine spirits into the construction of psytech might improve its reliability and performance. (Improves psytech, at the cost of making it somewhat more expensive. May lead to more advanced versions for more advanced psytech, and may contribute to better psychic shields)
Biology
-[] Servitorization (50 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Mechanized agriculture (150 RP) You can synthesize small amounts of food with the modules attached to your crew quarters, but that doesn't scale to larger populations. You don't have the understanding to automatically grow and harvest food, but surely you can figure it out? (Unlocks blueprints for orbital & ground-based food production. Unlocks more technology for improving yield, optimizing for small-scale cultivation in zero-gravity, and generally making human populations self-sufficient in low-resource environments).
-[] How to Build a Biosphere (100 RP) Back when you were made terraforming was incredibly common, and one of your more common trade goods was terraforming technology. But you're not sure how you would do it - but it wouldn't be that hard to catch up on the literature. (Unlocks blueprints for slow/expensive terraforming, as well as the terraforming tree, which will include research to make terraforming cheaper, faster and applicable to a broader set of planets).
-[] Complex genetic enhancement (150 RP) The complexity of human genetics lies in the epistasis between multiple different alleles. Put more simply, this shit is complicated. Figure it out. (Unlocks more advanced enhancements, including significantly improved strength, intelligence, etc. Unlocks research for even more dramatic engineering, and is likely required to try to make psykers)
-[] Psyker genetics (300 RP) What makes somebody psychic? You have a psyker, and some genetic samples from others acquired from various trips to the monasteries. (Allows you to develop a test to determine psychic ability, though it won't be perfect. Unlocks further technology to improve psychic potential in adults and embryos.)
-[] Understanding Mutations (150 RP) The mutations that occasionally pop up in Denva's population are... weird. Complex, and have bizarre phenotypes. Why? What's causing them? Why are they so hard to treat? Maybe look into that. (Potential cures for more difficult mutations, as well as further research into why they occur, and treating other kinds of genetic deterioration.)
-[] Adult genetic engineering (100 RP) Genetically modifying an adult comes with all sorts of complications. Doing it without killing them or incapacitating them for months is even harder. (Allows your genetic enhancements/therapies to apply to adult humans. Likely required for a full understanding of juvenat.)
-[] Does in vitro have something to do with wine? (100 RP) Unlocks the ability to clone basic humans (Unlocks the cloning bay, as well as further technology to clone things other than baseline humans, like humans without brains for organs or humans with more dramatic genetic mutations. Along with brain implants may lead to personality backups).
-[] The key to Expert surgery is Ego (200 RP) You can do fairly effective surgery, but the most complicated surgeries are beyond you. From all of the literature you have available, to truly break into the next level you merely need confidence. The confidence of somebody who believes they cannot be wrong. (Unlocks further discounts for advanced medical tech, cybernetic augmentations and more. Unlocks very advanced medical care, and further technology for reviving technically-dead bodies and brain transplants).
-[] Physical Apperance is Skin-deep (100 RP) Being able to do surgery on somebody's inside is one thing. But what about their outsides? (Unlocks cosmetic surgery to fix scars, alter appearances and even change skin tones. Unlocks follow-up research to allow you to disguise humans as xenos species whose biology you understand, or vice versa. May discount juvenat research.)
-[] Regeneration is just a matter of applied Growth (400 RP) You can make sure everything lines up properly to stimulate natural growth, but you can't actually accelerate it. Trying is a quick path to cancer and needs to be tweaked for every patient. That's why it wasn't common even in your time. But it should be possible, and you don't have to worry about pharmaceutical patents. (Your medical treatments have vastly accelerated healing timelines. Normally a prereq of juvenat, but in this case will simply have synergy. Unlocks further research for video-game-like med-kits and the ability to give people new organs without surgery)
-[] Drugs? Drugs. (75 RP) Human biochemistry is... weird. You've got a standard list of recipies for basic drugs, but if you wanted to get further into it you could start pulling out some stranger and more illicit ones from your research databanks. (Unlocks a wide variety of drugs for things like interrogation, combat, sedation, etc. May lead to research for things like perfect knockout gas, super-adrenaline, psytech drugs, etc.)
-[] Juvenat Beginnings (400 RP) Ok. Juvenat is complicated. You're able to make it by following a formula that is at times precise, at times general and at times just - what? Maybe start to delve into the science of that. (Unlocks a basic understanding of juvenat, and may make it more efficient to produce. Tech cost will be reduced by other biomedical researchers. The start of the juvenat research tree.)
-[] Navigator Genetics (400 RP) So... you have some navigator genetic material. You can poke at that, see if you can figure out how it works. They had a reputation even back in your day, and it only seems to have gotten worse. Still, tempting. (Unlocks basic understanding of navigator genetics. Will unlock further technology to improve the health of navigators, as well as technology to allow you to clone navigators.) Locked behind Complex genetic enhancement
-[] Navigator Gestation (200 RP) You have a navigator fetus. You don't know what to do with that beyond the obvious. So, how would you do it? Well, you doubt you could just implant it into somebody. From the traces left behind on Klyssar's nest you should do this in a tank. (Allows you to turn the navigator fetus into a navigator baby) Locked behind the Does in vitro have something to do with wine? and maybe a followup tech depending on rolls.
-[] Dubious Dark Eldar Dissections (75 RP) You've got some corpses of Dark Eldar. Time to take them apart and see what you can learn! (Gives you some details on Dark Eldar physiology. May provide bonuses towards psyker genetics, or develop medical techniques, drugs or implants for Eldar)
Cybernetics
-[] Combat Mobility Cybernetics (100 RP) Sticking rockets and grappling hooks into cybernetics isn't just cool. It's also useful - it'll let the wearers utilize more of the strength of their new limb without tearing apart their organic body. It'll also give them new maneuverability options. (Unlocks new parts for augments that enhance the wearer's strength and mobility. Synergizes with other technology, may unlock enhanced mobility for bots & armors)
-[] Combat Neural Implants (25 RP) Allows you to install neural implants to calculate trajectories, assist with aiming, further improve reaction time and generally improve human capabilities in combat. (Unlocks combat-focused neural implants. Will synergize with other cybernetics and neural implant technologies)
-[] Advanced organ replacements (100 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, but not quite. But they can't adjust to shocks in body homeostasis and they do need to be replaced every decade or so. You think you can make them as good or slightly better than the real thing, including the potential to grow with the bearer. (Unlocks organs which actually just replace normal organs almost perfectly. Likely to synergize with other implant/cybernetics/enhancement techs).
-[] Superhuman organ replacements (300 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, and have some useful auxiliary functions. But there's another level of improvement that's possible here. You could make organs that conveyed superhuman characteristics on the wearers. Improved oxygen transfer rate, improved bone density, immunity to most toxins, improved healing rate. (Unlocks advanced organs implants which grant superhuman capabilities. Not quite space-marine-level, but that's the next tech, though these are still artificial). Locked behind Advanced Combat cybernetics.
-[] Companion Cogitators (350 RP) Your implants are good. But they still rely on external computers for any heavy lifting. But with a good deal of work, and some effort at miniaturizing computation, data storage and power units you could fit a full computer into somebody, giving them access to a full suite (Powerful neural implants capable of incredible amounts of data crunching/cryptography, as well as full virtual presences. Further improves Organic-machine control, unlocks very powerful types of implants, including implanted machine spirits, personality-backups and depending on other technology minor AIs).
-[] Mood Regulators (100 RP) Interfacing the implant with the brain's emotional centers will allow it to regulate emotional states. Potentially useful to help the bearer regulate dangerous emotions like fear, lust, anger, greed, sloth, as well as emotional outbursts when such would be dangerous for them. Also potetnialyl useful for interrogation. (Your implants that can help with - or destroy - mental stability. Useful for those engaged with Chaos, and for unstable psykers. May unlock more technology geared towards ensuring a stable mental condition). Locked behind Drugs? Drugs.
-[] Pain Controller (100 RP) Pain is an incredibly deeply seated stimulus, and it's hard to block it without destroying a lot of senses. But if you manage it it could help immesurably with combat implants. (Your implants allow the deadening of pain, allowing people so implanted to fight or last through injuries and other bad feedback).
-[] Advanced Combat cybernetics (150 RP) Your cybernetics can easily contain light and some medium weapons, but they're not really suited to heavy combat. Yet. You could make them tougher, beefier, and figure out how to fit the power sources for larger weapons inside. (Unlocks advanced combat augments. Half of the technology for excellent combat augments, unlocks further cybernetics/research). Locked behind Really good Robotics.
-[] Advanced Cognition Filter (150 RP) Your existing Cognition Filter works very well, but you worry that it's prone to remove important details. It's hard to see how long an enemy's sword is when that sword is covered with Chaotic sigils, for example. Some amount of modelling and virtual reality augmentation could just replace that with an unadorned sword, circumventing the drawbacks of the first-generation cognition filter. (Improves Cognition filters to remove any downsides to filtering out chaotic information from perception.)
-[] Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (400 RP) Chaos corruption is a lot of things. However, it almost certainly involves some amount of neural rewiring to think more Chaotic thoughts. With your neural implants, you believe you might be able to reverse that, using warp sensors to detect combination of memory editing, negative feedback and induced plasticity to undo the Chaotic brain patterns. This is unlikely to return them to how they were before, but it'll give them a chance to be somebody new without demons twisting their brain. (Your brain implants can slowly un-corrupt the mental side of chaos corruption). Requires Companion Cogitators& Understanding Mutations
-[] Improved Organic-Machine control (100 RP) You think you can about double the capacity of the machine-control implants with a full redesign. (Approximately doubles the capacity of organic-machine control, letting a single human command more CP worth of units. Leads to further follow-on improvements.)
-[] Large-Scale organic-machine Control (100 RP) A manufactory is one thing, a shipyard or gas refinery is another. But at this point it's mostly a matter of scale and networking. (Allows OMC implants to control any kind of industrial production, including shipyards and non-military megastructures. Leads to further technology to improve the amount of CP one person can control.)
-[] Human Design Interfaces (200 RP) You've adapted your simulation software to work with advanced neural implants, but what about your design software? If humans could play with your auto-cad as well as you can then that would help you design or even entirely farm out the design of things. (Discounts design options, may unlock technology to improve the RP generated from humans with simulation implants, either per-person or simply raising the cap.)
-[] Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP) Simulation of the organic-machine control interfaces is tricky, but it has some pretty significant benefits. Not only will it make it far easier to train people on how to use the OMC technology, it'll let people virtually fight each other to discover new strategies. Besides, that might be fun. (Dramatically improved OMC competence. This may result in an increase in manufacturing efficiency for OMC-controlled manufactories, and will result in increased effectiveness of OMC-controlled military units.).
-[] Void Organic-Machine control (100 RP) A voidship can be thought of as a living creature, with veins of coolant, a reactor heart and an undying thirst for fuel. How can a single human understand it, much less understand it? (Allows OMC implants to control voidships. Leads to further research to boost CP capacity of OMC specifically for controlling voidships, as well as improvements to allow improved piloting)
-[] Remote Organic-Machine control (50 RP) One of the current limitations of the OMC technology is that it requires the controller to be on-site. But if that wasn't true, then you could imagine truly bloodless wars, or operators living in comfortable cities while they controlled factories in orbit. Something to look into. (Allows OMC implants to control installations or units within the same system. Leads to further research for interoperable units, as well as making it possible for human staff to directly contribute to Vita's CP cap.)
Hacking
-[] Rapid hacking (400RP) You need to figure out a new approach to subverting machine spirits. It might involve some combination of confusing them with a burst of signals, then showing up and 'relieving' the issue. But it would take a lot of trial-and-error to get right. (Improves hacking of imperial tech. Potentially enough for use in combat situations? Will unlock further hacking technology).
-[] Improved Machine-spirit Jamming (300 RP) Well, you can't combine it with hacking, but you can still try to improve what you have to be more efficent, target more machine spirits at a time, etc. (Improves success rate of jamming imperial tech, decreases failure penalties. May unlock further jamming technology)
Crew :
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 15
-[] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[] Anexa passive action: Exploratory Research - Roll to discount a random tech from one of her specialties. Will receive the specialty bonus, and crits will result in a level and bonus technology. Specialties (3/4): Machine Spirits. The Warp, Cybernetics. Grants a +10 bonus when doing research rolls in the relevant category.
Has a staff of 42 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +840 CP & 42 RP per turn.
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 15
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens.
Cia Steblin,Pyromancer Psyker
Level 9
-[] 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.
I have made somewhat major changes to the blueprint design process for ground units & installations. You now have a set of "base" blueprints for combat bots, tanks, small craft & defensive installations, and you can add on modifications for things like machine spirits, void shields, psychic shields, etc. Not all modifications can be applied to all blueprints and there are likely weird edge cases where things don't make sense. Don't exploit those. Several things you could do before have increased or decreased in cost some, though I don't think by huge margins. But now there are rules for you to design a Basic Stealth Humanized Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle if that's a thing you want to do.
We're not going to track psychic shield HP on anything smaller than a ship. The personal shielding isn't stupendously strong, but it works a bit differently than the structural shielding since it's protecting such a smaller area. It can still break in the presence of a lot of corruption and does require repair after exposure though.
I changed what the Basic Cognition filter does compared to the description, but I figure this is more what you wanted anyways.
Cia rolled well on her first major engagement so she leveled twice. If this was a crit she totally would have vaporized that pool with her powers and gotten some kind of fancy bonus out of it, but as it was she was pragmatic and achieved the same result with melta charges instead.
You lost a number of bots despite the good success because you were outnumbered a hundred to one and your bots still kind of suck at close combat.
To clarify the bit at the end about what you can do to help stabilize & civilize the ship, you have a lot of options. Wiping out either or both groups could be accomplished by a military action. A diplomacy action could be used to talk to either or both groups. You could put a group in charge with a free action and give them a dominant position as you left if you want.
Construction actions would let you build aid in the form of medical care, medical facilities, repairs to the ship, manufacturing capacity, weapons, etc. The ship probably needs like 5000 bp of repairs to be fully functional again, but each increment of a hundred would help address serious problems that are making it less livable by the day. This includes addressing food and more, don't try to micro it. You can't use the repair bay on this. You can build ground manufactories on the ship. Probably no more than 20 before the ship starts to not really be able to do other things.
I am in fact encouraging you to leave tech-priests behind here, which would happen as part of a construction or diplomacy action. There's no cap to how many you can leave, the results will be better with more. Depending on the support and mandate they have the tech-priests might be unhappy or thrilled. It depends on if you make them subordinate to the others, how much manufacturing capacity you give them and what their mission is. If you leave them with manufacturing capacity they'll be able to start fixing the ship and building it up on their own, but how quickly depends on how much their focus is on that versus education. They won't be able to give people new implants without a medical facility.
Yes, both groups show signs of minor chaos corruption. Don't get overly paranoid about it. It's a result of them spending more than a century in squalor without other recourse. If things get better, they have a positive influence and they have a way to address the root cause of their societal issues it'll probably go away on its own. You don't need to install implants into the brains of every adults and manually excise chaos corruption. Not only would that be very invasive, it is also very much overkill.
For the stations in the broader system, I've said before that there's a constant trend of failure, and that's part of why people are so keen to jump onto the Auric Burden. Say anywhere between one and five stations fail every 5 years. Stabilizing a station would cost 250 BP if they don't trust you, and 125 if they do. There are about a hundred living stations left, and each probably holds anywhere between ten and a hundred thousand people. The Imperium mined asteroids by hand which is just crazy.
If you fully repair the ship (5000 bp) with an eye to hold people instead of ore, it'll be able to hold the entire population of the system.
It would be a single military action to go blow up all of the obviously chaotic stations - the ones with chaotic symbols on them, or that twig hard on your warp sensors.
Let's do 24 hours of moratorium, then voting for maybe only 24 more hours. There's a chance I can write an update for next week, so I might as well plan to have the opportunity.
[X] Plan: The Disciples of the Cogitare Exploratium
-[X][FREE] Spark of the Ancients Repair Bay: 1 shuttle bay and 2 fighter bays dismantled (3 slots freed) - 3 Machine Spirit Manufactory added (540 BP) (1 MS Manufactory = 1 slot). Rest goes to repairing the Bongo Oubliette (460 BP - 92 points of repairs) (443/540 HP -> 535/540 HP).
-[x] Command: Blow up any Chaos-tainted stations you find and detect.
-[X] Construction (500 VBP / 500 LC): 50 BP immediate aid / bribes, 450 BP to 3x Machine Spirit Manufactory (120 BP, 20 CP), 1x Anti-personnel Bunker (40 BP, 2 CP) w/ mods: Psychic Shielding, 1x Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP), any additional BP from MSPI to completing the unfinished MS Manufactory. The cluster of installations shall be the HQ for Cogitate Exploratium base of operations.
--[X][COGITARE] Send 22 members of the Cogitare Exploratium to be left on the ship temporarily, with the gift of 12 personal void shields from the bodyguard bots that saw battle against Chaos, removed from the bots and crafted into their augmented bodies or given as a talisman to the most militant members, as their preference. And 1000 Heavy and 1000 Light Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (40 CP).
--[X][MISSION] Primary goal: Stabilize and repair the ship and ease the suffering of its population, as well as evacuate the stations. Convert the ship to host people instead of ore. Secondary goal: Convert people to the Cogitare Exploratium, or be positively affiliated with it. This ship will be a recruiting grounds for the Cogitare Exploratium, seeking people with the aptitude for technology and science when given the education and a chance. Recruit both from the Ductsworn and the Bridgeborn as a neutral party, focusing on the ship itself. This is meant to end with the Cogitare Exploratorium becoming the dominant faction on the ship with hopefully a peaceful takeover. They are also encouraged to freely share basic uplift primers and teaching and augmenting people they don't directly recruit (especially to control the new installations they will be making), if they think it will help the situation.
--[X] Cogitare starting CP: 212/440 CP
-[X] Research (317 RP)
--[x] Psychic tripwires (50 RP)
--[x] Machine Sprit Production Improvements (75 RP)
---[x] Anexa assist
--[x] Mechanized agriculture (150 RP)
--[X] Blueprint: 25 RP - Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP)
--[X] Blueprint: 10 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (40 BP, 2 CP), mods: Psychic Shielding
--[X] Basic Active Stealth (34/75 RP) -> (41/75 RP)
-[X] Explore: Calderath
-[X] Anexa active Action: Research (Machine Sprit Production Improvements)
-[X] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building (budget of 50 BP immediate aid / bribes to spend on the Auric Burden tribes)
-[X] Active Psyker improvement
You don't go so far as to remove your bots from the Auric Burden while you consider your next moves. The ship is yours, and you have every intention of it remaining so. But you do bring many of the bots back aboard your ship, and with them comes - well, you're not sure it's correct to call it loot.
It's more trophies, and if they didn't represent a potential source of knowledge you'd have it all burned immediately. The less objectionable part is the savaged corpses of inhumanly muscled cultists who stand nearly seven feet tall, variously killed by a variety of your bots weapons or diced to pieces by Cia's psychically-enhanced blade. You're not sure exactly what they'll reveal, but it's better than nothing.
The other half of the haul is various items that may be blessed by chaos, or may just be weapons etched with bloody symbols, severed heads arranged in specific patterns, and various other miscellanea that a blood cult accumulates. But none of it is setting off your warp sensors very hard, so you don't think it's actively dangerous. Most of that stuff probably went up when Cia's melta-bombs went off, and you're not particularly upset about that.
After dithering for a little while you put everything into a cold-storage vault and turn down the temperature. It's not technically behind a psychic shield, but you'll keep an eye on it and there's a psychic shield between it and anything important.
New research unlocked - A Curio Cabinet of Khornish Cultists (150 RP)
"What's the next step for us here?" Cia asks as she stomps into the room. Her armor is blackened along the front and covered with nicks and grooves - some about an inch deep.
Unpowered Hand weapons did that? Cultists are no joke.
You brush aside the moment of surprise and answer. "We have the ship, and we have some leads. Our goal is to deny the system to Chaos and get something positive going here. Let's see if we can get anything from the Bridgeborn about the stations - they're the ones who know which stations are which. Victan, can you get on that? You'll have a budget."
He nods, brow furrowed as he starts to consider how best to tempt the descendants of the Auric Burden's officer class to share their hereditary information.
You turn your attention to Anexa next. "To get things moving in a positive direction, I want to transfer some of your staff to the ship. It's a mess and they'll be in charge of fixing it. We'll give them manufactories and combat bots, but my hope is that they'll provide medical treatments and education to the crew, uplift everybody and we can come back to a thriving community that's spreading civilization across the system. They'll get full control of the manufactories and I'll throw in the void shields off the bodyguard bots."
She pursed her lips. "I'll ask for volunteers. I think Quorath will go, just for a chance to be in charge again."
You raise an eyebrow. "Should he be?"
"He'll do fine. He needs responsibility more than lessons."
With that problem solved you turn back to Cia, who's studying her sword to see if its been damaged. "A job well done. I don't know how the bots would have handled all of that."
She shoots you a self-satisfied grin. "Good to finally make in impact. Is there anything for me? I've got some new experiences to meditate on."
You shake your head. "No. Psychic lab?"
"Psychic lab." She says agreeably, then gives you a knowing look. "And what research directions will address these challenges?"
Anexa perks up, excited to hear the answer.
You chuckle. "You kill one cult and start getting sassy. But you're right." You nod towards Anexa. "We'll be working on making the machine spirit manufactories better. That's what we're leaving with the people we leave here, and I'm hoping that'll let them get booted up faster. But I also want to get psychic tripwires, so that they'll have some protection against Chaos. Beyond that - mechanized agriculture, so that we can actually feed everybody in the system, and designs for a medical facility big enough to treat everybody. And a defensive installation so that even if the ship gets boarded they'll be fine."
"It seems a sound list of objectives," Victan says smoothly.
"Oh, and I'm going to refit the Spark of the Ancients with more manufactories. We haven't used the fighters for much, and we're forever limited with manufactories, so I'm replacing the half the fighter bays and one of the shuttle bays with more manufactories. Any objections?"
None are voiced, and the ad-hoc meeting breaks up quickly. Everybody's got things to do, and they're eager to get to them, even if that's just "meditation" for Cia. You'll do a more formal debrief later, but for now everybody has things to get started on, you most of all.
Spark of the Ancients Refit:
Bongo Oubliette repaired to 535/540 HP -2 Fighter bays
-1 Shuttle Bay - lift capacity now 500 bp/turn
+3 Machine spirit manufactories
After all, you're planning on installing a bunch of automated manufacturing capacity into a ship that was previously inhabited by chaos cultists. Then you're going to use the output of that manufacturing to deal with a bunch of other cultists. It would be nice if they had as many defenses against chaos as they could get.
You'd had ideas around this a while back, and it involves installing a very minimal psychic shield into just about every piece of computational hardware you built. It wouldn't be strong enough to do much in the way of protection, but it should serve to set off an alarm sufficient to alert you to the problem or self-destruct the hardware in question.
Specifically, it would mean if there was another scrapcode exposure then I wouldn't have to go hunting through my manufactories for buried traps.
It's fairly easy to implement - you just scale down the psychic shielding to the point that it's trivial to make, then try to integrate it into the casing on your processing units and other kinds of chips. The goal is to use simple current-based sensors to detect when it's still intact versus broken.
But even as soon as you've made them you start to see the issue. They're not stable. You do some simulated aging experiments and several of your samples spontaneously break, even though you're pretty sure there was no corruption present...
Pretty sure. Not completely sure.
After a period of paranoid investigation, and asking for help from Cia, you're now absolutely sure that your ship is completely isolated from other chaos corruption. The spontaneous failures are exactly what they look like - delicate circuits failing at a random rate because of tiny defects or other issues. The rate isn't super high, but it's high enough that you'd forever be chasing false positivies.
After your paranoia you don't have time for a full redesign, but you can beef them up to be less fragile. That seems to solve the issue, but when you expose them to Bongo to make sure they trigger you have the opposite problem. Analysis shows that several of the psychic shields broke, but the current flow is so robust that you can't tell. So now you have the problem of false negatives.
Forced to choose between the two, you'd rather go with the false negative one. You'd prefer that you only detect chaos corruption 90% of the time when it does happen instead of being forever paranoid that your bots are getting corrupted as the tripwires fail randomly.
As they say, an alarm that's constantly giving false alarms might as well never go off. Boy who cried wolf? Something like that.
You definitely can make small and delicate circuits like this that don't spontaneously fail, but it usually requiries a deeper bottom-up design for that purpose. Regardless, it'll have to wait.
Researched Psychic Tripwires - rolled 14+20=34. Poor success. Anything smaller than a ship will automatically get psychic tripwires that will detect when the device gets influenced by chaos. Will not always trigger, and it may be possible for slow and careful corruption to proceed without triggering the alarm. Unlocked new research - Psychic Shielding Reliability (100 RP)
You're a bit disappointed with those results, but some warning is better than none at all. As long as you think of this as a bonus and don't rely on it as your only line of defense it should be fine. Still, the time has come to start preparing the outpost on the Auric Burden. The ship itself is about the same size as your ship, but while most of The Spark of the Ancients is packed with weapons, armor, hangers, teleporters, manufactories, labs, and more, the Auric Burden is mostly empty space that is occupied by mazelike warrens of makeshift housing, or ecosystems formed where the systems of the ship have started to break down. It'd almost be more correct to categorize it as a half-dozen different interconnected spaces between the upper decks, the cargo bays, the central spine, and more.
You briefly consider putting your outpost in close proximity to either of the two crews, or equidistant between them. But both of those factions are located in the rear of the ship, and doing so would leave vast swathes of the area unpatrolled. You also can't find any particularly defensible points, so instead you decide to take over one of the less-densely-occupied cargo bays, clearing out the various strata of a hundred years of skirmishes and attempted civilization. At the very bottom of the pile is the reamnants of the ore that originally occupied this bay, but once that's gone you're left with a cavernous empty bay.
It's way more space than you need, but it's fairly easy to fortify as it is. Besides, you'd like to give the enclave you're founding room to grow. They should have the manufacturing capacity to fill it in, and even if you hope that they'll control the entire ship you don't have the botpower for that right now and the only better spaces are currently occupied.
Still - Chaos Was Here, and you design your defenses with that in mind, making sure to fortify the crap out of the primary and secondary entrances to ensure that the enclave of the Cogitare Exploratium won't be easily defeated. With this position and these preparations it would take at the very least hundreds and more likely thousands of enemies armed with heavier weapons than anything you've seen to penetrate these defenses.
Designed 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.
Behind that you start working on building the enclave proper. Quarters and living space are trivial to slap together but what's more important is medical facilities and manufactories - the people on this ship could use all of the medical care they could get and it'll be incredibly helpful if your tech-priests decide to induct any new initates. Though you can't build it, it's worth putting in the effort to design a larger and more personell-efficent medical facility. It'll take ten times the number of patients but require the same number of tech-priests to run.
Designed Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
That's an option you'll be giving them, after all. Pretty much the only directive you want to give Quorath is "Try not to kill them all unless they're Chaos-corrupted." He knows your mission as well as you do, and to him those people represent future disciples, not obstacles.
Still, you'll be installing the new machine-spirit manufactories on the ship because they're easier for the tech-priests to control. But they'll be able to use every scrap of productivity they can get, and you and Anexa were planning on doing just that.
This idea was born out of the observation that when you put a machine spirit in charge of a manufactory it sometimes does... weird things. Not wrong things, but certainly they change up the manufacturing processes in ways that don't make a lot of sense to you. Usually it's in ways that techically do save some time and effort but demand more attention or are more likely to introduce errors. You in fact installed filters to prevent the machine spirits from pulling these kinds of tricks.
But now you want to study them and see if you could make use of the phenomena. Half of it is just learning to trust the design improvements, and the other half is figuring out how to tune your filters to prevent the machine spirits from doing anything actually batshit crazy, which they totally would if given a chance.
A lot of it is just feeding designs to a machine spirit manufactory, watching how it "optimizes" the production process and then trying to decide if it's a good adaptation or not so you can reinforce good ones and discourage bad ones. Anexa and her tech-priests are incredibly helpful in the process, going over and flagging tons of designs each until you've built up a good set of examples to train the machine spirits with.
After that process it's mostly a matter of iterating the training and tuning the machine spirit layout until they're actually optimizing the process, instead of just doing crazy things that increase risk while delivering a tiny speedup. The tech-priests love it for some reason, and keep muttering about the "Omnissiah's blessing made manifest" whenever they see a particularly unintuitive yet effective optimization.
Still, there's potential here. You like to think of the machine spirits as having an animal level intelligence, but these things are more like idiot-savants. They have no conception of self but if you hand them a manufacturing problem they'll solve it. If you built them up a bit, made them to be a little bit smarter they might even be almost completely independent except for the hardest problems.
Researched Machine Sprit Production Improvements - 34+30=64. Success. Your Machine Spirit Manufactories produce 20% more BP. New technology unlocked - Independent Manufactories (400 RP)
Existing technolology discounted - Basic Automated Manufactories cost reduced by 25 RP
In the meantime, you put the finishing touches on the Mechancius enclave aboard the Auric Burden. Your increased manufacturing potential allows you to start a fourth manufactory, though it's nowhere near complete. That's fine - you're pretty sure it'll be a high priority for Quorath once he takes command, which will be soon.
Auric Burden outpost completed:
1x Anti-personnel Bunker, Psychic Shielding
1x Small automated medical facility, 50 person capacity.
3.25x Machine Spirit Manufactory, 180 BP/turn. Ish.
1000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
1000 Light Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
Very soon, as a matter of fact. You left the organization of the tech-priests mostly to Anexa, though you supported her as best you could in answering questions and convincing her staff of the necessity to transferring, and at the end of the day you have no shortage of volunteers to make the jump across. As far as you can tell their motives are very diverse, ranging from a simple desire for independence on Quorath's part to a desire to take initiates on some others, a desire to have patients to practice medical arts for others, and even a lust for the personal void shields you offered as bribes.
You're glad you did that - none of the others are particularly martially inclined, but the few who accepted just for the chance to recieve the shield generators are definitely among the more combat-focused of the tech-priests. You have a niggling feeling they'll be more useful than you wanted them to be. Besides, you're leaving two thousand infantry bots behind, and they need somebody to command them while you're out of the system.
You walk into the small auditorium that Anexa's organized the sendoff briefing in, and come face-to-face with Quorath and the rest of the Cogitare that are going to be forming the enclave. They're a panoply of mechanical parts, some still bearing the asthetic of the Mechanicus of Mars, while others have embraced Anexa's art-deco style and still more are feeling out their own manner of augmentation.
They've all reviewed the documents you put together, but it never hurts to have an in-person meeting to drive the point home. Especially when you know you're an object of near-reverence to the gathered tech-priests. That's part of why you've been avoiding them, to be honest.
Still, it gives your rare apperances even more weight, and they're all waiting for your words with bated breath. "Your purpose isn't to conquer the Auric Burden," you begin. "I want you to take it over, but I want it to happen with gifts and integration, not force and blackmail. Does anybody know why?"
They're caught a bit flatfooted by the question, but Quorath signals his desire to answer through the noosphere, and you give your acknowledgement through the same medium.
He answers in binaric. ++While force may be quick and efficent, it breeds resentment. You wish a harmounious culture of the Cogitare Exploratum to grow organically on the Auric Burden. We all wish this as well. Our enclave will grow, and soon enough all aboard the ship will be an initiate.++
You frown. This is why you wanted to have this meeting. "Not quite. If they want to remain seperate from you that is acceptable. I want there to be a thriving outpost of the Cogitare Exploratum, and for this system to be elevated in its technology. For poeple to stop dying in the cold darkness of space." You're trying to emphasize the humanitarian crisis going on here, but none of them seem to be getting it.
"I do not care that the Cogitare Exploratium grow as quickly as possible, that you control everything in this system, or even aboard the Auric Burden. If the path to stability and growth is some seperate society outside of the Cogitare but existing in parallel, then I'm fine with that, so long as it's peaceful and not Chaotic."
Quorath gives a bleat of acknowledgement. ++Understood.++
You are not entirely sure it is, but you also don't want to press the issue too hard or they'll tune out. Better you leave it there, so they remember your words at future forks in the road. You've said your piece, and now it's time for Anexa to say hers.
She steps up smartly at your cue. "This marks a new chapter in the Cogitare Exploratium, one where we establish a new enclave in a new system, with the hope that it will grow and contribue to the greater whole. I wish for a future where Cogitare enclaves are scattered through space, uplifting humanity to a brighter future while discovering the secrets of the universe and sharing them with one another."
She pauses for dramatic effect, then continues in binaric. ++Because what is our ambition?++
++Discovery!++ They return in sync.
Anexa gives you a sideways smirk, then steps forward to ceremonoiusly distribute the void shields you'd detached from the bots who'd been carrying them up until now. The process hadn't left them spotless, but you are pretty sure the tech-priests are just as happy to recieve presents that have been tested in combat and not found wanting.
Shortly afterward Victan pages for your attention. He's been talking to the Bridgeborn and the Ductsworn, though more the former than the latter. You set him to the task of discovering which of the surviving stations in Vorthryn were chaos-corrupted, and he's apparently got news.
You enter his office not sure what to expect, and you find him grinning ear-to-ear.
"What's the good news?" You ask, raising an eyebrow at his expresison.
He gets up, opens a cabinet and pours himself a drink of the sweet bourbon he enjoys. "Well. I got something from the Bridgeborn I don't think they meant to give me." He raises the glass and takes a sip, enjoying the flavor before continuing to speak.
"I was trying to decide the best gifts to give them, beyond the obvious of medicines and a few replacement parts they gave me descriptions of. They also asked for weapons but I figured it wasn't a good idea when we haven't really progressed to friendly just yet. But I noticed that they put a lot of stock in their ornaments of office. Uniforms with high-brimmed hats, decorated epaulettes, metallic braid, the works. It's just that all of theirs are rather worn."
He shrugged. "So I offered some new uniforms as a gift. A dozen or so pristine new uniforms with all of the fittings," he pauses to take another sip, looking very self-satisfied "and an incredibly ornate set modelled off of what I'd seen of their captain Annalictaus's outfit. Just - new and shiny, not worn and aged." He pings you with a file and you review it, blinking at the ornate pile of gold, silver and gems encrusted atop a blue outfit.
You glance disbelivingly at him. "This? You're basically bribing them with a pile of gold. Not that I mind, it's not exactly the most useful metal for my needs. What did you give for it."
He raises one finger. "It was a gift. But I asked, as visitors, for a guide to the local stations, and information on their dockings if they'd be willing to share it. They said they'd share the the Record of Holy Dockings, and they gave me a datapad that displayed the dates, timestamps and locations of each time they docked with one of the stations, along with a single picture."
He chuckles. "They thought their system was spitting out a list of records for each docking, with a picture snapshot to commemerate them fufilling their duty. But they were automatically generated files of security footage." He transfers you another file and this one is substantially larger. Substantially. It takes a second to transfer off of his implants and into your systems, and you open it and start sorting through it.
It's complete recordings of every time the ship docked with a station for the last fifty years. From multiple angles. With security scans... which seem to involve a frankly unsafe amount of body-penetrating radiation. But it means you have a complete record of every person who entered or exited the ship in that time. Along with details of every item they brought with them.
It's more data than you can sort through quickly, but it's also more than you could have hoped to get. You look back up at Victan from your brief focus. "Well. That'll be very useful. Good job."
He raises his glass towards you before taking another sip. "I just hope they get better. Dealing with the bridgeborn makes me feel... slimy. Heriditary rulers."
You pat him on the shoulder and hang out as he gets slowly tipsy, talking about all the ways he'd design a government if he ever got the chance. You leave a few hours later after he falls asleep.
There's a good chance he gets the opportunity one of these days.
The process of clearing Chaos out of the system is mostly analysis. The encalve is still getting its feet under itself but it's well-defended and stable, so you leave the Auric Burden behind as you start making a circuit of the inhabited asteroid belt. You scan every station you see, both ensuring that the dead ones are truly dead and checking for signs of corruption among those who aren't.
Several of the stations are easy, with Chaotic symbols smeared in blood on windows and signatures in the warp that indicate active rituals or other, similar things going on. Regardless, every time you confirm such a significant presence of Chaos you decide to blow the station away. You know that thousands - tens of thousands - are dying each time you open up with your weapons. But after what you've seen, what you've read, you've become convinced that they're past saving.
Or at least past reasonable saving. Trying to redeem somebody who will do everything they can to drag you down to their level without a spark of remorse sounds like empathy bordering on madness.
You also consult the security recordings, crunching through the details on the thousands of people who board the Auric Burden every time it docks with a station - mostly as invaders, but occasionally as refugees. Oftentimes their corruption is obvious, with sigils painted onto cloathing and scarred into skin. Other times it's more sublte, with unholy symbols in hidden pockets or scarification hidden under clothing. But they all do seem to carry weapons - or ritual objects. Both, likely.
The security footage Victan aquired makes it easier, especially when a station detects your approach and sends you a targeted distress signal asking for aid. A quick scan of the last time the Auric Burden docked with them shows you that a large group of innocent-seeming refugees transferred over, eagerly integrating into a dozen different groups. But the security scans show that they were clearly a group of armed infiltrators, each and every one carrying curved daggers bearing the mark of Slaanesh.
Nope.
You don't bother responding to that station, instead lighting the whole thing up with plasma fire that's briefly resisted by some kind of ritual. The whole thing is lighting up to your warp sensors like a christmas tree but you're not about to let up. You pound the station with long-ranged attacks and it doesn't take long for the ritual to fail, the entire station disintegrating in moments as all of your firepower suddenly slams home at once.
You move onto the next station. That one seems untainted, along with about three-quarters of the rest. You're not about to expect them to embrace you with open arms - they're still agressive techno-barbarians who'd attack you and loot everything they could if they had the chance. But they're not Chaos worshipers, and that makes all of the difference.
Over time you start to discern a flavor of the warp-signals around the more obviously chaotic stations. It's nothing definitive, just a kind of signature that shows up around the stations compared to the other psychic phenomena you've seen. You aren't exactly sure what it is, though it could be the residue from long-repeated Chaotic rituals. Still, you might be able to use it to detect active cults using your sensors, which would potentially help you in the future when you don't have access to incredibly detailed scans of the people leaving a station.
New research unlocked - The Taste of Chaos (300 RP)Find more chaos-cults to decrease this cost.
Regardless, once you've completed your loop and rejoined the Auric Burden you're quite confident that you've effectively eliminated Chaos from the Vorthryn system.
Command: Blow up any Chaos-tainted stations you find and detect. Rolled Nat 100. +1 Victan level
However, things there haven't gone as smoothly in your absence. You request a status update for Quorath and receive a terse missive that boils down to "They started attacking us, we don't know why." Details and recordings are attached for brevity and proof, and when you drill down into them you find that that summary is basically correct.
The enclave was talking to both of the other groups on the Auric Burden, offering medical care and some more aid to pick up where Victan left off. But then the relations grew colder and were cut off about the same time for both groups for no obvious reason.
Cogitare Establishment on the Auric Burden - rolled 2. Failure.
Then the attacks started. The Ductsworn have ambushed groups of patrolling bots, using their knowledge of the maintinance tunnels and inner workings of the ship to surprise your bots from close range, or unleash hot steam into their ranks. Additional efforts have been made to make the enclave unlivable, diverting life support away and waste heat into it.
The Bridgeborn used their stock of Imperial-era weaponry and tried using them for harassment style attacks, using the longest sightlines possible to try and pick off defenders. They've also tried to use what control of the ship they have left to inconvenience you, sealing security hatches to seperate and split patrols for ambushes.
Defending against attacks - rolled 86. Good success.
However, the tech-priests responded adroitly to the sudden attacks. None of them have even been wounded, and they've even managed to retrieve and repair all of the bots damaged in the attacks while reaping a toll of casualties from the attackers. Once more neither side is used to enemies armed with predominantly ranged weapons, and the amount of technical expertise present meant it was trivial to undo the attempts to turn the ship against them.
Quorath has even followed your directives, and despite some of the tech-priests agitating for punitive attacks has resisted the urge to directly attack either of the two groups. They're both well-dug in and with substiantial defenses of their own, but with what you know of the ships and your heavy weapons you're sure that just the onboard bots would be able to break through, though they might not decisivly win a fight to extermination.
You send him an acknolwedgement and congratulate him on the successful defense, then request additional information as to the cause of the attacks. He responds with frustrated confusion and requests help.
You turn to the person who's probably the best suited to addressing the issue.
> (Anexa) Victan. We've got a problem. The Ductsworn and Bridgeborn started attacking the enclave, and I have no idea why. [Fuming]
> (Victan) Well shit. Alright, send me what you got. I'll go through it and try to figure this out. [Dejected]
As Victan chews through everything you have, including interviewing some of the tech-priests over the following months, he comes to a few conclusions he sends you as he has them.
First, the Ductsworn are easier. They view themselves as the guardians of the technological knowledge of the ship - the keepers of the Holy Engine, the Maintainers of the Blessed Coolant, etc. In some sense that is their identity, the duty that keeps them a coherent group and helps them stand against the worst that every station in Vorthryn could throw at them. But that means it also doesn't take much condescension to set them off.
You don't think your tech-priests were even that condescending! They were doing a repair survey, and offering training in the revalations of the machine-cult. What you think really set them off was that the mission of the Cogitare was to "fix" the ship, a duty that the Ductsworn consider theirs, and are apparently determined to defend to the death, regardless of their inability to actually do the fixing.
From what little information you can glean they're still quietly furious with you, and you expect the attacks to continue - though their obvious approaches are out of comission, they might try other methods.
The Bridgeborn are more confusing, and it takes Victan some time to parse out the reasoning. Eventually he cracks the puzzle though, and determines that it was your destruction of the stations that did it. Like the Ductsworn they have a "Holy Duty," though in this case it's to pilot the ship along its course to keep the stations connected. They've viewed the loss of stations over the years as a great tragedy that reflects on their own failure. And then you went and blew up a quarter of the remaining stations, and decided that this was unacceptable.
Victan Espionage roll - 26+15=41. Success.
Both groups are relatively powerless to harm you, and they'll continue maintianing and piloting the ship along its route as before because they view it as their purpose. But you doubt they'll be promising sources of recruits for a while, at least until the current generation of leaders die out and a new, mellower generation steps into leadership.
But it isn't like there aren't any other prospects. There are other groups of refugees coalescing in the other empty spaces of the ship, and Quorath has attempted to reach out to them as an alternate option for spreading his influence and garnering recruits.
Refugee Diplomacy Roll - 57. Success.
His success here is as much due to their desperation as anything else, but at least they don't seem to hold the shocking violence of your purge against the Cogitare, and Quorath is optimistic in his assesment of future relations. It'll be slower and more tentative than working with the two legacy groups, but he won't be completely without recruits or a society to influence and potentially control.
Still, it's worth considering if there's any further resources you want to provide to help Quorath in a task that looks to be more complicated than what you were originally envisioning.
Vote below on additional support or orders to leave for the Auric Burden before you leave.
But one of the most significant demands those people have is food. Most of the living spaces aboard the Auric Burden centered around the places where food was dispensed through the life support system. That portion of the ship is doing just as badly as the rest and what comes it out of it is little more than nutritionally upgraded sludge that still resembles the sewage it started as.
The way to fix that is by setting up your own food systems. You have galley systems that can turn organic matter into excellent food, but they aren't scaleable so if you want to feed the number of people who may one day call the Auric Burden home you'll need a new way to provide good food. Besides - it'll be an excellent recruiting tool.
The solution is well-known, in aquaponics. Plants grow with their roots suspended in shelves of water, with algae growing in the water and fish that swim around and eat the algae. You do some simple processing of nearly any organic input and the algae finish the process and help boost the energy efficency of the resulting system. It's all very neat and scaleable, and done properly is an incredibly efficent way to turn energy and anything organic into very palatable food.
Of course, every part of it is genetically engineered to high heaven, and you don't have the time to do that. But what you do have is databases of aquaculture organisms from some past samples, and you're able to boot up the DNA with a fair amount of effort, taking the most recent genomes from a long line of open-source aquaculture release packages that are in your databases.
Then it's just a matter of building out a proof-of-concept and tuning it for the organisms in question. That takes a surprisingly long time to get right, because while the system is built to be robust and tolerant of stressors it still needs to be within the tolerances of the organisms to survive and the closer it is to optimal the faster they'll grow. It seems trickier than it should be, especially because you want to build something that can just keep trucking after it's built, reliably delivering nutrionally complete and balanced diets.
Finally you consider yourself done, and prepare a meal with a freshly-grown test-batch, inviting your crew to come sample your new food.
They're all excited to try it out, but when you do the big reveal are a little perplexed.
Victan verbalizes it first. "Why is it all orange?" He prods the baked fish, breaking the yellow skin to reveal bright red flesh beneath. "And red.It's all colored like flame, from the fish to the peas."
Cia shrugs. "I don't have an objection to that." She starts piling her plate high.
You frown down at the food. It is all colored like fire, isn't it? But...
You're interrupted as Cia takes her first bite, then chokes and reaches for a glass of water. "What - " she chugs the glass of water, then breathes out, tears already leaking from the corners of her eye. "What did you spice it with? That is so hot."
"Nothing? The cooking instructions said it didn't need... spice." You have a sudden sinking sensation and review the documentation on the genomes you used. They were the last iteration of one of the most popular branches of aquaculture packages - and you'd assumed that meant the most modern. But you didn't read the full documentation, and as you do you realize your mistake.
The true most recent release was a few packages back, and this one was just iterations by the original creators as they decided to play with the genetics and introduce flavors directly into the food so they wouldn't require spicing. And this version is known as aquaHOT, because every plant, every fish, even the algae all contain the genes necessary to synthesize capsaicin and related chemicals that register to the human tongue as spicy. They're even colored to match. You just thought it was an aesthetic preference.
Anexa pokes at it a bit, then takes a tentative bite. "Seems perfectly edible?"
Cia gawks at her. "How are you eating that?"
"Turned off my taste buds." She coughs a bit and dabs at her eyes with a napkin. "Still not enough apparently. Wow."
Victan tries some on his own, bracing himself for the heat. "Reminds me of what my great-aunt used to make. But she smoked chem-sticks for thirty years, so she couldn't taste anything else. You'd just need to get used to it."
Cia takes another bite. "I feel like I'm breathing fire. Actually." She gets a thoughtful look on her face and looks down at the plate of flaming hot food and takes another determined bite.
You're busy calcualting if you have time to boot up another set of orgnaisms or if that would put you behind schedule. And the answer you're getting is that you don't have time. It's not a trivial task - and the more you think about it, the more the weird variances you had to optimize the system around were probably caused by the coloration and spice produced by the plants.
Well, it's still better than what they're eating now.
Researched Mechanized Agriculture, 9+20=29. Poor success. You can now grow large amounts of food in an industrailized setting effectively. But it's very spicy. Like Thai-grandma spicy. And also colored like flame, because a DaoT biohacker thought it was fun and you didn't read the readme. Blueprint Unlocked - Industrial Aquaculture Plant (50 BP, 10 CP)
Blueprint Unlocked - Orbital Aquaculture Plant (250 BP, 25 CP)
New research unlocked - Variety is the Spice of Life (50 RP)
New research unlocked - Enhance the Agriculture! (200 RP)
You transfer the technology to Quorath along with the warnings about the spice level. He responds with a quick and mildly confused affirmative and wishes you well on your journey. Between food production, expanded medical care, defense, and production he's certainly got a lot of priorities to choose between. But you've done the best you can to prepare him and don't want to bump his elbow as he and the other tech-priests get to it.
Which - you're ready to embark upon, just about on time. After all the twists and turns of your time in Vorthryn you'd be surprised you've kept to the timeline, but you have. So here you are, leaving the system once more and headed somewhere new.
The warp travel is relatively calm, and while you're buffeted slightly by the winds and turbulence of the warp barely anything reaches your hull through the new and improved gellar shields. You wonder what you'll find in Calderath.
-8 outer hull psychic HP.
However, you aren't left alone with your thoughts forever, as Cia sends you a message requesting that you visit her in the psychic lab. You find her meditating on a sort of raised and slightly fire-scorched plinth, with her sword leaning against the wall nearby and her repaired armor in the other room.
You stand waiting for a while. There aren't very many demands on your time right now, and you don't want to interrupt her.
It takes nearly an hour for her to open her eyes and react to your presence, but even longer for her to actually say anything. "Thank you for coming, and for waiting. I want to ask... advice."
"Was it caused by the spicy food?" you jest.
She cracks a smile but shakes her head. "It comes off of remembering the fight against the cultists. I found what I was looking for. Knowledge and understanding. Focus and power. Pragmatism and victory. I don't need to worry about the next fight, because I know I'll be ready for it."
"But?" You ask, sensing where this is going.
"But," she replies with a nod. "I have multiple ways to improve now. Different things to focus on. I'm a fighter. I fight face-to-face and win. But how do I improve that?
Cia Psyker Improvement Rolls - 52, 80. Success. +1 Cia Level.
Vote below on Cia's level 10 bonus.
Eventually, you arrive in the system of Calderath, and compared to the two systems you've been in previously it appears positively boring. There's a single outer-system gas giant with a decent-sized belt system, but it doesn't compare to Oladeer. There's an asteroid belt between it and the inner two planets, but after Vorthryn it's barely a dusting.
The inner planet is a scorched rock orbiting close to the sun, but the second one - Calderath Primus - is a brilliant blue jewel that so obviously carries an abundance of life it's nearly screaming. But you check your enthusiasm and make every effort to ensure that this system is as empty as it appears to be. A close scan of the gas giant - whose name you don't even know - returns no interesting details. The same is true of the asteroid belt. And the inner-system hotrock.
Finally, confident you didn't miss anything, you approach the inner planet. It's a steamy archipelago world, where about 90% of the planet's surface is covered by water and the land is mostly split into dozens of long island chains. It's rare to find an island more than a dozen miles across, and most of them are dominated by a jungle that thrives in the hot and humid conditions.
The ocean also appears choked with some kind of dull green mats that stretch for hundreds of miles. There's thousands of them, and together they represent more surface area than all of the islands combined. The surfaces don't exactly look stable, and you don't see any of them with anything on them.
The rest of the planet looks just about perfect for life if a little warm, and nearly every island has a village, town or city on it. But that's not obvious at a first pass because the jungles have taken over all of them. As far as you can see there are no boats and no cleared areas. It's as if everything just... stopped, and let the natural life of the world take back over. You look for boats and find thousands of them beached across nearly every shore on the planet. They all look abandoned, and most are in the final stages of falling into piles of rust of being claimed by the abundant greenery.
Then you spot some kind of unnatural movement and see a single boat cutting through the water, using a sail as propulsion. You focus in on the area and quickly see several more, radiating out from one central island that looks to have a cleared city on it. As you zoom in further you can see that it's a city - in the same way a mud hovel is a house. There clearly was a more advanced city on that spot, but new buildings have been built with bricks and quarried stone over it. There's a shuttleport that has been converted to some kind of arena. Overall the city looks like it's got about a million people in it. You can see some kind of carts moving back and forth from the extensive docks.
But there is an open carrier wave from an imperial radio signal of some kind and you tune into it, listening to an ongoing repeating broadcast. It's audio-only, and you hear what sounds like an older man with a very bad breathing problem speaking into the vox.
"Alert to all Imperium ships on approach to Caldrath Primus, beware of the hazard of the Stank." He coughs violently. "It started when the Imperium left and we couldn't harvest the 'weed as the schedule. It started rotting, and released the Stank."
He pauses to breathe deeply for a moment. "It kills. Need breathing gear. Will pay anything." Then the message cuts off.
Huh.
You get closer and triangulate the signal. It's coming from a moderately-sized orbital station that was typically used to transship cargo, though it's cold and dark now other than the single backup power system maintaining the transmission.
You can build 10 orbital manufactories here at half-cost on the station.
You send some bots over and are able to access the station's databases, which give you a trove of information. Calderath primus was an "agri-world," growing massive quantities of nutritious seaweed that was packaged and shipped off-world for delivery to other planets to the galactic west of sub-sector Zantris. One thing that stands out to you is how proud the locals were of their sunny disposition - and their pride at being welcoming.
All of the other data you find corroborates the man's story. The Imperium packed up the most valuable equipment including most of the tech-priests and left, abandoning the planet. They were joyous for a few months at not having to pay the Tithe, and everything seemed amazing, and then the Stank started to set in.
Suspicious for Chaos corruption after Vorthryn you scan the station, the planet and the living city carefully with your warp scanners and come back with... nothing. There might be some weak psykers living down there, but you don't detect any sign of warp activity that would indicate a major chaos cult.
Furthermore, from this distance, you can actually see that the people of the inhabited town are wearing some kind of mask over their face. Every one of them is wearing a close-fitting greenish-pink mask as they go about every task. Without the benefits of almost any advanced technology - there's not a single combustion engine or other advanced piece of technology in attendance.
You zoom in closer and are able to make out a kooky sign declaring that the city is called "Stankberg" and that all are welcome!
Stankberg. They seem friendly, at least.
They clearly aren't going to even notice you unless you send anything down directly atop them, so you send a shuttle down on the far side of the planet and grab a sample of one of the mats. It's an edible seaweed alright, and it's slowly decomposing and releasing some kind of irritant that can clog up human lungs - or the lungs of most other animals. It wouldn't be hard to design masks against, but every unmasked breath you took would contribute to the load of irritating particles in your lungs that only break down very slowly.
The limiting factor on the decomposition rate seems to be the local concentrations of oxygen - only the surface is decomposing, and there's a large zone of deoxygenated water around the mat, which you're pretty sure stretches miles down into the water.
You do some calculations and you're pretty sure that this problem will fix itself - somewhere between four and eight hundred years from now. But until then, the atmosphere of the planet is quite toxic for anybody not wearing a breathing mask. Though you could certainly produce a somewhat absurd number of adequate masks without much difficulty.
But the lack of danger to robots and the similar lack of claiminants over most of the surface means that you could definitely set up a large manufacturing base here if you wanted! Though the thought also strikes you that with the right technology - notably on terraforming - you could fix this planet, and potentially fairly easily.
You can freely construct ground manufactories on Calderath Primus without worrying about the locals. I'm not even sure they'd get mad.
There's one more topic that has you interested. There's a few references in the database to visits from the Sector governer. There's no mention of where they came from, but at least two mentions of "vacation" and one of "palace" makes you think that there might be something worth looking for.
It doesn't take long to find, though that's more a matter of luck and some cleverness. You ask yourself where a sector governer would like their palace to be and start checking unique locations. One such that pops out to you is a very steep volcano with an extremely deep caldera. Either naturally or artifically a tunnel has been worn into the rock to connect the bottom of the caldera to the ocean, and now the center of the volcano is filled with idyllic seawater lagoon surrounded by wonderful beaches. Some more focused analysis shows you a concealed shuttlepad that's been further concealed by encroaching jungle.
Hyperspectral analysis indicates some regular - and nonnatural - shapes underneath the water of the caldera too. There's a structure down there, though you're not sure what it is and how you'd go about exploring it. It'll take some time to properly explore, and you might see the indications of orbital defense guns in the surrounding cliffs, so it's not without danger.
Calderath exploration roll - 89+10=99. Critical Success!
Well. This place is certainly sunnier than Vorthryn. There's definitely some options here, but all of it would take work.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 1,800/12,900
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 530
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 232/240 HP, Vita Core 135/135 HP, Crew Quarters 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 535/540 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 25/??? 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:
703 Light Machine-spirit humanized infantry bots (20 CP)
840 Medium Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots (20 CP)
2491 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (3x20 = 60 CP)
2143 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (3x20 = 60 CP) CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. Khornish Cultist corpses & artifacts.
In-progress research:
Basic Active Stealth (41/75 RP)
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.
Basic Biology Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic biological samples, such as flora & fauna. Or captives.
Basic Technological Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic technological samples, to understand their electronics, materials, etc.
Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab (200 BP, 50 CP) Will allow for safer experimentation with psytech and general psyker powers, at the very least confining the damage from perils of the warp. Can be outfitted with inwards-facing psychic shielding.
High-Energy Physics Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Will allow you to conduct research on more... excitable branches of physics. Maybe don't put it close to anything you want to keep. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place)
Warp Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Anexa's brainchild. Half mad science lair, half sensible warp research setup. Will allow you to conduct research on the warp, miniature portal generator and all. Will likely help contain poor results, though maybe give it some psychic shielding. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place in addition to any psychic shielding you add.)
Captive Holding cells (25 BP, 10 CP) will allow you to hold 500 captives and keep them fed and watered while you interrogate/indoctrinate/talk to them.
Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP) 50 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Directional-control Radio tower (25 BP, 5 CP) improves signal reception quality and allows you to send your own signals across the planet, as well as giving you the capability to bounce them off the atmosphere to disguise their origin.
Observatory (100 BP, 25 CP) Built on a nearby mountain. Will unlock research projects to map the current system.
Manufactory (100 BP, 50 CP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity.
Machine Spirit Manufactory (120 BP, 20 CP) As a manufactory, but controlled primarily by machine spirits. +60 ground-based build capacity.
Industrial Aquaculture Plant (50 BP, 10 CP) Produces all of the food necessary to feed 5000 people. The food is very spicy.
Rocket Launch facility (50 BP, 10 CP) Uses chemical rockets to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to half that amount of void build capacity per action. The opposite of stealthy.
Spaceport (100 BP, 25 CP) Allows you to use shuttles to convert ground build capacity to Void build capacity with no loss, or as a base to host and rearm fighters. Can host 10 fighters or 10 shuttles, each capable of converting 50 ground BP to void BP per action, built separately. Stealthier than rockets, but not invisible.
Magnetic Catapult launch system (1000 BP, 50 CP) Allows you to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to void build capacity per action with no loss. Actually quite stealthy.
Medium Void-shield Installation (1000 BP, 50 CP) A void shield capable of stopping medium orbital bombardment, approximately fifty heavy strikes.
Anti-Orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
Anti-personnel Bunker, Psychic Shielding (40 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor. Modified with psychic shielding.
Machine-spirit Jammer (100 BP, 10 CP) A bank of cogitators capable of jamming a large number of small machine spirits (weapons, doors), several medium machine spirits (vehicles) or one large machine spirit (small ship). Effect is temporary and resistance will build up.
Basic Juvenat Production Facility (250 BP, 50 CP) A set of carefully-managed vats capable of supplying 50 people with a perennial supply of Juvenat.
Void Installations
These are built in space. They require 'void BP' which is associated with lift capacity. This is a detail we'll abandon eventually, but for now your lift capacity is limited.
Orbital Aquaculture Plant (250 BP, 25 CP) Produces all the food necessary to feed 25,000 people. The food is very spicy.
Orbital Manufactory (250 void BP, 40 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +50 void build capacity.
Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactory (300 void BP, 15 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +60 void build capacity.
Deep Space Manufactory (750 void BP, 40 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +100 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Machine Spirit Deep Space Manufactory (900 void BP, 15 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +120 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) 4 Ship construction slots
Medium Shipyard (3000 void BP, 100 CP) 16 Ship construction slots
Large Shipyard (10,000 void BP, 250 CP) 64 Ship construction slots
Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP) Rests steailthily in orbit, until activated, at which point it can attack nearly any target in orbit. One-shots satellites, many are needed for ships or larger platforms.
Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Requires a spaceport for rapid transport of troops.
Tiny system monitor (950 void BP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1500x300 meters. 7 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Light Shields. 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 light lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Small system monitor (2375 void BP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots) Frigate, 2200x600 meters. 5 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. 4x Medium Macrocannons, 1x Medium Lances, 2x Point Defense.
Candle (1450 void BP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1600x350 meters. 8 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. Living Space, Psychic Shields (20 HP) 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 Medium Lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
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.
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 (2000 Void BP per 50,000 people) As city but in space. Includes Hydroponics.
[] Research: Gain research points equal to your research capacity, to be spent designing new blueprints or researching projects. Write in what you spend them on.
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, suggest them in the thread and I'll add them here if they're valid, along with RP cost to design them. This includes bunkers, anti-orbital defenses, ground units, etc. You'll unlock more things with more technology. Some things are impossible without the correct research - for example, heavy tanks will require you to research heavy armor first. Other things will be very cheap if you already have most of the design - for example if you research a better weapon it will be relatively cheap to just swap that out on the tanks.
Blueprints Design
Blueprint Modification Options
New blueprint Modification system: We've unlocked various additions to ground blueprints. Instead of attempting to list all possible combination below I'll list the base options, and you can trick them out with the following modifications. In general BP & RP should round up to the nearest 5. CP does not. Note that these are calculated off "base cost," not total cost, so it is not compounding, though some upgrades increase the base cost.
Here's an example of me designing a fancy assault shuttle.
The base blueprint is 25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP), but I want to make it fancy. First, let's make it machine-spirit controlled. That gives +0.5x base BP, -0.9x CP, or +15 BP, -4.5 CP. So the blueprint is now:
25 RP - Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (40 BP, 0.5 CP)
Then I want to give it void shields. That costs +1x base BP cost because it's a small craft, then +1x RP. So +25 BP, +25 RP. Now it's:
50 RP - Void-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (65 BP, 0.5 CP)
Now I want to give it psy shields. That's +4x base BP cost for small craft (which was 25, so +100 BP), and +1x base RP cost (which was 25, so +25 RP). So now it's:
75 RP - Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (165 BP, 0.5 CP)
Oh and screw it, might as well make it stealthy too, which is +1x base RP cost, +0.25x base BP cost, so that's +10 BP (round up to nearest 5) & +25 RP cost, which leaves us with:
100 RP Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (175 BP, 0.5 CP)
And of course that's a bit of a mouthful, so I'm going to rename it the "Icarus," and the blueprint should look like:
100 RP - Icarus (Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle, 175 BP, 0.5 CP)
If we'd wanted to also make it humanized (so it looks like it's piloted by people, for example if you wanted to transport allies without them knowing it was flown by robots) then this all changes, since that adds +5 BP to the base cost. That doesn't change the RP or CP cost at all, but it does change BP. Instead of 25+15(0.5x)+25(1x)+100(4x)+10(0.25x)=175 you'd do (25+5)+15(0.5x)+30(1x)+120(4x)+10(1.25x)=205 BP. And then you'd have
100 RP - Basic Stealth Humanized Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (205 BP, 0.5 CP)
Humanization - (+15 base BP cost for combat bots, +5 base BP for vehicles, small craft & defensive installations) Makes a unit appear to be operated by fully-armored humans. Slightly increases strength and armor of those units. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine Spirit Jammers - (+10 base BP) Adds machine-spirit jamming equipment to the blueprint, enhancing capabilities against forces that use machine spirits. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine-spirits - (+0.5x base BP cost, -0.9x base CP cost) Make this blueprint controlled by machine spirits, making it slightly corruption resistant and reducing the load on your systems. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Void Shields - (+1x base BP cost for tanks & small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds void shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft.
Psychic Shielding - (+4x base BP cost for tanks, small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base BP cost for defensive installations +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds psychic shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability against warpy threats. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Basic Stealth - (+0.25x base BP cost, +1x base RP cost, ) Makes a unit harder to detect. Can be applied to: Small craft.
Combat Bots
10 RP - Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor.. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at either.
25 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Vehicles
15 RP - Light tanks (100 BP, 50 CP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium tanks (250 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons & antipersonnel weapons to fight enemy armor and infantry. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at any.
25 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Small Craft
25 RP - Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) A single shuttle which converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity, and shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking for it. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
25 RP - Bomber (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
25 RP - Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Cannot deliver troops to space targets.
Defensive Installations
10 RP - Anti-armor Bunker (50 BP, 5 CP) A bunker with a heavy melta cannon, able to take out most armor in a single shot.
5 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (20 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor.
25 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
25 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
25 RP - Nuclear warhead (25 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a city-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in.
10 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
Utility
50 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien origin. Has advanced scanning, modeling and processing capabilities.
10 RP - Maglev System (5 bp/mile, 50 flat CP) A high-capacity maglev system to transport large amounts of goods across a planetary surface, linking various surface installations together into a single network so production from any of them can be applied at all of them.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:
Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total amount of space inside the ship, which is represented by the number of BP spent on the hull. That's your "Budget"
Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards cramming.
Pick hull equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards cramming.
Choose weapons, combat equipment & noncombat equipment to add to the ship. Your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in.
Have a vote win which spends the necessary RP to design the planned ship.
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Light defense Platform, 10 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Destroyer, 25 RP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slots (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 50 RP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150)
Light Cruiser, 75 RP, 200 CP, 8 ship construction slots (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/150/300) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Heavy Cruiser, 100 RP, 300 CP, 32 ship construction slots (2000-6000 BP, 4500x600-6000x1200 meters) Engines: (2/3/4 gravities) for (300/400/500 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400)
Available Hull Equipment:
These do not count towards hull cramming.
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Void Abacus (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can navigate through the warp slowly, at a rate of 3 systems per action. Requires Abacus Manufacturing technology.
Psychic Shielding (Between 1/10 to 1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, that thinks "no" as hard as possible, answering the question for any warp-corruption for any beings or objects within the hull. HP of the shield is 1 HP per 5 BP spent on it.
Basic Passive Steath Profile (1/5 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has it's sensor profile reduced with special coatings and a shape that reduces the cross-section in response to active sensors. It can reasonably expect to stay hidden at long ranges (outside weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Improved Passive Stealth Profile (1/2 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is heavily dedicated to stealth, with not just coatings and a shape but also significant amounts of sensor bafflers and other passive systems designed to prevent it from being spotted. Should be able to stay hidden at medium ranges (or long weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Advanced Passive Stealth Profile (Doubles base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship tries it's hardest to be a void in space, and so long as it's not moving it generally succeeds. Should be able to stay hidden at close ranges as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Probably not good enough to get into boarding range.
Available Weapons:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Multiple the final weapon cost by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of weapons, it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for final ship cost.
Prow Ram 50 bp. This ship is built to run into things, and hurt them more than it gets hurt.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor. Heavy Plasma Cannon 1000 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Heavy Melta cannon 800 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability. Basic stealth automatically applied. Shuttles 100 BP, 50 CP. 10 Shuttlecraft, combined capacity of 500 lift to or from a planet. Assault Shuttles 150 BP, 50 CP. 10 Assault shuttles, with combined capacity of 1000 troops or 10 tanks in one trip. asic stealth automatically applied.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers. Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched. Large Torpedoes 600 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck cruisers, hurt grand cruisers and make battleships cruisers know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down. Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down. Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Available Equipment:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Low-emission Systems (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has been tuned to reduce overall emissions, making it stealthier. Not stealthy. Stealthier.
Improved Sensors 250 BP - increased size and density of sensors, backed up by the necessary computational support, will make it more difficult for anybody to sneak up on this ship. Excellent Sensors 500 BP - You would say it's impossible to sneak up on a ship with this many sensors, but you saw what the Eldar did, and now it's merely incredibly improbable. Superb Sensors 1000 BP - This ship has enough sensors of enough modalities that it's basically a mobile scientific research platform. Anything weird will get noticed, investigated, and if it's an enemy ship, pinned down.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for tuned shields, so if shields costs 100 bp, then tuned shields cost 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for alloyed armor, so if armor costs 100 bp, then alloyed armor costs 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). Armor is much tougher but is harder to repair.
Light Boarding preparations (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) Bulkheads are reinforced, extra hatches seal all decks and turrets guard key chokepoints, making boarding annoying. Medium Boarding preparations (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) The ship layout is designed to funnel borders into kill-zones in front of armored bunkers, and any borders will take heavy casualties. Heavy Boarding preparations (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship as essentially a flying dungeon, filled with escherian mazes, hidden turrets, crushing-hallways and other deathtraps.
Light Machine Spirit Jammers (1/20 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Enough to cause significant degradation in an enemy ship's sensors, maneuvering and targeting. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Medium Machine Spirit Jammers (1/10 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same as light jammers, plus will also effect total thrust, weapons firing rate. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Heavy Machine Spirit Jammers (1/5 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same effect as medium, but may also effect friend-foe designation and reactor stability. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class.
These do count towards hull cramming.
Troop compartment (50 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 severely injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Cargo Bay (No cost, free. Designate an amount of BP to fill for cramming purposes) Allows transport of an amount of BP equivalent to the cramming amount from one system to another.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost. Can be used to refit the ships as well with a +50% markup. Cannot be used to make new ships, bots, manufactories.
The ways to get new research options are to:
Do research. That'll unlock more research.
Build appropriate installations & potentially acquire samples to research in them (samples could be anything from 'a human' to 'a Norn queen' in rarity).
Ask for them. Often I'll tell you what you need to do to unlock specific research options,
Ship Design
-[] Grand Cruisers (400 RP) Making a ship design that's not spaghetti takes time and effort. It's still boring. But if you want to make queens of the void, its necessary. (unlocks grand cruisers, half of the prereq for battleships)
-[] Medium Defense Platforms (50 RP) You've already got most of the tools you need to build bigger defensive platforms, but these would be a larger platform to stick guns on, with more ability to withstand damage. (Unlocks medium defensive platforms, potential for other void-based installation options)
-[] Improved Engine Designs (150 RP) Based on your understanding of physics and a few old research papers you think you can improve engine reactor thrust velocities. (Enhances ship speeds at every level. Unlocks further speed, maneuverability & stealth technologies)
-[] Streamlined ship design (150 RP) You can improve your tools for ship design to make it easier to design ships in the future. That might be nice (Halves the RP cost to design new ships, may unlock other ship design improvements)
-[] Efficient Equipment Distribution (100 RP) Let's see if you can apply the benefits from weapon packing to equipment (Equipment costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing. Especially effective for cargo holds.)
-[] Extremely Efficient Weapon Distribution (200 RP) You did a good job already in packing more weapons into less space. But you think you see ways to make it even better (Weapons cost at 0.75 for ship capacity packing)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design new iterations of your ship)
-[] Boarding Capabilities (100 RP) Apparently it's common for ships in this day and age to board each other and for the crew to fight hand-to-hand. Instead of, you know, chucking enormous missiles at each other. Insane. Well, it might be a nice capability to have in case you want to capture ships intact. (Unlocks boarding torpedoes, drop pods, and boarding craft for hangers, may combine with stealth research to unlock stealth borders)
-[] Networked missiles (100 RP) The biggest danger to missiles is that they'll get shot down by fighters and point defense. If you can network them together to cooperate against those threats, more of the warheads will reach their targets. (Unlocks new combat equipment to make missiles more effective. May unlock more technology to make missiles smarter, longer ranged and generally more effective)
General Design
-[] Large-scale Void Manufacturing (100 RP) Unlike ground factories, which have to deal with gravity and atmosphere, there's little stopping you from just... scaling up the principles of void manufacturing. Besides the annoying spaghetti of logistics, but that's a solvable problem. (Allows you to design large void manufactories that are more efficient, improves the manufactories on your ships to be 1/5 instead of 1/10 production. Potential for other void-based platform technologies).
-[] Ground Manufactory Efficiency Improvements (50 RP) You dramatically improved the efficiency of your void manufacturing by stripping out the dumb stuff that was required by stellar federation bureaucracy. There's probably some stuff like that in your ground manufactories too. (Reduces the CP cost but not BP cost of your ground manufactories. Unlocks follow-on tech to build ground manufactories in more challenging conditions such as extreme temp/pressure planetoids).
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, dreadnaughts, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Mothballing (50 RP) Keeping a bunch of systems functional and ready requires attention that is swiftly running out. Maybe you can figure out how to spend less attention on things that are mostly inactive (Unlocks the ability to mothball an installation for 10% of it's build cost, free reactivation that takes a few weeks. May unlock techs to allow you to freely turn things on and off, as well as increasing the speed of reactivation enough for you to keep military installations mothballed until they're needed.)
-[] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP) You understand all of the physical parts of an abacus. Now you need to figure out all of the manufacturing techniques needed to actually put one together. (Unlocks the void abacus ship equipment)
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 (200 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 (200 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.) Requires basic active stealth
-[] Basic Ground force stealth (50 RP) Tanks show up pretty well on scanners, and it would be nice to change that. You might also be able to make your bots hide better. (Unlocks new design options for tanks and ground forces that are less obvious. Unlocks further research towards better ground force stealth. Will be able to take advantage of some other stealth technologies.)
-[] 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.)
-[] Basic Active Stealth (75 RP) Just deflecting away and hiding your signature only helps so much. Then next step is to overlay a hologram over your small craft to make them effectively invisible, and even counter passive sensors. It'll still be a hazy outline, but this is the path towards being able to close to actual combat ranges unobserved (Unlocks improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures, though they will be expensive. Unlocks further research for improved active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research.
-[] Examine the Dark Eldar Craft (150 RP) The Dark Eldar boarding craft showed incredible stealth capabilities. If you can figure out how it works that would be a great way to improve your own stealth capabilities (Discounts all stealth technology, may unlock unique stealth research and let you see through Eldar stealth better) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
Shields
-[] Heavy Void shields (150 RP) Your current shields are good, but they could be better. Specifically, you want to make multi-layered shields, which could be applied to anything larger than a destroyer (Unlocks heavy void shields for ships and stations, as well as further research for void shielding improved for recharge speed, layered defenses, etc.)
-[] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (100 RP) Well, the void shields you have are nice. But it would be nice to be able to build bigger ones, that can shrug off essentially any possible orbital bombardment. You need to figure out how to take advantage of the ridiculous energy and heat dissipation capabilities of being on a planet. (Unlocks heavy and super-heavy void shield installations. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding.)
-[] Void Shield Layering (400 RP) If you could layer multiple shields together, then when one failed the second could take damage while the first recharged. Right now there's harmonics that prevent this, but you are sure you can figure it out... with a full redesign. (Unlocks the ability to layer two sets of shields. Will unlock research for more layers of shielding, weirder shapes of shields and other specialty modules)
-[] Void Shield Discounts (300 RP) You have some ideas on how to swap out materials or simplify designs to reduce the costs of void shields. (Reduces the cost of void shields across the board. May lead to new kinds of mundane applications for void shields, such as manufacturing modules, shielded fighters or shuttles)
Materials & Armor
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks. Prerequisite for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Advanced Materials (250 RP) You know there are exotic elements with absurd physical properties. But it's also possible to build absurdly strong materials with common elements. How does that work? Time to dust off some ancient research projects and figure this stuff out. (Unlocks improved armor, as well as research to unlock megastructures. Also required for battleships and larger walkers)
-[] Heavy Armor Production Line (100 RP) You can make Heavy armor, but you solved the problem by effectively making each suit into a custom-crafted suit full of expensive actuators. Maybe a redesign will make it cheap enough to mass-produce, and unlock follow-on research. (Dramatically reduces cost for heavy armor, and subsequent superheavy armor. May unlock more options for heavy armor, including integrated mobility options)
-[] Armor Device Integration (200 RP) Your armor blocks blows, which is its basic purpose. Still, it would be great to be able to integrate different devices into it - void shields, psytech, mobility options like jetpacks, holdout weapons and more. (Unlocks the ability to design specialty types of medium, heavy and superheavy armor that contain additional functions, many of which will be unlocked by other technology.)
Robotics
-[] Avatar self-customization (100 RP) Your previous avatar was capable of changing its appearance at your whim, changing the hair, eye and skim color rapidly. Hair length and body size changes took a bit longer but were also possible. Is this worth figuring out? It might just be you being vain. (Unlocks some disguise-style cybernetics... once you get good cybernetics and can do things like skin/eye replacements).
-[] Improved Armor Articulation (50 RP) From your research on humanizing combat bots you have some ideas about improving the points of articulation on armor to increase the range of motion and make the suits more responsive. (Increased performance & mobility for heavier armor, both for combat bots & people wearing heavy armor you make. May unlock further armor upgrade techs)
-[] Combat Bot Melee Combat (150 RP) Your bots aren't armed for melee combat, and don't really have the articulation for it. If you could fix that, maybe they wouldn't be so vulnerable to close-range combat. (Gives your combat bots melee weapons and basic proficiency with them. Will unlock technology for improved melee proficiency, as well as synergize well and potentially unlock technology for improved melee weaponry.)
-[] Really good Robotics: (600 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
AI research
-[] Intelligence Coding (400 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree, also unlocks personality-checking research)
- [] Personality-Checking Routines (200 RP) All of this chaos-corruption is making you nervous. People changing according to the will of some warp-entity? Becoming different in ways that would disgust their past selves? That gives you the heebee-jeebies. Maybe - just maybe - it would be good to develop some ways to automatically check if aspects of your personality are diverging ways you don't want them to. Then you might be able to fix the problem before you become somebody who doesn't want (Gives you some algorithms to check for personality divergence in AIs. Doesn't do anything, just alerts you to changes and lets you decide what steps to take. Unlocks further research to prevent/rollback personality change, as well as potentially extend this research to humans with neural implants). Locked behind Intelligence Coding.
Psychic Shielding
-[] Better Psychic Shielding Efficiency (200 RP) You've figured out how to make your shielding modular, but each panel is still tricky to make. If you spent some time iterating that design you think you could make them even easier to make, and potentially power powerful (Further Improves the BP/HP ratio for psychic shields, may improve the HP of shielding you can pack into a unit of space.)
-[] Psychic Shielding Reliability (100 RP) Trying to make tripwire-versions of your shielding that could be installed in everything has revealed a weakness - the circuits can spontaneously fail. You fixed that problem by making them tougher, but now they won't always trigger. You're confident you can fix this issue, but it'll require you to make them more failure-proof. On the plus side, this should mean that your psychic shielding can last longer without maintenance. (Makes psychic tripwires more accurate, potentially to the point where it's impossible to corrupt your tech without you knowing about it. Also likely to make your psychic shielding last long time periods without maintenance. Will unlock research to use this on ships, and to make civilian-grade versions that could be put into literally everything).
-[] Small-scale design-integrated psychic shielding (150 RP) You could take this approach a step further, and integrate the psychic shielding into the designs of bots, vehicles and small installations from the start. (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for bots, vehicles and small installations. Will likely improve the quality of shielding available and unlock research for further shielding improvements)
-[] Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (250 RP) Start installing this shielding into hull plates as the norm. Every ship will have psychic shielding (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for all ships and platforms. Will unlock research to make this shielding better)
-[] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP) Your current shielding says "No" at all times, which seems to work against most warp threats. You think you might be able to modify it for a different meaning, which may have different effects. You're not sure exactly what, but you'd kind of like to try "Aboslutely not" or maybe even "You're not real" and see what happens. (Unlocks new types of psychic shielding with different/improved effects, as well as further research into more powerful psychic shielding - some of which may be less "shielding" and more of an offensive weapon.)
-[] Machine Spirit-controlled Psychic Shields (50 RP) You think it's possible to integrate machine spirits into your chaos shielding, which would probably make it more effective in almost every way except cost. (Unlocks new kinds of psychic shielding that are more resistant to damage, potentially self-repairing and more) Requires Machine Spirit Chaos resistance.
-[] Tiny Psychic shielding (400 RP) You were able to make your smaller psychic shielding by stacking the components and using the interference caused to generate the proper effect. However, you don't understand that interference well enough to go any smaller. Once you do, you can start to try to make actually tiny versions of the psychic shielding, small enough to fit in implants, or potentially into totems that project the shielding effect outside of themselves. (Fixes the issues with personal psychic shields, unlocks the ability to create implants with psychic shielding capability and potentially allows you to make amulets with psychic shields. May unlock additional technology to make all of that better.) Requires Triple Nested Psychic shielding
-[] Triple Nested Psychic shielding (200 RP) You've had two shields, yes. What about three? (Allows you to have three layers of shielding active at once. May unlock tech to allow inner shields to boost outer shields to be greater than the sum of their parts)
-[] Multi-meaning shields (300 RP) Your current shields say "No." Other sayings probably exist, and saying multiple things at the same time might have more esoteric effects, such as damaging attackers or defending better against certain types of attacks. Combining multiple of those into one shield could be powerful. (Allows you to combine two shield types together into one shield. May unlock further research for further combination, or to say one meaning EXTRA HARD.) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Scrapcode Denial (400 RP) Scrapcode - and psychic corruption in general - is a difficult opponent. It's hard to enforce mistakes when it can magically see through your defenses. But if you could incorporate psychic encryption into that approach, it becomes viable again. (Makes your shielding Extraordinarily resistant to potentially completely immune to scrapcode-based attacks. Does not apply to machine spirits yet. May unlock technology to apply to other kinds of corruption. Likely synergistic with generating your own scrapcode)
-[] Psychic Shield Tuning (200 RP) Your new scrapcode defenses help against scrapcode, but not necessarily other threats. This research would potentially allow you to tune the capabilities of your shielding on the fly to improve performance against other angles of attack. (Resistance to specific types of attack will improve with exposure, up to a cap. Unlocks more research to allow for more flexible shielding that can target specific weaknesses of various psychic enemies. Synergizes with mutli-meaning shielding.)
-[] Psychic Encryption (150 RP) Warp-based shenanigans can clearly steal information they shouldn't be able to get. You think you have the solution to prevent that, and it's encryption. Modulate your psychic shielding so anything coming through it is so garbled and compressed that it can't be understood even to the most sensitive psychic. (Blocks scrying of information protected by your shielding. Likely unlocks better versions that will defeat more powerful seers, and may unlock specialized research to build installations that will deny scrying and foresight over a larger area - like a system)
The Warp
-[] Teleportation is like skipping a stone (150 RP) Teleporters work by skipping a cargo across the shallow warp, linking two places for a moment. They are limited in many ways. Now that you understand that, you can find the limits to extend range, capacity and think about other ways to utilize the same general idea. (Improves teleporters for boarding, may lead to the ability to directly teleport to planetary surfaces. Unlocks further research for further improving the teleporter, as well as potentially leading to warp portals, which is likely required for webway understanding).
-[] The Taste of Chaos (300 RP) When investigating the stations in Vorthryn, you found a flavor to the warp signatures hanging around the chaos-corrupted stations. If you do more analysis on it, you might be able to discern some filters that can tell you when a signature is chaos-associated or identify active Chaos-cults through sensors alone (Makes your warp sensors more sensitive to Chaos-associated markers. More useful in detecting cults than individuals, though may unlock further research to screen for cultists who have participated in warp-rituals).
-[] Empathy at Range (200 RP) Your warp sensors work well on things that are nearby, but they're definitely not able to detect anything large beyond combat range, or smaller things beyond very close range. Maybe it's a matter of improving sensitivity, maybe you need to specifically build some parts of your psychic shield to extend range. (Makes your warp sensors active at longer range, unlocks further research to pinpoint psychic activities from across the solar system. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication)
-[] Yelling into the Warp (175 RP) If you can receive signals from the warp, how do you send them? It probably involves modulating your psychic shielding somehow. Does that mean a new thought? Probably. (Unlocks the ability to cast signals into the warp, though that may attract attention. May allow you to signal psychically-sensitive allies... or enemies. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Warp Weather Prediction (450 RP) The Warp has been said to have "weather." Well, at least storms. But if you're constantly monitoring the signals from your psychic shielding, you can start to make predictions about what will come. That... might be useful. (Likely to give you advance warning of significant warp-effects, especially warp storms. May unlock further research to improve warp navigation, and if you crit again, a strange kind of warp-based technological foresight.)
-[] A Curio Cabinet of Khornish Cultists (150 RP) You have a haul of items and bodies from the Chaos cult aboard the Auric Burden. Investigate them, and see what you can learn. (Improved knowledge about Chaos Cults. May lead to enhanced detection of Chaos cults & cultists. May lead to some understanding of how to use warp rituals to enhance items. May unlock further research once you have more samples.)
-[] Vortex Weapons (250 RP) When you first read about them vortex weapons sounded... terrifying. Now you're even more scared. Still, that might be a nice thing to have in your arsenal at some point. (Unlocks basic vortex weaponry. Likely further research for larger and smaller vortex weapons). Locked behind High-energy Physics
-[] Reliable Gellar Fields (300 RP) Your gellar field technology is capable, but for something that important you want it to be rock-solid. That'll probably require a full redesign, but having a gellar field that cannot be knocked out with destroying a good chunk of your ship seems like it might be a good investment. (Improves your gellar field technology to make it more reliable and redundant. Will help you resist demonic attacks in the warp.)
-[] Faith is my shield? (75 RP) Clearly the Imperium believes that faith can protect you from warp gribblies. It even seems like it might be true. How? Is there a way you can harness the effect without having to dedicate yourself to the Imperial creed. (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.)
-[] Demonology (150 RP) Demons. They can be summoned, bound and banished. Preferably in that order. How? That knowledge could be powerful... and dangerous. (Allows you to do basic demonology to summon/bind/banish demons. Unlocks further technology around all of that, including potential better protection from demons.) Price will triple without the Scrapcode generator to experiment on.
-[] Immaterium Understanding (225 RP) Anexa believes she understands something fundamental about the warp. Do some experimements to see if she's right. (Further discounts on all warp-related research, potential to unlock a research from farther down a warp research tree while skipping prerequisites) Anexa must work on this action. Guaranteed level(s) for her. Requires Warp Research Lab.
-[] Improved Void Abacus (125 RP) You understand how the Void Abacus works now, and you think you can tweak it to be better. That involves some amount of expanding and improving its connection to the warp though, so you're far from certain (Improves your Void Abacus design to be faster and better at warp jumps, though still inferior to an average navigator. May unlock further optimization of Void Abaci, including for cost/unstable warp jumps).
-[] The Basics of Psychic Computation (400 RP) You have several examples of different kinds of cogitators that interact with the warp in some way. They all share some kind of neural network system, but are very different in other ways. If you can figure out the minimal requirement for something to be psychically active - well. That would have implications. (Improves psychic shielding research, psytech research, some machine spirit research, may improve scrapcode research. Will help genetic manipulation to create psykers. May lead to a research tree to make psychic AIs or implants that grant psychic powers).
Psytech
-[] Help Cia's Training (50 RP) By spending more time with Cia, actively monitoring her use of her powers and providing feedback, you can improve the quality and outcomes of her training (Gives a +10 to any Cia training dice this turn, and may result in new kinds of outcomes. Can be improved by further pyromantic research. Repeatable)
- [] Basic Psychic Amplification Devices (100 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic amplification, but to actually confirm that you need to build one and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic staffs or other personal psychic amplification devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic amplification, as well as larger amplification constructs)
- [] Basic Psychic Suppression Devices (150 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic suppression, but to actually confirm that you need to build some and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic hoods or other personal psychic protective devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic nullification, as well as larger nullification constructs)
-[] Complex Psytech Implants (250 RP) Adapting what you know from organic-machine control implants, you can give a psyker greater control over their implants, in turn allowing you to give psytech implants more capabilities and more power that requires active tuning on the fly. (Improves psytech implants in terms of both precision and raw power.) Requires either Basic Psychic Suppression Devices or Basic Psychic Amplification Devices
- [] Improved Psychic weapons (300 RP) You are starting to understand how force weapons work, but you're far from perfecting them. There's definitely work to be done on the composition of the main weapon, and if you can figure out how to grow crystals into the proper orientation that will help, and the psi-convectors and... well. It's almost easier to list the ways you can't improve them. (Further improves force weapons in every way. Potential to unlock specialized kinds of force weapons, such as versions specialized to fight specific foes and maybe large-scale force weapons such as ship rams).
- [] Psychic Aegis (250 RP) Psychically enhancing a weapon in combat is an obvious application, but the equally-obvious follow-on is enhancing armor. Or shields. Whatever. General defensive measures. It would be significantly more complicated than a simple weapon, and shields are probably the first step. But still - that would be a path to near-invincibility. (Allows you to create force shields and armor. Unlocks further research for improved force armor and other kinds of large-scale defensive psytech).
- [] Psychic Materials (300 RP) Silver. Specific kinds of crystals. Chitin? What unifies those things? What is it that makes them warp-conductive? If you can figure that out, maybe you can start designing new warp-capable materials that are better. (Psytech improvements across the board in terms of new materials, likely follow-on research into specific specialty materials and applications. Will be improved by samples of additional psionically active materials).
- [] Pyromancy Staff (200 RP) Amplifying a specific kind of psyker powers should allow you to amplify them even more. (Allows you to build pyromancy-focused psychic amplifiers, with the most common one being in the shape of a staff. Will unlock further pyromancy-specialized equipment, including larger-scale and more powerful amplifiers that may be relevant in ship combat.)
- [] Improved Pyromantic understanding (300 RP) Cia's eager to delve further into the secrets of pyromancy, and if you tried you could follow along for the ride. Any maybe figure out how to model this specific kind of psychic power. (Improves all pyromancy-focused psytech, improves the Help Cia's Training action and may unlock research towards influencing young psykers towards pyromancy.)
-[] Destructive Scrapcode Investigation (200 RP) Well, if Bongo doesn't want to play ball, maybe you need to go in there and figure out what makes the scrapcode generator tick. Time to bring out the power tools. (Discounts existing scrapcode research, may unlock new research around psytech/psychic shielding. Gives better understanding of Chaos Demons. Destroys the scrapcode generator and likely banishes Bongo back to the warp.)
-[] Scrapcode Generation (400 RP) You have the barest hints as to how you might start generating scrapcode. You need to imbue psychic meaning into code. You're not quite sure how you might go about that, but it's an interesting avenue to chase down. (Unlocks the ability to create and hack with your own brand of scrapcode) Requires psytech past Basic Psychic Amplification Devices, as well as Rapid hacking
Physics
-[] Dark Eldar Weaponry (150 RP) You have a few examples of Dark Eldar weaponry. Some of it just uses esoteric poisons, but other parts seem based on physical princples you can't identify. That's exciting (Unlocks new weapons based on Dark Eldar small-arms weaponry) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
-[] Gravity Weapons (200 RP) You know it's possible to use gravity as a weapon, though it sounds a bit crazy. But still, it might be worth trying? (Unlocks basic graviton weapons for infantry, vehicles and warships, as well as research for more advanced graviton weapons. Half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] The Biggest Boom (150 RP) So. There's no actual upper limit for how big a fusion warhead can get. But it does get more complicated to build bigger and bigger bombs. Let's figure that out. (Unlocks bigger, exterminatus-grade warheads for nukes. The other half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] Superconductive Shenanigans (100 RP) Room-temperature superconductors are a thing. But only kind of, and they still need to be highly pressurized to be stable. You know some people cracked this problem, but they didn't publish on it, which was annoying. But you think you might have an idea how they did it. Figuring it out would be great for manufacturing, and drop costs across the board. (A flat production boost of 5-15% depending on rolls).
-[] Miniaturized antigrav (50 RP) You can make antigrav that reduces the weight of things like shuttles to make them able to make orbit. But there's a floor on how small you can make that technology. The Imperium seems to have solved that. (Unlocks drones, jump-packs etc, as well as additional research to make antigrav vehicles/walkers)
-[] High-energy Physics (300 RP) There's some pretty crazy stuff you can do with physics. Especially when the energy exponents really start getting insane. However, that's going to take a bit of testing - maybe on a planetoid you don't care too much about. Or in space. (The next steps towards bigger, badder weapons, such as fusion beamers, volkite weapons, disintegration weapons. Half of the research for vortex weaponry.) Locked behind a High-Energy Physics Research Lab
-[] Better Sensors are just Physics (200 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). Requires Basic Active Stealth.
-[] Combat Information Gathering (200 RP) Many ship weapons are slow-firing and demand specific responses. If you can tell what an enemy ship is going to do before it does it, that will give you a tactical advantage. (Allows you to detect and decode energy signals to predict enemy ship activities, giving an advantage in combat. Will help more the better your sensors are. Will synergize well with boarding, may unlock targeted-teleportation technology and technology to target weak-points).
Machine Spirits
-[] Machine Spirit Ground Strategy (300 RP) Your bots can coordinate on the small scale, but being able to manage larger battles and fights is beyond them. If you can figure out how to connect individual squad networks together you can improve their performance. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued infantry & vehicle forces over the scale of theaters. Will unlock further technology for improved strategic coordination.)
-[] Machine Spirit Combat Bot Flexibility (250 RP) Your bots can do one thing, and that's win fights with lethal force. If you want them to do things like take captives, or avoid collateral damage, then you're going to need to teach them to do that. (Enables enhanced flexibility of orders for your combat bots. May unlock greater creativity in problem-solving on the part of your combat bots, as well as the capability for the bots to be effective at medicine or other tasks)
-[] Machine Spirit Void Tactics (125 RP) Fighting a ship is a very different thing from fighting on the ground, but many of the principles are similar. Adapt them. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued ships and void fighters. May unlock technology for improved strategic coordination. If you want to point your fleet at a system and say "Conquer it, spare the civilians" this is a good tech to have.) Requires Large-Scale machine spirits
-[] Large-scale Machine spirits (75 RP) As it stands, you can integrate machine spirits into small things. Expanding that to military installations and ships is going to require designing even more complex networks and figuring out how to make them work. With Anexa's insights you think it's eminently possible thought (Unlocks machine-spirit equipped versions of frigate-sized or smaller ships and platforms, as well as most defensive installations. Unlocks more research for machine spirits for larger ships & platforms.)
-[] Independent Manufactories (400 RP) Your manufacturing machine spirits are pretty good at being independent but still require some direction on sourcing materials, and various types of blockages. If you give them more independence then they'd need even less management. But at the same time, building in that much independence would require appropriate safeguards so they didn't go off the rails. (Further reduce CP requirements of machine-spirit manufactories).
-[] Machine Spirit Shipboard Manufactories (75 RP) The constraints on shipboard manufactories make them different enough that you haven't been able to apply the machine spirit technology to them. (Improves the BP produced by the shipboard manufactory equipment, likely by about 20%. May unlock tech allowing better cramming for ship manufactories).
-[] Basic Automated Manufactories (150 RP) If you tool a factory and install a machine spirit optimized to make just one thing, then it can just keep doing it without your oversight. (Unlocks automated ground/orbital/deep space manufactories, which will continue to produce a single kind of product without requiring actions. Will require CP, and cannot make starships or installations. Unlocks further research to increase productivity, and flexibility, remove the CP requirement, as well as allow the automated manufactories to produce ships, installations and eventually megastructures).
-[] Machine Spirit Ship Design Improvements (200 RP) By encouraging creative and complex solutions to problems you can use the design-specialized machine spirits to improve your ship designs in exciting new ways. (Allows you to cram more things into void ships, depending on rolls. May unlock further research to further optimize cramming, as well as discount the absolute cost of various categories of ship components).
-[] Machine Spirit Hallucinations (300 RP) Your new mechine spirits are capable of incredible creativity when you push them to solve impossible problems. A lot of it is silly and impossible, but buried within the morass are occasional nuggets of gold. Every good idea starts as a bad idea, so let's generate more ideas. (Improves the number of RP you get per action, though not by a huge amount. May unlock more research to further improve this number).
-[] Machine Spirit Chaos resistance (75 RP) You think the reason that the machine spirits resist chaos is because they understand their purpose to some extent, and the entire neural network needs to be corrupted to corrupt that purpose, which is harder. There's also emotional simulation that's going on in there. (Improves the basal resistance of machine spirits to chaos corruption. May unlock further technology down this chain, as well as half of the requirements to integrate machine spirits with psychic shielding.)
-[] Psytech Machine spirits (100 RP) You don't think that machine spirits can be psychically active. However, from what you understand of psytech it's a temperamental and difficult discipline, and you think that integrating machine spirits into the construction of psytech might improve its reliability and performance. (Improves psytech, at the cost of making it somewhat more expensive. May lead to more advanced versions for more advanced psytech, and may contribute to better psychic shields)
Biology
-[] Servitorization (50 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Variety is the Spice of Life (50 RP) Your current foray into aquaculture production is fully effective at feeding large numbers of people, but it also makes them try to drink an ocean the first time they eat it. And several times after that. And kind of kills their taste buds toward anything else. Maybe get some other versions of aquaculture working that don't do that? (Fixes the spice problem).
-[] Enhance the Agriculture! (200 RP) 5000 people being fed from one facility sounds like a lot. But it's really not when you start to consider things like star systems. So far you've been playing with the hobby-version of aquaculture. More commercial versions used heavier food-manufacturing systems that are closer to organic printers. They'd probably be much more effective for feeding extremely large numbers of people. (Unlocks blueprints for extremely efficient methods to produce large amounts of food. Unlocks research to install tiny systems that fully substitute food needs, such as installing something onto a spacesuit that fully converts waste into delicious food).
-[] How to Build a Biosphere (100 RP) Back when you were made terraforming was incredibly common, and one of your more common trade goods was terraforming technology. But you're not sure how you would do it - but it wouldn't be that hard to catch up on the literature. (Unlocks blueprints for slow/expensive terraforming, as well as the terraforming tree, which will include research to make terraforming cheaper, faster and applicable to a broader set of planets).
-[] Complex genetic enhancement (150 RP) The complexity of human genetics lies in the epistasis between multiple different alleles. Put more simply, this shit is complicated. Figure it out. (Unlocks more advanced enhancements, including significantly improved strength, intelligence, etc. Unlocks research for even more dramatic engineering, and is likely required to try to make psykers)
-[] Psyker genetics (300 RP) What makes somebody psychic? You have a psyker, and some genetic samples from others acquired from various trips to the monasteries. (Allows you to develop a test to determine psychic ability, though it won't be perfect. Unlocks further technology to improve psychic potential in adults and embryos.)
-[] Understanding Mutations (150 RP) The mutations that occasionally pop up in Denva's population are... weird. Complex, and have bizarre phenotypes. Why? What's causing them? Why are they so hard to treat? Maybe look into that. (Potential cures for more difficult mutations, as well as further research into why they occur, and treating other kinds of genetic deterioration.)
-[] Adult genetic engineering (100 RP) Genetically modifying an adult comes with all sorts of complications. Doing it without killing them or incapacitating them for months is even harder. (Allows your genetic enhancements/therapies to apply to adult humans. Likely required for a full understanding of juvenat.)
-[] Does in vitro have something to do with wine? (100 RP) Unlocks the ability to clone basic humans (Unlocks the cloning bay, as well as further technology to clone things other than baseline humans, like humans without brains for organs or humans with more dramatic genetic mutations. Along with brain implants may lead to personality backups).
-[] The key to Expert surgery is Ego (200 RP) You can do fairly effective surgery, but the most complicated surgeries are beyond you. From all of the literature you have available, to truly break into the next level you merely need confidence. The confidence of somebody who believes they cannot be wrong. (Unlocks further discounts for advanced medical tech, cybernetic augmentations and more. Unlocks very advanced medical care, and further technology for reviving technically-dead bodies and brain transplants).
-[] Physical Apperance is Skin-deep (100 RP) Being able to do surgery on somebody's inside is one thing. But what about their outsides? (Unlocks cosmetic surgery to fix scars, alter appearances and even change skin tones. Unlocks follow-up research to allow you to disguise humans as xenos species whose biology you understand, or vice versa. May discount juvenat research.)
-[] Regeneration is just a matter of applied Growth (400 RP) You can make sure everything lines up properly to stimulate natural growth, but you can't actually accelerate it. Trying is a quick path to cancer and needs to be tweaked for every patient. That's why it wasn't common even in your time. But it should be possible, and you don't have to worry about pharmaceutical patents. (Your medical treatments have vastly accelerated healing timelines. Normally a prereq of juvenat, but in this case will simply have synergy. Unlocks further research for video-game-like med-kits and the ability to give people new organs without surgery)
-[] Drugs? Drugs. (75 RP) Human biochemistry is... weird. You've got a standard list of recipies for basic drugs, but if you wanted to get further into it you could start pulling out some stranger and more illicit ones from your research databanks. (Unlocks a wide variety of drugs for things like interrogation, combat, sedation, etc. May lead to research for things like perfect knockout gas, super-adrenaline, psytech drugs, etc.)
-[] Juvenat Beginnings (400 RP) Ok. Juvenat is complicated. You're able to make it by following a formula that is at times precise, at times general and at times just - what? Maybe start to delve into the science of that. (Unlocks a basic understanding of juvenat, and may make it more efficient to produce. Tech cost will be reduced by other biomedical researchers. The start of the juvenat research tree.)
-[] Navigator Genetics (400 RP) So... you have some navigator genetic material. You can poke at that, see if you can figure out how it works. They had a reputation even back in your day, and it only seems to have gotten worse. Still, tempting. (Unlocks basic understanding of navigator genetics. Will unlock further technology to improve the health of navigators, as well as technology to allow you to clone navigators.) Locked behind Complex genetic enhancement
-[] Navigator Gestation (200 RP) You have a navigator fetus. You don't know what to do with that beyond the obvious. So, how would you do it? Well, you doubt you could just implant it into somebody. From the traces left behind on Klyssar's nest you should do this in a tank. (Allows you to turn the navigator fetus into a navigator baby) Locked behind the Does in vitro have something to do with wine? and maybe a followup tech depending on rolls.
-[] Dubious Dark Eldar Dissections (75 RP) You've got some corpses of Dark Eldar. Time to take them apart and see what you can learn! (Gives you some details on Dark Eldar physiology. May provide bonuses towards psyker genetics, or develop medical techniques, drugs or implants for Eldar)
Cybernetics
-[] Combat Mobility Cybernetics (100 RP) Sticking rockets and grappling hooks into cybernetics isn't just cool. It's also useful - it'll let the wearers utilize more of the strength of their new limb without tearing apart their organic body. It'll also give them new maneuverability options. (Unlocks new parts for augments that enhance the wearer's strength and mobility. Synergizes with other technology, may unlock enhanced mobility for bots & armors)
-[] Combat Neural Implants (25 RP) Allows you to install neural implants to calculate trajectories, assist with aiming, further improve reaction time and generally improve human capabilities in combat. (Unlocks combat-focused neural implants. Will synergize with other cybernetics and neural implant technologies)
-[] Advanced organ replacements (100 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, but not quite. But they can't adjust to shocks in body homeostasis and they do need to be replaced every decade or so. You think you can make them as good or slightly better than the real thing, including the potential to grow with the bearer. (Unlocks organs which actually just replace normal organs almost perfectly. Likely to synergize with other implant/cybernetics/enhancement techs).
-[] Superhuman organ replacements (300 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, and have some useful auxiliary functions. But there's another level of improvement that's possible here. You could make organs that conveyed superhuman characteristics on the wearers. Improved oxygen transfer rate, improved bone density, immunity to most toxins, improved healing rate. (Unlocks advanced organs implants which grant superhuman capabilities. Not quite space-marine-level, but that's the next tech, though these are still artificial). Locked behind Advanced Combat cybernetics.
-[] Companion Cogitators (350 RP) Your implants are good. But they still rely on external computers for any heavy lifting. But with a good deal of work, and some effort at miniaturizing computation, data storage and power units you could fit a full computer into somebody, giving them access to a full suite (Powerful neural implants capable of incredible amounts of data crunching/cryptography, as well as full virtual presences. Further improves Organic-machine control, unlocks very powerful types of implants, including implanted machine spirits, personality-backups and depending on other technology minor AIs).
-[] Mood Regulators (100 RP) Interfacing the implant with the brain's emotional centers will allow it to regulate emotional states. Potentially useful to help the bearer regulate dangerous emotions like fear, lust, anger, greed, sloth, as well as emotional outbursts when such would be dangerous for them. Also potetnialyl useful for interrogation. (Your implants that can help with - or destroy - mental stability. Useful for those engaged with Chaos, and for unstable psykers. May unlock more technology geared towards ensuring a stable mental condition). Locked behind Drugs? Drugs.
-[] Pain Controller (100 RP) Pain is an incredibly deeply seated stimulus, and it's hard to block it without destroying a lot of senses. But if you manage it it could help immesurably with combat implants. (Your implants allow the deadening of pain, allowing people so implanted to fight or last through injuries and other bad feedback).
-[] Advanced Combat cybernetics (150 RP) Your cybernetics can easily contain light and some medium weapons, but they're not really suited to heavy combat. Yet. You could make them tougher, beefier, and figure out how to fit the power sources for larger weapons inside. (Unlocks advanced combat augments. Half of the technology for excellent combat augments, unlocks further cybernetics/research). Locked behind Really good Robotics.
-[] Advanced Cognition Filter (150 RP) Your existing Cognition Filter works very well, but you worry that it's prone to remove important details. It's hard to see how long an enemy's sword is when that sword is covered with Chaotic sigils, for example. Some amount of modelling and virtual reality augmentation could just replace that with an unadorned sword, circumventing the drawbacks of the first-generation cognition filter. (Improves Cognition filters to remove any downsides to filtering out chaotic information from perception.)
-[] Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (400 RP) Chaos corruption is a lot of things. However, it almost certainly involves some amount of neural rewiring to think more Chaotic thoughts. With your neural implants, you believe you might be able to reverse that, using warp sensors to detect combination of memory editing, negative feedback and induced plasticity to undo the Chaotic brain patterns. This is unlikely to return them to how they were before, but it'll give them a chance to be somebody new without demons twisting their brain. (Your brain implants can slowly un-corrupt the mental side of chaos corruption). Requires Companion Cogitators& Understanding Mutations
-[] Improved Organic-Machine control (100 RP) You think you can about double the capacity of the machine-control implants with a full redesign. (Approximately doubles the capacity of organic-machine control, letting a single human command more CP worth of units. Leads to further follow-on improvements.)
-[] Large-Scale organic-machine Control (100 RP) A manufactory is one thing, a shipyard or gas refinery is another. But at this point it's mostly a matter of scale and networking. (Allows OMC implants to control any kind of industrial production, including shipyards and non-military megastructures. Leads to further technology to improve the amount of CP one person can control.)
-[] Human Design Interfaces (200 RP) You've adapted your simulation software to work with advanced neural implants, but what about your design software? If humans could play with your auto-cad as well as you can then that would help you design or even entirely farm out the design of things. (Discounts design options, may unlock technology to improve the RP generated from humans with simulation implants, either per-person or simply raising the cap.)
-[] Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP) Simulation of the organic-machine control interfaces is tricky, but it has some pretty significant benefits. Not only will it make it far easier to train people on how to use the OMC technology, it'll let people virtually fight each other to discover new strategies. Besides, that might be fun. (Dramatically improved OMC competence. This may result in an increase in manufacturing efficiency for OMC-controlled manufactories, and will result in increased effectiveness of OMC-controlled military units.).
-[] Void Organic-Machine control (100 RP) A voidship can be thought of as a living creature, with veins of coolant, a reactor heart and an undying thirst for fuel. How can a single human understand it, much less understand it? (Allows OMC implants to control voidships. Leads to further research to boost CP capacity of OMC specifically for controlling voidships, as well as improvements to allow improved piloting)
-[] Remote Organic-Machine control (50 RP) One of the current limitations of the OMC technology is that it requires the controller to be on-site. But if that wasn't true, then you could imagine truly bloodless wars, or operators living in comfortable cities while they controlled factories in orbit. Something to look into. (Allows OMC implants to control installations or units within the same system. Leads to further research for interoperable units, as well as making it possible for human staff to directly contribute to Vita's CP cap.)
Hacking
-[] Rapid hacking (400RP) You need to figure out a new approach to subverting machine spirits. It might involve some combination of confusing them with a burst of signals, then showing up and 'relieving' the issue. But it would take a lot of trial-and-error to get right. (Improves hacking of imperial tech. Potentially enough for use in combat situations? Will unlock further hacking technology).
-[] Improved Machine-spirit Jamming (300 RP) Well, you can't combine it with hacking, but you can still try to improve what you have to be more efficient, target more machine spirits at a time, etc. (Improves success rate of jamming imperial tech, decreases failure penalties. May unlock further jamming technology)
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 15
-[] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[] Anexa passive action: Exploratory Research - Roll to discount a random tech from one of her specialties. Will receive the specialty bonus, and crits will result in a level and bonus technology. Specialties (3/4): Machine Spirits. The Warp, Cybernetics. Grants a +10 bonus when doing research rolls in the relevant category.
Has a staff of 20 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +400 CP & 20 RP per turn.
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 16
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens.
Cia Steblin,Pyromancer Psyker
Level 10
-[] 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.
Do you provide Quorath with additional resources? (part of plan vote)
-[][Quorath] No
-[][Quorath] Bots (write-in composition)
-[][Quorath] Attack (write in who you attack and with what goal - you won't be able to completely wipe out either faction without a dedicated action, but you can certainly weaken them, though your bots will take casualties in doing so)
-[][Quorath] Goods (Turn the 0.25 BP of progress towards the next manufactory aboard the Auric Burden into 30 BP of any good you think would help)
-[][Quorath] Other (write-in) You can include multiple in your plan. This cannot include anything that would take an action. Only list things you currently have access to.
What does Cia Focus on? (Not part of plan vote)
-[][Cia] Focus Cia will double down on pyromancy. She'll effectively advance a tier, becoming epsilon-scale in pyromancy and capable of channeling it into large destructive effects. Enhances the effect of pyromancy psytech.
-[][Cia] Knowledge (write-in which discipline) Cia will learn a new psyker discipline. Pick between Biomancy, Divination, Telekinesis and Telepathy. Unlocks new research.
-[][Cia] Pragmatism Cia will focus on non-psychic lessons of war & strategy. She can assist with command actions for ground combat, where she will add her level to rolls while still leading from the front. Can be adapted further at level 20 to apply to all combat rolls including space combat.
The dice continue to hate research. And you in general, with that 2? The last 12 research dice have been 28, 1, 33, 33, 60, 17, 39, 30, 75, 14, 34, 9. Literally 2/12 above a 40. This luck has gotta turn at some point.
There was going to be a long drawn-out struggle to root Chaos out of all of the stations and a continual danger of Chaos popping up to take shots at anything you did in Vorthryn and expanding out of it if you ignored the system. Now there isn't any danger of that. You got them all. I won't even roll for them in the future. With respect to the long-term benifits to the system this is definitely better than if you'd swapped the 100 & the 2.
Victan's success at getting information from the Bridgeborn is rolled into the nat 100 action. I wasn't originally going to give him a level off of it, but it's a nat 100. It feels like the sort of thing that spills around. Especially since I didn't make the nat 100 cancel the 2, though that's kind of what the 86 did anyway, though both groups still hate you and will try to mess with anything the enclave does.
I am not letting you interrupt the plan to stay in Vorthryn longer. The situation aboard the Auric Burden is fine. It's not great, but I don't want to get in the habit of completely blowing up your plan in response to a low roll. Things don't always work out. In this case, it's still salvageable without interrupting your timeline, so that's what happened.
Cia's options at level 20 will be similar, and again at 30. Though 30 will probably be even more significant (like bumping her all the way to beta if you go from epsilon to delta at level 20). And don't worry, her prowess with a sword is already baked into her level. She'll get better at that no matter what you choose. Her actions won't change unless you pick Pragmatism, in which case she'll gain the option to assist in a combat operation, which will let her level without risk of perils of the warp. Or Diviner, in which case she'll have the option to do divining to let you replace dice rolls.
There's a lot of options in Calderath. It's not a terrible place to build up independent manufacturing, since there's nobody else to really bump into unless you try and uplift the locals. All indications are that they're very friendly and would be happy to chat, but there's a question of if they have anything to offer. They certainly seem to not have any kind of combustion-powered technology! Then there's the potential underwater palace, which could be a lot of things.
I'd like to try writing another update over the weekend, so let's plan for 28 hours of moratorium and 12 hours of voting?
[x][Cia] Focus
[x] Plan: Beach Episode
-[x][FREE] Refit the 7x manufactories to 7x Machine-spirit Manufactories (630 BP), Outer Hull 232/240 HP -> 240/240 HP (40 BP), Bongo Oubliette 535/540 HP -> 540/540 HP (25 BP), 305 BP left, reinforce the Chaos Artifact cold-storage with as much as possible with the remaining budget.
-[x] Research (295 RP)
--[x] Finish Basic Active Stealth (34 RP)
--[x] Basic Ground force stealth (50 RP)
--[x] Design Specter – Light infiltration bot 88 BP per 1000 (20 RP) (Light (25BP, 10 RP), Humanized (15 BP base), Jammers (10 BP base),[50 BP base] Machine Spirit (+1/2 [25] BP), Stealth (+.25x [13] BP, +1x [10] RP)
---[x] Include Active stealth if possible, budgeting up to 16 additional RP on the design
--[x] How to Build a Biosphere (100 RP)
--[x] Combat Neural Implants (25 RP)
---[x] Anexa Assists
--[x] Intelligence Coding (0 -> 50 RP) + Overflow
-[x] Orders: Operation Quiet Caldera
--[x] Send in a stealth-detachment of infantry bots, fly low and land stealthily. First, the team will establish a safe perimeter at the caldera's rim, scanning for hidden weapon systems or failsafes. Onsite bots will carefully dismantle or neutralize any discovered defenses without triggering alarms, while Vita monitors sensor feeds, remotely hacking system overrides. Once the shuttlepad area is secure, the infantry bots will proceed to the lagoon, where they will subtly map and probe the submerged structure. Throughout the operation, prioritize minimal damage to preserve any artifacts or records; only engage destructive measures if failsafes cannot be bypassed quietly. Cia will be deployed nearby with a detachment of medium and heavy bots if the operation needs to go loud.
--[x] Cia Assigned
-[x] Diplomacy: Introduce yourself to the natives and offer to help them with the fungal problem. See what they need and help build it for them. Short term this is an aid mission, we are helping because we can. Mid term we do want to setup a base on planet somewhere, but aid is not contingent on this. Long term goal is to uplift them and incorporate them into the Ascendency.
--[x] Victan Assigned
-[x] Construction (600 VBP, 500 Lift):
--[x] Build 2x detachments of the new infiltrator (176 BP as written, up to 300 BP if active stealth increases costs)
--[x] Operation Quiet Caldera has resource priority and can pull in another 200 BP as needed
--[x] Remaining BP (currently 424 BP, 100 BP min) to assist locals, default to what they ask for/will solve the problem. If no guidance then:
---[x] Repair the spaceport of 'Stankberg' to make supply delivery easier (50-100 BP)
---[x] Setup a small local hospital (50 BP)
---[x] Repair their comms system (25 BP)
---[x] Build lots of masks and medical supplies for the locales (remaining BP)
---[x] Build some shuttles for their spaceport if we get masks for everyone.
-[x] Free action: Have dinner on a nice beach with your Crew
-[x] [Quorath] Bots (703 Light Machine-spirit humanized infantry bots, 840 Medium Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots, 491 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers, and 143 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots)
The view of Calderath Primus out of the observation bay windows is gorgeous, a blue jewel of shimmering waves speckled with white clouds and draped with the dark spots of islands. It looks like the tropical paradise that it is - though the omnipresent stank of the world mostly isn't visible. The seaweed that causes it is a bit more apparent as faint green shadows dappled across the oceans.
"It's not Oladeer, but it'll do," you say as you turn away from the view to take in your crew. There's still just the three of them, and they all appear to be the same age as they were when they joined you, but they've been seasoned in ways that are hard to capture with mere age.
Anexa is still a beautiful young woman whose augments could be mistaken at a distance for an aggressive overlay of jewelry. The golden filagree reaches down the sides of her neck and follows her collarbone, marking places where she's replaced various bones with additional cogitor units. She's also replaced her hair - it's still the same shining black but flashes an iridescent silver when the light catches it. The primary purpose is as a heat radiator, but you can't knock the aesthetic.
Victan's changes are less obvious, though you know his implants have also been upgraded over the years. His gaze carries weight now, and when he speaks it's with surety and purpose that belongs to somebody much older than his appearance would portray. If you were to boil the change down to a simple word you'd say that he has grown wise, and it's clear to anybody who has a conversation with him.
In contrast, Cia appears almost less physically impressive than she used to be, but that's because she doesn't train for brute strength and the raw bulk that comes with it anymore. Now she trains for speed, endurance, and explosive power, and it has left her muscles less defined. But none of that is noticeable in the face of her burning gaze, which focuses on whatever catches her interest with predatorial intent.
"I find the view more pleasing, knowing that it is a living, breathing world instead of a dead amalgamation of gas and rock floating in the void," Victan answers matter-of-factly, then gestures towards the planet below. "What is our plan for Calderath prime? How will we shape the world to our liking?"
You quirk your lips at his response. "Yes, yes. We'll talk to the locals. Figure out what they need and ask if they need help with the stank issue, see if they know anything that could help us. We might want to build a base here. It would be nice to have permission. And if Denva starts expanding this way then we could set up smooth interactions there."
Victan nods and leans back, looking satisfied.
Your gaze pans to Cia next. "I want into what I can only assume is the sector governor's villa." You'd already included a brief datapacket on your findings that they've seen, but now you pull up a zoomed-in image and mark the extent of the underwater buildings you can find, as well as the shuttlepad and probably defensive installations. "It's luxurious, defended, and probably has something useful in it. We'll try to get in stealthily, but I want you on the planet and ready to bust in if it goes badly."
Cia's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "There's nobody living there? Why should it go badly?"
You respond dryly. "The last time I poked something left behind by Imperial elites when they pulled out of this place there were hundreds of combat servitors, heavy plasma guns and scrapcode being run by our dear Bongo. I don't know what to expect, but I think it's the most likely place for combat. Unless you want to spend your time up here practicing?"
She thinks about it for a second, then shakes her head. "I can use the consideration time." Then she flashes a smile. "And I look forward to having real soil underfoot again. I've always wanted to run on a beach."
"Can I help?" Anexa asks quickly as you turn your attention to her. "With the villa I mean. You want to get in quietly, right? I've been reading about the hacking and want to try it out?"
You shrug. "I won't say you can't, but your focus should be on the research we're planning.
"Terraforming?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
You nod. "I'll be working on that, along with some better stealthtech to be sure that we can get close to the villa unobserved. But I want you working on combat implants. If Victan's getting in a fight - or if you do - then I want you to be at your best."
She frowns but accepts the assignment without overt complaint. You know she understands your reasoning - she's more experienced in implants than she is in biology, though you're not surprised that she's more excited to figure out how to alter the biosphere of a planet than she is in figuring out how to make neural implants calculate impact trajectories for firearms.
After the meeting, you dive immediately into the first piece of prepwork you have - which is improving your stealth technology. You've still got the Drukhari objects burning a hole in one of your vaults, but you aren't looking at those yet. If you're operating on the level of figuring out how internal combustion works those things are rocket engines headed for the next planet over.
Still, you saw how they disrupted your sensors, and you want that. The ability to use active projection of signals to mess with sensor technology isn't new, but seeing it applied gives you a goal to aim for. From that point on the problem is mostly signal processing. If you have incoming radar or lidar that's trying to reflect off of you to reveal your position, then you can detect what's hitting you and send back a signal that destructively interferes with the return signal to prevent you from being noticed.
It's never going to be perfect because EM reflection from a complex object is a chaotic solution space, but even a simple approximation of the solution should let you reduce the signal return dramatically. And seeing how it's done also gives you some ideas on how to counter it in your next round of sensor technology.
The second problem is of course generating the appropriate signal - but of course, there's already technology for this. You can build pretty good hologram projectors but that's not quite what you need here. Still, the principles are close enough - and the signal strengths are much weaker because the signals you need to generate are so small. You go through a few rounds of design, miniaturizing it again and again because you keep building something that's just stronger than what you need. Still, along the way you come up with several designs that would probably be sufficient to project an actual hologram over the surface of your units to make them harder to spot with the naked eye.
But that's not what you're going for right now. Eventually, you decide enough is enough and take your most recent design as the final version. At its smallest, it's about the size of a thumbnail and needs to be mounted semi-regularly over the surface of any given design. The tricky part is that the system needs to be calibrated depending on the sensor profile of the unit it's going to be mounted to, which you measure anyway as part of applying basic stealth to a unit.
Researched Basic Active Stealth, 94+20 = 114 Critical success! The Basic Stealth blueprint modification now includes active stealth. Unlocked new technology - Improved Active stealth (150 RP)
Unlocked bonus technology - Optical Camouflage (300 RP)
Finished prereqs for Better Sensors are just Physics & Active Spaceship Stealth
Discounted existing technology - Active Spaceship Stealth cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Low-Emission equipment cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Better Sensors are just Physics cost reduced by 50 RP
The next step - which you've been working on in parallel by making the projectors so small - is to make all of your stealth capabilities apply to your ground units, and your combat bots specifically. This mostly means figuring out how signals reflect from the small and complex surfaces of bots and vehicles, but that's something you solve pretty trivial with copious simulations and having a few of your bots obediently step into a box that bathes them with various wavelengths and measures the reflections with exquisite suites of sensors.
Then you tune your previous models to work with them. You'd been expecting some sort of hiccup in the process, but there wasn't any.
Researched Ground force Stealth, 55+20 = 75. Good success. The Basic Stealth blueprint modification now can be applied to combat bots & vehicles. The cost is 0.5x base BP cost for bots, 0.25x base BP for vehicles. Unlocked new technology - Ground force stealth standardization (150 RP)
With that done it's time to whip up a design using your new capabilities, and you put together a light bot type that's equipped with the new capabilities, as well as upgrade your existing stealth shuttles with the new technology.
Designed Specter (100 BP, 20 CP). 1000 infiltration bots, light arms and armor intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine-spirits, equipped with machine-spirit jamming, and are both passively and actively stealthy.
Constructed 2000 Specters.
You also take the moment of attention to make some revisions to your internal structure, upgrading your internal manufactories, finishing the psychic shielding repairs and building a small psychic shield around the vault holding the chaos artifacts and corpses you recovered from the Auric Burden.
Manufactories replaced with Machine-spirit Manufactories.
Outer Hull 240 HP
Bongo Oubliette 540 HP
Secondary Vault built - 50 HP
Meanwhile, you and Cia have been planning your approach to the volcano lair. You've started referring to it as the "lair" instead of "villa" because - well, it's in a volcano. And it belongs to somebody powerful and reclusive and probably evil. Maybe not explicitly a villain, but close enough that you're comfortable with the label.
It's hard to sneak up on something surrounded by the open ocean, but you're pretty sure there's a blindspot off a promontory that sticks out into the ocean. The terrain is rough there, but if you can establish a foothold you can work your way in from there.
Cia's watching alongside you through your implants as the shuttles scream in low over the water towards the island. There are definitely active sensors over there trying to ping anything approaching, but the new stealth capabilities and the low approach are sufficient to avoid attention, and a trio of shuttles deposits hundreds of Specters directly onto the beach before they turn around and leave the same way they approached.
The bots start working their way into the jungle, scaling the rough terrain and triangulating in on the sensor platform looking out over this stretch of the island. They find it atop the nearby cliff a few days later, masterfully camouflaged inside a large rock.
You need to disable the sensor system, but you want to avoid setting off any alarms when you do so. You dutifully tap Anexa to watch your attempt to hack into the relay and disable it without the central security system knowing. You're worried that you're going to make a mistake while she's watching and embarrass yourself, but the process goes smoothly and you succeed in making it seem like the system is still online even after you power it down.
The process wasn't too fast though, and there are more systems out there covering the long climb up the volcano and down the far side. You're also pretty sure there are anti-orbital guns in there, so you've avoided coming into their arc after your initial scan. It would be nice to have those offline, and your bots should be capable of it.
Still, this beach is safe enough, and soon enough more shuttles make slightly higher and safer approaches to unload more bots and gear to support them. Cia also disembarks, fully clad in her armor. She looks around at the idyllic beach and tropical jungle. "Wow, this place is gorgeous. Shame about the stank."
"Can you smell it through your armor?" You ask, worried all of a sudden. You're pretty sure you can treat the lung damage it causes, but it should't be able to penetrate the seals on her armor.
"No," she replies quickly to soothe your anxiety. "I just want to smell the beach, and the ocean."
"Oh. Ok." You withdraw your attention as she directs construction bots to start setting up her lodgings as the Spectors slowly work their way through the steep jungles high above.
Cia's mention of the stank has reminded you of the other thing you meant to do, and that's looking into geoengineering. Or at least climate engineering. Nearly every habitable world has been altered in some way, either intentionally or unintentionally. In your time it was par for the course for newly discovered planets to be terraformed to be habitable, though such processes could take hundreds of years.
You'd even carried the gear for it a time or two, though you hadn't been too interested in the process at the time. But now it's time to fix that, and you dive into the literature on the subject.
Your first lesson is that planets are big. Which is kind of obvious - it's a planet. But often when you think of terraforming the things you want to change are the temperature, atmosphere, and life on the planet. And it's easy to think about the atmosphere as a thin layer over the surface of a planet. But that's deceiving. The atmosphere covers the entire surface area and is about a hundred miles deep. Even if it's just gas, that adds up. Changing the composition of a normal planet's atmosphere by one percent means adding or removing about 5*10^16 kilograms, which for a more normal terrestrial planet is fifty times the amount of mass of all biomass on that planet.
Not so true here, what with all the seaweed everywhere. But Calderath is an exception in a few ways.
Usually, the most effective way to interface with a planet is with relatively small changes that have outsized effects. To warm or cool a planet the best method is to change how it absorbs or reflects light from space - most simply by spreading aerosolized nanoparticles through the upper atmosphere to reflect visible light back into space if you want cooling or infrared light back towards the ground if you want heating.
After that, it's all biology, since the best, and essentially only, way to change a planet's chemistry is with self-replicating systems that are effectively chemical factories. You start with a suite of microbes engineered for the task at hand, then add larger and more complex life as the conditions change and before you know it you end up with a living, breathing world that's ready for settlers.
Of course, Calderath is already livable, it's just got a minor issue with overabundant seaweed whose natural decay is throwing everything out of wack. The solution is probably to engineer a microbe that shortcuts the process somehow, and you see a few references in the literature to some similar ocean-biomass modifications, though usually those were geared to add biomass to the ocean, and the research was focused on preventing this kind of issue.
You spend some more time reading about ocean chemical cycles, and come up with a potential solution. You need to sink the seaweed, bury it in the ocean sediment so its not actively being degraded. Over millennia it'll turn to coal and then oil, but that's not the point, you just need it to stop decaying now. One path to do that would be to make a microbe that could anaerobically degrade the seaweed, focused not on perfect recycling but rather on breaking up and sinking most of it. If the process works you could release it to spread on its own, and the world could be livable again in as soon as twenty years. If it all works.
Or you could just build a bunch of ships that do the same process manually - which would be less risky but slower.
Researched How to Build a Biosphere - 35+20=55. Success. You'll have some idea of how to improve the livability of various worlds you run across with basic methods. Nothing radical yet, but any planet you run into you can do a project to tune temperature and basic chemistry. Unlocked new research - Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (150 RP)
Unlocked new research - MICROBES: Miniaturized climate regulatory and optimized biogeochemical engineering symbionts (250 RP)
Unlocked new research - Temperature? Let's talk Albedo (150 RP)
Unlocked new research - Habitation Requires Correct Ingredients (200 RP)
Unlocked new research - Bootstrapping a magnetic field (200 RP) Requires gravity weapons & Advanced Materials. Unlocked new blueprint - Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP, 10 CP)
Unlocked new blueprint - Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP)
However, whether you will actually go to those efforts is to some extant dependent on the opinions of the locals. They certainly seem friendly though all of the surveillance you can do, and you're not detecting any warp signatures that would indicate an active chaos cult or anything.
"Think we should just pop down and introduce ourselves?" you ask Victan one afternoon, perusing the stack of data you've accumulated on Stankberg.
Victan shrugs. "Yes? We don't even need to play the 'ancient' card. We can just say space travelers and it's probably all the same to them. I don't see reason for much subterfuge here. We're from space and we'd like to help them out.
"Ok. But you're not in the first shuttle down. Or even the third. I'll send my older avatar. It's more expendable."
He smiles wryly. "I don't think they have orbital weaponry. This should be a tad safer than going to do diplomacy with a convent full of Sororitas. But I won't push on this."
After that little chat you send a shuttle down the the planet. It's got some humanized combat bots aboard but most of the cargo is you and a box of masks as an introductory gift.
You choose a slow day and land on the outskirts of town, quickly gathering a crowd of excited and curious locals. It's hard to read their exact expressions through their masks, but they seem to be very emotive with their hands and the amount of wild gesticulation suggests that this is the most exciting thing to happen all year.
The ramp drops and your older woman avatar walks out, already dressed in a mask. The avatar doesn't need it, but if you don't have it they'll think you're crazy.
The crowd quiets down a bit as you walk out, though the rapid gesticulation continues. Then an elderly man steps out of the crowd and addresses you in a slow and slurred version of low gothic. "Y'all'd be from space, wouldn't ya. Watcha come hereabouts for?"
You blink at him and respond slowly yourself, enunciating carefully to be sure everything gets through the mask. "I'm travelling by, and can't help but notice you're having some trouble." You spread your hands wide, showing that they're empty. "Can I help? I have boxes of masks and can help you repair other things."
The man squints at you suspiciously. "What'd'ya be wantin' for all that?"
"To know I helped fellow humans. The right to build a base somewhere on the planet. Good relations with others in the sector."
He studies you for a second longer, then gives a decisive nod. "If'n you'd be wantin' the council to distribute the goods I'd hold onto um' a sec. Otherwise ya can just pile 'em out here and they'd be appreciated."
You take a second to parse that and then shrug and gesture for your bots to carry your welcoming gifts down onto the ground, throwing open the lids to reveal stacked piles of masks. Thousands of them, made with advanced materials science to block out the stank without overly hindering breathing.
The people of Stankberg meander forward in an anarchic mass once your bots withdraw, reaching into the boxes and picking out the masks. You note that nobody grabs more than a few, though a middle-aged woman with a baby in a sling counts out nine and then hustles away. Few try them out, though some of the teenagers do fairly quickly, making a show of holding their breath while they get the new masks snug across their faces and then exclaiming at how easy it is to breathe.
The elderly man watches the whole process, even as somebody hands him a mask. He feels it between his fingers and brings it up to his eyes to study it, then looks back to you and gives you an approving nod. "I'd be named Old Pete. You'all'd be wanted a tour?"
You give an uncertain nod and he turns and limps away, gesturing for you to follow. A few more older people who appear to be part of this "council" drift up in the next half-hour and you're introduced. None of them have titles, and instead they all introduce themselves with familiar-sounding nicknames like "Fisher Martha" and "Weaver Bill." They allow Old Pete to take the lead, but you can feel their weighty stares judging you quickly.
Over the next few hours, you and a few of your combat bots you'd brought along as bodyguards are given a fairly thorough tour of Stankberg. You see the old spaceport, the water purification center, the docks, the refrigerated warehouse that failed two decades ago, and the old spaceport. It takes you longer than it should to realize that he's highlighting the areas of the town that need improvement and repairs, and you're quick to suggest that you might be able to help with all of those and suggest that you could set up a more modern hospital as well as repairing the comms system so they could speak to anybody in orbit.
That seems to earn their approval, and they bid you a fond farewell when you move back to the shuttle. Old Pete gives you a firm handshake and makes eye contact. "I reckon you'd be welcome to set up on one of the other islands. We'd welcome somebody else around, if'n they were you."
Vitan seems pleased with the whole affair, speaking to your green-haired avatar in the conference room as you look at a holographic model of the city. "Not cultists, then."
You shake your head. "I got a thorough tour. If there are cultists then they'd hide it from each other too. I'm surprised by how friendly they are."
He shrugs. "They're limited by labor, not so much resources. They're encouraged to cooperate, and everything I've been reviewing from the local databases suggests that they were always a friendly place. The tithe was lower here than it should have been."
"The governer's villa, you think?"
"Maybe," he replies uncertainly. "I'm dying to know what we find in there."
You chuckle. "I hope not. But let's make true on our promises. I'll send the first-contact avatar again the first time we deliver substantial aid, and if that goes well you can take over. Keep the combat bots with you, I don't want you getting held ransom or anything ridiculous."
He snorts and replies in the tone you use for an overly protective parent. "Yes Vita."
You roll your eyes but lower the amount of attention you're paying to the Stankberg situation. They're a local population that knows how to live and operate on the planet but there's only a million or so of them, and from you can see it's going to be a while until they're relevant on the interstellar scale.
You turn your attention back to the volcano infiltration and are pleased to see that your forces have made rapid progress. The terrain is steep and the defenses paranoid, but careful piloting of stealth bots over a long period of time is the perfect solution to this kind of unmanned defense. Between you and Anexa you've successfully prevented any of the defenses from sending out an alert, and to the central system, it still looks like everything is normal.
Cia on the other hand is very much enjoying her vacation. She's figured out how to rig a smaller rebreather so she can explore the pristine natural beauty without her full armor, and has been badgering all of you to come down and enjoy it yourself.
Your response has so far been "Maybe when we capture the villa." Which looks like it might not be too far off. You've recently captured about a third of the circular ridge around the caldera and your bots have started to make their descent. There aren't very many sensors or defenses that could hinder your bots in here since most of the anti-personnel systems are outside the defenses. What's inside is the anti-orbital defenses, including a hidden void shield. At full power these defenses are tough, and you're glad you're not assaulting it in the open.
Not that I expect it to be incredibly well-defended given that it's unoccupied, but even so. This wouldn't be a bad place to build my own base.
Nonetheless, you move carefully until your bots reach the beach on the far side. You consider trying to get into the base by going underwater, but the easier entry is probably just the main entrance near the shuttle landing pad. It's well-defended, but a careful approach and systematic hacking neutralize the automated systems. In a tense series of parallel hacks, you and Anexa work your way into the systems on the entrance and disable the monitoring software while opening the doors. Then the bots go in.
Cia's on alert nearby with a contingent of heavier bots, ready to make a hot entrance if it's needed, but you don't think it will be. The first thing your bots see is a palatial entrance hall clearly designed to dazzle anybody who enters with the underground display of glamour and elegance. But it's all dark, without any signs of occupation. The surfaces of the entrance hall shine in the light from the open front door, the spotless wooden floors gleaming dully as your bots step forward on metallic feet.
Those scouts move on quiet feet through the halls, their darkened frames blending into the blackness even as night vision lets them see clearly. The villa branches out into a dizzying array of corridors, passages and rooms, everything as opulently decorated as that entrance foyer. You start your bots moving more quickly, scanning every room and moving onto the next.
It's right as you see a glimmer of blue light up ahead that Cia sends a message through the link she shares with Anexa and yourself, a feeling of uncertainty and suspicion coming along with the message.
> (Cia) Why is everything so clean? If it's been abandoned for a hundred years shouldn't there be dust everywhere? [Concerned]
You realize she's right. Something's keeping this place clean. You slow your bots down and have them move carefully and quietly. It slows you down, but here at the finish line you can tolerate a small delay. You notice that Cia's begun moving forward and you almost scold her for it, but in the end decide against it. She's not a child, and you need to trust her.
Moments later one of your forward bots enters the part of the villa that's underneath the lagoon proper. The ceiling is made of glass and vibrant blue light filters in from up above while the water all around is alive with vibrant fish swimming through patterned coral.
The room itself is set up as a kind of small theater, with a bar off to one side and a stage at the other. But moving among the overstuffed couches that form the seating is a maid, carefully dusting each of the seats in turn. She's dressed in a tight maid costume, with a half-apron, knee-length dress and frilled headpiece.
You hesitate at the anachronistic sight, trying to work out exactly what's going on here. At that moment the maid catches sight of your bot - which is clearly illuminated by the light filtering down from above.
She drops the duster and pulls a long knife from between her breasts, screeching wordlessly and charging at the bot. It shoots her, and she falls lifeless to the ground.
There's a moment of frozen silence, and you consult with your crew.
> (Vita) Made contact inside the villa. Do we go all-in? Or keep it quiet? [Uncertain]
> (Anexa) Go go go. They probably heard that and are setting up their response. That might include a self-destruct. [Excited]
> (Cia) I concur. Entering. Set all bots to aggressive, and watch them to make sure they don't shoot anything important. [Focused]
All of your bots break into a sprint, trying to get deeper into the villa before the enemy can fully realize they're under attack. You quickly run into more people dressed like servants, going about general maintenance on the manor. There aren't many of them but to a one they attempt to attack your bots, even when it's clearly suicidal to do so.
The resistance is light for a little while until it very much isn't. The locals have realized they're under attack and opened their armory, picking the positions with the perfection of people defending familiar terrain. You're still facing butlers and maids, but now they're dressed in flak armor and wielding weapons that any guardsman would be proud to carry.
Victan calls for them to surrender multiple times but each and every time is met with wordless screeches of denial. Then Cia hits the frontline with her armored bots. She hurls a ball of psychic flame at the defenders, breaking through the makeshift line of defense, and is among them in moments, her blade carving a path deeper while the medium bots fill in behind her. They're heavily armored enough to survive most hits, and the enemy defenses fall apart. But they don't run.
The strongest defenses are around what must be the command center, and a bevy of serious servants are clustered around a few of the channels, chanting hymns as they wait for the cogitator to process the command. Cia cuts them apart and then plugs a remote access cable into the console, giving you direct access to the system. They were trying to set every system to maximum aggressiveness, and rousing the machine spirit of the reactor. You don't think they could have triggered a self-destruct, but now that you have direct access you can ensure that the machine-spirit stays quiescent and doesn't consider detonating the whole villa with one of your crew inside.
You're trying to take captives, but they're unwilling to surrender and your bots aren't programmed for nonlethal takedowns. In at least one case Cia cuts the weapon out of somebody's hand and then backhands them to lie moaning on the ground. But when you direct a few bots to attempt to take them prisoner they draw a knife and cut their own throat.
In short order, Cia breaches the last defenses and finds the servants quarters - and it's a scene of bloodshed. A woman stands before an altar and stabs herself in the heart while mouthing prayers, and behind her dozens more people of all ages are kneeling, heads against the floor as if in prayer. But the spreading pools of red around them tell the true story.
Cia blinks at the scene and sighs. "Fanatics. Of the emperor this time. But damn if it doesn't remind me of the cultists."
It takes nearly half a day more to root out all of the servants, who perish to a one by their own hand or by the guns of your bots. But finally, the villa is yours, and what a place it is. A sprawling complex of luxurious rooms capable of sleeping hundreds in the highest opulence and many more in slightly less luxurious settings, it is geared to receive the governor and an enormous entourage without warning. There are a dazzling array of amenities provided, from the glorious beaches to hot mud baths to a plethora of sex dungeons and other, variably lurid entertainments.
Still, what you're most interested in aren't the luxuries, as revealing as they are of the Governer's taste - and that of his ancestors, if you're reading the names on the portraits correctly. No, what you're after are some of the rarer valuables and eccentricities scattered about, which have all escaped the fighting untouched.
The first piece of loot is in the very sanctum where most of the local death-cult-slash-servants killed themselves. Above the altar, placed in a place of pride where every worshiper can see it, is a skeletal hand.
You'd be very confused by that, but the inscription underneath is it very clear. This is the hand of Saint Agatha, the Saint of Burning Tears - and a hundred other titles, as the writings all around the temple indicate.
Isn't that the one the Sororitas had a connection to?
You'd be tempted to dismiss it as some kind of weird relic worship and not very relevant - but the warp sensors on Cia's armor indicate it's got a warp signature. One that's very different from the ones you've seen from Chaos. Strange.
Acquired the Hand of Saint Agatha. To investigate it, research Faith is My Shield?
Second loot roll - 2. Wealth.
The next most obvious place to check is the obvious vault off of the governor's own personal quarters. To your mild dismay, they're full of money. A lot of money, in the local currency. It's a kind of smooth gold-plated coin called an Aquila, and the vault is literally piled with them. There's also a heated tub full of them, in case the governor ever wanted to swim in money. There are other valuables of course, from artworks to rare spirits. Altogether it's not inherently useful to you, but a massive pile of treasure tends to be a useful bargaining chip, so you transfer it up to the ship.
The rest of the villa is depressingly empty until you follow the map to a place simply called the Hall of Wonders. It's a cavernous open room full of various oddities and pecuilarities. None of it strikes you as especially rare - most of it looks to be occupied by taxidermied hunting trophies or fossils or beautiful gems. There's a random tank sitting in the middle of the hall.
But at the far end of the hall raised above everything else, is clearly the place where the true treasures are kept. There are three exhibits. The first is labeled as "Collection of Xenos artifacts known as spirit stones. Known to contain their filthy souls. Confiscated from Guardsman after the battle of Ayltryn."
The display case is empty, without a trace of anything inside. You have a bot physically open the case and ensure that yes, there is in fact nothing there.
Well, that's unfortunate.
Third & Fifth loot roll - 1, 1. Risky but high-potential.
The next section occupies the back wall, and at first, it looks like a bunch of metallic humanoid skeletons each in their own separate cases. Their arms are crossed in front of them and they appear to be completely inert. But the proportions are wrong for a human, and the metal is more of a full body than a ribcage. Their surfaces are etched with intricate sigils, and a quick spectroscopic analysis confirms that this isn't a metal you've run into before.
The description simply says. "Ancient Xenos Warbots from beyond the expansion of Humanity beyond holy Terra. Purchased from a Rogue Trader Factor in Red Harbor."
Still, something about them is unsettling, and you wouldn't be surprised if the bots came to life unprompted. You'll need to be careful of this.
Vote below on what to do with the necrons.
Third/fifth loot roll - 6. Priceless.
And finally, resting in a place of pride under a dozen spotlights, is a twisted fragment of golden metal. It's about the size of a human's spread hand and looks like it was shattered from something larger under extreme force. There once may have been decoration to it, but the violence of whatever ripped it from the larger chunk has rendered it useless.
The inscription is simple. "Fragment of the Emperor's Armor."
Cia's been drawn to this room, and she looks down on it. "I can feel it. It's... singing to me."
You can feel it too, through the warp sensors on her armor. You wouldn't say "singing," but you can see how she got there. It's certainly resonant with psychic energies, and you're curious to investigate something totally beyond your experience.
Unlocked new research option - The Golden Metal (200 RP)
With that, you believe you've stripped the villa bare of most things that interest you, though you make sure to grab an array of spirits and other luxuries for your crew. No reason for them to go to waste, after all. Still, the base is nearly untouched and still protected by powerful defenses, including a solid void shield, anti-orbital lances, and strong ground defenses you could reactivate with the push of a button under your control. It wouldn't be a bad place to build a base of your own.
It's definitely a good place for a bit of a vacation, and you bring all of your crew down for a day on the villa's primary beach. It's a stunning place, with the high volcano all around but an uninterrupted splash of waves from the tunnel directly opposite the beach. Truly idyllic.
A few tech-priests join in the fun, but most complain about sand, and its coarseness and tendency to get everywhere. So it's just you and your crew, lounging in the sun. You're the only one not wearing a mask, and you have to admit that it seems to be a bit of a downer to try to enjoy yourself here with the constant reminder that unfiltered air would be dangerous, along with the everpresent stink that's almost impossible to completely filter out.
Still, everybody's in a good mood, and you talk about the events of the past few years.
Victan's solidified a friendship with Stankberg. They don't do formal treaties, since everything's based on consensus and collaboration. Their council doesn't have any real power, but they're recognized as the wisest people around so people will usually do what they say, unless they disagree with it.
You had wanted to try to get them to expand across their planet again. Your plan was to offer to make them shuttles, but after a bit of negotiation they rejected the offer and asked for more ocean-going instead. It took you a little while to accept their viewpoint - but they're more comfortable with ships and are better at operating and maintaining them. Besides, they've got a limited number of decently built hulls and adding more both helps them acquire more resources and is actually the bottleneck on Stankberg's expansion. It's yet to see if it happens, but there's certainly more chance of it than there was before you built more ships for them.
Then there's the thousands and thousands of masks you've dropped off, which have eased the most challenging task of Stankberg's society, and already there's been a population boom as people do other things with their time, confident that there will be enough masks to go around.
Between the ships, the masks and the repairs to their docks, the refrigeration unit on the warehouse, the spaceport, and the comms system you've amassed a massive amount of social credit with them. It would be possible to make a pretty strong suggestion and have it listened to carefully. They wouldn't accept it unless they thought it was a good idea, but you've clearly got their best interests in mind so they're willing to go out on a branch.
Stankberg Diplomacy - 88+26 = 114. Critical success! +1 Victan level.
Vote below on any suggestion you have for Stankberg.
When it comes time for Anexa to report on her research she looks down and kicks at the sand with a bare foot. "Ah, yeah. It - didn't work. The computational requirements were too much."
You raise an eyebrow at her. That's partially correct. What she's leaving out is that the reason it didn't work is that she spent too much of her time on the infiltration of the manor, helping you with the hacking. You didn't say anything at the time because she was genuinely useful and you thought that she was making fine progress and would be able to finish it later. But then she hit a stumbling block and didn't have time to recover, and now you're here.
"The issue is that it's too computationally heavy, and I was providing too much information. Wind speed, trajectories of all possible projectiles, options for melee combat... too many features. We need to scrap it, then sit down and figure out what is actually important for these kinds of implants," Anexa explains, then shrugs. "It's a bigger problem than I thought, is all."
Researched Combat Neural Implants - 1+ 30 = 31. Failure. You do not get combat neural implants. The tech remains on the tree and now costs +25 RP.
You all enjoy another few days in the sun before you get an alert that somebody has jumped into the system from the direction of Aestron, in sub-sector Tiràn
Does anybody visit? - rolled a 9.
Sensor readings - rolled a 50. Success!
It's a moderately-sized ship, about the size of an Imperial Frigate. But from what you're seeing it's much cruder. The ship has a face, and it's a grinning mass of teeth that would do fairly well in a ramming operation. The rest of it isn't much better. When people say "rustbucket" they're usually talking metaphorically. For this ship it's literal. Most of it seems to be made of rust, and you wouldn't be surprised if more than a few buckets were involved in the construction of that ungodly heap of scrap.
Still, it's enough for you to know what's going on. That's an orkish scouting craft heading towards the planet, and you need to decide what to do about it.
Vote below for how to respond to the orkish ship.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 1,780/12,900
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 600
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 240/240 HP, Vita Core 135 HP, Crew Quarters 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 41/??? Represented as approximate damage potential.
Juvenat usage: 3/50 people's worth (cannot be stockpiled)
Shipbuilding capacity: 0 ship construction slots (treat it as capacity. You can only be building ships that fit within your construction slots)
Available ships: none, beyond your flagship.
Available ground forces:
1589 Specter Light infiltration bots (2x20 = 40 CP)
2000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (2x20 = 40 CP)
2000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (2x20 = 60 CP) CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. Khornish Cultist corpses & artifacts. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governer's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots (pending vote). A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor.
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular. Don't do this just because it's free. Do it if you want to know something. Writing those sections delays the updates. If you want Vita to get more done, don't ask for this.
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
[] Travel/Explore: Pick a system on the Map to travel to/explore. Currently, you may travel 1 system as part of an explore action, or 3 systems if you don't explore. You can explore a place you've already explored, or focus your exploration on a specific feature of a place you've already explored. Or explore two systems next turn and then the turn after go back for specific POIs without costing an action. Jumping a single system over as part of an exploration action is free, a number which will increase with better navigation.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method)
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what you spend them on.
Installations
Installation default is to be built in full view. Basic stealth (building under cover, sensor-absorbing materials) can be applied with 2x BP cost. Ground-based installations can be built entirely underground for 3x BP cost.
For non-military installations, you can upgrade them with psychic shielding by spending extra BP up to the 2x the base cost of the installation. The more you spend, the stronger the shielding will be.
Basic Biology Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic biological samples, such as flora & fauna. Or captives.
Basic Technological Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic technological samples, to understand their electronics, materials, etc.
Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab (200 BP, 50 CP) Will allow for safer experimentation with psytech and general psyker powers, at the very least confining the damage from perils of the warp. Can be outfitted with inwards-facing psychic shielding.
High-Energy Physics Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Will allow you to conduct research on more... excitable branches of physics. Maybe don't put it close to anything you want to keep. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place)
Warp Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Anexa's brainchild. Half mad science lair, half sensible warp research setup. Will allow you to conduct research on the warp, miniature portal generator and all. Will likely help contain poor results, though maybe give it some psychic shielding. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place in addition to any psychic shielding you add.)
Captive Holding cells (25 BP, 10 CP) will allow you to hold 500 captives and keep them fed and watered while you interrogate/indoctrinate/talk to them.
Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP) 50 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Directional-control Radio tower (25 BP, 5 CP) improves signal reception quality and allows you to send your own signals across the planet, as well as giving you the capability to bounce them off the atmosphere to disguise their origin.
Observatory (100 BP, 25 CP) Built on a nearby mountain. Will unlock research projects to map the current system.
Manufactory (100 BP, 50 CP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity.
Machine Spirit Manufactory (120 BP, 20 CP) As a manufactory, but controlled primarily by machine spirits. +60 ground-based build capacity.
Industrial Aquaculture Plant (50 BP, 10 CP) Produces all of the food necessary to feed 5000 people. The food is very spicy.
Rocket Launch facility (50 BP, 10 CP) Uses chemical rockets to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to half that amount of void build capacity per action. The opposite of stealthy.
Spaceport (100 BP, 25 CP) Allows you to use shuttles to convert ground build capacity to Void build capacity with no loss, or as a base to host and rearm fighters. Can host 10 fighters or 10 shuttles, each capable of converting 50 ground BP to void BP per action, built separately. Stealthier than rockets, but not invisible.
Magnetic Catapult launch system (1000 BP, 50 CP) Allows you to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to void build capacity per action with no loss. Actually quite stealthy.
Medium Void-shield Installation (1000 BP, 50 CP) A void shield capable of stopping medium orbital bombardment, approximately fifty heavy strikes.
Anti-Orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
Anti-personnel Bunker, Psychic Shielding (40 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor. Modified with psychic shielding.
Machine-spirit Jammer (100 BP, 10 CP) A bank of cogitators capable of jamming a large number of small machine spirits (weapons, doors), several medium machine spirits (vehicles) or one large machine spirit (small ship). Effect is temporary and resistance will build up.
Basic Juvenat Production Facility (250 BP, 50 CP) A set of carefully-managed vats capable of supplying 50 people with a perennial supply of Juvenat.
Void Installations
These are built in space. They require 'void BP' which is associated with lift capacity. This is a detail we'll abandon eventually, but for now your lift capacity is limited.
Orbital Aquaculture Plant (250 BP, 25 CP) Produces all the food necessary to feed 25,000 people. The food is very spicy.
Orbital Manufactory (250 void BP, 40 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +50 void build capacity.
Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactory (300 void BP, 15 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +60 void build capacity.
Deep Space Manufactory (750 void BP, 40 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +100 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Machine Spirit Deep Space Manufactory (900 void BP, 15 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +120 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) 4 Ship construction slots
Medium Shipyard (3000 void BP, 100 CP) 16 Ship construction slots
Large Shipyard (10,000 void BP, 250 CP) 64 Ship construction slots
Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP) Rests steailthily in orbit, until activated, at which point it can attack nearly any target in orbit. One-shots satellites, many are needed for ships or larger platforms.
Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Requires a spaceport for rapid transport of troops.
Tiny system monitor (950 void BP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1500x300 meters. 7 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Light Shields. 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 light lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Small system monitor (2375 void BP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots) Frigate, 2200x600 meters. 5 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. 4x Medium Macrocannons, 1x Medium Lances, 2x Point Defense.
Candle (1450 void BP, 1 ship construction slot) Destroyer, 1600x350 meters. 8 gravities of acceleration. Medium armor, Medium Shields. Living Space, Psychic Shields (20 HP) 2 Light Macrocannon batteries, 1 Medium Lance battery. High-maneuverability thrusters.
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
Specter (100 BP, 20 CP). 1000 infiltration bots, light arms and armor intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Can pass for human, are run by machine-spirits, equipped with machine-spirit jamming and are both passively and actively stealthy.
Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor, mostly intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Good in tight corners and rough terrain. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control.
Light Machine-spirit infantry bots (35 BP, 20 CP). As light Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Light Humanized Machine-spirit infantry bots (60 BP, 20 CP). As light Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look like humans. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger.
Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Good all-rounders. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control.
Medium Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (75 BP, 20 CP) As Medium Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (100 BP, 20 CP) As Medium Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look like humans. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots.
Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good in open field combat against heavily armed foes.
Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (150 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Heavy Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (175 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look human. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots.
Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (190 BP, 20 CP) As Heavy Infantry Bots, but controlled by machine spirits and made to look human. Slightly more chaos-resistant, tougher and stronger than normal bots. Can jam the weapons and equipment of foes who use machine spirits.
Light Machine-spirit tanks (150 BP, 5 CP) As Light tanks, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Medium tanks (200 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor.
Medium Machine-spirit tanks (375 BP, 5 CP) As Medium tanks, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Basic Artillery (300 BP, 50 CP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Basic Machine-spirit Artillery (450 BP, 5 CP) As Basic Artillery, but controlled by machine spirits. Slightly more chaos-resistant.
Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP, 10 CP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
Export Goods
Light Infantry Weapons (5 BP) Enough light weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Mostly intended for anti-personnel use. Lasguns, a few stubbers, some grenade launchers and supplies of frag grenades.
Light Infantry Armor (5 BP) Enough light armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial guard Flak armor, though with better communication abilities.
Medium Infantry Weapons (10 BP) Enough medium weapons to outfit 1000 humans. A mix of anti-armor and anti-personnel use with greater specialization. Hotshot las-gun equivalents, some lascannons, some autocannons, some flamers, some sniper rifles, a supply of krak grenades.
Medium Infantry Armor (10 BP) Enough medium armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial carapace armor.
Heavy Infantry Weapons (20 BP) Enough heavy weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Primarily focused on anti-armor, will work well on power-armored foes. Plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
Heavy Infantry Armor (5 BP per unit) Enough heavy armor to equip 1000 humans with armor slightly superior to Sisters-of-Battle grade armor. Can be built with integrated void-shields by doubling the price.
Basic Force Weapons (5 bp for a personalized one, or 10 for 1 bp for general-purpose) A force weapon in the shape of a sword, axe, spear or glaive. Ideally it gets personally fitted to the user, which is difficult but has a better result, or you can mass-produce weapons that will work but won't be all they could be.
Man-portable Machine-Spirit Jammers (10 BP) Enough small devices in the forms of vox-units, bluescreen grenades and directed antennae to arm 1000 humans with gear that increases their effectiveness against enemies using weapons, armor and vehicles with machine spirits.
Personal Void Shields (5 bp per unit) A void-shield projector capable of protecting a person or bot from weapons fire. Can be fit into an amulet or be a larger unit attached to armor for greater shield strength.
Personal Psychic Shields (25 bp per unit) A person-sized set of psychic shields, that must be attached to the inside of a stiff suit of armor, increasing bulkiness and decreasing flexibility unless properly integrated by Armor Device Integration.
Light crewed tanks (100 BP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Need crew. Roughly equivalent to the Imperial Chimera.
Medium crewed tanks (200 BP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor. Roughly equivalent to the Leman Russ.
Basic Crewed artillery (300 BP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Trade goods (Any cost you wish to spend) A mix of medical supplies, civilian equipment, vehicles and appliances tailored to your trade partner's needs. 5 is a small amount of goods, 10 is decent, 20 is a fair number, 50 starts being quite a lot.
Manned Manufactory (100 BP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity, to be spent as the people running it desire.
Residential Space (10 BP)
Enough living space for 1000 people. Beds, plumbing. Temperature control.
City (1000 BP per 50,000 people)
The complete package for a city. Residential space, power generation, sewage treatment, transit, and offices. No food production.
Orbital habitat (1750 Void BP per 50,000 people) As city but in space. Includes Hydroponics.
Manned Ocean Remediation Ship (50 BP) A ship that will dredge up massive amounts of seaweed, compact it, and sink it to the bottom of the ocean as a solid lump. Also can turn the seaweed into moderately palatable food for the crew. 1 ship will fix 1% of the Calderath problem over 1 century.
[] Research: Gain research points equal to your research capacity, to be spent designing new blueprints or researching projects. Write in what you spend them on.
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, suggest them in the thread and I'll add them here if they're valid, along with RP cost to design them. This includes bunkers, anti-orbital defenses, ground units, etc. You'll unlock more things with more technology. Some things are impossible without the correct research - for example, heavy tanks will require you to research heavy armor first. Other things will be very cheap if you already have most of the design - for example if you research a better weapon it will be relatively cheap to just swap that out on the tanks.
Blueprints Design
Blueprint Modification Options
New blueprint Modification system: We've unlocked various additions to ground blueprints. Instead of attempting to list all possible combination below I'll list the base options, and you can trick them out with the following modifications. In general BP & RP should round up to the nearest 5. CP does not. Note that these are calculated off "base cost," not total cost, so it is not compounding, though some upgrades increase the base cost.
Here's an example of me designing a fancy assault shuttle.
The base blueprint is 25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP), but I want to make it fancy. First, let's make it machine-spirit controlled. That gives +0.5x base BP, -0.9x CP, or +15 BP, -4.5 CP. So the blueprint is now:
25 RP - Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (40 BP, 0.5 CP)
Then I want to give it void shields. That costs +1x base BP cost because it's a small craft, then +1x RP. So +25 BP, +25 RP. Now it's:
50 RP - Void-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (65 BP, 0.5 CP)
Now I want to give it psy shields. That's +4x base BP cost for small craft (which was 25, so +100 BP), and +1x base RP cost (which was 25, so +25 RP). So now it's:
75 RP - Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (165 BP, 0.5 CP)
Oh and screw it, might as well make it stealthy too, which is +1x base RP cost, +0.25x base BP cost, so that's +10 BP (round up to nearest 5) & +25 RP cost, which leaves us with:
100 RP Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (175 BP, 0.5 CP)
And of course that's a bit of a mouthful, so I'm going to rename it the "Icarus," and the blueprint should look like:
100 RP - Icarus (Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle, 175 BP, 0.5 CP)
If we'd wanted to also make it humanized (so it looks like it's piloted by people, for example if you wanted to transport allies without them knowing it was flown by robots) then this all changes, since that adds +5 BP to the base cost. That doesn't change the RP or CP cost at all, but it does change BP. Instead of 25+15(0.5x)+25(1x)+100(4x)+10(0.25x)=175 you'd do (25+5)+15(0.5x)+30(1x)+120(4x)+10(1.25x)=205 BP. And then you'd have
100 RP - Basic Stealth Humanized Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (205 BP, 0.5 CP)
Humanization - (+15 base BP cost for combat bots, +5 base BP for vehicles, small craft & defensive installations) Makes a unit appear to be operated by fully-armored humans. Slightly increases strength and armor of those units. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine Spirit Jammers - (+10 base BP) Adds machine-spirit jamming equipment to the blueprint, enhancing capabilities against forces that use machine spirits. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine-spirits - (+0.5x base BP cost, -0.9x base CP cost) Make this blueprint controlled by machine spirits, making it slightly corruption resistant and reducing the load on your systems. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Void Shields - (+1x base BP cost for tanks & small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds void shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft.
Psychic Shielding - (+4x base BP cost for tanks, small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base BP cost for defensive installations +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds psychic shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability against warpy threats. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Basic Stealth - (+0.25x base BP cost for vehicles and small craft, +0.5x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP cost, ) Makes a unit harder to detect with both active & passive means. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Combat Bots
10 RP - Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor.. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at either.
25 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Vehicles
15 RP - Light tanks (100 BP, 50 CP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Good at rapid pursuit & maneuvering through tight terrain, bad against heavy armor.
25 RP - Medium tanks (250 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons & antipersonnel weapons to fight enemy armor and infantry. Good all-rounder capable of all roles, though not optimal at any.
25 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor. Good at the heaviest fighting over open ground against heavy armor, not well-suited to avoiding collateral damage.
Small Craft
25 RP - Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) A single shuttle which converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity, and shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking for it. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
25 RP - Bomber (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
25 RP - Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Cannot deliver troops to space targets.
Defensive Installations
10 RP - Anti-armor Bunker (50 BP, 5 CP) A bunker with a heavy melta cannon, able to take out most armor in a single shot.
5 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (20 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor.
25 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
25 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
25 RP - Nuclear warhead (25 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a city-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in.
10 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
Utility
50 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien origin. Has advanced scanning, modeling and processing capabilities.
10 RP - Maglev System (5 bp/mile, 50 flat CP) A high-capacity maglev system to transport large amounts of goods across a planetary surface, linking various surface installations together into a single network so production from any of them can be applied at all of them.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:
Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total amount of space inside the ship, which is represented by the number of BP spent on the hull. That's your "Budget"
Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards cramming.
Pick hull equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards cramming.
Choose weapons, combat equipment & noncombat equipment to add to the ship. Your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in.
Have a vote win which spends the necessary RP to design the planned ship.
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Light defense Platform, 10 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Destroyer, 25 RP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slots (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 50 RP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150)
Light Cruiser, 75 RP, 200 CP, 8 ship construction slots (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/150/300) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Heavy Cruiser, 100 RP, 300 CP, 32 ship construction slots (2000-6000 BP, 4500x600-6000x1200 meters) Engines: (2/3/4 gravities) for (300/400/500 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400)
Available Hull Equipment:
These do not count towards hull cramming.
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Void Abacus (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can navigate through the warp slowly, at a rate of 3 systems per action. Requires Abacus Manufacturing technology.
Psychic Shielding (Between 1/10 to 1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, that thinks "no" as hard as possible, answering the question for any warp-corruption for any beings or objects within the hull. HP of the shield is 1 HP per 5 BP spent on it.
Basic Passive Steath Profile (1/5 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has it's sensor profile reduced with special coatings and a shape that reduces the cross-section in response to active sensors. It can reasonably expect to stay hidden at long ranges (outside weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Improved Passive Stealth Profile (1/2 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is heavily dedicated to stealth, with not just coatings and a shape but also significant amounts of sensor bafflers and other passive systems designed to prevent it from being spotted. Should be able to stay hidden at medium ranges (or long weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Advanced Passive Stealth Profile (Doubles base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship tries it's hardest to be a void in space, and so long as it's not moving it generally succeeds. Should be able to stay hidden at close ranges as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Probably not good enough to get into boarding range.
Available Weapons:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Multiple the final weapon cost by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of weapons, it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for final ship cost.
Prow Ram 50 bp. This ship is built to run into things, and hurt them more than it gets hurt.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor. Heavy Plasma Cannon 1000 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor. Heavy Melta cannon 800 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against armor.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability. Basic stealth automatically applied. Shuttles 100 BP, 50 CP. 10 Shuttlecraft, combined capacity of 500 lift to or from a planet. Assault Shuttles 150 BP, 50 CP. 10 Assault shuttles, with combined capacity of 1000 troops or 10 tanks in one trip. asic stealth automatically applied.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers. Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched. Large Torpedoes 600 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck cruisers, hurt grand cruisers and make battleships cruisers know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down. Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down. Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Available Equipment:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Low-emission Systems (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has been tuned to reduce overall emissions, making it stealthier. Not stealthy. Stealthier.
Improved Sensors 250 BP - increased size and density of sensors, backed up by the necessary computational support, will make it more difficult for anybody to sneak up on this ship. Excellent Sensors 500 BP - You would say it's impossible to sneak up on a ship with this many sensors, but you saw what the Eldar did, and now it's merely incredibly improbable. Superb Sensors 1000 BP - This ship has enough sensors of enough modalities that it's basically a mobile scientific research platform. Anything weird will get noticed, investigated, and if it's an enemy ship, pinned down.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for tuned shields, so if shields costs 100 bp, then tuned shields cost 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, and additionally counts towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for alloyed armor, so if armor costs 100 bp, then alloyed armor costs 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). Armor is much tougher but is harder to repair.
Light Boarding preparations (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) Bulkheads are reinforced, extra hatches seal all decks and turrets guard key chokepoints, making boarding annoying. Medium Boarding preparations (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) The ship layout is designed to funnel borders into kill-zones in front of armored bunkers, and any borders will take heavy casualties. Heavy Boarding preparations (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship as essentially a flying dungeon, filled with escherian mazes, hidden turrets, crushing-hallways and other deathtraps.
Light Machine Spirit Jammers (1/20 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Enough to cause significant degradation in an enemy ship's sensors, maneuvering and targeting. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Medium Machine Spirit Jammers (1/10 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same as light jammers, plus will also effect total thrust, weapons firing rate. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Heavy Machine Spirit Jammers (1/5 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same effect as medium, but may also effect friend-foe designation and reactor stability. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class.
These do count towards hull cramming.
Troop compartment (50 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 severely injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Cargo Bay (No cost, free. Designate an amount of BP to fill for cramming purposes) Allows transport of an amount of BP equivalent to the cramming amount from one system to another.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost. Can be used to refit the ships as well with a +50% markup. Cannot be used to make new ships, bots, manufactories.
The ways to get new research options are to:
Do research. That'll unlock more research.
Build appropriate installations & potentially acquire samples to research in them (samples could be anything from 'a human' to 'a Norn queen' in rarity).
Ask for them. Often I'll tell you what you need to do to unlock specific research options,
Ship Design
-[] Grand Cruisers (400 RP) Making a ship design that's not spaghetti takes time and effort. It's still boring. But if you want to make queens of the void, its necessary. (unlocks grand cruisers, half of the prereq for battleships)
-[] Medium Defense Platforms (50 RP) You've already got most of the tools you need to build bigger defensive platforms, but these would be a larger platform to stick guns on, with more ability to withstand damage. (Unlocks medium defensive platforms, potential for other void-based installation options)
-[] Improved Engine Designs (150 RP) Based on your understanding of physics and a few old research papers you think you can improve engine reactor thrust velocities. (Enhances ship speeds at every level. Unlocks further speed, maneuverability & stealth technologies)
-[] Streamlined ship design (150 RP) You can improve your tools for ship design to make it easier to design ships in the future. That might be nice (Halves the RP cost to design new ships, may unlock other ship design improvements)
-[] Efficient Equipment Distribution (100 RP) Let's see if you can apply the benefits from weapon packing to equipment (Equipment costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing. Especially effective for cargo holds.)
-[] Extremely Efficient Weapon Distribution (200 RP) You did a good job already in packing more weapons into less space. But you think you see ways to make it even better (Weapons cost at 0.75 for ship capacity packing)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design new iterations of your ship)
-[] Boarding Capabilities (100 RP) Apparently it's common for ships in this day and age to board each other and for the crew to fight hand-to-hand. Instead of, you know, chucking enormous missiles at each other. Insane. Well, it might be a nice capability to have in case you want to capture ships intact. (Unlocks boarding torpedoes, drop pods, and boarding craft for hangers, may combine with stealth research to unlock stealth borders)
-[] Networked missiles (100 RP) The biggest danger to missiles is that they'll get shot down by fighters and point defense. If you can network them together to cooperate against those threats, more of the warheads will reach their targets. (Unlocks new combat equipment to make missiles more effective. May unlock more technology to make missiles smarter, longer ranged and generally more effective)
General Design
-[] Large-scale Void Manufacturing (100 RP) Unlike ground factories, which have to deal with gravity and atmosphere, there's little stopping you from just... scaling up the principles of void manufacturing. Besides the annoying spaghetti of logistics, but that's a solvable problem. (Allows you to design large void manufactories that are more efficient, improves the manufactories on your ships to be 1/5 instead of 1/10 production. Potential for other void-based platform technologies).
-[] Ground Manufactory Efficiency Improvements (50 RP) You dramatically improved the efficiency of your void manufacturing by stripping out the dumb stuff that was required by stellar federation bureaucracy. There's probably some stuff like that in your ground manufactories too. (Reduces the CP cost but not BP cost of your ground manufactories. Unlocks follow-on tech to build ground manufactories in more challenging conditions such as extreme temp/pressure planetoids).
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, dreadnaughts, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Mothballing (50 RP) Keeping a bunch of systems functional and ready requires attention that is swiftly running out. Maybe you can figure out how to spend less attention on things that are mostly inactive (Unlocks the ability to mothball an installation for 10% of it's build cost, free reactivation that takes a few weeks. May unlock techs to allow you to freely turn things on and off, as well as increasing the speed of reactivation enough for you to keep military installations mothballed until they're needed.)
-[] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP) You understand all of the physical parts of an abacus. Now you need to figure out all of the manufacturing techniques needed to actually put one together. (Unlocks the void abacus ship equipment)
-[] Habitation Requires Correct Ingredients (200 RP) If a planet lacks an essential element, there's not that much you can do about that. Well, there isn't unless you lack imagination. You could crash comets and asteroids into the planet and get volatiles that way - but it would take a lot of them. Still, doable, if expensive. (Unlocks the ability to add essential elements to planets that lack them. Likely expensive, though further research will reduce the cost).
Stealth
-[] Improved Spaceship Passive Stealth (200 RP) Your current stealth systems are effective, but it would be nice if they were a little bit more effective. And maybe a bit cheaper. (Improves the effect and cost of stealth hull equipment. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth.)
-[] Low-Emission equipment (150 RP) Hiding a ship's profile versus active and passive sensors is one thing, but hiding engine signatures and head dumping is entirely another (Unlocks new non-combat equipment to allow ships to maneuver and do other things without destroying their stealth. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. May unlock technology to allow weapons fire without breaking stealth.)
-[] Active Spaceship Stealth (150 RP) Not returning a sensor signal is one thing, but actively providing false signals is another, and something that the Drukhari are evident masters of. (Unlocks new equipment to improve ship stealth against various sensors that you can't trick any other way. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. May unlock technology to hide your position and prevent enemies from getting good targeting.)
-[] Ground force stealth standardization(150 RP) It takes some time and effort to design stealth versions of various units, and they end up more expensive to produce. If you take another look at the process with an eye towards standardizing it you could probably improve that. (Reduces the BP & RP cost of stealth modifications for ground forces, potentially to zero.)
-[] Improved Passive Stealth (50 RP) Ok, you've figured out the basics of hiding your small craft, but you have ideas on what you can do better, that might allow them to hide from even fully-alert enemies. They probably won't be able to close all the way to attack range, but they'll be able to get a lot closer (Unlocks improved stealth designs with improved performance. Unlocks further research for advanced passive stealth technologies. Will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Improved Active Stealth (150 RP) Again, moving towards the idea of actively countering sensors so they can't see you. It's a cat-and-mouse game with sensors, and you want to be the cat. (Improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures. Unlocks further research for advanced active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Optical Camouflage (300 RP) Covering your units with holograms to make them harder to see with the naked eye sounds like a simple concept, but it very much is not. You need to know where the watcher is, project an image of what's behind you, and make it account for the movement of both the viewer and object. Unless you can think of a better idea. (Unlocks a blueprint modification to make your units harder to see. Unlocks further visual camouflage capabilities that might be closer to true invisibility)
-[] Examine the Dark Eldar Craft (150 RP) The Dark Eldar boarding craft showed incredible stealth capabilities. If you can figure out how it works that would be a great way to improve your own stealth capabilities (Discounts all stealth technology, may unlock unique stealth research and let you see through Eldar stealth better) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
Shields
-[] Heavy Void shields (150 RP) Your current shields are good, but they could be better. Specifically, you want to make multi-layered shields, which could be applied to anything larger than a destroyer (Unlocks heavy void shields for ships and stations, as well as further research for void shielding improved for recharge speed, layered defenses, etc.)
-[] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (100 RP) Well, the void shields you have are nice. But it would be nice to be able to build bigger ones, that can shrug off essentially any possible orbital bombardment. You need to figure out how to take advantage of the ridiculous energy and heat dissipation capabilities of being on a planet. (Unlocks heavy and super-heavy void shield installations. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding.)
-[] Void Shield Layering (400 RP) If you could layer multiple shields together, then when one failed the second could take damage while the first recharged. Right now there's harmonics that prevent this, but you are sure you can figure it out... with a full redesign. (Unlocks the ability to layer two sets of shields. Will unlock research for more layers of shielding, weirder shapes of shields and other specialty modules)
-[] Void Shield Discounts (300 RP) You have some ideas on how to swap out materials or simplify designs to reduce the costs of void shields. (Reduces the cost of void shields across the board. May lead to new kinds of mundane applications for void shields, such as manufacturing modules, shielded fighters or shuttles)
Materials & Armor
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks. Prerequisite for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Advanced Materials (250 RP) You know there are exotic elements with absurd physical properties. But it's also possible to build absurdly strong materials with common elements. How does that work? Time to dust off some ancient research projects and figure this stuff out. (Unlocks improved armor, as well as research to unlock megastructures. Also required for battleships and larger walkers)
-[] Heavy Armor Production Line (100 RP) You can make Heavy armor, but you solved the problem by effectively making each suit into a custom-crafted suit full of expensive actuators. Maybe a redesign will make it cheap enough to mass-produce, and unlock follow-on research. (Dramatically reduces cost for heavy armor, and subsequent superheavy armor. May unlock more options for heavy armor, including integrated mobility options)
-[] Armor Device Integration (200 RP) Your armor blocks blows, which is its basic purpose. Still, it would be great to be able to integrate different devices into it - void shields, psytech, mobility options like jetpacks, holdout weapons and more. (Unlocks the ability to design specialty types of medium, heavy and superheavy armor that contain additional functions, many of which will be unlocked by other technology.)
-[] Temperature? Let's talk Albedo (150 RP) To change the temperature of a planet, you simply need to change how much it's absorbing and re-radiating, then let the energy of a local star do the rest. (Unlocks projects to heat or cool planets over decades with surprisingly minimal investment. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] The Golden Metal (200 RP) On Calderath, inside the Sector Governer's Hall of Wonders, in place of pride, you found a piece of golden metal supposedly from the Emporer's armor. What is it? What can it do? Why does it react stragely to psychic energy? Can you shape it into something for Cia? How can you find more? (A basic understanding of auramite and how to work it. Will unlock further research to prospect for it more efficiently - or potentially synthesize it eventually). Write in if you'd like to fashion what you have into the edge of a weapon or part of a piece of psytech for Cia.
Robotics
-[] Avatar self-customization (100 RP) Your previous avatar was capable of changing its appearance at your whim, changing the hair, eye and skim color rapidly. Hair length and body size changes took a bit longer but were also possible. Is this worth figuring out? It might just be you being vain. (Unlocks some disguise-style cybernetics... once you get good cybernetics and can do things like skin/eye replacements).
-[] Improved Armor Articulation (50 RP) From your research on humanizing combat bots you have some ideas about improving the points of articulation on armor to increase the range of motion and make the suits more responsive. (Increased performance & mobility for heavier armor, both for combat bots & people wearing heavy armor you make. May unlock further armor upgrade techs)
-[] Combat Bot Melee Combat (150 RP) Your bots aren't armed for melee combat, and don't really have the articulation for it. If you could fix that, maybe they wouldn't be so vulnerable to close-range combat. (Gives your combat bots melee weapons and basic proficiency with them. Will unlock technology for improved melee proficiency, as well as synergize well and potentially unlock technology for improved melee weaponry.)
-[] Really good Robotics: (600 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
AI research
-[] Intelligence Coding (400 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree, also unlocks personality-checking research)
- [] Personality-Checking Routines (200 RP) All of this chaos-corruption is making you nervous. People changing according to the will of some warp-entity? Becoming different in ways that would disgust their past selves? That gives you the heebee-jeebies. Maybe - just maybe - it would be good to develop some ways to automatically check if aspects of your personality are diverging ways you don't want them to. Then you might be able to fix the problem before you become somebody who doesn't want (Gives you some algorithms to check for personality divergence in AIs. Doesn't do anything, just alerts you to changes and lets you decide what steps to take. Unlocks further research to prevent/rollback personality change, as well as potentially extend this research to humans with neural implants). Locked behind Intelligence Coding.
Psychic Shielding
-[] Better Psychic Shielding Efficiency (200 RP) You've figured out how to make your shielding modular, but each panel is still tricky to make. If you spent some time iterating that design you think you could make them even easier to make, and potentially power powerful (Further Improves the BP/HP ratio for psychic shields, may improve the HP of shielding you can pack into a unit of space.)
-[] Psychic Shielding Reliability (100 RP) Trying to make tripwire-versions of your shielding that could be installed in everything has revealed a weakness - the circuits can spontaneously fail. You fixed that problem by making them tougher, but now they won't always trigger. You're confident you can fix this issue, but it'll require you to make them more failure-proof. On the plus side, this should mean that your psychic shielding can last longer without maintenance. (Makes psychic tripwires more accurate, potentially to the point where it's impossible to corrupt your tech without you knowing about it. Also likely to make your psychic shielding last long time periods without maintenance. Will unlock research to use this on ships, and to make civilian-grade versions that could be put into literally everything).
-[] Small-scale design-integrated psychic shielding (150 RP) You could take this approach a step further, and integrate the psychic shielding into the designs of bots, vehicles and small installations from the start. (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for bots, vehicles and small installations. Will likely improve the quality of shielding available and unlock research for further shielding improvements)
-[] Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (250 RP) Start installing this shielding into hull plates as the norm. Every ship will have psychic shielding (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for all ships and platforms. Will unlock research to make this shielding better)
-[] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP) Your current shielding says "No" at all times, which seems to work against most warp threats. You think you might be able to modify it for a different meaning, which may have different effects. You're not sure exactly what, but you'd kind of like to try "Aboslutely not" or maybe even "You're not real" and see what happens. (Unlocks new types of psychic shielding with different/improved effects, as well as further research into more powerful psychic shielding - some of which may be less "shielding" and more of an offensive weapon.)
-[] Machine Spirit-controlled Psychic Shields (50 RP) You think it's possible to integrate machine spirits into your chaos shielding, which would probably make it more effective in almost every way except cost. (Unlocks new kinds of psychic shielding that are more resistant to damage, potentially self-repairing and more) Requires Machine Spirit Chaos resistance.
-[] Tiny Psychic shielding (400 RP) You were able to make your smaller psychic shielding by stacking the components and using the interference caused to generate the proper effect. However, you don't understand that interference well enough to go any smaller. Once you do, you can start to try to make actually tiny versions of the psychic shielding, small enough to fit in implants, or potentially into totems that project the shielding effect outside of themselves. (Fixes the issues with personal psychic shields, unlocks the ability to create implants with psychic shielding capability and potentially allows you to make amulets with psychic shields. May unlock additional technology to make all of that better.) Requires Triple Nested Psychic shielding
-[] Triple Nested Psychic shielding (200 RP) You've had two shields, yes. What about three? (Allows you to have three layers of shielding active at once. May unlock tech to allow inner shields to boost outer shields to be greater than the sum of their parts)
-[] Multi-meaning shields (300 RP) Your current shields say "No." Other sayings probably exist, and saying multiple things at the same time might have more esoteric effects, such as damaging attackers or defending better against certain types of attacks. Combining multiple of those into one shield could be powerful. (Allows you to combine two shield types together into one shield. May unlock further research for further combination, or to say one meaning EXTRA HARD.) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Scrapcode Denial (400 RP) Scrapcode - and psychic corruption in general - is a difficult opponent. It's hard to enforce mistakes when it can magically see through your defenses. But if you could incorporate psychic encryption into that approach, it becomes viable again. (Makes your shielding Extraordinarily resistant to potentially completely immune to scrapcode-based attacks. Does not apply to machine spirits yet. May unlock technology to apply to other kinds of corruption. Likely synergistic with generating your own scrapcode)
-[] Psychic Shield Tuning (200 RP) Your new scrapcode defenses help against scrapcode, but not necessarily other threats. This research would potentially allow you to tune the capabilities of your shielding on the fly to improve performance against other angles of attack. (Resistance to specific types of attack will improve with exposure, up to a cap. Unlocks more research to allow for more flexible shielding that can target specific weaknesses of various psychic enemies. Synergizes with mutli-meaning shielding.)
-[] Psychic Encryption (150 RP) Warp-based shenanigans can clearly steal information they shouldn't be able to get. You think you have the solution to prevent that, and it's encryption. Modulate your psychic shielding so anything coming through it is so garbled and compressed that it can't be understood even to the most sensitive psychic. (Blocks scrying of information protected by your shielding. Likely unlocks better versions that will defeat more powerful seers, and may unlock specialized research to build installations that will deny scrying and foresight over a larger area - like a system)
The Warp
-[] Teleportation is like skipping a stone (150 RP) Teleporters work by skipping a cargo across the shallow warp, linking two places for a moment. They are limited in many ways. Now that you understand that, you can find the limits to extend range, capacity and think about other ways to utilize the same general idea. (Improves teleporters for boarding, may lead to the ability to directly teleport to planetary surfaces. Unlocks further research for further improving the teleporter, as well as potentially leading to warp portals, which is likely required for webway understanding).
-[] The Taste of Chaos (300 RP) When investigating the stations in Vorthryn, you found a flavor to the warp signatures hanging around the chaos-corrupted stations. If you do more analysis on it, you might be able to discern some filters that can tell you when a signature is chaos-associated or identify active Chaos-cults through sensors alone (Makes your warp sensors more sensitive to Chaos-associated markers. More useful in detecting cults than individuals, though may unlock further research to screen for cultists who have participated in warp-rituals).
-[] Empathy at Range (200 RP) Your warp sensors work well on things that are nearby, but they're definitely not able to detect anything large beyond combat range, or smaller things beyond very close range. Maybe it's a matter of improving sensitivity, maybe you need to specifically build some parts of your psychic shield to extend range. (Makes your warp sensors active at longer range, unlocks further research to pinpoint psychic activities from across the solar system. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication)
-[] Yelling into the Warp (175 RP) If you can receive signals from the warp, how do you send them? It probably involves modulating your psychic shielding somehow. Does that mean a new thought? Probably. (Unlocks the ability to cast signals into the warp, though that may attract attention. May allow you to signal psychically-sensitive allies... or enemies. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Warp Weather Prediction (450 RP) The Warp has been said to have "weather." Well, at least storms. But if you're constantly monitoring the signals from your psychic shielding, you can start to make predictions about what will come. That... might be useful. (Likely to give you advance warning of significant warp-effects, especially warp storms. May unlock further research to improve warp navigation, and if you crit again, a strange kind of warp-based technological foresight.)
-[] A Curio Cabinet of Khornish Cultists (150 RP) You have a haul of items and bodies from the Chaos cult aboard the Auric Burden. Investigate them, and see what you can learn. (Improved knowledge about Chaos Cults. May lead to enhanced detection of Chaos cults & cultists. May lead to some understanding of how to use warp rituals to enhance items. May unlock further research once you have more samples.)
-[] Vortex Weapons (250 RP) When you first read about them vortex weapons sounded... terrifying. Now you're even more scared. Still, that might be a nice thing to have in your arsenal at some point. (Unlocks basic vortex weaponry. Likely further research for larger and smaller vortex weapons). Locked behind High-energy Physics
-[] Reliable Gellar Fields (300 RP) Your gellar field technology is capable, but for something that important you want it to be rock-solid. That'll probably require a full redesign, but having a gellar field that cannot be knocked out with destroying a good chunk of your ship seems like it might be a good investment. (Improves your gellar field technology to make it more reliable and redundant. Will help you resist demonic attacks in the warp.)
-[] Faith is my shield? (75 RP) Clearly the Imperium believes that faith can protect you from warp gribblies. It even seems like it might be true. How? Is there a way you can harness the effect without having to dedicate yourself to the Imperial creed? Also, what's going on with this skeletal hand you found? (Understanding the benefits of Faith. May unlock further research to allow Vita to design a less objectionable faith optimized for warp protection, and help develop better psyker training programs. Likely to unlock fu)
-[] Demonology (150 RP) Demons. They can be summoned, bound and banished. Preferably in that order. How? That knowledge could be powerful... and dangerous. (Allows you to do basic demonology to summon/bind/banish demons. Unlocks further technology around all of that, including potential better protection from demons.) Price will triple without the Scrapcode generator to experiment on.
-[] Immaterium Understanding (225 RP) Anexa believes she understands something fundamental about the warp. Do some experimements to see if she's right. (Further discounts on all warp-related research, potential to unlock a research from farther down a warp research tree while skipping prerequisites) Anexa must work on this action. Guaranteed level(s) for her. Requires Warp Research Lab.
-[] Improved Void Abacus (125 RP) You understand how the Void Abacus works now, and you think you can tweak it to be better. That involves some amount of expanding and improving its connection to the warp though, so you're far from certain (Improves your Void Abacus design to be faster and better at warp jumps, though still inferior to an average navigator. May unlock further optimization of Void Abaci, including for cost/unstable warp jumps).
-[] The Basics of Psychic Computation (400 RP) You have several examples of different kinds of cogitators that interact with the warp in some way. They all share some kind of neural network system, but are very different in other ways. If you can figure out the minimal requirement for something to be psychically active - well. That would have implications. (Improves psychic shielding research, psytech research, some machine spirit research, may improve scrapcode research. Will help genetic manipulation to create psykers. May lead to a research tree to make psychic AIs or implants that grant psychic powers).
Psytech
-[] Help Cia's Training (50 RP) By spending more time with Cia, actively monitoring her use of her powers and providing feedback, you can improve the quality and outcomes of her training (Gives a +10 to any Cia training dice this turn, and may result in new kinds of outcomes. Can be improved by further pyromantic research. Repeatable)
- [] Basic Psychic Amplification Devices (100 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic amplification, but to actually confirm that you need to build one and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic staffs or other personal psychic amplification devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic amplification, as well as larger amplification constructs)
- [] Basic Psychic Suppression Devices (150 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic suppression, but to actually confirm that you need to build some and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic hoods or other personal psychic protective devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic nullification, as well as larger nullification constructs)
-[] Complex Psytech Implants (250 RP) Adapting what you know from organic-machine control implants, you can give a psyker greater control over their implants, in turn allowing you to give psytech implants more capabilities and more power that requires active tuning on the fly. (Improves psytech implants in terms of both precision and raw power.) Requires either Basic Psychic Suppression Devices or Basic Psychic Amplification Devices
- [] Improved Psychic weapons (300 RP) You are starting to understand how force weapons work, but you're far from perfecting them. There's definitely work to be done on the composition of the main weapon, and if you can figure out how to grow crystals into the proper orientation that will help, and the psi-convectors and... well. It's almost easier to list the ways you can't improve them. (Further improves force weapons in every way. Potential to unlock specialized kinds of force weapons, such as versions specialized to fight specific foes and maybe large-scale force weapons such as ship rams).
- [] Psychic Aegis (250 RP) Psychically enhancing a weapon in combat is an obvious application, but the equally-obvious follow-on is enhancing armor. Or shields. Whatever. General defensive measures. It would be significantly more complicated than a simple weapon, and shields are probably the first step. But still - that would be a path to near-invincibility. (Allows you to create force shields and armor. Unlocks further research for improved force armor and other kinds of large-scale defensive psytech).
- [] Psychic Materials (300 RP) Silver. Specific kinds of crystals. Chitin? What unifies those things? What is it that makes them warp-conductive? If you can figure that out, maybe you can start designing new warp-capable materials that are better. (Psytech improvements across the board in terms of new materials, likely follow-on research into specific specialty materials and applications. Will be improved by samples of additional psionically active materials).
- [] Pyromancy Staff (200 RP) Amplifying a specific kind of psyker powers should allow you to amplify them even more. (Allows you to build pyromancy-focused psychic amplifiers, with the most common one being in the shape of a staff. Will unlock further pyromancy-specialized equipment, including larger-scale and more powerful amplifiers that may be relevant in ship combat.)
- [] Improved Pyromantic understanding (300 RP) Cia's eager to delve further into the secrets of pyromancy, and if you tried you could follow along for the ride. Any maybe figure out how to model this specific kind of psychic power. (Improves all pyromancy-focused psytech, improves the Help Cia's Training action and may unlock research towards influencing young psykers towards pyromancy.)
-[] Destructive Scrapcode Investigation (200 RP) Well, if Bongo doesn't want to play ball, maybe you need to go in there and figure out what makes the scrapcode generator tick. Time to bring out the power tools. (Discounts existing scrapcode research, may unlock new research around psytech/psychic shielding. Gives better understanding of Chaos Demons. Destroys the scrapcode generator and likely banishes Bongo back to the warp.)
-[] Scrapcode Generation (400 RP) You have the barest hints as to how you might start generating scrapcode. You need to imbue psychic meaning into code. You're not quite sure how you might go about that, but it's an interesting avenue to chase down. (Unlocks the ability to create and hack with your own brand of scrapcode) Requires psytech past Basic Psychic Amplification Devices, as well as Rapid hacking
Physics
-[] Dark Eldar Weaponry (150 RP) You have a few examples of Dark Eldar weaponry. Some of it just uses esoteric poisons, but other parts seem based on physical princples you can't identify. That's exciting (Unlocks new weapons based on Dark Eldar small-arms weaponry) Requires Advanced Technological Research Lab.
-[] Gravity Weapons (200 RP) You know it's possible to use gravity as a weapon, though it sounds a bit crazy. But still, it might be worth trying? (Unlocks basic graviton weapons for infantry, vehicles and warships, as well as research for more advanced graviton weapons. Half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] Bootstrapping a magnetic field (200 RP) If a planet's magnetic field is dead then in the short term it'll be bombarded with hazardous levels of radiation, and in the long term whatever atmosphere is present will get blown off into space by stellar wind. But there might be a way to fix that? (Unlocks a rather expensive semi-megastructure project to start up magnetic fields. Unlocks further research to cheapen the process. May lead to some crazy research into utilizing or messing with star or gas-giant magnetic fields.) Requires gravity weapons & Advanced Materials.
-[] The Biggest Boom (150 RP) So. There's no actual upper limit for how big a fusion warhead can get. But it does get more complicated to build bigger and bigger bombs. Let's figure that out. (Unlocks bigger, exterminatus-grade warheads for nukes. The other half of the research necessary for Nova Cannons)
-[] Superconductive Shenanigans (100 RP) Room-temperature superconductors are a thing. But only kind of, and they still need to be highly pressurized to be stable. You know some people cracked this problem, but they didn't publish on it, which was annoying. But you think you might have an idea how they did it. Figuring it out would be great for manufacturing, and drop costs across the board. (A flat production boost of 5-15% depending on rolls).
-[] Miniaturized antigrav (50 RP) You can make antigrav that reduces the weight of things like shuttles to make them able to make orbit. But there's a floor on how small you can make that technology. The Imperium seems to have solved that. (Unlocks drones, jump-packs etc, as well as additional research to make antigrav vehicles/walkers)
-[] High-energy Physics (300 RP) There's some pretty crazy stuff you can do with physics. Especially when the energy exponents really start getting insane. However, that's going to take a bit of testing - maybe on a planetoid you don't care too much about. Or in space. (The next steps towards bigger, badder weapons, such as fusion beamers, volkite weapons, disintegration weapons. Half of the research for vortex weaponry.) Locked behind a High-Energy Physics Research Lab
-[] Better Sensors are just Physics (150 RP) You've made some progress on better sensors, but if you're really going to go to the next level you're going to start looking for edge cases. Things that are hard or downright impossible to hide, and will give away an enemy ship no matter its stealth. (Unlocks better basal sensors across the board, as well as improves specific stealth technologies. Synergizes with stealth research, unlocks even better sensors and may unlock long-range sensors to do detailed scans from across the system).
-[] Combat Information Gathering (200 RP) Many ship weapons are slow-firing and demand specific responses. If you can tell what an enemy ship is going to do before it does it, that will give you a tactical advantage. (Allows you to detect and decode energy signals to predict enemy ship activities, giving an advantage in combat. Will help more the better your sensors are. Will synergize well with boarding, may unlock targeted-teleportation technology and technology to target weak-points).
Machine Spirits
-[] Machine Spirit Ground Strategy (300 RP) Your bots can coordinate on the small scale, but being able to manage larger battles and fights is beyond them. If you can figure out how to connect individual squad networks together you can improve their performance. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued infantry & vehicle forces over the scale of theaters. Will unlock further technology for improved strategic coordination.)
-[] Machine Spirit Combat Bot Flexibility (250 RP) Your bots can do one thing, and that's win fights with lethal force. If you want them to do things like take captives, or avoid collateral damage, then you're going to need to teach them to do that. (Enables enhanced flexibility of orders for your combat bots. May unlock greater creativity in problem-solving on the part of your combat bots, as well as the capability for the bots to be effective at medicine or other tasks)
-[] Machine Spirit Void Tactics (125 RP) Fighting a ship is a very different thing from fighting on the ground, but many of the principles are similar. Adapt them. (Improved combat performance of machine-spirit imbued ships and void fighters. May unlock technology for improved strategic coordination. If you want to point your fleet at a system and say "Conquer it, spare the civilians" this is a good tech to have.) Requires Large-Scale machine spirits
-[] Large-scale Machine spirits (75 RP) As it stands, you can integrate machine spirits into small things. Expanding that to military installations and ships is going to require designing even more complex networks and figuring out how to make them work. With Anexa's insights you think it's eminently possible thought (Unlocks machine-spirit equipped versions of frigate-sized or smaller ships and platforms, as well as most defensive installations. Unlocks more research for machine spirits for larger ships & platforms.)
-[] Independent Manufactories (400 RP) Your manufacturing machine spirits are pretty good at being independent but still require some direction on sourcing materials, and various types of blockages. If you give them more independence then they'd need even less management. But at the same time, building in that much independence would require appropriate safeguards so they didn't go off the rails. (Further reduce CP requirements of machine-spirit manufactories).
-[] Machine Spirit Shipboard Manufactories (75 RP) The constraints on shipboard manufactories make them different enough that you haven't been able to apply the machine spirit technology to them. (Improves the BP produced by the shipboard manufactory equipment, likely by about 20%. May unlock tech allowing better cramming for ship manufactories).
-[] Basic Automated Manufactories (150 RP) If you tool a factory and install a machine spirit optimized to make just one thing, then it can just keep doing it without your oversight. (Unlocks automated ground/orbital/deep space manufactories, which will continue to produce a single kind of product without requiring actions. Will require CP, and cannot make starships or installations. Unlocks further research to increase productivity, and flexibility, remove the CP requirement, as well as allow the automated manufactories to produce ships, installations and eventually megastructures).
-[] Machine Spirit Ship Design Improvements (200 RP) By encouraging creative and complex solutions to problems you can use the design-specialized machine spirits to improve your ship designs in exciting new ways. (Allows you to cram more things into void ships, depending on rolls. May unlock further research to further optimize cramming, as well as discount the absolute cost of various categories of ship components).
-[] Machine Spirit Hallucinations (300 RP) Your new mechine spirits are capable of incredible creativity when you push them to solve impossible problems. A lot of it is silly and impossible, but buried within the morass are occasional nuggets of gold. Every good idea starts as a bad idea, so let's generate more ideas. (Improves the number of RP you get per action, though not by a huge amount. May unlock more research to further improve this number).
-[] Machine Spirit Chaos resistance (75 RP) You think the reason that the machine spirits resist chaos is because they understand their purpose to some extent, and the entire neural network needs to be corrupted to corrupt that purpose, which is harder. There's also emotional simulation that's going on in there. (Improves the basal resistance of machine spirits to chaos corruption. May unlock further technology down this chain, as well as half of the requirements to integrate machine spirits with psychic shielding.)
-[] Psytech Machine spirits (100 RP) You don't think that machine spirits can be psychically active. However, from what you understand of psytech it's a temperamental and difficult discipline, and you think that integrating machine spirits into the construction of psytech might improve its reliability and performance. (Improves psytech, at the cost of making it somewhat more expensive. May lead to more advanced versions for more advanced psytech, and may contribute to better psychic shields)
Biology
-[] Servitorization (50 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Variety is the Spice of Life (50 RP) Your current foray into aquaculture production is fully effective at feeding large numbers of people, but it also makes them try to drink an ocean the first time they eat it. And several times after that. And kind of kills their taste buds toward anything else. Maybe get some other versions of aquaculture working that don't do that? (Fixes the spice problem).
-[] Enhance the Agriculture! (200 RP) 5000 people being fed from one facility sounds like a lot. But it's really not when you start to consider things like star systems. So far you've been playing with the hobby-version of aquaculture. More commercial versions used heavier food-manufacturing systems that are closer to organic printers. They'd probably be much more effective for feeding extremely large numbers of people. (Unlocks blueprints for extremely efficient methods to produce large amounts of food. Unlocks research to install tiny systems that fully substitute food needs, such as installing something onto a spacesuit that fully converts waste into delicious food).
-[] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP) Calderath is an interesting case of a planet that doesn't need to be terraformed so much as ecologically engineered. You think you know how to do it - make a microbe that sinks the stupendous amount of seaweed standing up the oceans and buries it in ocean sediment. Actually making and deploying such a thing and having it do what you want is a different matter. (Potentially makes Calderath livable to humans again without breathing masks. Will cross-synergize with MICROBES, and both techs will discount each other) Write-in a risk tolerance. Depending on how well you roll you might not release it and instead get a follow-up action to further improve your solution. Even if you roll poorly and release it there will be a subsequent roll to determine success or failure.
-[] MICROBES: Miniaturized climate regulatory and optimized biogeochemical engineering symbionts (250 RP) Microbes are the chemical factories that reshape the chemistry of the planetary surface and atmosphere to your liking. Delving into the techniques used in the distance past to figure out how to engineer them would let you design better, faster terraforming organisms, as well as let them be applied to more extreme starting conditions (Improves, cheapens, accelerates and broadens the terraforming projects you have available. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] Complex genetic enhancement (150 RP) The complexity of human genetics lies in the epistasis between multiple different alleles. Put more simply, this shit is complicated. Figure it out. (Unlocks more advanced enhancements, including significantly improved strength, intelligence, etc. Unlocks research for even more dramatic engineering, and is likely required to try to make psykers)
-[] Psyker genetics (300 RP) What makes somebody psychic? You have a psyker, and some genetic samples from others acquired from various trips to the monasteries. (Allows you to develop a test to determine psychic ability, though it won't be perfect. Unlocks further technology to improve psychic potential in adults and embryos.)
-[] Understanding Mutations (150 RP) The mutations that occasionally pop up in Denva's population are... weird. Complex, and have bizarre phenotypes. Why? What's causing them? Why are they so hard to treat? Maybe look into that. (Potential cures for more difficult mutations, as well as further research into why they occur, and treating other kinds of genetic deterioration.)
-[] Adult genetic engineering (100 RP) Genetically modifying an adult comes with all sorts of complications. Doing it without killing them or incapacitating them for months is even harder. (Allows your genetic enhancements/therapies to apply to adult humans. Likely required for a full understanding of juvenat.)
-[] Does in vitro have something to do with wine? (100 RP) Unlocks the ability to clone basic humans (Unlocks the cloning bay, as well as further technology to clone things other than baseline humans, like humans without brains for organs or humans with more dramatic genetic mutations. Along with brain implants may lead to personality backups).
-[] The key to Expert surgery is Ego (200 RP) You can do fairly effective surgery, but the most complicated surgeries are beyond you. From all of the literature you have available, to truly break into the next level you merely need confidence. The confidence of somebody who believes they cannot be wrong. (Unlocks further discounts for advanced medical tech, cybernetic augmentations and more. Unlocks very advanced medical care, and further technology for reviving technically-dead bodies and brain transplants).
-[] Physical Apperance is Skin-deep (100 RP) Being able to do surgery on somebody's inside is one thing. But what about their outsides? (Unlocks cosmetic surgery to fix scars, alter appearances and even change skin tones. Unlocks follow-up research to allow you to disguise humans as xenos species whose biology you understand, or vice versa. May discount juvenat research.)
-[] Regeneration is just a matter of applied Growth (400 RP) You can make sure everything lines up properly to stimulate natural growth, but you can't actually accelerate it. Trying is a quick path to cancer and needs to be tweaked for every patient. That's why it wasn't common even in your time. But it should be possible, and you don't have to worry about pharmaceutical patents. (Your medical treatments have vastly accelerated healing timelines. Normally a prereq of juvenat, but in this case will simply have synergy. Unlocks further research for video-game-like med-kits and the ability to give people new organs without surgery)
-[] Drugs? Drugs. (75 RP) Human biochemistry is... weird. You've got a standard list of recipies for basic drugs, but if you wanted to get further into it you could start pulling out some stranger and more illicit ones from your research databanks. (Unlocks a wide variety of drugs for things like interrogation, combat, sedation, etc. May lead to research for things like perfect knockout gas, super-adrenaline, psytech drugs, etc.)
-[] Juvenat Beginnings (400 RP) Ok. Juvenat is complicated. You're able to make it by following a formula that is at times precise, at times general and at times just - what? Maybe start to delve into the science of that. (Unlocks a basic understanding of juvenat, and may make it more efficient to produce. Tech cost will be reduced by other biomedical researchers. The start of the juvenat research tree.)
-[] Navigator Genetics (400 RP) So... you have some navigator genetic material. You can poke at that, see if you can figure out how it works. They had a reputation even back in your day, and it only seems to have gotten worse. Still, tempting. (Unlocks basic understanding of navigator genetics. Will unlock further technology to improve the health of navigators, as well as technology to allow you to clone navigators.) Locked behind Complex genetic enhancement
-[] Navigator Gestation (200 RP) You have a navigator fetus. You don't know what to do with that beyond the obvious. So, how would you do it? Well, you doubt you could just implant it into somebody. From the traces left behind on Klyssar's nest you should do this in a tank. (Allows you to turn the navigator fetus into a navigator baby) Locked behind the Does in vitro have something to do with wine? and maybe a followup tech depending on rolls.
-[] Dubious Dark Eldar Dissections (75 RP) You've got some corpses of Dark Eldar. Time to take them apart and see what you can learn! (Gives you some details on Dark Eldar physiology. May provide bonuses towards psyker genetics, or develop medical techniques, drugs or implants for Eldar)
Cybernetics
-[] Combat Mobility Cybernetics (100 RP) Sticking rockets and grappling hooks into cybernetics isn't just cool. It's also useful - it'll let the wearers utilize more of the strength of their new limb without tearing apart their organic body. It'll also give them new maneuverability options. (Unlocks new parts for augments that enhance the wearer's strength and mobility. Synergizes with other technology, may unlock enhanced mobility for bots & armors)
-[] Combat Neural Implants (50 RP) Allows you to install neural implants to calculate trajectories, assist with aiming, further improve reaction time and generally improve human capabilities in combat. (Unlocks combat-focused neural implants. Will synergize with other cybernetics and neural implant technologies)
-[] Advanced organ replacements (100 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, but not quite. But they can't adjust to shocks in body homeostasis and they do need to be replaced every decade or so. You think you can make them as good or slightly better than the real thing, including the potential to grow with the bearer. (Unlocks organs which actually just replace normal organs almost perfectly. Likely to synergize with other implant/cybernetics/enhancement techs).
-[] Superhuman organ replacements (300 RP) Your organ replacements almost fully replicate the real thing, and have some useful auxiliary functions. But there's another level of improvement that's possible here. You could make organs that conveyed superhuman characteristics on the wearers. Improved oxygen transfer rate, improved bone density, immunity to most toxins, improved healing rate. (Unlocks advanced organs implants which grant superhuman capabilities. Not quite space-marine-level, but that's the next tech, though these are still artificial). Locked behind Advanced Combat cybernetics.
-[] Companion Cogitators (350 RP) Your implants are good. But they still rely on external computers for any heavy lifting. But with a good deal of work, and some effort at miniaturizing computation, data storage and power units you could fit a full computer into somebody, giving them access to a full suite (Powerful neural implants capable of incredible amounts of data crunching/cryptography, as well as full virtual presences. Further improves Organic-machine control, unlocks very powerful types of implants, including implanted machine spirits, personality-backups and depending on other technology minor AIs).
-[] Mood Regulators (100 RP) Interfacing the implant with the brain's emotional centers will allow it to regulate emotional states. Potentially useful to help the bearer regulate dangerous emotions like fear, lust, anger, greed, sloth, as well as emotional outbursts when such would be dangerous for them. Also potetnialyl useful for interrogation. (Your implants that can help with - or destroy - mental stability. Useful for those engaged with Chaos, and for unstable psykers. May unlock more technology geared towards ensuring a stable mental condition). Locked behind Drugs? Drugs.
-[] Pain Controller (100 RP) Pain is an incredibly deeply seated stimulus, and it's hard to block it without destroying a lot of senses. But if you manage it it could help immesurably with combat implants. (Your implants allow the deadening of pain, allowing people so implanted to fight or last through injuries and other bad feedback).
-[] Advanced Combat cybernetics (150 RP) Your cybernetics can easily contain light and some medium weapons, but they're not really suited to heavy combat. Yet. You could make them tougher, beefier, and figure out how to fit the power sources for larger weapons inside. (Unlocks advanced combat augments. Half of the technology for excellent combat augments, unlocks further cybernetics/research). Locked behind Really good Robotics.
-[] Advanced Cognition Filter (150 RP) Your existing Cognition Filter works very well, but you worry that it's prone to remove important details. It's hard to see how long an enemy's sword is when that sword is covered with Chaotic sigils, for example. Some amount of modelling and virtual reality augmentation could just replace that with an unadorned sword, circumventing the drawbacks of the first-generation cognition filter. (Improves Cognition filters to remove any downsides to filtering out chaotic information from perception.)
-[] Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (400 RP) Chaos corruption is a lot of things. However, it almost certainly involves some amount of neural rewiring to think more Chaotic thoughts. With your neural implants, you believe you might be able to reverse that, using warp sensors to detect combination of memory editing, negative feedback and induced plasticity to undo the Chaotic brain patterns. This is unlikely to return them to how they were before, but it'll give them a chance to be somebody new without demons twisting their brain. (Your brain implants can slowly un-corrupt the mental side of chaos corruption). Requires Companion Cogitators& Understanding Mutations
-[] Improved Organic-Machine control (100 RP) You think you can about double the capacity of the machine-control implants with a full redesign. (Approximately doubles the capacity of organic-machine control, letting a single human command more CP worth of units. Leads to further follow-on improvements.)
-[] Large-Scale organic-machine Control (100 RP) A manufactory is one thing, a shipyard or gas refinery is another. But at this point it's mostly a matter of scale and networking. (Allows OMC implants to control any kind of industrial production, including shipyards and non-military megastructures. Leads to further technology to improve the amount of CP one person can control.)
-[] Human Design Interfaces (200 RP) You've adapted your simulation software to work with advanced neural implants, but what about your design software? If humans could play with your auto-cad as well as you can then that would help you design or even entirely farm out the design of things. (Discounts design options, may unlock technology to improve the RP generated from humans with simulation implants, either per-person or simply raising the cap.)
-[] Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP) Simulation of the organic-machine control interfaces is tricky, but it has some pretty significant benefits. Not only will it make it far easier to train people on how to use the OMC technology, it'll let people virtually fight each other to discover new strategies. Besides, that might be fun. (Dramatically improved OMC competence. This may result in an increase in manufacturing efficiency for OMC-controlled manufactories, and will result in increased effectiveness of OMC-controlled military units.).
-[] Void Organic-Machine control (100 RP) A voidship can be thought of as a living creature, with veins of coolant, a reactor heart and an undying thirst for fuel. How can a single human understand it, much less understand it? (Allows OMC implants to control voidships. Leads to further research to boost CP capacity of OMC specifically for controlling voidships, as well as improvements to allow improved piloting)
-[] Remote Organic-Machine control (50 RP) One of the current limitations of the OMC technology is that it requires the controller to be on-site. But if that wasn't true, then you could imagine truly bloodless wars, or operators living in comfortable cities while they controlled factories in orbit. Something to look into. (Allows OMC implants to control installations or units within the same system. Leads to further research for interoperable units, as well as making it possible for human staff to directly contribute to Vita's CP cap.)
Hacking
-[] Rapid hacking (400RP) You need to figure out a new approach to subverting machine spirits. It might involve some combination of confusing them with a burst of signals, then showing up and 'relieving' the issue. But it would take a lot of trial-and-error to get right. (Improves hacking of imperial tech. Potentially enough for use in combat situations? Will unlock further hacking technology).
-[] Improved Machine-spirit Jamming (300 RP) Well, you can't combine it with hacking, but you can still try to improve what you have to be more efficent, target more machine spirits at a time, etc. (Improves success rate of jamming imperial tech, decreases failure penalties. May unlock further jamming technology)
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 15
-[] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[] Anexa passive action: Exploratory Research - Roll to discount a random tech from one of her specialties, 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.
Has a staff of 20 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +400 CP & 20 RP per turn.
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 17
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens.
Cia Steblin, FocusedPyromancer Psyker
Level 11
-[] Active Psyker improvement: Cia will actively attempt to practice her powers. Roll two d100s. Take the higher roll for determining level-up, but take the lower for perils of the warp. (DCs are unknown but context-dependent. They are currently favorable and will get less favorable as she levels)
-[] Passive Psyker improvement: Cia will take lower-risk actions to improve herself, including meditation, study and augmentation. A single level-up roll, with only a very low roll resulting in perils of the warp. Focus: Combat. Cia is now armed with custom heavy armor and a large but crude two-handed force sword. Abilities: Cia is able to use minor psytech without risk. She's learned the value of carrying around a few mundane ways to make fire for when she doesn't want to rely on her abilities, but is focusing on improving her pyromancy, which is currently ranked at Epsilon.
What to do with the Necrons? (separate from plan vote)
-[][Necron] Leave them. They've been sitting in that display hall for centuries at least. Just leave them there and wash your hands of it.
-[][Necron] Take them. They're ancient bots from before humanity went to the stars. What kind of technology might they possess? Gain a research option to investigate them.
-[][Necron] Destroy them. There's bad juju here, you can feel it. Blow them up and they can't awaken and cause problems for you.
Stankberg Suggestion (part of plan vote)
-[][Stankberg] Expansion Encourage Stankberg to expand across their planet, using your new masks
-[][Stankberg] Learn You'll provide technical primers and a starting manufactory. If they can operate it they can generate limitless masks and bootstrap themselves to space and beyond.
-[][Stankberg] Fix your planet. It's possible to fix their planet, and you'll help. Get buy-in to operate the ships necessary to eliminate the Stank.
-[][Stankberg] Favor Bank the favor for a request for later.
-[][Stankberg] Write-in. Some other idea.
Orkish response (part of plan vote)
-[][Orks] Destroy. Do your damndest to destroy them. Pretty likely to succeed but there's a chance they'll run away successfully or even get through to the planet.
-[][Orks] Capture Try to board and capture the ship. Risky, and likely to result in losses.
-[][Orks] Ward off Position yourself between them and the planet and scare them off with a show of force, then let them flee. The least likely to let them through.
-[][Orks] Observe Let them do what they want, observe and leave open the option to interfere later. You might learn a lot by watching them do what they normally would.
-[][Orks] Write-in (includes talking)
I was originally going to make passive and active stealth into different blueprint modifications that each increased design & production costs. But you crit, so now they're bundled together. We'll see if that remains true.
The cost to apply stealth technologies to bots was also going to be pretty nasty. Now it's only 0.5x because of the good success.
The Specter was upcosted in BP because most blueprint modifications are more expensive when applied to bots. So the new math was (Light (25BP), Humanized (15 BP base), Jammers (10 BP base),[50 BP base] Machine Spirit (+0.5x [25] BP), Stealth (+.5x [25] BP) = 100 BP.
The nanoparticle aeresols thing is real. My research area is adjacent to terraforming, so I know quite a lot about it. Thus the complexity of the terraforming tree. Please don't be dissuaded how much is there - you're currently at a state where Vita could terraform Mars to be minimally habitable with 5-6ish actions of effort. If you research the microbes and the warming tech that'll halve and would also unlock the terraformation of Venus. Going even a little way into the tree will pay off if you ever want to terraform things, and it'll also be useful for other planetary-scale ecology projects. Such as reseeding a Tyranid-devoured planet or de-orking a planet, though those techs will actually unlock once you have firsthand experience with those problems. If you go a ways down the tree there won't be a lot of planets you can't terraform fairly easily. Pretty much the only requirement is a ball of rock with sufficient gravity to hold an atmosphere, and somewhere there's a forcefield tech that'll let you green an asteroid belt.
I've discounted the cost of the Orbital Habitat because you researched mechanized agriculture. Meant to do that last turn.
The people of Calderath probably can barely operate the remediation ships, but they'd have trouble staffing more than about 30-50 of them. That would also potentially allow them to become an exporter of food since the ships can harvest as well as sink the seaweed.
I generally believe in failing forward on rolls. I thought about constructing a whole elaborate storyline around the failed neural implants requiring more processing power, but at the end of the day decided it was fine to have this be a flat failure and price increase. That happens too occasionally, and I think you got enough plot and research hooks this update.
The villa wasn't going to have this much loot in it, but such are the powers of crits.
I'm back on the slower posting schedule, so I'll open moratorium for 48 hours, then close the vote sometime in American Friday afternoon/evening.
Tally Rolls - scroll up to see actual rolls
[X][Necron] Take them.
[X] Plan: Enriching Exclave Establishment V3
-[X][Orks] Write-In: Try to lure the Orks in via talking and then destroy them once they're too close to successfully run away.
--[X] Head towards the Ork ship and attempt to contact the Ork in charge and challenge him to a fist-fight, winner gets the loser's ship. If he seems to be going for it, wait until he's well within medium range and then open up with everything in an attempt to destroy the Ork ship as quickly as possible. If he doesn't seem to be going for it, attempt to pursue and destroy the ship before it can warp away.
-[X] [Database] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X] Based on your earlier skimmings on the database, both the Inquisition's and that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the "Ancient Xenos Warbots" are probably Necrons. As you noted decades ago, they weren't known in your time even with the claims of them being millions of years old. That was probably an exaggeration or misintepration of data from the Imperium, so taking a deeper look should reveal some inconsistencies that tell the a different story, right? Right?
-[X][Repair Bay]: Remove the medium teleportarium (frees up 180 space, with 170 space free we have 1 free slot), build a psy-shielded captive cell block (38 BP + 250 BP for 50 HP psy-sheilds). Use the cells to store the necrons and various chaos artifacts / bodies. Use remaining capacity to repair combat damage.
--[X] Permanently station a detachment of bots here as security
-[X][Stankberg] Write-In: A slight adjustment on the Learn option, instead of just giving them a manufactory and some educational materials, offer lessons from and the manufacturing capability of the new branch of the Cogitare that you will be setting up in the volcano lair, while you're not expecting the whole population to jump for it and for some to deem it a waste of time in a population of a million more then enough will see the advantages of participating in lessons on how to operate and build the technology that produces their new masks and rebuilt their city.
-[X][Cogitare] Get our 20 tech-priests set up in the volcano lair with the goal of beginning the industrialization of the planet, uplifting the locals, and recruiting as many new Cogitare as possible.
--[X][Cogitare] The Cogitare should be handed control of the volcano fortress, the new manufactories we're building nearby, 589 Specter Light infiltration bots, 1000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers, 1000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots, and a Shuttle.
-[X] Construction x1 (600 VBP & 500 LC)
--[X] Build 4 Machine Spirit Manufactories near the volcano lair. (480 VBP & LC)
--[X] Build 1 Shuttle for the Cogitare staying behind. (20 BP & LC)
--[X] Build 2 Ocean Reclamation Boats for training purposes and to get started fixing the stank. (100 BP, 40 CP)
-[X] Research x2 (400 + 75 + 20 = 495 RP)
--[X] Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP)
---[X] Anexa assist
--[X] Human Design Interfaces (200 RP)
--[X] Remote Organic-Machine control (50 RP)
--[X] Abacus Manufacturing (50/100 RP)
--[X] Intelligence Coding (+45 RP -> 95/400 RP)
-[X] Travel/Explore: Head back to Denva.
-[X] Cia: Active Psyker improvement
-[X] Victan Active Action: Assist coordinating with the locals and Cogitare to get the exclave established and their relationship with the locals off the ground.
You aren't extensively knowledgeable about the Orks, but what you have seen about them is that they love fighting. Love it. It's their whole reason for being, and the primary reason they stop fighting each other is for the chance to fight somebody new and interesting.
And you'd rather prefer to keep that "new and interesting" person to you, rather than inflicting the scourge that is an unchecked Ork infestation on the planet that you've just started to get emotionally invested in. Or almost worse would be them turning around and carrying word to other Orks that there's a good fight to be had here, against you.
When you put those priorities together, it does seem like there's a clear avenue of attack, and it's the orkish ego. If you taunt them then there's a good chance they try to attack you instead of turning and running away. The trick is how to make it seem like a good idea to get close enough to the Spark of the Ancients to blow them into green dust bunnies.
There's a solution for that, but it's leaning a little more heavily on the interpretation of the Orks as battle-drunk idiots than you'd like. Still, you don't have a better idea, so as you pilot your ship out to meet them you send a message ahead of you.
It's of your older woman persona, and you've edited her to appear a good deal bigger and tougher. She's got a metallic jaw augment that gives her a severe overbite and carries a comically oversized plasma pistol on one hip and a stupidly gilded sword on the other.
"Orks. I challenge you to single combat for the space of the Calderath system. Fists, to the death. Winner gets all both ships, loser is dead."
Your message wings its way across the void and reaches the ork ship, and you wait eagerly for a response. You're busy calculating vectors in case they try to evade you. You're not accelerating as quickly as you can and could still probably cut them off short of reaching Calderath. But their ship is certainly faster than yours, and there's nothing you can do to stop them escaping the system or even jumping deeper into sub-sector Zantris.
You don't have to wait long, and you get back a message of a big ork staring intently into the camera pickup from a cavernous bridge scurrying with green figures. He's got a big hat that looks like nothing so much as a broad-brimmed top-hat made of scraps of shiny metal. His teeth are made of metal, but otherwise he appears to be entirely mossy-green flesh, and absolutely festooned with so many knives they appear to be a form of armor.
"Oi! this th'n' on? Ya, lets have us a proppa smack-down. Yer an' me, meet on shuttles 'n 'da middle. Da winna gets da ships." He nods authoritatively, like a judge satisfied with their ruling, and the channel cuts out.
You lean back slightly and frown to yourself. "It can't be that easy."
The next few hours prove that it is apparently that easy. They accelerate right towards you, and you accelerate right back. Your crew watch on in bemused silence as your finger hovers over the proverbial firing button.
Then, right as you're about to fire, the Ork sends another message. This time he's not on the bridge, but rather sitting in the cockpit of a shuttle that looks like it was hammered together by rabid toddlers on amphetamines. His face is split in a wide grin. "A'course it ain't gunna be jus' me, but me an' me boyz!" He laughs uproariously and chops his hand forward. "I'z go'n' ta enjoy wot ship ya got. Mighty shiny, it iz." Then the signal cuts out.
That was apparently the signal to launch shuttles, and a few dozen shuttles of completely variable design launch from the ork ship. You look at them and then shrug and open fire.
The ship is much tougher than you were expecting from the external appearance - though that's not exactly hard. It certainly looks like the only thing you need to do to defeat it is wait. But, as you have to keep reminding yourself, the Orks of this time are a scourge of the stars, and if allowed to build up to sufficient numbers can be a significant threat.
But these ones won't be. Their ship comes apart under a hail of plasma and macrocannon fire, and your fighters start picking off the shuttles.
The ork leader calls you again, and the downcast look on his face is almost comical. "Not fair," he says, looking betrayed and hurt. "I'z 'da wun ta do 'da betray'n."
You target your guns on the shuttle that the signal's coming from, and the signal cuts off abruptly as the shuttle comes apart in a tiny puff of fire against the infinite dark.
The rest of the boarding craft follow suit, though they get farther than they should. The shuttles slip targeting solutions that should have them bracketed, and close the distance even as they die. That's when you notice that your warp sensors have been picking up some kind of vague signal ever since the battle was joined. It's vague and hazy, closer to a general field than a discrete signal, but there's something there.
You start activating the bots spread across the ship, preparing them to repel boarders of the green and raucous variety. But then the last shuttle is tagged by your guns and spins out of control into the path of a plasma cannon to be vaporized.
And just like that the field of warp energy dissipates, leaving you with the knowledge that something funky's going on, but without enough data to really dig into what it is.
Weird. If only they were a little bit easier to capture for study. But I already have one caged demon, and am about to pick up a bunch of questionably-dead murderbots. Maybe I should chill on the absolutely-unsafe research subjects for a little while.
Your remaining crew cheer as the threat board reads clear. They've all been watching the tactical situation with bated breath, and you send out a general message that the threat is passed, and to return to regularly scheduled events.
One part of that is the priority meeting you're having with your crew to figure out next steps. Does an ork scouting party change your plans significantly?
"I don't think that should change our plans very much," Victan announces as he walks into the room. "It was a random scouting party, and it doesn't look like they got a message off. Unless we're sticking around for longer than is reasonable, the best we can do is warn the locals of the dangers and give them the tools to deal with it."
Anexa interlaces her fingers on the table. "Can we take a step back here and think about what we're doing? We're uplifting every world we come across, and scattering members of the Cogitare - my staff - across the sub-sector. Is that something we want to do?"
Cia looks at her. "Why wouldn't it be?" She's still dressed in her armor, but has left her giant sword propped up against the wall so she can fit into the chair.
Anexa rolls her hand around. "I agree it's a good thing. But that means we're not doing other things. We're uplifting these worlds instead of building a fleet. We're scattering my staff instead of putting them to work doing research. Is that our Mission?" The capitol letter is clear in her words, and the question is directed at you.
All of your crew looks at you, waiting for your answer. You consider it. So far your intentions to uplift the populations of Calderath and Vorthryn have been considered in isolation. But Anexa's right, it's time to think about it as part of a larger strategy.
Still, your answer is hesitant. "Yes?" Then you stop and think about it some more, planning out potential long-term plans and answering more firmly. "Yes. I don't want to be an island of sanity sailing through a sea of war and hatred, and scattering the seeds of the Cogitare seems like the best method to do that. Let's start thinking about this as something we'll be doing again. We want to establish an enclave here with a solid manufacturing base, a population to recruit from, and the mission to educate and uplift."
You wave your hands towards an uncertain future. "The hope is that they're self-sufficient, and able to hide and survive long enough that they can emerge as powers later. Growing in terms of manufacturing, numbers and knowledge. I don't know if it makes sense to try to integrate them into Denva as it expands or simply let them emerge as distinct sane polities that can ally together against the insanity of the galaxy, but what's important is that even if we left and never came back, the technology we've spread would be enough for a new civilization to emerge from the ashes of this sector."
Your crew sits and digests that before Cia answers wryly. "We just want it to be the right civilization. Or at least one that doesn't worship the wrong gods."
"Yes," you agree assertively.
Victan tilts his head curiously. "Then what do we do? How can we ensure the Cogitare spreads and uplifts as effectively as possible?"
You point at him. "Obviously, help them integrate. We need to get good at convincing local societies to accept help, and setting up the Cogitare enclave's structure to suit the locals. I don't think this is a case where a one-size-fits-all solution is going to work."
Victan nods, and your attention shifts to Anexa. "There's some research we can do to help them out. More elaborations on OMC, specifically to let them control industry remotely, make it easier to teach, and to help your tech-priests design their own blueprints to solve problems that come up. Let's get on that."
You glance towards Cia, who looks back placidly. "Nothing stands out for you to help with. Be ready for the next time we need to kick ass?"
She snorts and shakes her head. "I can't think of anything either. But I'm always ready to kick ass."
You slap the table. "Well, I think we have a plan. Let's get the rest of your staff set up in the governor's mansion with some manufactories, a connection to Stankberg and a mission. Anexa, do you think they'll be happy to go?"
Her expression is a bit wistful. "They are, actually. There's been some discussions about how glorious it would be to spread the Cogitare, to uplift people to the wisdom of exploration and your knowledge. I also don't think they'll object to being left behind in the volcano Villa. It's a nice place."
She shrugs. "I think it wouldn't be hard to change how I interact with them going forward, to make it clear that the goal isn't just to discover knowledge, but to spread it. That's something I'll change with the next batch of tech-priests. I assume we'll be heading back to Denva for more?" She raises an eyebrow at you.
You nod in response. "We will. It's been long enough that we should go back to check in, pick up more tech-priests. Maybe get some more ships built to address the problems we've faced out here."
Her eyebrow stays raised. "And the necrons?"
"The necrons?" You've heard that reference before, and it takes a quick database lookup to see where - in the inquisitorial files. And the accompanying images - of course.
Those aren't just random warbots in the governer's villa. Those are representatives of a machine race. An ancient and powerful one.
Anexa's expression morphs to victory as you re-evaluate your entire thought process on if you're taking the humanoid metal robots aboard. But the more you think about it, the more this revelation doesn't change your priority. They clearly have advanced technology, and the alternatives are leaving them behind with a cogitare that has significantly less resources to deal with them, destroying them or taking them with you.
"We'll take them. I'll build out a secure holding facility. And I'll see if there are any hidden files in the Inquisitorial database. I think there are more hidden files than real ones in there."
"Sounds like a plan," Anexa answers.
From there the meeting descends into more mundane discussions, such as where exactly you'll be incorporating the manufactories into the volcano complex. Cia's against spoiling the view, while Anexa argues that they can't go underground and Victan just gives sarcastic commentary.
As soon as you have time you dive into the first piece of your research agenda, which is figuring out how to let the Organic-Machine command system work remotely. The problem, as ever with remote systems, is latency and bandwidth. It's hard to transmit that much data losslessly, and the latency means it's hard for somebody to control the detailed working of a combat bot or manufacturing system from a great distance.
The solution is pretty much to add error-correction and better compression algorithms everywhere. But that's putting a very simple answer over a very complex process. The necessary information to entirely control a complicated mechanical system is a lot, and details matter. If the exact temperature of the coolant gets lost along the way then you can't just error-correct it. You need checksums organized by importance of data, as well as compression methods that are aware of the entropy of the data they carry.
Still, once you've simplified the problem to mathematics you're able to crunch through it in a satisfactory way, and come up with a new set of algorithms. Some sit atop the control system of the things being controlled, some go into the neural implants of the ones doing the controlling. Together they should mean that a person needs less overall data to control a large machine and that the data doesn't need to be as high-quality. That may have implications for improving the scale of what people can control, but that's something to investigate later.
Researched Remote Organic-Machine control - rolled 76+20=96, Critical success! People can control CP-requiring technology like manufactories, combat units & more while within the same planetary system. They are fully functional during this process, able to take care of themselves & even do simple tasks. Unlocked new technology - Interchangeable OMC control (150 RP)
Unlocked bonus technology - Lower OMC Implant Specs (200 RP)
Discounted existing technology - Human Virtual OMC simulations cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Large-Scale organic-machine Control cost reduced by 25 RP
Discounted existing technology - Improved Organic-Machine control cost reduced by 25 RP
Victan meanwhile is making frequent flights down to Stankberg, spreading around some more cheap masks and other basic technological goods as he tries to convince them to collaborate with the enclave that's being set up in the volcano villa thousands of miles away.
Now that he's finally come with a request the reception is cooler, but it's by no means cold. He's attempting to convince them to change their way of life, and at least some people are willing to listen, and suggest that they might not be totally opposed to learning some of these new-fangled technologies. They don't seem to really believe that there's a path to fixing the stank, but they're happy that there's going to be a permanent source of the new masks around, as well as people they can ask for help the next time something breaks.
They're most hesitant of all to send their children off to learn at the enclave, but relent when a few promises are made about the ability of anybody to come learn, along with frequent visits home and concurrent deliveries of advanced goods. It's looking more and more like there's going to be a significant population boom in the next few years as the people of Stankberg find other uses for their time than laborious mask-weaving and attempts to preserve food, so you're expecting their doubts to dwindle even further, especially after the ocean-reclamation boats deliver their first loads of seaweed.
Meanwhile, Anexa's overseeing the move-in of her remaining staff to the Sector-Governor's villa. She's chosen the new leader of the outpost carefully. Mure Fedolonil is a personable young woman who clearly idolizes Anexa, and has taken after her style in implants. She's significantly darker-skinned than Anexa is and has chosen a rich gold color for the surface impressions of her implants, but the outward design is similar, with geometric golden lines bracketing a shaven head and stretching down each of her limbs.
But more importantly, she's one of the most personable remaining tech-priests. Most of the ones who were excited about education and uplift stayed in Calderath, but Mure stayed just to continue learning from Anexa. She's clearly torn about being left behind here, but Anexa confides that she trusts Mure on this. Not just to teach the new students skills, but to raise them with the mission of the Cogitare in mind. Mure's pleased by the feedback, and accepts the request to head the new enclave. She stands on Anexa's left when she makes a speech to the remaining priests, with your green-haired body on the other side.
"The purpose of the Cogitare is to explore new knowledge and spread it to the stars, as we have done since we left Denva. But to spread knowledge, we must teach, and create new places where knowledge is discovered. Vita and the Spark of the Ancients is only one place, one ship. But sparks ignite new flames, and knowledge is the brightest flame of all! So let this system be a place the the flame of knowledge catches and burns brightly."
You'd been worried that they wouldn't be happy to get left behind here, but Anexa's speech at least forestalls any real grumbling. Then the offer of manufactories to themselves and the quality of the accommodations available seals the deal.
Should I be worried about the way they praise the omnissiah when looking toward my avatar?
For the manufactories themselves you've compromised and built them aboveground but outside of the caldera. They're in a secluded cove outside of the island that looks like it was used for bulk goods deliveries. That means the manufactories themselves don't spoil the pristine beauty of the internal caldera, but there's a large cargo-transit tunnel that accesses some of the main areas of the villa. It'll also be easy to launch the boats that you intend to be one of the primary production items of the Cogitare, to eventually remove all of the offending seaweed and make the planet fully habitable once more.
4 Machine Spirit Manufactories built for the Cogitare Volcano Enclave!
1 Shuttle for the Cogitare!
2 Ocean Reclamation boats built!
The tech-priests themselves spread out across the villa when they inhabit it. The death-cult servants are gone, but a few enterprising mechanicus members whip up some cleaning bots to keep the place spotlessly clean. They spread out to inhabit the choicest rooms and convert various locations into workshops and classrooms and dormitories. Mure plans out the curriculum for the new students, and she seems to have taken the instruction to create a school seriously. She's raided your databases, and what she's working on setting up is a proper academy, where students will learn the secrets of science and technology.
They won't be badly defended. The enclave is fully in control of the defenses on the island, and you're leaving behind a few thousand bots that would be able to stiffen those defenses or take on anybody that was able to infiltrate past them.
-589 Specter Light infiltration bots,
-1000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers
-1000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
The other thing that's been keeping Anexa and her staff busy is building out an organic-machine simulator. It's going to be some time until they're implanting the full OMC implant into new people, but when that happens it'll be massively helpful if it's possible for them to learn in a simulated environment instead of having to practice with real hardware that can break. Especially if that hardware is limited as may be true for the next generation or so.
Depending on how they scale. We're leaving the exact construction queue up to Mure, but there's a general understanding that she's going to split their capacity between building up more capacity, building some reclamation ships and keeping Stankberg supplied with what it needs. Though if some Orks land while I'm gone she's fully capable of building whatever she needs to keep them in check.
Still, having the ability to simulate controlling various bots, ships and more is going to be useful in all sorts of ways you can't imagine. Not only will it let people train, but it'll open up combat practice and potentially allow people to test-drive designs before they've finalized the specs to predict how it'll perform.
Once more you and Anexa start with the basics of your own simulation capabilities and then massively scale it back, attempting to create a simple sandbox that you can input parameters in to generate a realistic-enough setting that an organic-machine control implant can interface with to control manufacturing, bots, tanks and even small craft with a simple setup.
A lot of that involves improving the user interface of the system, and creating a way for a theoretical design to be simulated accurately enough to be controlled in a simulation. All of this means that your organic-machine control tech has improved by leaps and bounds in terms of usability and effectiveness, but you know there's more ground to cover to make it maximally usable.
In the process of all of this you and Anexa joke about how you're effectively creating a very realistic videogame that can be played through people's neural implants. That's part of the intention - to allow people to practice their combat skills when piloting various robots. But there's certainly potential here if you spent the effort to build out the framework around the combat simulation.
Anexa speculates on the potential benefits of build a game around the organic-machine control simulations. "We could make it something people actually do for entertainment. If we can also make it work with lower implant specs then it might be a way to screen a much larger chunk of the population for skills with the organic-machine control. Or have people entering training already be experienced with the basics."
You have to concede the point, though if you do decide to go that route you're going to need to strike a deliberate balance between it being fun and being useful training.
Researched Human Virtual OMC simulations - 69 + 20 (Vita) + 10 (Anexa) = 99. Critical success! All Organic-machine control happens at a higher level of competency, increasing the productivity of manufactories entirely controlled by OMC-equipped personnel, and increasing the combat capabilities of OMC-controlled combat units. New technology unlocked - Streamlined OMC interface (125 RP)
Bonus technology unlocked - Gameified OMC (75 RP)
Discounted existing technology - Human Design Interfaces cost reduced by 25 RP
Discounted existing technology - Void Organic-Machine control cost reduced by 25 RP
Discounted existing technology - Lower OMC Implant Specs cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Interchangeable OMC control cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Void Organic-Machine control cost reduced by 25 RP +1 Anexa level
To your faint surprise nothing is aflame. The first students have arrived to the enclave and find themselves in awe at the majesty of their new location. They are housed in dormitories, presented with lesson plans and quickly dismayed by the weight of their workload. Still, you notice groups of them banding together to explore the structure, cautiously navigating the vast expanses of unused rooms.
Groups of adolescent students learning arcane arts in a grandiose building in a remote but beautiful location? That sounds like a fiction trope. I wonder what I'll find when I come back.
Still, with how everything's running smoothly you have time to get into your next research project, which is aiming to seal the deal on making the enclave capable of making their own designs more effectively. You're certainly intending to come back, but you don't know how long it'll be, and leaving them the ability to design new blueprints is likely to come in rather handy down the line.
The problem here is that your design software isn't really a software package so much as the precursor to your simulation package. It doesn't have "tools" so much as "capabilities." Every time you want to build something you more-or-less imagine what you want, then refine. But that doesn't work very well for humans. Not only is the human imagination imprecise and flawed, but they can't hold together a complete design in their head all at once. So, you need to adapt your system work gradually, over time, and have enough tools that it's possible for them to sculpt together a design manually.
It's somewhat tedious work, but at the end of the day you're happy with the results. You didn't do much more than slap an interface atop the design software you had that lets people control the shape and material of various parts, as well as the interactions between them. Then there's a thousand little edge cases and uses you need to account for, and you're not sure you got them all. But trying reveals a few optimizations you might be able to make to your existing designs, which are worth filing away for later.
Still, at the end of the day it's a functional piece of software that anybody with good enough implants can use to design something new, from a gun to a plane to a voidship. You aren't sure you'd be confident using their designs without double-checking them yourself, but for groups like your enclaves or Denva it very well might be a godsend to be able to design new things relatively easily.
Researched Human Design Interfaces - rolled 56+20=76. Good success. Humans equipped with your implants, especially the OMC variety, can make their own designs. If you assign 20 people under your command with such implants to a design task it halves the cost of that design task. Unlocked new technology - Collaberative Computational R&D (250 RP)
Discounted existing technology - Streamlined ship design discounted by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Improved Engine Designs discounted by 25 RP
You finish that up and quietly upload it to the network below. The tech-priests of the enclave seem to have a joint moment of religious revelation at the ability to directly access that kind of design software, and at least of few of them walk out of the classes they're teaching to go build something.
You're a little bit annoyed, but more proud of what you've built. This kind of consolidated implant-machine interface wasn't something that was really needed during the age of your birth, but right now it's vital. An implant package that can educate, research, design, build and remotely operate advanced robots. It's a powerful tool, and one that can hopefully help bootstrap the friendly outposts of humanity to decent levels of technology and military might - before it's too late.
Still, it's seems like it should be about time to leave Caldereth - except it isn't. You're ahead of schedule, but the enclave is right on time. They're still shipping down important material to finish putting together the ships and make sure everything is ready for the day you depart.
Still, you can try to accelerate the process, and you do by sending out quick notes to Victan, Anexa and Mure about the planned change of pace. You also notify Cia, but she's not doing anything nearly as dependent on which system you're in.
They scramble to update to the new timeline, but it's not going to be overnight. So you use the extra time to ponder your own construction. Artificial intelligence was among the highest feats of your own time, and you don't understand all of its secrets yet. But it's not like you don't have a copy of your own schematics, and not only will that understanding allow you to start figuring out how to build more AIs, it'll also hopefully let you make modifications to your own structure to give yourself new capabilities.
The other thing you busy yourself with is getting the necrons aboard. You've done some reading on the necrons, and what you've found is thoroughly unpleasant and unpleasantly vague. They're definitely older than humanity, likely older than the eldari. You find it hard to credit the "millions of years old" text, but there's nothing in the database to refute that claim, and it chills you. There wasn't even a whisper of them in your time, which seems hard to reconcile.
But the inquisitorial handbook you own doesn't seem to hold any clues, no matter how you sift through hidden files and search for links to more. It's not a guide to what the necrons are so much as how they operate. That alone makes for terrifying reading.
The Necrons sound like a scary story come to life - soulless killing machines slumbering underground on worlds across the galaxy, waiting to awaken for unknown reasons and attempt to conquer the space around them with advanced weapons, technology and implacable resolve. The primary recommendation of the Inquisition is simple - evactuation of key assets, and then exterminatus by the most extreme methods available. Even the space marines, the most elite forces of the Imperium, are typically considered no more than a delaying tool in the face of an awakening tombworld.
However, there's a few notes that catch your attention, though they're primarily warnings about the techno-lust of the Explorators. The Necrons clearly have advanced technology, and atop the physics-defying weaponry they have impressive self-repair capabilities and the theorized ability to teleport damaged units to safety. Without using the warp. All of this makes you theorize that the basic warriors - like the ones you have access to now - are little more than drones, potentially operated remotely in much the same way as you operate your own combat bots.
While that would mean it is fairly safe to study the necrons in your custody, you don't want to make damaging assumptions. Still, there's a lot of potential research to be done here, starting from the strange (and self-repairing?) metal they're made of to mapping out their circuitry and investigating if there's any truth to this teleportation thesis.
Furthermore, based on the note of where they were acquired and what the Knights of the Crimson Vigil told you, this particular necron tombworld has awoken and begun to expand into the space around it. That might mean that if you get close enough your captives will wake up, and potentially teleport away, taking everything they know with them.
That could be bad.
So, you design and build a new prisoner complex to hold them, adding psychic shields to it as a matter of course. You're not sure they'll do anything, but it's the best you can do, at least for now. Well, that and stationing a few hundred of your own combat bots throughout the prison in case they do wake up and decide to make a ruckus.
Unlocked new research project - Necron Initial Investigations (200 RP) Requires advanced technological research lab.
Then the day does arrive to leave, and you hold another ceremony on the surface of the planet with all of the tech-priests and their students. They've proliferated a simple throat implant that blocks the harmful emanations of the stank, and so most people stand bare-faced under the tropical sun as you give a short speech about the limitless potential of the future and the weight of the dangers that lurk in the stars.
"... and so I give you this charge. You hold the potential for everything, to spread joyous civilization across the stars. But those stars will fight you every step of the way, and you must be ready for the struggle. Do your homework, build the basic tools you need, for every piece of work done now is a stepping stone to the edifice of metal and knowledge that shall conquer the crushing darkness."
You step down from the podium after the short speech and Mure takes your place to remind everybody of the schedules, and then announce they have a half-day off to enjoy the beauty of the tropical paradise.
But you don't. Now that preparations are made it's time to leave. After all, you have a detour to make that is possible because of the extra time you saved due to the accelerated schedule. So instead of setting course back to Ascalon, you instead turn around and leave Calderath the same way you entered it, heading back to Vorthryn. You're not intending a long stop, and indeed you spend signifcantly more time in the warp than in the Vorthryn. The warp journey is fairly calm, though through your warp shields you can tell that your void abacus isn't exactly steering you through the calmest possible path. Still, it's not bad.
-11 hull psychic HP
You don't even enter the inner-system of Vorthryn, simply connecting to Quorath virtually, requesting an update and uploading your new technology. What you receive in response is clearly slapped together in haste, as they weren't expecting you for some time. But what accompanies it is an outpouring of goodwill in receipt of the new capabilities you offer. You are pretty sure that the terms "Blessed Omnissiash delivers!" is repeated more than a few times.
Paging through your report you can see why they're so pleased. It can be summed up pretty effectively as "everything going to plan, but not as quickly as we'd hoped." The Ductsworn and Bridgeborn are still sworn enemies of your enclave, but at least the enclave has solidified its military position rather appropriately, and begin to reach out and support the other populations on the ship, which are growing dependent on the enclave. They've got new initiates that they're training, but it's going slowly due to the absolutely atrocious baseline they're starting from.
Still, you transmit the news of the enclave in Calderath headed by Mure, along with a general sketch of the details. What you receive from Quorath is clearly tinged by emotions like jealously and competition, but not in a negative way. He's glad that the Cogitare is spreading further, but now he wants to outdo Mure. He's genuinely a little bit salty that she gets to lounge in the governor's villa while he's stuck in a ship that's only holding together because it was built to last ten thousand years. Which seems fair.
The next jump to Acalon is similarly calm, though once again it leaves its marks on your psychic shielding.
-14 hull psychic HP
You're not intending to go anywhere near Ascalon Primus or Oladeer, though you don't see anything out of place. That just makes you check harder with your updated sensors, as you don't trust the Dark Eldar not to try and jump you again.
However, the thing that interrupts your journey through Ascalon comes from inside your ship, as Cia sits in meditation at the heart of the psychic lab, orbited by a half-dozen slowly pulsing flames.
Cia level-up rolls - 5, 53. Perils of the Warp roll - 59 Dark Summoning
Your warp sensors scream as the materium rips in response to the flex of Cia's power. Something tries to force its way inside, but your psychic shields fight back, straining to keep the invading presence at bay and deny the very existence of the tear in reality that's bleeding colors of dreams into your psychic laboratory.
Combat bots are already on their way, but Cia's in the epicenter. At least she's not incapacitated, though her implants report rather active vital signs. Still, she's up and ready, blade in hand for whatever comes.
The warp rift bulges again, and a scream of rage tears its way loose as a red, horned face presses against the rift like a rabid animal trying to tear its way through a forcefield. Whatever it is, it's angry and it wants in.
Cia denies it, and the moment one of its horn punches through the hole and appears fully inside your lab she drives her blade in through the slot, sliding it into the creature's head. The cries of rage do not cease, but the creature staggers backward and the rip begins to close. However, it doesn't happen fast enough to avoid another pulse of warp-energy as rage made manifest runs wild through the lab, shattering what remains of the psychic shielding and buckling the bulkheads.
Your sensors also break, and you tune into the combat bots that are rushing into the lab, afraid of what you will see.
The tear to the immaterium is closed, and Cia's on one knee, her blade planted into the floor to keep her upright. She looks up as the bots enter, and her face is a mein of true rage, her eyes flaming. Then she blinks and the flames vanish. She pries her grip away from the sword and exhales long and slow. She stands, leaving the blade stuck into the floor of the lab, and totters forward.
"I need to sleep for a year," she says, heading straight for her quarters.
You keep a careful eye on her, and when she wakes up you give her some space, but the moment she seems ready to talk you enter her room.
"Are you ok?" you ask carefully. You're trying not to sound like you're cautious - but, well, you are.
She puts her face in her hands and sighs. "Yes. No." She looks up. "I'm scared. That's the kind of thing they warned us about, back at the monastery. When you think you're controlling your power - especially then - it will bite you like it is a wild animal."
She shudders slightly. "And the thing that tried to get in - it shared its rage with me. The shielding denied most of it, and my implant caught its words, but it was so much..." she trails off, then takes a deep breath. "I'll be fine. I know what happened, and I know not to let it happen again. Anger is not a path to power. Not my path to power."
You sit next to her and give her a hug. "It's ok. Nothing bad happened. We'll fix the lab. Upgrade it even. You're getting stronger, and that's ok. Do you need a break?"
She shrugs. "Maybe? I don't want to be scared away, but I've been pushing hard recently. Maybe I need a break, to work on my mental discipline for a while."
"Ok," you reply.
The psychic lab is destroyed. It will have to be rebuilt from scratch. +1 Cia Level.
Still, once you're sure that jumping back into the warp isn't going to cause any more problems you do so. The warp transit is a bit less comfortable than it was the last time, but nothing problematic. You exit the warp in the Denva system excited to see what's been going on while you were gone.
-20 hull psychic HP
You're too far out to see much, and are about to start accelerating into the system when a beacon pings you with a text code that says "W requesting Vita's full and undivided attention. Input Victan Code 7 for full message."
You loop Victan in right away, and on prompting he responds with a completely random sixteen-character string that you send back to the beacon. It replies with a video message that you open up, looping in the rest of your crew. You have the feeling this will be important.
W is before you, looking rather grim. She's sitting in an office you recognize in your old ship, hidden underground a few miles from the facility you built on Denva.
"Vita, I hope you recieve this message sooner rather than later. I'm having it scattered around the Mandeville Points in the hopes you get it as soon as you return, because things are bad. We need your help once more."
Her lips whiten as she presses them together in displeasure before she continues. "A month before the recording of this message the Forsaken Chorus jumped into Denva from Myrris aboard the heavy cruiser Echo of Apotheosis."
You check the timestamp on the message. It was recorded eleven years ago, and the delay makes you shiver at what might have happened since then. But there's no use in not hearing the rest of what W has to say, and you let her continue.
"They destroyed our fleet and all of the ships under construction, then landed boarding parties aboard Klyssar's Nest and the concentrations of orbital manufactories, including the manufactories and refineries of Aerithon. Now they're sieging Denva. They've destroyed every major military base with orbital strikes. It looks like they want to conquer the planet for good. We're planning to try and hold onto your old base as long as possible, but all we can do is build defenses. We cannot strike back, and if they control the rest of the system..." she shrugs her hands helplessly.
W's carries the weight of every one of her centuries as she looks out at you. "Please, you have already given us so much, and we reached for the stars. But we were too optimistic, and it may be our doom. Save us one more time." Then she shakes her head. "Another three months and the new frigates would have commissioned..."
Her expression grows businesslike once more. "I'm attaching files on the progress Denva made, and the technology we've developed. If you should arrive too late and there's nothing left, at least we can repay you in the smallest of ways. I will save everything I can, but I don't think this is a fight I can win, just hold out." Then the message cuts out, and a large bulk of files starts to transfer over.
There's a moment of shock as you and your crew process all of that. Then Victan swears. "By the God-Emporer's Tarnished Throne. The moment we left."
"Not exactly," Anexa replies absentmindedly, but she's already busy pulling up and sorting through the files that W attached. "It looks like everything was going smoothly, they had distributed manufacturing throughout the asteroid belt and the Aerithon orbits, they had a few more candles online and were about to build a new tranche, as well as a half-dozen torpedo frigates. But before any of it was functional the Echo of Apotheosis jumped in and destroyed it all."
She throws up a set of statistics, highlighting a few numbers for attention. "Look at how much manufacturing there was. It's - see this?" She drags up an image of a ship. It's about two hundred meters long and half that wide, looking like a short and very pregnant shark. The notes indicate that it's the Crucible-class manufactory ship. Crew of four, run by OMC." Her tone carries a note of surprise. "They built hundreds of them. They were really spreading out, and embracing the technology... the number of students with the OMC implants is staggering."
Denva manufacturing development - 90
Denva Research progress - 43
Denva social development - 65
Technology aquired - Void Organic-Machine control Allows OMC implants to control voidships. Existing technology discounted - Superconductive Shenanigans cost decreased by 50 RP
New blueprint unlocked - Crucible-class manufacturing Craft
New blueprint unlocked - Flame-class Torpedo Destroyer
Anexa's interruption has shocked Victan out of his angry stupor, and he's started studying the display as well. "It looks like they moved fully into OMC technology, and were starting to have good relations with the Vellkar. Harvesting Denva Primus for materials, but all of the smelting and manufactories were in orbit." His tone grows hot once more. "There's a note here that all of that was destroyed after the Forsaken Chorus gained control of the system."
"Right." You say declaratively, breaking the spiraling that's going on as people desperately dig into files. "That's what happened then. We need to know what's happening now."
You set a very careful course. It's likely they already know you're here, and your ship isn't the stealthiest. But you haven't gotten any communications from in-system yet, and you don't want to give them more information that necessary. But your course is optimized to give you lots of options while giving you good sensor coverage of the entire system, and soon enough data begins coming back.
The heavy cruiser is right over Denva Secundus, though you note its orbit would keep it out of line-of-sight from your old base. Further data refines that yes, there are active void shields coming from that region of Aevon, and that ignites a spark of hope. If W was able to consolidate defenses and upgrade what you'd left behind even somewhat, she could have turned that region of the planet into a fortress that would be nearly impossible for a single ship to crack, especially against a population of billions.
But that leaves the rest of the system - and the message there is bleak. It looks like there's scattered activity throughout the asteroid belt from hundreds of remaining crucibles, but less than half of what W's files said they should have built. Klyssar's nest is still there and inhabited, but it shows signs of being struck with lancefire. Similarly the orbital manufactories and refineries around Aetherion are present and functional, but a new set of shipyards floats next to them, with a set of ships you don't recognize under construction within. They're still years-off from completion, but the sharp-pronged shapes resting within the building slips give you the chill.
Cia studies the projection intently. "So. What do we do now?"
That's a good question.
Vote on what to do.
What will you do about the Chaos Warband currently occupying Denva?
These are suggestions, feel free to write in a more complete plan. Depending on how complete your plan is and how the rolls go, this may take more than one update.
[] Attack the ship You outmass it significantly. It's a design you're unfamilair with, but you can win the ship-to-ship fight. Destroy it, then proceed to liberate the rest of the system with your bots.
[] Capture the ship You're not sure if you have enough troops for this, but it's worth a shot. At the very least you can disable the ship, then build more troops later.
[] Bait the ship (write-in how) Try to get them to come to you, potentially picking up more forces as they can so you can destroy them all at once)
[] Board Klyssar's Nest/Aetherion stations Try and kick them off the void stations, potenitally picking up allies and weakening their foothold in the system.
[] Chase them away With a slow but implacable approach you think you can chase them off without committing to a full fight.
[] Write-in
Current capabilities:
Command Points 1,760/12,500
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 600
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 195/240 HP, Vita Core 135 HP, Crew Quarters 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP, Captive Holding cells 50 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 59/??? 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:
1000 Specter Light infiltration bots (20 CP)
1000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (20 CP)
1000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (20 CP) CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. Khornish Cultist corpses & artifacts. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governer's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots (pending vote). A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor.
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular. Don't do this just because it's free. Do it if you want to know something. Writing those sections delays the updates. If you want Vita to get more done, don't ask for this.
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
[] Travel/Explore: Pick a system on the Map to travel to/explore. Currently, you may travel 1 system as part of an explore action, or 3 systems if you don't explore. You can explore a place you've already explored, or focus your exploration on a specific feature of a place you've already explored. Or explore two systems next turn and then the turn after go back for specific POIs without costing an action. Jumping a single system over as part of an exploration action is free, a number which will increase with better navigation.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method)
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what you spend them on. Blueprints
[] 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. Blueprint design Research
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 16
-[] 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.
Has a staff of 0 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +20 CP each (0) & 1 RP each (0) per turn. 20 can be assigned to a design task to halve its RP cost.
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 17
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens.
Cia Steblin, FocusedPyromancer Psyker
Level 12
-[] 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.
Yes, remote OMC crit and discounted Human Virtual OMC simulations, and I applied the extra RP to Intelligence Coding. Then Human Virtual OMC simulations crit and discounted Human Design Interfaces, so I once again applied extra RP to Intelligence Coding. In general I'm going to try and avoid discounting techs you're researching the same turn and give you other bonuses instead, but this time there wasn't a good alternative. So you got extra RP, and I applied it to Intelligence Coding instead of Void Abacus manufacturing because I don't want to complete techs you didn't plan on completing. It would involve extra dice and more writing. I also don't want to encourage you to try to get stacking discounts in a single turn.
The OMC efficiency improvements don't effect your manufacturing capabilities. Currently Vita can do 4 actions of manufacturing a turn, and a human running a manufactory with OMC can do 1. This increases that number to ~1.3ish. The follow-up tech will increase it further. The primary benefit of this tech is to improve the production capabilities of your allies, though if you wanted to build a manufactory ship and turn it over to some OMC-equipped allies then they could automatically produce stuff.
I decided to send Vita back to Denva by way of Vorthryn because it was doable in the action - 3 jumps of travel - and it seemed silly to unlock a bunch of technology to enhance cogitare enclaves and then not give it to your to other enclave when you had the chance. The "buisness as usual" update you got isn't entirely indicative of what you might find the next time you come back, we'll still roll for it the next time you come back properly.
The psychic lab is completely destroyed. You're going to need to rebuild it from scratch. As a reminder, that will cost 200 base BP for the psychic lab, + 675 for 135 points of shielding, all multiplied by 1.5 becauase you're building it inside a completed ship. So 1215 BP in total to rebuild exactly what you had. You may want to build it with more psychic shielding to avoid worse results. This was a bad roll and 135 psychic HP barely contained it. As Cia continues to level it won't be enough to completely contain a bad roll anymore.
You didn't unlock any follow-on tech for Denva having done the Voidship Control tech. This is mostly because I couldn't come up with follow-on tech that sounded reasonable that you don't already have from somewhere else. If you think of something, feel free to suggest it.
Once this situation is dealt with we'll proceed back to normal turns. Depending on how long your plan takes in-game, you may only have three actions next turn. You'll also get access to Denva again - if you win.
As far as you can tell, this Warband hasn't told anybody else about Denva and what's here. They entered the system, they won the space fight and now they're building more ships and trying to conquer the holdouts in Aevon to solidify their control here.
I might be able to get more updates done this week, so let's do 16 hours of moratorium and 18 hours of voting. But for now I'm going to bed. I fully expect a ton of clarifying questions when I wake up. Be patient, and if I can't answer everything in time, I'll push back the vote.
[X] Plan: Hammer of an angry explorer.
-[X] Destroy the fuckers ship, make sure they do not escape.
-[X] Keep Cia/Bots on reserve for boarding resistance
-[X] Contact W securely if possible/ inform rest of the space assets in system that time to attack is now. (Victan)
--[X] Get her to deploy any trump card she may have to keep the ship from running
---[X] Attempt to position ourselves and the cruiser as required
-[X] Attempt to hack any and all stations, shipyards and start bot/other useful machines manufacturing. (Anexa Hepls)
--[X] Begin explaining EULA to unauthorised users, with prejudice.
Every shipborne AI has a dream to charge headlong at an enemy, spitting defiance from their weapons in glorious combat. It's usually one they grow out of by their second century - there's often a smarter option than Full Ahead and Ready the Broadsides.
But if there's a better option here, you're not seeing it. There's an enemy ship in-system that must be destroyed, and by every indication you'll win the straight-up fight. The less time you give them, the less likely they are to make clever plans of their own. Especially the clever plan of "running away." That would be capitol-b Bad, because it means that they'd carry knowledge and samples of your technology away with them.
Right now, it looks like the Chaos warband is hunkered down and in the process of turning Denva into their own power base. They're content to siege out the system and build up their own forces.
But if they escape, then you'll have a long-term nemesis on your hands, equipped with much of your technology and probably the public version of knowledge about you. It would be far better to end them here and now.
Still, it will be hours before you get within weapons range, even if they accelerate towards you at all possible speed. And just because the primary plan is to get up close and gut them, it never hurts to have some secondary plans in place.
Your crew are all still on the line, and you regret that you're not all in person for this meeting. But none of you were expecting to be charging straight into a battle, and there's no sense in delaying just so you can all get together.
"The plan is to charge forward and hammer them to scrap. We aren't giving them time to do anything clever, and if they do decide to run they'll need to do it soon or else we can probably catch them," you announce, having mulled over your options in just a few seconds.
"Why wouldn't they run?" Anexa asks. "We're a bigger ship than they are."
"Because they think they can win," Cia responds bluntly. "Besides, they're Chaos. Who knows what kinds of perfidious tricks they're hiding."
Anexa sends a noosphere shrug in response. "That's what the psychic shield is for."
"Should we engage in communication?" Victan asks, thinking hard. "Trick them into coming at us somehow? We could pull the Ork Manuever again. Offer the chance to surrender and threaten to disable their ship and take them into custody. That might make them think we're easy to trick. Then we blow them away from close range."
You frown. "Chaos is tricky, and they can do warp stuff. Even communicating with them can be dangerous, and there's every chance it backfires. Instead you should get in contact with W, tell her the plan and ask her to use whatever her trump card is, and coordinate with me if there's anything we can do to make it work better."
He sounds amused. "Because she definitely has one."
"Exacltly. Anexa, I want you to try to hack the those shipyards, as well as every other manufactory the Forsaken Chorus controls. They look like they're built to the designs I gave Denva, so we should know them inside and out. Get them producing combat bots, or failing that just explosives. Hopefully we can sow some chaos of our own, and potentially even recapture the industrial platform. Denva's going to appreciate the manufacturing capacity if we can recapture it successfully."
"Acknowledged," she replies, already a bit distracted. If she hasn't already pulled up the specs on the manufactories to plan a hack you'd be shocked.
"Shall I prepare to repel boarders?" Cia's tone is complicated, with layers of anticipation and dread tamped under long-established discipline.
"Yes," you reply. "I'll be watching out for any attempts, but we need to watch out for a full-court bording strategy. We'r a little light on combat bots, so we need to prioritize victory over territory. There aren't many regions of the ship that are critical, so if we need to fall back from the labs or the hangers to better chokepoints that's fine. We need to protect the crew quarters, my core and the reactor."
"And the Oubliette," she reminds you.
"And the Oubliette," you parrot back. "We'll work together on distributing the bots. But we've got the defenses, so let's use them. You should stay in reserve again. We don't know what their elites look like, but countering them is on you."
"It is," she acknowledges, that mixed tone of dread and excitement making a reappearance.
I've always wanted to say this.
"Let's be about it, people."
Over the next few hours you keep your sensors peeled, watching every movement of the enemy ship carefully while you assist your crew with their own preparations. The Echo of Apotheosis is an unreasonably spiky ship that isn't as heavily armed as you were expecting, though the flanks are studded with a large number of hanger bays. But it's not moving, just hanging over the planet and sending and receiving shuttles from the planet below.
You're wondering why when Victan finally established a live connection with W. To your amusement it's through the hidden radio tower that was one of your first construction projects on Denva. The signal is heavily encrypted with yet another code you weren't aware of, and you tip your hat to Victan and his aunt. Hiding secrets like that from you is impressive and a little disturbing, but you're not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Victan, Vita, come in." W's lined face appears on the connection, looking like almost the same person as you first met. Her face has more lines now, and the salt in her hair has grown a little more pronounced, but it could have been five years instead of a hundred and twenty since your first meeting.
"We're here. We're moving straight to engage the Echo of Apotheosis." Victan replies.
"Thank the Throne." Her voice holds immense relief. "They're retrieving people from across the planet. It looks like they're bringing just about everybody who can fight aboard." Her tone grows hard. "Including the janissaries."
Her next question is blunt and specific. "Can you win?"
Victan answers for you. "We think so. But if you've got a trump card, now's the time."
She grimaces. "It's not as much as I'd like. We've been building fighters and bombers, and we can deploy them to support the space battle. But they'll be minced if they go out unsupported."
You take a moment to ponder that. "Launch them as soon as you can. We want them distracted, and I don't think they can run anymore. I could use the support, especially if they're planning what I think they're planning."
She nods. "Anything else? If you're certain you'll win then I can initiate open uprisings in their territory at that time too. But if there's a chance they come back to the planet then I'd prefer to keep those assets hidden."
"One way or another, that ship is not getting out of this," you reply, trying to convey the weight of your intent.
She meets your eyes. "Okay. I'll get started."
The call is done, and you send another message to Cia with what you've learned. You've arranged the bots as best you can but she's still making small optimizations here and there.
All that's left is to hurry-up-and-wait. Well, not quite. You and Anexa are working on hacking all of the chaos-owned manufactories in the system, and you succeed at making the connection, and even gaining access to the system. But there's a block of some kind preventing you from accessing the manufacturing systems queue.
It's strange - there's data coming through it, but it's garbled. Mixed up. But not in a familiar way, and if you can only figure out the decryption scheme you should be able to take control.
"Hold on," Anexa says, looking at the data for a second. "That's the raw output of an Organic-Machine Control implant. But why is it here? We're inside the manufactory control systems, not interfacing with it? And it's still wrong."
The signal strength swells, multiple other signals piggybacking onto the existing connection. In the last moments before the strike you realize what's garbling the signal.
"It's corrupted."
Then the mental signals from at least a hundred servitorized & mutated OMC operators slams into your outer psychic shields in a screaming wail of torment and hatred. It's not scrapcode. It's more primal than that, more emotional. But it shares enough similarities that much of the force bleeds off into the diversionary systems to established to blunt the effect of scrapcode.
Hacking roll - 3. Failure. -45 outer hull psychic HP.
The connections shut off soon after that, and you and Anexa reel back, double-checking your systems to be sure that everything's working as usual. The shields are holding but it was still a closer call than you'd like.
"Let's not try that again," she suggests, and you wholeheartedly agree. If you're going to recapture those manufactories it's going to be manually, not electronically.
In the meantime you've closed ever closer to the enemy ship, which is only now turning to accelerate towards you. It's still got one last round of shuttles making the round-trip with the planet below, but they're apparently relying on them being able to catch up in time.
It's no surprise to you when dozens of fighters cross over the horizon , launched from bases in Aevon on the far side of Denva Secundus. They target the shuttles and shoot some of them out of the sky, though some escape to the protective umbrella of the Echo of Apotheosis. You see the ship hesitate, considering going back to swat the annoying insects out of Denvan space.
W intervention in the space battle - 49.
However, they've done the same math that you have. If it does anything else than turn and face you then you'll be able to pick the exact terms of the engagement, and pin them against the planet below. So they ignore the planet behind them and start accelerating at an oblique angle, geared to graze medium range while giving them the longest window in long range.
But they've miscalculated. You spin the ship faster than they expected and accelerate yourself, cutting the angle. Now you'll barely graze short range, and spend long enough in medium range that your plasma cannons are all-but-guaranteed to be able to turn the enemy ship into molten debris.
That is the moment when you realize you've been neglecting something. Your warp sensors tingle, barely catching the edge of a ordered signal passing from their ship to yours. It's not an attack, but rather communication. You tune your attention into your warp sensors, focusing on the most likely culprit. It doesn't take long for your guess to be proven true.
Bongo's communicating with the enemy ship through the warp. It's a delicate touch, barely a whisper against the background turbulence of the enemy ship and local space. But it's real. You try and formulate a way to decode their messages, screening back through past data to understand how long this communication has been going on.
But you don't have time. You can't tell how long the messages have been sent, and you weren't paying as much attention to scrubbing out background from old signals. Without a larger sample of the signals there's no way to decode them. Maybe if you'd noticed this hours ago you could have done something, but for now you don't have the attention to spare.
Bongo-Chaos Signal interception - 2Failure.
You don't know what Bongo and the Chaos Warband have said to each other, or even how long they've been communicating.
Still, not having time means nobody has time, and so you simply send a message to Cia that Bongo's been talking to the enemy and focus on the space battle.
Long-range fire reaches out in both directions, and you re-evaluate the enemy ship. It's clearly focused on long-range engagements, with just as many lances as you have. They slam into your shields, but with the tuning you've done they start recharging quickly, and it's going to be quite some time before your shields fall.
Their second move is about what you expected - a swarm of over a hundred boarding craft emerge from the enemy ship's hangers. You launch your own fighters in parallel, signaling for the Denvan fighters to engage as well. Those boarders are the real danger of this battle. You're growing more and more confident that the Echo of Apotheosis is not a true threat to the Spark of the Ancients in ship-to-ship combat.
But if they can overwhelm your onboard troops and capture your ship then that doesn't matter. Even if you've destroyed the enemy ship you'll have lost the war. Still, it's not like you're going to target your heavier guns on the shuttles. That's what the fighters and point defense are for, and the support from Denva's fighters is going to make a significant difference.
The enemy enter medium range and their shields fall with the first salvo of the plasma cannons. Your macrocannons are also firing - the range is a bit long but a lucky hit is still a hit, and their armor disintegrates in the face of the melta payloads your weapons carry.
Their ship is burning behind them but the boarding craft don't seem to mind, closing on your ship with singleminded intensity. They're screened by fighter craft, but those prove insufficient against the combined fighter strength of you and Denva, and some of them have to fall back to ward off the Denvan bombers that are prowling around the outskirts of the battle.
Some analysis tells you that the enemy seems to be prioritizing the protection of specific boarding craft over others - they're more heavily armored. Blacker. Spikier, and hidden in the middle of the enemy formations. The enemy ship is burning, so you divert your light lances to act as overpowered point defense to shoot down those craft in particular, and mark them as priority targets for the fighters.
That's the moment Bongo chooses to make a ruckus, rattling the shields of its cage with a new kind of attack you haven't seen before. There's a long shriek that reverberates between the walls of the Obliette, trying to find the resonant frequency of the prison and shatter it.
It fails. The psychic scream isn't dissimilar to what Cia unleashed early in her training, and it peters out without achieving its desired effect.
-30 Bongo Oubliette shielding
Almost in sync with that is some kind of psychic assault coming from the Echo of Apotheosis. You don't know what it's supposed to do, but it isn't like anything you've seen before. Some kind of terrible dread reaches for you - and deflects off your psychic shield.
-50 outer hull psychic shield
None of it serves to distract you from your targets, and the enemy boarding craft explode in sets as they enter the inner protective envelope and the point defense opens up. Still, almost a dozen makes it through to cut through your hull, though it takes them a moment longer with the alloyed armor. That lets you reorient the local combat bots towards the breach zones, and the enemies are met with a hail of fire as they cut their way into your ship.
Their return fire carries a desperate intensity and they break through the cordons, though not without leaving more dying cultists on the deck than destroyed bots. They stream past the battlefields and deeper into the ship, and that's when Cia's next move makes itself known. Bombs detonate themselves inside your ship, in the projected boarding paths of the various cultists, and she's predicted their paths well. Or just distributed bombs along every path that they could take, and only detonated the ones the cultists came near.
-125 bp of structure damage to the Spark of the Ancients.
They reach the next chokepoints with vastly decreased numbers. Unlike the last time you were boarded the bunkers and chokepoints built into the ship are properly manned and defended. Your bots hold the line as the cultists break themselves against the defense, dying almost to a man as they struggle to break through the reinforced defenses. A few stragglers peel off to flee back towards the hull, only to run into a screen of Specter bots closing in behind them. You capture about twenty who throw down their arms, but most of them opt to go down fighting when they realize they're surrounded.
+20 surrendered chaos cultists.
-413 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers
-112 Specter Combat Bots
And with that it appears the battle is won. You're firing directly on the superstructure of the Echo of Apotheosis, and your own shields are low but not depleted. Their attempt at boarding has failed, and all that's left is gutting their ship.
Spark of the Ancients vs. Echo of Apotheosis - rolled 80 Good success.
Or so you thought. The remaining lances on the enemy ship start firing as quickly as they're able to cycle, burning themselves out after just a few shots. Still, it's enough to deplete the last of the charge on your shields even as another set of macrocannon rounds go off deep in the guts of the Echo of Apotheosis, setting off secondary explosions that begin to chain through the ship.
The enemy ship is doomed, but a teleporter signature betrays their final ace in the hole as a dozen heavily armored figures materialize near Bongo's Oubliette. They're eight feet tall and wearing familiar armor, though it's black and gold and decorated with horns and sigils of Chaos instead of the red-and-gold & aquilas of the Knights of the Crimson Vigil. Some of them bear visible mutations, with clawed armors or helmets partially hacked away to allow unnatural growths to protrude.
They take a second to reorient to their new location, and Cia's little optimizations bear fruit as the full squad of heavy combat bots opens fire before they get their bearings. Meltaguns and plasma weapons tear through the loose organization of Chaos Space Marines in the opening moments of the fight, putting half their number down in an instant and wounding several more.
But in the next moments they annihilate the combat bots, tearing through them with inhuman precision and speed. Bolter rounds shred the bots carrying the most dangerous weapons and then they enter into melee combat, ripping the bots apart with almost casual ease. You identify the leader as the biggest one. He's without obvious mutation beyond standing nearly ten feet tall, and carries two spiked bolt pistols chained to his wrists and two power swords on his thighs.
The sight of their combat prowess sends a chill through you, and you dash off a quick message to Cia. "Wear them down. Don't engage if you don't have to."
You get back a bare chirp of acknowledgement, but she's moving towards the squad of chaos space marines as fast as she can move. But so is every single combat bot on the ship, and if you could cram any of the fighters into the ship corridors you'd be doing that as well. More than two thousand bots against a half-dozen space marines.
No way they win.
But the fact that there's doubt in your thoughts is testament to the sheer and unadulterated warfighting prowess of these opponents. Their ship is a flaming hulk, the rest of their warband lies strewn through your hallways, but still they are a threat.
They're clearly intent on freeing Bongo, and they're just a few corridors away. But a constant stream of heavy bots is arriving from all directions. Now that they're not caught flat-footed the space marines cut through the combat bots. Their armor cannot protect them from the bot's weapons, but they make use of sight lines, incredible speed and aim to fire first, winning almost every engagement while taking only glancing blows in return.
But glancing blows from these weapons add up, and one marine falls and then another. The enemies break into a sprint, losing another member as they rush past the next group of bots instead of engaging them. Only three remain as they break into the room outside Bongo's Oubliette, but they face a firing line of heavy bots with Cia in the center.
Both sides open fire as one, and Cia is only spared from the resulting massacre by her void shield deflecting the fire that spills her way. Both of the other marines are torn apart but the leader of the Warband miraculously plows through the wall of fire. His armor is blackened with char instead of paint and the side of his face fizzles with the heat of a melta round that blew half of his helmet away but he's still mobile, and Cia's the only thing that stands between him and Bongo's vault.
He drops his bolters to draw the blades, and the power fields flicker to life as he bears down on Cia. He's got her in strength, speed and technique, but not in reach or power. Her blade is longer, and it flickers out to ward him away, buzzing with flaming lightning. The moment the blade is past he darts in to get in close, and then is blasted away by a flare of flame.
He lands in a roll, one bolter coming up to slam a few quick rounds into her, but the void shield catches them before it flickers and dies. Then she's on him again, and an overhead strike from her force sword strikes an upraised weapon in a block - and cuts into the defending weapon. His other sword comes up and she barely evades it, lashing out again with her sword and power.
Once more the Chaos Champion is tossed across the deck, smoking from a fresh application of fire. But this time Cia doesn't pursue and instead gives a command you've been waiting for. "Fire."
You oblige, pouring the full weaponry of the thirty combat bots that have arrived during the duel into the enemy leader. He evades and survives far more of the shots than should be possible, but after thirteen plasma rifles, five melta guns, and two rockets are all emptied into him he collapses, more of a swiss-cheese of armor than anything else.
-219 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers
Repelling the Boarding Action - 86 Good success, almost crit. +1 Cia Level.
Now the battle really is over, and you do several quick checks to be sure of that. The Echo of Apotheosis is breaking up, and the main reactor blows as you watch, consuming a third of the remaining ship and sending the other parts into unstable orbits. You send out a few bots to clean up the attack on your ship, sticking them into the vault you set aside for miscellaneous chaotic artifacts.
Research modified - A Curio Cabinet of Khornish Cultists (150 RP) becomes A Curio Cabinet of Cultists (100 RP)
New research unlocked - Chaos Space Marine Armor Investigation (100 RP)
New research unlocked - That's two levels of augmentation too many (150 RP)
You dial into the local communication networks and quickly parse through the data to figure out the situation. Urban combat has broken out across the parts Denva of Secundus itself outside of the Aevon defensive zone, and while there isn't a critical need for support, Denva Secundus is the most populated part of the system and you could undoubtedly save a lot of lives by putting your heavy combat bots & your capability for orbital strikes at their disposal.
The orbits of Denva Primus look clear from here, but you're not sure there's nothing on the surface beyond a few new orbital strike craters. Looking through the signal traffic from this close you can tell that Klyssar's nest is occupied by what remains of the Forsaken Chorus, who have taken the opportunity of a smaller isolated population they can completely occupy. There's some kind of resistance movement brewing out there, but it's nowhere near as organized as the one on the planet and doesn't have the same overwhelming numerical superiority.
There's also the Aetherion manufactories & refineries which are disturbingly radio silent - it seems like the cult completely replaced the workers out there with their own people, or those they corrupted. If you want to salvage all of the manufacturing capacity you should get out there as soon as possible. At least you're confident the ships in dock can't move yet, and won't be able to for at least a year. Likely more, now that you've cut off their supply of fresh recruits.
The question is - what to do now? You could move on a target immediately, but you probably don't have the forces for more than one before you need to stop and build more units. While you could technically send your combat bots in one direction while you take the ship in another that would limit your capabilities in both locations. So - where do you go?
Where do you exert your remaining forces?
[] Denva Primus You can't see much activity, but it wouldn't hurt to check up on it and make sure there's no diabolical chaos plots taking advantage of the Vellkar.
[] Denva Secundus You'll do your best to help the local population clean up the remaining cultists quicky and with a minimum of collateral damage.
[] Klyssar's Nest The station has a friendly local population, but they probably can't rise up on their own. If you give the cultists time they might Come Up with Something, but if you go off half-cocked you might cause more collateral damage than you save.
[] Aetherion The manufacturing capacity present at the gas giant is important for Denva's future - if it can be saved. Additionally, the Cultists might figure out some nasty tricks if you give them too much time with all of that manufacturing capacity.
[] Nowhere You really don't have a lot of forces left. You need to build more before you can seriously consider moving on one of the objectives. Conserve what you have and avoid moving too quickly.
This vote is for the target you move on immediately. You will deploy your remaining forces there, do what you can and then we'll return to normal turns. Whichever you don't choose will play out over a longer time period, giving the cultists the opportunities to make their own moves. You'll need to dedicate order actions to taking over anything you don't take over now, except Denva Secundus, which will probably take care of itself before then. Denva will also likely work on all of these on their own next turn.
As far as you can tell, Denva Secundus itself is pretty intact and functional. The Forsaken Chorus didn't have the manpower to meaningfully occupy the planet, but they had strategic mobility and orbital firepower over the parts not near Aevon. They were very much in this for the long game and were working to corrupt the entire population without destroying the functionality of the society. If you'd given it another ten years then there would be a significant local chaos population. For now it exists but it's not huge. You'll find out how much of a problem that is in the next update. But it'll be less if you intervene immediately - less time for collaborators to go to ground.
You'll recieve information about how many BP you could get from redeeming your manufacturing boon next update. That number will be higher if you reclaim & roll well on uncorrupting the Aetherion manufactories.
You'll also get a number of other boons to redeem, dependent on this vote, rolls and future votes on tech transfer. It will be similar to the list at the bottom of this post. The list of available psykers will have changed, and you'll have the opportunity to upgrade your manufacturing boon into a "Continual Manufacturing Tribute" where you permanently get a percentage of their manufacturing capacity. Or you can get a second one-time manufacturing tribute that's a much higher percentage you can only use once.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 1,760/12,500
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost Suffering from 125 bp of structure damage.
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 600
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 100/240 HP, Vita Core 135 HP, Crew Quarters 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 510/540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP, Captive Holding cells 50 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 9/??? 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:
898 Specter Light infiltration bots (20 CP)
368 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (20 CP)
1000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (20 CP) CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. Khornish Cultist corpses & artifacts. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governer's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots (pending vote). A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor. 20 surrendered Chaos Cultists.
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. Blueprints
[] 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. Blueprint design Research
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 16
-[] 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.
Has a staff of 0 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +20 CP each (0) & 1 RP each (0) per turn. 20 can be assigned to a design task to halve its RP cost.
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 17
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens.
Cia Steblin, FocusedPyromancer Psyker
Level 13
-[] 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.
For clarity, I didn't roll for what the Chaos Warband was going to do. They knew about you from Denva, and they were talking to Bongo as you approached. They were always going to go for the greater glory of capturing & corrupting you.
Rolls continue to be weirdly swingly. There's been a lot of sub-10 dice in the last turn.
I've been considering naming the threadmarks like I do this one. I might go back and do a few more of them - especially the sub-turns. Thoughts? Do you think it might spoil things?
My in-browser spellcheckers (both of them) crap out after the post hits about 3000 words. So there might be a lot of typoes in the second half of the update. Point them out and I'll fix them.
I don't think a moratorium is needed here. Let's just do 16 hours of voting.
The Echo of Apotheosis is breaking up in a far orbit over Devna Secundus, many pieces still aflame with the remnants of the fires that killed her. They'll need to be salvaged later lest some of the larger debris crash into the planet.
But that's a matter for later. You place a call to W, half-expecting to not get an answer. She's managing a planetary reconquest at the moment, so you're not sure she'll have time to talk to you. Still, the call connects, and moments later you're staring at her dark-skinned face. She looks more haggard than she did when you last talked, but the spark of hope in her eyes is stronger.
"Congratulations on your victory," she says, speaking quickly and looking off-camera for a moment to wave somebody away. "Are you able to provide close support? There are some strongholds that could use an orbital strike."
You shake your head. "I was going to go out to Aetherion and try to recapture the manufactories there. I don't want to give the cultists with access to that much manufacturing capacity time to come up with anything clever. I also want to be damn sure those ships are on lockdown. The last thing we need is for them to escape. But do you need us?"
Her gaze grows calculated as she thinks for a second, then jerks her head in a sharp shake. "Help here would save lives, but we're going to win. Having those manufactories might be the difference between Denva surviving the next century or not. The Crucibles need the fuel from the refineries..." she trails off and waves a hand as if to dismiss all the other reasons this is a good idea. "It's the right choice. You don't need the fighters or bombers?" The Denvan fighters that ascended to aid you in the battle against the Echo of Apotheosis are already beginning to return to the planet.
"No, I don't. I don't see anything that can threaten me out there. But if we give them time that'll change."
"Go." She is already turning away as the connection closes.
You snort at the empty screen and start the course that'll take you towards the gas giant and the massive manufactory platform around it. Luckily, it's not far, but it'll still be nearly a full day before you arrive. Enough time for your enemies to plan, but not enough for them to pull off anything crazy, or build much in the way of weapons or bombs.
Unless they turn the reactors on all of those stations into bombs. But that's pretty darn hard to do, and I don't know if they have the expertise for it.
You check in with your crew, letting them know what your plan is. None disagree with it as you'd feared they might. They were all born on Denva, but they're not going to be overly emotional about ensuring every possible Denvan life is saved. Especially when the arguments for going to Aetherion are sound, and it's the more important target in the long run.
But it has been an intense several hours for everybody, so they crash out during the approach, leaving you with nobody to talk to as you watch the gas giant grow slowly larger before you. It's times like this that you envy the human need for sleep. You're fully alert and aware despite the intensity of the fight against the Echo of Apotheosis, but the tension of waiting for the last battle puts you on edge. You wish you could close your eyes and be there. But you can't.
Well, you could turn down your clock speed. But the chance you miss something important is too high. You can't spare the slowed reaction speed. So instead you plan. You don't expect much in the form of void defenses, but it's going to be important to board the manufacturing platforms and refineries fast and hard to prevent them from getting any clever ideas.
Furthermore, while the cultists destroyed the shipyards in orbit of Denva, they built new ones out here and they're in the middle of constructing two cruisers, four frigates, and a dozen destroyers. From here it looks like they've mostly gotten done putting down the hulls and are about to start filling them. That's far enough along that they're pretty valuable to have, but they're not going to be relevant militarily.
You spend the remaining time of the journey plotting out a plan that delivers every one of your remaining 2266 combat bots to the stations as quickly as possible in a distribution that should be enough to take total control. But it'll be tight, and the plan hinges on what defenses they have aboard those platforms. It shouldn't be much, but a few hundred heavy infantry would really mess up your plans right now.
Still, from the report W gave you the Forsaken Chorus were being careful to only send cultists to Aetherion, keeping their infantry concentrated on Denva Secundus and Klyssar's nest.
Which is going to be its own headache to sort out.
Your crew wakes up with a few hours left and you give them a rundown of the details that you came up with. It's more to kill time than anything else and they recommend a few changes, but nothing significant.
Then, finally, it's go-time. You're approaching the gas giant system with all the grace of a bull in a china shop because there's nothing that can stand up to you.
Still, as you get close a flight of shuttles undocks from the stations and starts beelining towards you. They're not boarding craft or even assault shuttles. They're simple cargo ships. They can certainly carry troops, but there's no way for them to get aboard. And their courses don't look like they're intended for boarding. They look like they're on a direct intercept course, and are accelerating somewhat sluggishly despite having their engines on full burn.
Like missles. Big, slow, expensive missiles. They're probably loaded with ore or something.
You don't want to blow up the shuttles. They're an important part of the manufacturing setup here. But it looks like you're not going to have a choice. Still, they're burning straight for you, and judging by their mass have sacrificed quite a lot of maneuverability. It's possible that you can maneuver out of the way. Even if you don't, you'll be able to shoot them down with your point defense far short of the hull.
You try to juke out of the way but the shuttles readjust more than you thought they'd be able to. They aren't as heavily loaded as you thought, and you spin up the point defense reluctantly to blow them away. But there's a strong warp signature when you do blow up the first shuttle, a psychic shriek grates across your shields.
The attack takes you by surprise, and you delay shooting down the other craft for a moment while you try to figure out what just happened. Then you decide that doing nothing is probably the worst action and resume firing the point defense, launching fighters to take out all of the shuttles as quickly as possible.
As you suspected the closer to you the shuttles are when they're destroyed the harsher the shriek, and the more damage is done to your shields. You're not sure what that would do to an unshielded ship, but you're just as glad you're not going to find out.
Still, that leaves your outer hull psychic shields hanging by a thread. They're still active enough to detect warp signatures but they're not going to be able to block many more attacks. You make sure that everybody's behind a secondary shield, even Cia. She's suited up in her armor, but you're not expecting her to see combat.
It's too likely that they blow up the stations I board, and I don't anticipate anything that can seriously challenge my bots. No need to risk Cia like that.
No more surprises are forthcoming as you swing into orbit and start spitting out shuttles carrying your own troops. Your ships aren't boarding craft either but most of the platforms out there are built to your specifications, or at least the docking ports are, so you're able to get your bots aboard without too much trouble.
There's resistance to be certain, with dozens of cultists in black robes aboard each platform opening fire with weapons of familiar design. They take your toll on your bots, especially with how you're prioritizing speed over efficency. But you blow through them before they can mount much of a defense, capturing a few. More importantly, you capture most of the platforms quickly and without much difficulty.
Aboard the shipyards and the refineries, you do run into several hundred machine-spirit combat bots in defensive positions. They're identical to the design that you gave the Denvans before you left, and you try and hack them but get only a corrupted buzz in response that vaguely reminds you of scrapcode.
That approach doesn't work, but they're still run by machine spirits. The jamming equipment doesn't work quite as well as it should, but the specialized gear your bots carry is enough that massed wave tactics work to push through the defensive points and capture the key areas of the larger installations. It's only taken a couple of hours and while you're sure there are hold-outs scattered through the network of platforms and refineries, you're in control of all of them.
Aetherion "ground" combat - rolled 70. Good success!
-812 Specter Light Infiltration Bots
-368 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers
-650 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
The lack of defenders is puzzling - there's lodging for thousands more cultists than you find, and the shipyards in particular appear to have a large crew. It's only when you hack into some of the surveillance footage does it make sense - apparently most of the ambulatory workers boarded the shuttles before they made their suicide runs on you. You don't know what was aboard the shuttles, but whatever generated those psychic screams was powered by mass death.
Lovely.
The word "ambulatory" is also important because there are hundreds of people plugged into the control systems for each manufactory, often directly strapped to the central cogitator with crude leads running from their cracked-open skulls into the devices. They're each and every one of them Denvan engineers, scientists, or tech-priests with OMC implants who've been lobotomized and converted to crude interfaces to allow un-augmented cultists to run your manufactories.
You consider trying to save them, but there's nothing left to save. All of these people have had significant chunks of their brains destroyed, and what was left is pulsing with faint warp signatures that you're pretty sure indicate some level of Chaos corruption. Many of them bear grotesque mutations. There's only one thing to do, and you do it without thinking overly hard about the situation. What was done to them is horrific beyond words, so you're not going to try and find words for it.
Instead, you retreat into cold logic, reasoning that you'll spend your effort salvaging what you can from this whole mess. That will give their relatives and fellow Denvans the best chance of surviving the galaxy that delivered the victims to this fate.
The answer of what you can salvage is better than you'd feared, but not as good as you'd hoped. The entire control interface from every single factory and shipyard needs to be removed. It's all laced with the remnants of the technology that slaved the husks of the operators to the machines, and there's a faint warp signature you don't understand coming off many of the components. You're not sure if it's some kind of psytech, if there's something daemonic going on here or if the vague signals are merely the traces of suffering from the operators, but it doesn't matter. You rip it all out and dump it out the airlocks, making sure to give everything a hearty push towards the gas giant. It'll fall into the core and be crushed and melted.
But means that you'll need to rebuild the control systems for everything but the refineries if you want to use them. And replace the shuttles that were destroyed in the suicide charge.
Aetherion Industrial Complexes aquired! It consists of a Large Shipyard and 130 Orbital Manufactories. They require repairs before they can be used, equal to 30% of the cost. You can repair the orbital manufactories to normal manufactories for 75 bp apiece or to machine-spirit versions for 100 bp apiece. The Large Shipyard will cost 3,000 bp and must be repaired before you can continue work on the ship hulls.
Ship hulls acquired:
2x Light Cruisers (1800 BP size)
4x Frigate (900 BP size)
12x Destroyers (450 BP size) These are empty hulls. To use them spend RP to design ships of these sizes, and you won't have to pay for the base hull, just everything you stick into those hulls.
Vote below on what to do with these. They can be given to Denva for a boon or kept, but it's a package deal since the ships can't leave the shipyards. You'll be able to give them the repaired facilities later for another boon.
The refineries are essentially in full operating condition. They were originally built by the Imperium and are operable by unaugmented humans. That's been mostly left alone by the cultists, who just continued to operate them to provide fuel for all of their operations. Though as you examine the refineries you notice something off. They're falling into the gas giant.
Sometime since you arrived the onboard cultists intentionally sent the refineries into an uncontrolled fall into the gas giants. The giant siphons that are used to pull up gas for extraction are dragging far more than they should, and the orbits of each of the refineries is unstable. They're already far past the point where you could recover them with the onboard systems.
It's time to get creative. You start by having fighters dive down and destroy the dragging siphons. They won't be difficult to rebuild, especially not compared to the gigantic refineries themselves. Then you send every single shuttle, bomber, and fighter you have to "dock" with the refineries, wedging themselves into the gantry framing each refinery. Then they open up their thrusters to maximum. The paint scratches and a few wings buckle. But it's all repairable and you're able to exert a massive amount of force upon the refineries, saving them from certain doom in the gullet of Aetherion.
The last spiteful move of the Aetherion cultists - rolled 95. Critical success! You save all of the refineries without issue.
With that, Aetherion is secure and stable, and you call back to Denva to see how W's doing.
The face that greets you is even more tired than the last time, but there's a more upbeat air to her posture. "Victory?" she asks with a slightly raised eyebrow. It looks as if she's too tired to be properly inquisitive.
"Yes," you say with a tired smile of your own. "I've swept the cultists from Aetherion. The platforms need some repairs but I was able to capture their ships too. They tried to sink the refineries into the gas giant but I pulled them back out." You can't help but let a little pride leak into your voice at the end there. "
W nods, her eyes drooping slightly. She covers her mouth as she yawns. "Good. I'll send all of the crucibles your way. They're not able to do much without fuel, but with fuel, they'll be able to help you fix things up, and they've got people who know how to run those refineries."
Left unsaid is the question of who all of that belongs to. You're going to give up the refineries because you don't really need them, but the shipyards and manufacturing platforms are currently in your possession, and it doesn't sound like W is going to demand them from you.
She yawns again. "Throne knows that we'll be busy repairing everything down here, but your old base is untouched and it's got the ability."
"How did everything on the ground go?" You ask delicately.
Her expression turns dour. "The fuckers were dug in better than we thought they were. They turned one of the monasteries into a stronghold full of artillery and we only just dug them out. Bloody, even with bots on the frontline. Shelling cities will do that."
She shakes her head and sighs. "But the fighting is just about done. It's a mess and I know there are thousands of collaborators unaccounted for. We'll need to find them." Her serious tone is cracked by another yawn. "I have people working on it. My best people." She snorts. "Aside from Victan. But he seems to be doing alright with you."
Denvan house-cleaning - rolled 37. Barely a success.
Then she jerks slightly as if remembering something important. "But we should be figuring out Klyssar's Nest. I don't want to leave them too long. Our troops are exhausted, but once they're ready if you can carry them there..." She seems to lose her train of thought and stare into space for a second.
You interrupt her gently. "I think you need to sleep. Klyssar's Nest will be there when we're done. I think it'll be a tough nut to crack, but if we work together we'll get it, and then the system will be secure again."
She nods at you. "Wiser words. I'm gonna rest."
"Goodnight," you reply, even though you're pretty sure it's daytime where W is.
The connection closes, and you're left with the conundrum of what to do next.
Vote below on how to spend your Denva boons.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 1,740/12,500
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost
Suffering from 125 bp of structure damage.
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 600
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 7/240 HP, Vita Core 135 HP, Crew Quarters (3/500) 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 135 HP, Bongo Oubliette 510/540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP, Captive Holding cells (52/500) 50 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 9/??? 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:
86 Specter Light infiltration bots (20 CP)
350 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (20 CP)
CP costs for infantry bots work as breakpoints in increments of 1000. So 50 or 500 or 1000 bots all cost 20 CP, and 1001 costs 40 CP. Abstraction, y'all.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. Khornish Cultist corpses & artifacts. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governor's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots (pending vote). A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor. 40 surrendered Chaos Cultists.
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. Blueprints
[] 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. Blueprint design Research
Anexa Ifina, Magos Errant, Master of Many Talents.
Level 16
-[] 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.
Has a staff of 0 tech-priests of the Cogitare Exploratium, which provide +20 CP each (0) & 1 RP each (0) 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 (and not contribute to research) to halve its RP cost.
Victan Thallos, Diplomat-Spy
Level 17
-[] Victan active action: Diplomat-Spy - assists any diplomacy action you take, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on a successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building - Defends against hostile covert action and improves relations with existing allies, as well as gathering information for making new allies. Will only level if something interesting happens.
Cia Steblin, FocusedPyromancer Psyker
Level 13
-[] 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.
Denva Boons: 2
+1 for Destroying the Echo of Apotheosis
+1 for saving the refineries necessary to keep the crucibles active Denva Boons available: 4
+1 if you give them the Aetherion station.
+1 if you materially help them conquer Klyssar's nest. (Defined as building at least 500 BP of bots/equipment and spend a command action attacking the station. Up to you if you also ferry Denvan forces in.)
+1 if you transfer your new OMC/machine spirit technology to them.
+1 if you transfer corruption defenses, including all Psychic shielding, Cognition Filter & warp sensors. This will also mandate you to transfer basic cultist detection if you get it.
How do you spend your Denva Boons? (Choose zero, one or multiple) (part of plan vote)
-[][Boon] One-time Manufacturing Capacity (banked: 1) Grants +15,000 BP from Denvan manufacturing to a single construction action as you ask for material help. (Current usage limit 1/turn - you can pick this multiple times and they'll be banked for future use. The value will increase over time as Denva builds up.)
-[][Boon] Permanent Manufacturing capacity Gives you a % of Denvan manufacturing every turn as you establish companies & manufacturing concerns within Denvan society. Currently would grant +1000 BP/turn. You can manage this BP with a free action. Picking it multiple times will increase the percentage, and you'll be able to leave them with a multi-turn project or a general direction if you leave. The value will increase over time as Denva builds up.
-[][Boon] Expanded Technology Focus/sharing (write-in two tech trees) They're still researching the General design/various Industry focus you gave them before, and will share techs & designs from those trees occasionally. Pick two more tech trees for them to start investing in and they'll share techs from those trees when they get them. This isn't a zero-sum game. Invest into their research capabilities to get more out of this.
-[][Boon] Specialized Crew (write-in who) Pick this to get 100 highly-qualified crew of any kind. These could be OMC-operators, cogitare or not. The machine cult has been diluted and lost a lot of their unique culture, but there are still enough old cogitare members kicking about that you could recruit them if you want. Or you could get sociologists and economists for Victan's staff, or whatever.
-[][Boon] One-time Social Intervention (write-in what) Do this to give Denvan culture & government a firm nudge in a direction you want them to go. This could be something like "Go uplift the Vellkar" or "hey, listen to this great religion I'm going to sell you." Whatever it is, it'll get in front of the eyes of everybody on the planet and probably convince the government if it's reasonable.
-[][Boon] Permanent Social intervention Establish media companies, lobbyists & think tanks to guide Denvan society down a path you want. This will give you some measure of control over their long-term society, more the more boons you invest. It could be anything from encouraging people to study science to encourage a social ethic of xenophila. You'll give it a direction with a free action, and you can have it assist with your diplomacy actions in Denva for a +5 bonus, or a +10 if you invest two boons.
-[][Boon] Psykers W evacuated the other monasteries to Aevon when shit went down, and they've even involved psykers in their military forces to some extent. Get your pick of Aevon psykers to join your crew. It's been almost 60 years since you last looked, so if any of the options from before are available they'll be very old. I'll probably just roll an entirely new set.
Do you keep or give up the Aetherion facilities/ships? (part of plan vote)
-[][Aetherion] Keep. You can use the facilities for now, and finish the ships for yourself. If you give back the manufactories and shipyards later you'll receive a boon then.
-[][Aetherion] Give Immediate +1 Denva boon. They'll repair them later.
You can save boons for a few turns, but they last about as long as a normal human lifetime. Once you spend them they're semi-permanent, so you can spend a boon on One-time Manufacturing Capacity then wait a hundred years to use it. It'll give you a lot more BP in a hundred years than it does now. That's why you have a free boon that's worth 15,000 bp now when it would have been worth 500 when you left.
If you'd crit on the ground-combat portion of the takeover you wouldn't have lost as many bots and I'd let you help with Denva or try for Klyssar's next before we went back to normal turns. But without a modifier crits are hard to get, so now you have to do things the long way.
I know you're all going to ask if the ships are corrupted. Chill, they're basically metal frameworks at this point, and that's part of what Warp Sensors are meant to detect. The cultists would have put all of the eight-pointed stars on after they put on the armor, and installed the sacrifical shrines once there was anywhere to put them.
You don't have a good use for the refineries, so you're giving them back automatically and getting a boon for it. Denva needs them to run the Crucibles anways.
Yes, you can use the one-time manufacturing your boon to aquire manufacturing capacity, then use that to repair the manufactories, then give them back later to recoup the boon.
Technology transfer is a free action, though it'll go better if it's a diplomaacy action. If you roll well you might get an extra boon to be spent next turn.
Denva is... not great but fine. Remember they have pretty much your full techbase (minus what you've researched in the last few turns) and a lot more manufacturing than you currently have out of Aevon. The best way for you to aid them right now is help them retake Klyssar station.
I was planning on featuring a general who ran the process of freeing Denva from Chaos, then was going to let you recruit them for a boon. But then Denva got a "meh" on the roll to kick Chaos off the planet. So it just turns out they don't have a great strategist and W had to kind of flub through a ground battle with instincts honed for covert action. So no general for you - yet.
For this turn and this turn only it's valid to use a command action to salvage the remnant pieces of the Echo of Apotheosis, if you do I'll roll to see what salvage you find. It's likely to be more chaos artifacts, but it might be intel that's useful for the Klyssar raid or provides maps of the sector. If you don't do it Denva will, but they're more likely to just kick the salvage out into deep space or towards the sun.
I think I have time to write over the weekend, so let's do 16 hours of moratorium and 16 hours of voting. Let me know if you need more time and I'll consider extending one or both.
[X] Plan: Son of Frankensteining My Plan Once Again
-[x] The big idea: Get lots of intel on Klyssar from the shipwreck, hacking, and drugs-enhanced interrogation, deny intel from Klyssar using psy encryption. Drugs also have a chance to provide less-lethal munitions immediately, good for handling slave soldiers.
--[X] This is an edit of Meianmaru's plan. Link has his explanation, this link has mine. Edits in bold.
-[X][Aetherion] Keep.
-[X] Boons:
--[X] Help conquer Klyssar's nest (+1)
--[X] Transfer OMC/machine spirit technology (+1)
--[X] Transfer corruption defenses, including all Psychic shielding, Cognition Filter & warp sensors. This will also mandate you to transfer basic cultist detection if you get it. (+1)
--[x][Boon] Permanent Manufacturing capacity
--[x][Boon] Specialized Crew (Diplomats for Victan)
--[x][Boon] Specialized Crew (Cogitare for Anexa)
--[x][Boon] One-time Social Intervention (Cogitare NGO with Vita and Anexa in charge)
--[x][Boon] Permanent Social intervention x1 (Free action: Cogitare recruitment and [discovery/science] mission statement promotion)
-[x][Repair Bay]: Fix up your ship, prioritize your nearly depleted psy shields. Psychic Shielding Outer Hull (7/240 HP -> 207/240 HP), 0/125 structure damage, 510/540 HP Oubliette
-[x] Construction x1 (15600 VBP)
--[x] Restore Outer Hull Psychic Shields (165 VBP) (207/240 HP -> 240/240 HP)
--[x] Restore Bongo Oubliette Shields (150 VBP) (510/540 HP -> 540/540 HP)
--[x] Repair Structure Damage (15 VBP) (0/125 -> 15/125 structure damage repairs)
--[x] Warp Research Lab (500 VBP, 100 CP) (2000 VBP -> 200 HP outer shielding, 200 HP internal shielding) (Location: Current Star System, void of space away from anything important) --[X] 2x Caltrops (650 VBP, 20 CP)
---[X] Stationed at the Aetherion/our industrial park
--[X] 3000x Spectres (300 VBP, 60 CP)
--[X] 2000x Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (200 VBP, 40 CP)
--[X] 2000x Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (380 VBP, 40 CP) --[X] 80x Light Machine-spirit tanks (120 VBP, 4 CP)
--[X] 40x Medium Machine-spirit tanks (150 VBP, 2 CP)
--[x] Repair the maximum amount of Aetherion Orbital Manufactories to Machine Spirit standards (8970 VBP)
-[x] Research x1 (200 + 80 (Anexa) + 60 (Anexa staff) = 340 RP)
--[X] A Curio Cabinet of Cultists (100 RP)
---[X] Anexa assist
--[x] Psychic Encryption (150 RP)
--[X] Drugs? Drugs. (75 RP) ---[x] Transfer this to W, too. Interrogations!
--[x] Faith is My Shield (15/75 RP)
-[X] Orders #1: salvage the Echo of Apotheosis
-[X] Orders #2: Free Klyssar's Nest from the cultists with W. Try to do some recon in advance using hacking, and interrogations of captives for more intel.
--[X] Victan Helps
-[x] Anexa active Action: Research (A Curio Cabinet of Cultists)
-[x] Victan Active action: Planning/coordinating the Klyssar operation with Denva, and directing intel gathering/recon applicable to it, such as interrogations.
-[x] Cia (Write-in): Assist assault on Klyssar's Nest
All Warfare is based on deception. Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.
Those words ring from the ancient history of Terra, and you never really understood them. Surely war is more about weapons, morale, logistics... the list goes on. The side that has more stuff is usually the one that wins, right? You can't beat a battleship with a destroyer no matter how much you know.
But you're starting to understand. You're not about to be able to come up with brilliant military plans or outthink your enemies because it's just not something you're geared to do, but you can start to grasp what the quote really means. Which is that no matter the force imbalance, if you have perfect knowledge you'll always be able to find every advantage. The destroyer that knows everything can run away from the battleship, lay ambushes to wear it down, or find allies to help.
The comment is about meta-conflict, where the person who has a more accurate version of reality is always able to inflict the most damage for the least sacrifice. Put in other words, information is power, and tricking your enemy is the best way to deny them power. The flip side of that is that information-gathering is the most effective way to boost your own power, and that's heavily influencing your planning as you decide how you're going to recapture Klyssar's Nest.
This time your observation window is looking out over Aetherion. It's pretty but hardly the glorious majesty of Oldeer or the sparkling jewel of Calderath primus. Still, the various platforms and shipyards barely visible give it a sense of scale, and reminds you of the tools you have to work with.
"We're going to try to retake Klyssar's nest in a couple of years," you start out with, turning away from the window to look over your crew. They've long-since become accustomed to your ways, and are waiting for you to give out assignments and explain your thinking.
"Of course that means building up a bunch more bots, which is the primary thing we're waiting for. But we're also going to trying to learn everything we can about the Chaos forces there while trying to deny them any information about us and our attack. So that's what we're going to focus on. I'll work on salvaging anything I can of the Echo of Apotheosis, and Anexa we're going to look into all of the cultist loot and corpses that have been piling up. That should give us a good sense of their capabilities and potentially help W and Denva deal with their own cultist problem."
You move onto the next part of your mental list. "I'll also be working on understanding pharmacology better, both so we can nonlethally subdue people on Klyssar's nest and to hopefully provide W some help in rooting out the cultists."
Victan purses his lips at that comment but doesn't interrupt.
"Finally, I want to prevent any sorcerous information-gathering. We know that Bongo was talking to the Echo of Apotheosis. I don't know if the capability or knowledge to do that died with the ship, but that kind of thing needs to stop. I'm finally going to look into how my shields can prevent people from scrying or doing other warp bullshit to gather information." You shake your head in disbelief.
"On the other hand, us knowing about that it is what let us trap the boarding party," Cia points out. "But I can see wanting to shut it down entirely.
"Are we sure that they're not still in communication?" Victan asks with a frown.
You grunt acknowledgement of the point. "Pretty sure. I think I know what to look for, and Bongo hasn't been exactly docile recently, but I haven't seen any sign of more communication. Maybe all of the people who could do it died aboard the Echo of Apotheosis, but we shouldn't count on luck. We want to know as much as we can."
Victan is nodding along, predicting your next words. "Then I'll be working with W again to get all the information we can on the cultists?"
"You guessed it. And Cia will be preparing for the assault. We have time, but I fully expect our enemies to be using the time too, though hopefully less productively than we will." You gesture out the viewport. "They don't have nearly as much industrial capacity as we do, after all.
Then you remember something. "Oh, yes. And I'm spending some of the goodwill to get Anexa and Victan some staff. More Cogitare for Anexa, and diplomats and spies for Victan. Figure out who you want to recruit and they'll be yours."
Anexa blinks at you owlishly. "I didn't think that are that many Cogitare left. It was a cult within the Mechanicus, not really something people got trained in."
You nod. "That's also something we should change. If we want to proceed as we've been going, then they're exactly what we need. We've already started with the enclaves we left in Calderath and Vorthrynn, but let's try to do that more systematically. That means we need people like that, who are willing to displace and be teachers, who see knowledge and spreading it as a holy duty."
"The Cogitare." She says. "I can see the argument. How to make it happen?"
You shrug. "Denva owes us. We'll have every remaining member found an institute and train others. Get media about them going. All we really need to do is establish it as an option in the eyes of the populace and tell them what it means. Some people will decide it's their calling."
"Where am I getting my staff from?" Victan says, a bit confused. "I haven't had a staff before."
You shrug. "Wherever you think will be helpful. Is there anybody you want to recruit from Aevon Counterintelligence? Diplomats? Sociologists? Analysts? Whoever you think is helpful, we can get them. From anywhere on the planet."
He nods, eyes going distant as he starts considering the question.
You slap your thighs. "Ok, lots to do, let's get to it." You get up and head to the labs to get started. You have robots and bots for the research, but the avatar is good at fine control in some useful ways, and it helps you feel present in a way that doing research entirely by bot denies you.
The first target is getting better at designing and synthesizing novel drugs. You've got a vast catalog of medicines you can synthesize as part of your medical suite, but they're very much intended to make people better, and some of the more easily abusable ones were stripped out.
But right now you need some of those abusable drugs, so it's time to plumb your databanks to figure out how to do that. You start by trying to design drugs from scratch, and then quickly realize that this is a path that's been tread a thousand times before, often to rather disappointing success. But you have the records of all of that, and while a lot of it is fragmentary and incomplete, many parts of it aren't. People only really figured out the full picture of computational drug design around the time you were born, and none of the models used were public.
But in the preceding centuries they got pretty close, and you know more basic science than they do. So - why recreate the wheel? You take a bunch of models you have, as well as all of the data you have on later models, and jam them all together in your simulation systems. You have so much more processing power than most of these models were built to use, so you expand them, and feed in more data than they had access to, and correct issues with their understanding of the underlying biology.
And before you know it, you've arrived at a model that is scoring about as well on all of the benchmarks as the cutting edge models of your time, and that's pretty cool. You need to understand the biochemistry of human biology to use it, but you can request a desired change in biology and it'll spit out a drug that can do that. Not only will it improve your medical care dramatically, but it means that you can design tailored interrogation drugs to reduce inhibitions or encourage friendly relations.
It's a bit more challenging to make an easily vaporized knockout gas that won't have significant side effects, and it still requires that it be inhaled, but you manage, and start producing some grenades to distribute to your bots in the upcoming push.
You have to leave it there, but you're excited about the next level of this kind of research. This system is designed with the normal parameters of the human condition in mind, but with some pushes you could design some pretty incredible pharmacological interventions.
Researched Drugs? Drugs - rolled 99+20=119. Critical success! You can custom-design drugs for various applications. Bonus to medical care, interrogation, taking prisoners, etc. Unlocked blueprint modification - Less-than Lethal armament
Unlocked bonus technology - Perfect Knockout (75 RP)
Unlocked bonus technology - Superhuman Uppers (100 RP)
Discounted existing technology - The key to Expert surgery is Ego cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Regeneration is just a matter of applied Growth cost reduced by 100 RP
Discounted existing technology - Juvenat Beginnings cost reduced by 75 RP
Discounted existing technology - Navigator Gestation cost reduced by 50 RP
In the meantime you're managing a stream of construction going on around Aetherion. The Crucibles from around the system have flocked to the gas giant for fuel and to hold up Denva's end of the bargain on manufacturing capability. They're busy working to your specifications to restore the manufactories around Aetherion to your exacting specifications, while also taking care of a hundred other odds and ends including building the bots you'll need for the Klyssar assault, and some light defenses to make sure that Aetherion isn't defenseless while you're gone. No sense giving the enemy easy openings.
Spark of the Ancients partially Repaired!
+89 Orbital Machine Spirit Manufactories
+2 Caltrop Defense Platforms
+Warp Research Lab
+3000x Spectres
+2000x Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
2000x Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers
+80x Light Machine-spirit tanks
+40x Medium Machine-spirit tanks
You were worried about working with the people aboard the Crucibles, and some of them are crotchety asteroid miners who really would be happier talking to nobody. But others are very charming families who took the chance to establish a very comfortable domestic life aboard their mobile manufactories, and you start making a list of the ones you actually enjoy working with.
At the end of the project you tap the groups you like the most and make them a proposal. You'd like to hire them in the long term. Give them a stable contract of employment for them, their families and descendants in perpetuity. In return you'll provide them with luxuries, medical care, legal protection and enough Denvan currency to turn heads. They jump at the offer, and their only condition is that they get to pick their name, and brag about working for you.
You tentatively agree, and then shrug when they choose the name of the VoidForge Miners. Still, you'll have their services in perpetuity, and even after you leave the system you'll be able to set them to future tasks. They'll expand as Denva does, and you have a hard time seeing the downside of having a clan of asteroid miners working for you.
The next thing you want to do is figure out how to actually block signals through the warp, instead of just attacks. Your psychic shields should be capable of it, but you're going out on a bit of a limb here. Unlike a lot of other research you've done so far, this wasn't figured out in the distant past and you don't have records to follow up on. You're charting entirely new territory because these psychic shields are fairly unique to you.
Still, you remember the key insight that got you here - with small modulations in your psychic shielding, you should be able to prevent any usable information from leaking through. You'd originally envisioned something that was basically a software update that continually fluctuated the shields by a small amount, the idea being that it was possible to tune out a constant yelling but less constant to tune out a constantly changing yell.
This would be easier if I had something to test against. As it is now I'm relying on simulations.
Still, those simulations have served you well before, though you have to make some assumptions as you start to move into uncharted territory. You can use your sensors to tell when a signal gets attenuated, but without a way to generate reliable signals it's tricky to tell how good they are. You're able to figure out the best kind of modulation for your current design, but the problem is that you're just aren't sure what the signal-to-noise ratio is on a scrying ritual.
You run the numbers several times with slightly different parameters and get slightly different results. Your current shield with your new modulation system might block various warp transmission or scrying attempts, but against a sophisticated enemy it might be little more than some static. To do the job properly you'll need to figure out how to modify the hardware to amplify the effect.
Researched Psychic Encryption - 4+20 = 24. Poor success. Your psychic shields are better at blocking scrying and warp communication, but you're not sure by how much. Unlocked new technology - Hardware Psychic Encryption (50 RP)
The other thing you've been doing this whole time is investigating the various pieces of the Echo of Apotheosis. Denva is just as glad to hear you're taking care of this, since a lot of their space capacity is busy building up the basic orbital infrastructure that they lost when the Forsaken Echo took control.
But piece after piece of the salvage is scorched junk. You chase down every single chunk of the ship that you can find, and all you get from it is scorched armor and degraded scrap metal. Even when you find a cogitator or piece of technology it's rusted and scorched past the point of intelligibility.
I didn't destroy it this thoroughly, did I?
You check your sensors, and several of the pieces are notably more degraded than they should be. It's like some form of corrosion acted on all of the pieces of the ship in the time since the battle. Turning your warp sensors on several pieces of the worthless salvage you see that there is a faint warp signature, one that smacks of some kind of entropic effect. It doesn't feel active or like a danger to you, more like... a debt come due. You're not sure why that's the impression you get, but the very stuff of the warp is emotion, and that's what your sensors tell you.
Still, it shouldn't effect the whole ship. There has to be something shielded from the effect - and by screening through the bulk of scrap with your sensors, you find it. The signal is weak, but something is resisting the ever-present field of decay that's claimed the ship.
Salvaging the Echo of Apotheiosis - rolled 14 + 10 =24. Poor success.
Rolling for loot - 4. Information.
It's a small safe embedded in a chunk of wall or floor. It looks like it was once hidden in some way, but the covering has long since given way, leaving the rune-encrusted metal bare. You very carefully cut open the safe and find within a few mementoes and a single data-slate. Plugging it in very carefully you find that this belonged to the ship's chief vox officer, and is a record of the blackmail they kept.
What qualifies as blackmail among a Chaos ship makes for fascinating reading, since it's not so much a list of the bad deeds people have done as the good ones. Looked at from a certain perspective it's the weaknesses. The navigator won't sacrifice children, the captain will forgive the occasional treachery if it's done competently, and the sorcerer... well. The sorcerer is jealous of their knowledge, and will just about only teach people who have something to offer. But the only thing the sorcerer cares about are sorcerous knowledge and "interesting mutations." They're also not inclined to leave their quarters very often.
It's all very interesting, but you're pretty sure every single member of the crew so named is dead, so it's of limited use. But then you find one thing that is useful - an illicit starmap that marks out the connections of sub-sectors Hearth and Hearthward. There's not a lot of detail beyond the warp connections, but what worries you is that the system of "Hearth" in the sub-sector "Hearth" is labelled as the home of the "Ten Thousand Scourges," and also an Imperial Forgeworld. Ex-imperial, now.
The notes seem to assume familiarity with that faction, but reading between the lines it seems to be a loose association of Chaos Warbands that split off from "The Dark Imperium" some time ago to strike out on their own and find a place to stake their claim.
They appear to have found it in the system of Hearth, and be busy building up their ships and capabilities as various warbands break off and claim surrounding planets.
Well. It's not pleasant to find out that there's a nest of Chaos-worshipping cultists in control of a forgeworld just two sectors away. But on the plus side, now you know. And you also know that the Forsaken Echo didn't come from the Demons who are past Y'Kala Drift. No, you have two separate groupings of Chaos-worshipers in the local Sector. Joy.
On that note, it seems timely to investigate all of the Chaos artifacts you've got building up. It seems like chaos cults are going to be an ever-present part of your existence in the near future, so gaining intelligence on them is valuable.
But first, Anexa has needed to onboard her new crew, and make sure to install cognition filters and other implants. They all came aboard with their own implants, but were eager to upgrade to the best that "Magos Vita" could offer. Then she introduced the real you to them, and about a third of them were jubilant and the rest downcast.
Which was confusing, and somewhat worrying. But upon some further probing you learned that they weren't upset that you were an AI - they were upset that they were wrong. They'd thought you were an awakened machine spirit, or actually just an incredibly heavily augmented human who had reached the zenith of cybernetic augmentation, looping all the way back around to a human appearance.
The impression you get is that it's akin to a minor religious revelation to them, and you're not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Still, they've been quite helpful in cataloging and analysis of the less-tainted chaos samples, and your new warp lab has been extremely useful in remotely examining many of the more obviously dangerous specimens.
What you find is promising. Not in the sense that any of it makes you happy. These are clearly artifacts and bodies steeped in an immense amount of suffering. Many of the most powerful artifacts nearly weep with trauma and death. You don't have a scale to judge how many sacrifices was carried out to empower many of the items now in your possession, but at this rate you're going to need one...
Wait, scratch that. You can quantize a range over which you see discrete "levels" of enchantment. Some of the still-cursed-but-not-as cursed seem to have only been fed with one or two sacrifices. From that you can build a metric to understand the level of sacrifice that went into each item. Which ranges from one to several thousand for an obsidian knife whose material properties are just insane. It's made of stone, but according to every test you run it's capable of cutting through every material you have access to. Except that shard of golden armor, perhaps. But that's not something you want to test.
Instead, you and Anexa start speculating on if there's a way to simulate that process without all the murder. To use warp-based manufacturing to break the laws of physics in particular ways to enhance the results of your manufacturing. Without all of the murder. Possibly? Probably? It's an intriguing option, at least.
What's also interesting is the variety of effects here. Some are clearly intended as improved versions of mundane weapons, but others are geared to help with summoning and empowerment rituals, or even to aid in navigation or sending rudimentary signals through the warp over short distances. Interesting.
At the end of the process you know quite a bit more than you did before about the signature of Chaos and the detailed reading on every kind of chaotic item means that you can not only understand the purpose of chaotic items and rituals better, you'll be better at detecting them.
Researched A Curio Cabinet of Cultists, 72+30 = 102. Critical success! You understand Chaotic items and rituals better, and will be better at detecting them.
+1 Anexa level. Unlocked bonus technology - Warp Manufacturing (150 RP) Requires Immaterium Understanding Discounted existing technology - The Taste of Chaos cost reduced by 200 RP The technology has also been improved. Discounted existing technology - Yelling into the Warp reduced by 25 RP
Discounted existing technology - Warp Weather Prediction cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Demonology cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Improved Psychic weapons cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Psychic Materials cost reduced by 50 RP
Victan's crew is next, and while many of them seemed excited by the idea that you're an artificial intelligence, none of them seem to have quite grasped the significance of the matter in the same way Anexa's Cogitare did. A couple of them even decided to send that information home in various messages to loved ones. Not hidden or anything, just in the main body of their text.
They were a little miffed to discover you were reading their mail. But then Victan sat them down and explained the importance of the secret, and the lengths to which you'd gone in the past to keep it, and they realized they had, in fact, dodged a bullet.
Still, since that mildly rocky introduction, you've been impressed with their ability to keep the stream of intelligence flowing up from the planet below organized. It's been a bit scattered and inconsistent, but there are gems in there that they're appropriately picking out and highlighting.
The effort to root out the last holdouts and unearth the cultists who are hiding within the civilian population are... going. But the parts of Denva that were occupied have been quarantined to prevent any cultists from slipping to the parts of the planet that Chaos was never able to invade. It's going to leave generational scars on the planet, and you, Victan and W are worried about it creating a rift between the "Two Denvas."
But it needs to happen. There's an absolute plague of murders and mass killings, and you don't have a better solution with the tools available at the moment.
Denvan Chaos Cleaning - 42.
At least you're learning some valuable information about Klyssar's nest from the new drugs and the "enhanced" interrogations they allow. It does seem like Klyssar's nest was where the Forsaken Echo was trying to build their recruiting base, as well as training new sorcerers intended to guide their new ships through the warp. However, together with the evidence you found in the wreckage of the Echoes of Apotheosis, you're almost entirely certain that the primary sorcerer of the Forsaken Echo died with their ship, and all that's left aboard Klyssar's nest is their half-trained apprentices.
And several thousand fanatical troops. Still, those troops were intended to control the local populace, not defend the station against boarding. They shouldn't have many of the tools for defending from an external attack.
The issue you're facing right now is not really one of troops, but more of how to deliver them. You haven't built any more shuttles, and so you're limited to delivering two thousand troops at a time. It's a good number, but the limitation on how many bots you can deliver at a time is going to limit your capabilities. As is the lack of boarding craft - which means you'll have to insert your units at the existing docking ports. There's a lot of them, but it cuts down your entry points rather dramatically and makes it much easier for the defenders to set up fixed defenses.
Denva Aid for Klyssar's Nest Invasion - 89.
Luckily, Denva has come up with aid on this front in addition to the intelligence provided. Their combat troops are tied up with other purposes, but as soon as they're done rebuilding some of the basic orbital transshipment stations necessary to connect the Denvan ground-based manufacturing to the void, they put those shuttles at your disposal. Most importantly, many of them are maintenance shuttles. They're not capable of carrying a huge number of troops, and they're very unsuited to attacking a maneuvering ship while under fire, but they are set up to cut through hulls, and that gives you options.
The real question is if you try to flood all of your bots onto the station at once or if you send them in waves. The advantage of sending them at once is that you might be able to overwhelm them before they can mount a serious response. The downside is that if they do manage to pull out some trickery, it'll hit all of your bots at once, while if you hold back reserves then you can send them in reactively.
Doing some math settles the issue, because even with the Denvan shuttles you don't have the capacity to send all of your forces over at once. After consulting with Cia you settle on the three-pronged strategy, where the first wave will be a large number of specters in the maintenance shuttles, armed with knockout gas and the intention to infiltrate the station and take down as many enemies as possible before they can really react.
The second wave will launch as soon as the enemy musters significant resistance, and will consist of a mixed force of your other units, intended to conquer the station entire. The third and final wave will be whatever you can't fit in the second wave, and likely include Cia as well. If you get to that point then you'll have identified the place of strongest resistance for her to head towards, and hopefully the defenders will have blown their trump cards and won't have anything left to do.
"We ready?" You ask your assembled crew after laying out the plan. They've all had their opportunities to tweak and modify it, and they all nod their assent.
"As long as we can take the reactor then we can prevent them from blowing the station," Anexa says, reiterating her key point. "That's most important."
"It'll also be easy to disperse the knockout gas through the entire station," Victan points out, again treading old territory.
You hold your hands up. "Which isn't without its risks. We'll evaluate it when we get there. For now it seems like we're retreading old ground. Any new changes to propose."
Everybody glances around for a moment, and there seems to be nothing. You look towards Cia. "Are you ready?"
She nods calmly. "I am."
"Then, let's do this," you reply.
The Spark of the Ancients departs Aetherion alone, leaving the swarming industrial activity behind you, and slowly approaches Klyssar's nest. Your warp sensors aren't reporting dramatically unusual activity, though there's some clear indicators of an active Chaos cult.
No surprise there.
You're moving at far below your maximum speed, as if in an attempt to inspire dread in those on the station. But the real purpose is to give all of the maintenance shuttles and their loads of specters time to board the station and knock out as many of the defenders as possible before they catch on.
It all goes well. You know the blind spots of the station, and its immense size means that there are unpatrolled areas and blind spots that your shuttles can sneak through. A few thousand Specters successfully work their way through the stations hull and get inside, then start converging on the critical areas.
However, they don't make it far. The station is swarming the chaos acolytes busy herding the civilian population towards the center of the station. It's not hard to guess why, and you only consider your next steps briefly.
Your bots are not capable of perfectly discriminating between the cultists and the civilians, and even if they were, they wouldn't be capable of avoiding collateral damage. Luckily, you brought along gas dispensers filled with knockout gas, and in a coordinated attack you unleash it on the groups of cultists herding the civilians about.
It's not perfect, and those with health conditions and small children might suffer for it, but it's better than being sacrificed to Chaos. Unfortunately, it's also not instantaneous, and the alarm goes out even as your bots attack. Several hundred cultists slump into unconsciousness, but more are rushing towards the locations of your bots. Clouds of knockout gas catch some, but many have donned gas masks or rush down new paths.
The battle is joined in the middle of hab-blocks and civilian habitats across the station, and that makes you wince. Your bots are armed with light weapons, and while most of the cultists aren't heavily armored, they're almost universally heavily armed, and you're certain that civilian casualties are mounting as plasma and hellcannon fire rakes through housing districts.
As soon as fighting broke out you launched the first wave of shuttles and kicked the Spark of the Ancients up to maximum acceleration, but it's still going to be long minutes before your forces arrive in boarding distance. Your specters withdraw out of the civilian areas, giving up ground that they couldn't have held anyways and taking heavy losses to keep the attention of the chaos forces.
That means that when your more conventional assault shuttles arrive at the existing docking hatches the defenses are stripped to the bone, or even abandoned. It looks like many of the cultists left their posts when your earlier attacks were called in, and they're busy chasing down and eliminating your first boarding wave.
That means your main force is are able to punch straight through the weakened defenses. Tanks you built to carry heavy fighting down the primary transitways are able to completely crush the weakened resistance that remains, and you blitz through the primary accessways toward the critical parts of the station. In a matter of minutes, the forward units reach the reactor core and life support. You've made it inside the command loop of the enemy, and the defenders of those locations are clearly not expecting tanks to roll up on them and blast them to smithereens. A few bots were able to catch rides on the tanks, and they storm through the reactor immediately, cutting down the cultists inside before they have enough time to get up to anything naughty.
You're starting to relax. It looks like everything is going well. There are still groups of enemies throughout the station, but they're scattered and lack coordination. The only problem is that they're loose among the civilian population, and you're worried that they're going to be atrocity-prone. Your only option to solve the problem is to disperse knockout gas throughout the station, but you'd prefer to avoid that if at all possible.
You also haven't reached the central citadel of the station - where the navigators lived back when this was one of house Klyssar's many holdings. But your bots are closing on the entrance. Unsurprisingly, it's well-defended, but if need be you can siege it as necessary.
You speak in Cia's ear as she boards one of the freshly-returned shuttles. "We may not need you after all."
She just grunts. "Don't speak too soon."
As if her words were the trigger, your warp sensors - previously dormant - spike. The source is inside the citadel, and a wave of unreality washes over the rest of the station from that source. The feeds from every single bot go insane, anomalous readings and feelings spiking in all directions. They didn't pull Klyssar's nest into the warp, but the reality inside the station is more warp-like than it should be. Dreams whisper through the corridors, and strong emotions have a habit of manifesting as auras or temperature changes. The effect even reaches out into space and washes against your shields.
-19 outer hull psychic shielding
Your bots aren't coping well. They don't even have psychic shields, and their sensors are going haywire. It's not scrapcode, but many of your bots start disobeying their orders, firing upon other bots as their friend-foe sensors glitch. You see civilians going mad, twisting and writhing and gouging out their eyes, or throwing themselves headlong into walls. In the last orders you get through as the effect peaks, you have the bots unleash the knockout gas into the air ventilation system. It won't reach the citadel, but it'll hopefully prevent the civilians from doing themselves too much harm.
If the gas still works when the immaterium intrudes into the materium.
The shuttles are already starting to depart, and you consider holding them back. Most of your second wave of bots is out of contact, though you're not sure if it's temporary or permanent, and there's no sense in sending in more bots to go insane.
You're ruminating on the decision not to put psychic shields on any bots when you notice two things. First, Cia's shuttle has pulled ahead of the rest and is speeding towards the station. Second, the effect is weakening, and you're slowly gaining control over your bots again. It looks like they are dramatically reduced in number, as many of them self-destructed when the psychic tripwires inside of them went off.
More of them have been destroyed by the cultists, who have rallied and started pushing your units back. It's still a rather chaotic situation, but it appears that several of the cultists have transformed into unholy abominations - Chaos Spawn if your memory serves - and they're ripping through your units in close quarters. The tanks fare better against them, weapons designed to fight other tanks blowing the chaos spawn to pieces in the places they can reach.
But there are no battle lines. Just bands of roving bots and cultists tearing each other apart in the madness that is Klyssar's Nest. The storm of warp influence recedes, though you can feel the ritual that must have caused it brewing in the center of the citadel. It's not done, it's just preparing for another wave.
You helpfully drop the location into Cia's implants, and she snorts. "Yup."
The third round of shuttles dock, and the bots rush into the station, making for the civilian areas and the citadel. They bulldoze a path through the fighting to make a clear path for Cia, who quickly outstrips them.
In the civilian areas, the picture is... better than you thought. Most of them seem to have succumbed to the gas, and other than a few roving cultists who seem to have been driven into the grasp of insanity, every conscious being on the station is trying to kill your bots. Which - well, better them than civilians, you suppose. You should have enough.
Cia reaches the entry to the citadel. Your first wave of bots had just reached it when the first wave started, and it looks like they went insane and started shooting in all directions. Holes are blown in bulkheads, floors, ceilings, defenses, and each other. The people manning those are recuperating and open up as Cia comes into view, forcing her to duck back into cover and wait for the bots in your next wave to catch up to her charge.
That's when the ritual unleashes itself once again, though not quite as strong as before. Your view of the situation fuzzes. Still, Cia's psychic shielding protects her from the maelstrom, and the signal from her implants comes through loud and clear. She's using this opportunity to blow through the defenses as the cultists reel from the sudden mental onslaught.
There are scores of more defenders, but Cia blows by them, occasionally lashing out with fire and sword to cut through her defenses. Her flames seem more powerful than usual, blasting outwards and seeming to maliciously embrace her targets.
A final blast door stands in her way and a flaming sword cuts through it in seconds. Inside is what can only be a ritual gone wrong, as a dozen screaming sorcerers levitate in the grip of power that streams out of their control through a complex diagram drawn in blood on the floor and ceiling of the room. Shards of opalescent light orbit the center of the room, where a twisted shard of crystal hangs in the air, singing with a warbling noise that is immediately blocked by your cognition filters.
Cia's focus is the crystal, and with a flame-empowered leap she soars into the center of the room, swinging her force blade through the air to collide with the vibrating gem.
The collision happens, then undoes itself, then happens again. Cia's psychic shields strain against the effect and then pop, but the crystal pops right along with them, shards of shrapnel embedding themselves into every surface in the room. They stick deep into her armor but according to your sensors fail to penetrate the innermost layer. The sorcerer apprentices around the room are uniformly staked to the walls by the shards of crystal, and you see Cia look around at their writhing bodies. She reaches for her belt, grabbing several incendiary bombs and tossing them around the room before unleashing flame of her own. When she leaves the room a few minutes later it's a raging inferno that has devoured all traces of the ritual and those who carried it out.
The rest of the station is... under control. Your bots have died in their thousands to the cultists and the effect of the warp, and the ones that are left are struggling to search through the rest of the station and gather up all of the unconscious cultists. Still, the station is yours, even if civilian casualties were higher than you would like.
Klyssar's nest invasion - rolled a 50. The Klyssar's nest civilian population has suffered about 30% casualties between your assault and the sacrifices of the last few years.
+1200 Chaos Cultist captives. 488 are kept, the rest are given to Denva.
-2629 Specter Light infiltration bots
-1730 Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
-1204 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers
-350 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots
-53 Light Machine-spirit tanks
-12 Medium Machine-spirit tanks
Cia intervention - 83.
+1 Cia level.
Gained the Shards of Warp-Resonant Crystal. Unlocked new technology - Shards of Humming Gemstone (100 RP)
Well. The system is now secured, though at a higher cost than you would like.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 3,564/14,500
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients, 1700 CP cost Suffering from 110 bp of structure damage.
Ground Build Capacity: 0
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts between ground and void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 600
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 221/240 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) 50 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 17/??? 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:
457 Specter Light infiltration bots (20 CP)
270 Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (20 CP)
794x Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (20 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.
Misc assets:
A Void Abacus, Psytech Samples, A Navigator Fetus, A Scrapcode generator named Bongo. Dark Eldar Weaponry, A few Dark Eldar bodies, Dark Eldar Boarding Craft. Khornish Cultist corpses & artifacts. The Hand of Saint Agatha. A sector-governor's ransom in wealth. A dozen ancient metallic bots (pending vote). A chunk of auramite supposedly from the Emperor's armor. Warp-Resonant Crystal. 500 surrendered Chaos Cultists.
Civilization Boons:
Outstanding: 0 Boon Opportunities: Help cleanse the planet of hidden chaos cults. 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 multiple actions). Do big favors for civilizations to earn Boons. Most recent list of boons. Existing boons:
Voidforge Miners, +1100 bp/turn in Denva.
Sharing General Design & Industrial techs.
Large Cogitare presence.
The Stellar Ascendancy. "Be for others as I have been for you."
Current Installations:
89 Machine-spirit orbital Manufactories. +5340 Void BP/turn (20x89=1780 CP), around Aetherion
41 Orbital Manufactories, damaged. (repair for 75 bp, or 100 bp for machine-spirit orbital manufactories), around Aetherion
1 Large Shipyard, damaged. (0/3000 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)
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular. Don't do this just because it's free. Do it if you want to know something. Writing those sections delays the updates. If you want Vita to get more done, don't ask for this.
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
[] Travel/Explore: Pick a system on the Map to travel to/explore. Currently, you may travel 1 system as part of an explore action, or 3 systems if you don't explore. You can explore a place you've already explored, or focus your exploration on a specific feature of a place you've already explored. Or explore two systems next turn and then the turn after go back for specific POIs without costing an action. Jumping a single system over as part of an exploration action is free, a number which will increase with better navigation.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method)
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what you spend them on.
Installations
Installation default is to be built in full view. Basic stealth (building under cover, sensor-absorbing materials) can be applied with 2x BP cost. Ground-based installations can be built entirely underground for 3x BP cost.
For non-military installations, you can upgrade them with psychic shielding by spending extra BP up to the 2x the base cost of the installation. The more you spend, the stronger the shielding will be.
Basic Biology Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic biological samples, such as flora & fauna. Or captives.
Basic Technological Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic technological samples, to understand their electronics, materials, etc.
Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab (200 BP, 50 CP) Will allow for safer experimentation with psytech and general psyker powers, at the very least confining the damage from perils of the warp. Can be outfitted with inwards-facing psychic shielding.
High-Energy Physics Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Will allow you to conduct research on more... excitable branches of physics. Maybe don't put it close to anything you want to keep. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place)
Warp Research Lab (500 BP or 500 VBP, 100 CP) Anexa's brainchild. Half mad science lair, half sensible warp research setup. Will allow you to conduct research on the warp, miniature portal generator and all. Will likely help contain poor results, though maybe give it some psychic shielding. (Rolling a 1 while researching something here might turn out badly, but at least you'll have containment measures in place in addition to any psychic shielding you add.)
Captive Holding cells (25 BP, 10 CP) will allow you to hold 500 captives and keep them fed and watered while you interrogate/indoctrinate/talk to them.
Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP) 50 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with severe injuries.
Directional-control Radio tower (25 BP, 5 CP) improves signal reception quality and allows you to send your own signals across the planet, as well as giving you the capability to bounce them off the atmosphere to disguise their origin.
Observatory (100 BP, 25 CP) Built on a nearby mountain. Will unlock research projects to map the current system.
Manufactory (100 BP, 50 CP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity.
Machine Spirit Manufactory (120 BP, 20 CP) As a manufactory, but controlled primarily by machine spirits. +60 ground-based build capacity.
Industrial Aquaculture Plant (50 BP, 10 CP) Produces all of the food necessary to feed 5000 people. The food is very spicy.
Rocket Launch facility (50 BP, 10 CP) Uses chemical rockets to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to half that amount of void build capacity per action. The opposite of stealthy.
Spaceport (100 BP, 25 CP) Allows you to use shuttles to convert ground build capacity to Void build capacity with no loss, or as a base to host and rearm fighters. Can host 10 fighters or 10 shuttles, each capable of converting 50 ground BP to void BP per action, built separately. Stealthier than rockets, but not invisible.
Magnetic Catapult launch system (1000 BP, 50 CP) Allows you to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to void build capacity per action with no loss. Actually quite stealthy.
Medium Void-shield Installation (1000 BP, 50 CP) A void shield capable of stopping medium orbital bombardment, approximately fifty heavy strikes.
Anti-Orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
Anti-personnel Bunker, Psychic Shielding (40 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor. Modified with psychic shielding.
Machine-spirit Jammer (100 BP, 10 CP) A bank of cogitators capable of jamming a large number of small machine spirits (weapons, doors), several medium machine spirits (vehicles) or one large machine spirit (small ship). Effect is temporary and resistance will build up.
Basic Juvenat Production Facility (250 BP, 50 CP) A set of carefully-managed vats capable of supplying 50 people with a perennial supply of Juvenat.
Void Installations
These are built in space. They require 'void BP' which is associated with lift capacity. This is a detail we'll abandon eventually, but for now your lift capacity is limited.
Orbital Aquaculture Plant (250 BP, 25 CP) Produces all the food necessary to feed 25,000 people. The food is very spicy.
Orbital Manufactory (250 void BP, 40 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +50 void build capacity.
Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactory (300 void BP, 15 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +60 void build capacity.
Deep Space Manufactory (750 void BP, 40 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +100 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Machine Spirit Deep Space Manufactory (900 void BP, 15 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +120 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) 4 Ship construction slots
Medium Shipyard (3000 void BP, 100 CP) 16 Ship construction slots
Large Shipyard (10,000 void BP, 250 CP) 64 Ship construction slots
Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP) Rests steailthily in orbit, until activated, at which point it can attack nearly any target in orbit. One-shots satellites, many are needed for ships or larger platforms.
Shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire. Requires a spaceport for rapid transport of troops.
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.
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
New blueprint Modification system: We've unlocked various additions to ground blueprints. Instead of attempting to list all possible combination below I'll list the base options, and you can trick them out with the following modifications. In general BP & RP should round up to the nearest 5. CP does not. Note that these are calculated off "base cost," not total cost, so it is not compounding, though some upgrades increase the base cost.
Here's an example of me designing a fancy assault shuttle.
The base blueprint is 25 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP), but I want to make it fancy. First, let's make it machine-spirit controlled. That gives +0.5x base BP, -0.9x CP, or +15 BP, -4.5 CP. So the blueprint is now:
25 RP - Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (40 BP, 0.5 CP)
Then I want to give it void shields. That costs +1x base BP cost because it's a small craft, then +1x RP. So +25 BP, +25 RP. Now it's:
50 RP - Void-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (65 BP, 0.5 CP)
Now I want to give it psy shields. That's +4x base BP cost for small craft (which was 25, so +100 BP), and +1x base RP cost (which was 25, so +25 RP). So now it's:
75 RP - Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (165 BP, 0.5 CP)
Oh and screw it, might as well make it stealthy too, which is +1x base RP cost, +0.25x base BP cost, so that's +10 BP (round up to nearest 5) & +25 RP cost, which leaves us with:
100 RP Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (175 BP, 0.5 CP)
And of course that's a bit of a mouthful, so I'm going to rename it the "Icarus," and the blueprint should look like:
100 RP - Icarus (Basic Stealth Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle, 175 BP, 0.5 CP)
If we'd wanted to also make it humanized (so it looks like it's piloted by people, for example if you wanted to transport allies without them knowing it was flown by robots) then this all changes, since that adds +5 BP to the base cost. That doesn't change the RP or CP cost at all, but it does change BP. Instead of 25+15(0.5x)+25(1x)+100(4x)+10(0.25x)=175 you'd do (25+5)+15(0.5x)+30(1x)+120(4x)+10(1.25x)=205 BP. And then you'd have
100 RP - Basic Stealth Humanized Void & Psy-shielded Machine Spirit Assault Shuttle (205 BP, 0.5 CP)
Humanization - (+15 base BP cost for combat bots, +5 base BP for vehicles, small craft & defensive installations) Makes a unit appear to be operated by fully-armored humans. Slightly increases strength and armor of those units. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine Spirit Jammers - (+10 base BP) Adds machine-spirit jamming equipment to the blueprint, enhancing capabilities against forces that use machine spirits. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Machine-spirits - (+0.5x base BP cost, -0.9x base CP cost) Make this blueprint controlled by machine spirits, making it slightly corruption resistant and reducing the load on your systems. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
Void Shields - (+1x base BP cost for tanks & small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds void shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft.
Psychic Shielding - (+4x base BP cost for tanks, small craft, +9x base BP cost for bots, +1x base BP cost for defensive installations +1x base RP to design blueprint) - Adds psychic shields to the object, dramatically increasing survivability against warpy threats. Can be applied to: Combat Bots, Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
Basic Stealth - (+0.25x base BP cost for vehicles and small craft, +0.5x base BP cost for bots, +1x base RP cost, ) Makes a unit harder to detect with both active & passive means. Can be applied to: Combat bots, vehicles, small craft.
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.
25 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
25 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
25 RP - Nuclear warhead (25 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a city-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in.
10 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
Utility
50 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien origin. Has advanced scanning, modeling and processing capabilities.
10 RP - Maglev System (5 bp/mile, 50 flat CP) A high-capacity maglev system to transport large amounts of goods across a planetary surface, linking various surface installations together into a single network so production from any of them can be applied at all of them.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:
Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total amount of space inside the ship, which is represented by the number of BP spent on the hull. That's your "Budget"
Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards cramming.
Pick hull equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards cramming.
Choose weapons, combat equipment & noncombat equipment to add to the ship. Your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in.
Have a vote win which spends the necessary RP to design the planned ship.
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Light defense Platform, 10 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Destroyer, 25 RP, 50 CP, 1 ship construction slots (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 50 RP, 100 CP, 2 ship construction slots (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/75/150)
Light Cruiser, 75 RP, 200 CP, 8 ship construction slots (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/150/300) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Heavy Cruiser, 100 RP, 300 CP, 32 ship construction slots (2000-6000 BP, 4500x600-6000x1200 meters) Engines: (2/3/4 gravities) for (300/400/500 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/200/400)
Available Hull Equipment:
These do not count towards hull cramming.
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Void Abacus (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can navigate through the warp slowly, at a rate of 3 systems per action. Requires Abacus Manufacturing technology.
Psychic Shielding (Between 1/10 to 1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, that thinks "no" as hard as possible, answering the question for any warp-corruption for any beings or objects within the hull. HP of the shield is 1 HP per 5 BP spent on it.
Basic Passive Steath Profile (1/5 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has it's sensor profile reduced with special coatings and a shape that reduces the cross-section in response to active sensors. It can reasonably expect to stay hidden at long ranges (outside weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Improved Passive Stealth Profile (1/2 base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is heavily dedicated to stealth, with not just coatings and a shape but also significant amounts of sensor bafflers and other passive systems designed to prevent it from being spotted. Should be able to stay hidden at medium ranges (or long weapon range) as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Advanced Passive Stealth Profile (Doubles base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship tries it's hardest to be a void in space, and so long as it's not moving it generally succeeds. Should be able to stay hidden at close ranges as long as it's not moving, or moving very slowly. Probably not good enough to get into boarding range.
Available Weapons:
These do count towards hull cramming.
Multiple the final weapon cost by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of weapons, it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for final ship cost.
Prow Ram (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 (200 RP) You've figured out how to make your shielding modular, but each panel is still tricky to make. If you spent some time iterating that design you think you could make them even easier to make, and potentially power powerful (Further Improves the BP/HP ratio for psychic shields, may improve the HP of shielding you can pack into a unit of space.)
-[] Psychic Shielding Reliability (100 RP) Trying to make tripwire-versions of your shielding that could be installed in everything has revealed a weakness - the circuits can spontaneously fail. You fixed that problem by making them tougher, but now they won't always trigger. You're confident you can fix this issue, but it'll require you to make them more failure-proof. On the plus side, this should mean that your psychic shielding can last longer without maintenance. (Makes psychic tripwires more accurate, potentially to the point where it's impossible to corrupt your tech without you knowing about it. Also likely to make your psychic shielding last long time periods without maintenance. Will unlock research to use this on ships, and to make civilian-grade versions that could be put into literally everything).
-[] Small-scale design-integrated psychic shielding (150 RP) You could take this approach a step further, and integrate the psychic shielding into the designs of bots, vehicles and small installations from the start. (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic to build into bots, vehicles and small installations. Will likely improve the quality of shielding available and unlock research for further shielding improvements)
-[] Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (250 RP) Start installing this shielding into hull plates as the norm. Every ship will have psychic shielding (Makes the cheapest version of psychic shielding free & automatic for all ships and platforms. Will unlock research to make this shielding better)
-[] Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP) Your current shielding says "No" at all times, which seems to work against most warp threats. You think you might be able to modify it for a different meaning, which may have different effects. You're not sure exactly what, but you'd kind of like to try "Aboslutely not" or maybe even "You're not real" and see what happens. (Unlocks new types of psychic shielding with different/improved effects, as well as further research into more powerful psychic shielding - some of which may be less "shielding" and more of an offensive weapon.)
-[] Machine Spirit-controlled Psychic Shields (50 RP) You think it's possible to integrate machine spirits into your chaos shielding, which would probably make it more effective in almost every way except cost. (Unlocks new kinds of psychic shielding that are more resistant to damage, potentially self-repairing and more) Requires Machine Spirit Chaos resistance.
-[] Tiny Psychic shielding (400 RP) You were able to make your smaller psychic shielding by stacking the components and using the interference caused to generate the proper effect. However, you don't understand that interference well enough to go any smaller. Once you do, you can start to try to make actually tiny versions of the psychic shielding, small enough to fit in implants, or potentially into totems that project the shielding effect outside of themselves. (Fixes the issues with personal psychic shields, unlocks the ability to create implants with psychic shielding capability and potentially allows you to make amulets with psychic shields. May unlock additional technology to make all of that better.) Requires Triple Nested Psychic shielding
-[] Triple Nested Psychic shielding (200 RP) You've had two shields, yes. What about three? (Allows you to have three layers of shielding active at once. May unlock tech to allow inner shields to boost outer shields to be greater than the sum of their parts)
-[] Multi-meaning shields (300 RP) Your current shields say "No." Other sayings probably exist, and saying multiple things at the same time might have more esoteric effects, such as damaging attackers or defending better against certain types of attacks. Combining multiple of those into one shield could be powerful. (Allows you to combine two shield types together into one shield. May unlock further research for further combination, or to say one meaning EXTRA HARD.) Requires Alternative Shielding Meanings
-[] Scrapcode Denial (400 RP) Scrapcode - and psychic corruption in general - is a difficult opponent. It's hard to enforce mistakes when it can magically see through your defenses. But if you could incorporate psychic encryption into that approach, it becomes viable again. (Makes your shielding Extraordinarily resistant to potentially completely immune to scrapcode-based attacks. Does not apply to machine spirits yet. May unlock technology to apply to other kinds of corruption. Likely synergistic with generating your own scrapcode)
-[] Psychic Shield Tuning (200 RP) Your new scrapcode defenses help against scrapcode, but not necessarily other threats. This research would potentially allow you to tune the capabilities of your shielding on the fly to improve performance against other angles of attack. (Resistance to specific types of attack will improve with exposure, up to a cap. Unlocks more research to allow for more flexible shielding that can target specific weaknesses of various psychic enemies. Synergizes with mutli-meaning shielding.)
-[] Hardware Psychic Encryption (50 RP) To properly block scrying, you need to design new psychic shielding. You don't think it'll be more expensive, but you could be wrong. (New versions of psychic shielding that block scrying with much greater effectiveness. Likely unlocks better versions that will defeat the most powerful seers, and may unlock specialized research to build installations that will deny scrying and foresight over a larger area - like a system)
The Warp
-[] Teleportation is like skipping a stone (150 RP) Teleporters work by skipping a cargo across the shallow warp, linking two places for a moment. They are limited in many ways. Now that you understand that, you can find the limits to extend range, capacity and think about other ways to utilize the same general idea. (Improves teleporters for boarding, may lead to the ability to directly teleport to planetary surfaces. Unlocks further research for further improving the teleporter, as well as potentially leading to warp portals, which is likely required for webway understanding).
-[] The Taste of Chaos (100 RP) When investigating the stations in Vorthryn, and again when investigating the artifacts you found a flavor to the warp signatures hanging around the chaos-corrupted stations. If you do more analysis on it, you should be able to set up some filters that can tell you when a signature is chaos-associated or identify active Chaos-cults, chaotic blessings or chaoticlly-enhanced items through sensors alone (Makes your warp sensors very sensitive to Chaos-associated markers. More useful in detecting cults than individuals, though will be able to detect chaos blessings. Like to unlock further research to screen for ever-smaller amounts of chaotic influence).
-[] 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 (200 RP) Your warp sensors work well on things that are nearby, but they're definitely not able to detect anything large beyond combat range, or smaller things beyond very close range. Maybe it's a matter of improving sensitivity, maybe you need to specifically build some parts of your psychic shield to extend range. (Makes your warp sensors active at longer range, unlocks further research to pinpoint psychic activities from across the solar system. Half of the prereq for basic warp-based FTL communication)
-[] Yelling into the Warp (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 (400 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 (225 RP) Anexa believes she understands something fundamental about the warp. Do some experimements to see if she's right. (Further discounts on all warp-related research, potential to unlock a research from farther down a warp research tree while skipping prerequisites) Anexa must work on this action. Guaranteed level(s) for her. Requires Warp Research Lab.
-[] Improved Void Abacus (125 RP) You understand how the Void Abacus works now, and you think you can tweak it to be better. That involves some amount of expanding and improving its connection to the warp though, so you're far from certain (Improves your Void Abacus design to be faster and better at warp jumps, though still inferior to an average navigator. May unlock further optimization of Void Abaci, including for cost/unstable warp jumps).
-[] The Basics of Psychic Computation (400 RP) You have several examples of different kinds of cogitators that interact with the warp in some way. They all share some kind of neural network system, but are very different in other ways. If you can figure out the minimal requirement for something to be psychically active - well. That would have implications. (Improves psychic shielding research, psytech research, some machine spirit research, may improve scrapcode research. Will help genetic manipulation to create psykers. May lead to a research tree to make psychic AIs or implants that grant psychic powers).
Psytech
-[] Help Cia's Training (50 RP) By spending more time with Cia, actively monitoring her use of her powers and providing feedback, you can improve the quality and outcomes of her training (Gives a +10 to any Cia training dice this turn, and may result in new kinds of outcomes. Can be improved by further pyromantic research. Repeatable)
- [] Basic Psychic Amplification Devices (100 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic amplification, but to actually confirm that you need to build one and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic staffs or other personal psychic amplification devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic amplification, as well as larger amplification constructs)
- [] Basic Psychic Suppression Devices (150 RP) You think you understand the principles of psychic suppression, but to actually confirm that you need to build some and see if it works. (Allows you to build basic psychic hoods or other personal psychic protective devices. Unlocks more advanced psychic nullification, as well as larger nullification constructs)
-[] Complex Psytech Implants (250 RP) Adapting what you know from organic-machine control implants, you can give a psyker greater control over their implants, in turn allowing you to give psytech implants more capabilities and more power that requires active tuning on the fly. (Improves psytech implants in terms of both precision and raw power) Requires either Basic Psychic Suppression Devices or Basic Psychic Amplification Devices
- [] Improved Psychic weapons (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 mechine spirits are capable of incredible creativity when you push them to solve impossible problems. A lot of it is silly and impossible, but buried within the morass are occasional nuggets of gold. Every good idea starts as a bad idea, so let's generate more ideas. (Improves the number of RP you get per action, though not by a huge amount. May unlock more research to further improve this number).
-[] Machine Spirit Chaos resistance (75 RP) You think the reason that the machine spirits resist chaos is because they understand their purpose to some extent, and the entire neural network needs to be corrupted to corrupt that purpose, which is harder. There's also emotional simulation that's going on in there. (Improves the basal resistance of machine spirits to chaos corruption. May unlock further technology down this chain, as well as half of the requirements to integrate machine spirits with psychic shielding.)
-[] Psytech Machine spirits (100 RP) You don't think that machine spirits can be psychically active. However, from what you understand of psytech it's a temperamental and difficult discipline, and you think that integrating machine spirits into the construction of psytech might improve its reliability and performance. (Improves psytech, at the cost of making it somewhat more expensive. May lead to more advanced versions for more advanced psytech, and may contribute to better psychic shields)
Biology
-[] Servitorization (50 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Variety is the Spice of Life (50 RP) Your current foray into aquaculture production is fully effective at feeding large numbers of people, but it also makes them try to drink an ocean the first time they eat it. And several times after that. And kind of kills their taste buds toward anything else. Maybe get some other versions of aquaculture working that don't do that? (Fixes the spice problem).
-[] Enhance the Agriculture! (200 RP) 5000 people being fed from one facility sounds like a lot. But it's really not when you start to consider things like star systems. So far you've been playing with the hobby-version of aquaculture. More commercial versions used heavier food-manufacturing systems that are closer to organic printers. They'd probably be much more effective for feeding extremely large numbers of people. (Unlocks blueprints for extremely efficient methods to produce large amounts of food. Unlocks research to install tiny systems that fully substitute food needs, such as installing something onto a spacesuit that fully converts waste into delicious food).
-[] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP) Calderath is an interesting case of a planet that doesn't need to be terraformed so much as ecologically engineered. You think you know how to do it - make a microbe that sinks the stupendous amount of seaweed standing up the oceans and buries it in ocean sediment. Actually making and deploying such a thing and having it do what you want is a different matter. (Potentially makes Calderath livable to humans again without breathing masks. Will cross-synergize with MICROBES, and both techs will discount each other) Write-in a risk tolerance. Depending on how well you roll you might not release it and instead get a follow-up action to further improve your solution. Even if you roll poorly and release it there will be a subsequent roll to determine success or failure.
-[] MICROBES: Miniaturized climate regulatory and optimized biogeochemical engineering symbionts (250 RP) Microbes are the chemical factories that reshape the chemistry of the planetary surface and atmosphere to your liking. Delving into the techniques used in the distance past to figure out how to engineer them would let you design better, faster terraforming organisms, as well as let them be applied to more extreme starting conditions (Improves, cheapens, accelerates and broadens the terraforming projects you have available. Unlocks further improvements and potential weaponization.)
-[] Complex genetic enhancement (150 RP) The complexity of human genetics lies in the epistasis between multiple different alleles. Put more simply, this shit is complicated. Figure it out. (Unlocks more advanced enhancements, including significantly improved strength, intelligence, etc. Unlocks research for even more dramatic engineering, and is likely required to try to make psykers)
-[] Psyker genetics (300 RP) What makes somebody psychic? You have a psyker, and some genetic samples from others acquired from various trips to the monasteries. (Allows you to develop a test to determine psychic ability, though it won't be perfect. Unlocks further technology to improve psychic potential in adults and embryos.)
-[] Understanding Mutations (150 RP) The mutations that occasionally pop up in Denva's population are... weird. Complex, and have bizarre phenotypes. Why? What's causing them? Why are they so hard to treat? Maybe look into that. (Potential cures for more difficult mutations, as well as further research into why they occur, and treating other kinds of genetic deterioration.)
-[] 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.)
-[] Chaos Corruption Cognitive Intervention (400 RP) Chaos corruption is a lot of things. However, it almost certainly involves some amount of neural rewiring to think more Chaotic thoughts. With your neural implants, you believe you might be able to reverse that, using warp sensors to detect combination of memory editing, negative feedback and induced plasticity to undo the Chaotic brain patterns. This is unlikely to return them to how they were before, but it'll give them a chance to be somebody new without demons twisting their brain. (Your brain implants can slowly un-corrupt the mental side of chaos corruption). Requires Companion Cogitators& Understanding Mutations
-[] Improved Organic-Machine control (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 14
-[] 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.
I was going to have Drugs unlock separate techs for physical and mental categories. But you crit, so now they're combined in a bonus tech.
I'm trying to add a slightly new system for boons. It's a work-in-progress. All of these will require some effort on your part - though granting them warp travel will only require you to finish abacus manufacturing and then give them the technology. Cleansing Chaos cults will require you to spend an action on that and for it to be effective, though with Taste of Chaos it'll be almost guaranteed. The R&D one is tricky - they want a full-fledged research & development sector, which may only take one action, or may take multiple depending on how well you roll, and then they'll only share techs with you in the areas you trade for. Other things will likely also produce boons - but these are the obvious near-term ones. Ask if you have questions, but keep in mind these are significant.
The Voidforge Miners will continue to exist and grow in Denva. You can add in their production to an existing construction action or treat it as a free action.
I didn't have space to write it in, but the Cogitare will continue to exist as a significant subculture within Denva going forward. I will probably let you recruit small numbers of them for free every time you return from being away. That "small number" will scale as Denva does.
The Chaos ritual is what happens when some sorcerers who don't know what they're doing are left in charge of coming up with a ritual to disrupt your attack and given a few years in which to do it. They pretty much just tried to make the most powerful ritual they could and it totally broke free of their control. This wouldn't have ended well for them regardless of anything else. But Cia managed to save the station.
I've decided not to make any significant edits to the format of the quest, but I will be engaging with Q&A less, and offering fewer chances for detailed write-ins.
Answering lots of questions about small tweaks to the plan is the thing that's draining my attention here. Please still ask questions, but @ me and provide a clear list of the questions you have, preferably without requiring me to go to great lengths to understand the context.
I'm not going to have time to write until at least next weekend. Moratorium for 48 hours, voting for at least 36.
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.
Tally
[X] Plan: Nova cannons go boom. Also muzzle Bongo.
-[X] Idea: Ships! Ships now! We are shockingly vulnerable with only a single ship in orbit. Let's fix this. Short-term build some candles and longer term do research to design and build new and better ships with better weapons soon. Make a slight detour into demonology to muzzle Bongo.
-[X] Construction (600 VBP + 7800 Aetherion MS manus + 1,250 VBP (Voidforge Miners) = 9650 BP / 1000 BP Repair Bay / 500 Lift Capacity):
--[X] Captive Holding cells 41/50 HP -> 50/50 HP [45 BP Repair Bay]
--[X] Aetherion Shipyard repair (2814 BP)
--[X] Candle x 5 [use existing hulls to discount] (5000 BP)
---[X] turn over all the candles to Denva Secundus, because we do not have the personnel for them
--[X] Vita Core 135 HP -> 270 HP (675 BP)
--[X] Psychic Research Lab 135 HP -> 270 HP (675 BP, paid 155 with BP and 780/1.5=520 from Repair Bay Budget)
--[X] Upgrade the inner shielding of the Warp research lab 200 -> 400 (1000 BP)
--[X] Personal force weapon for the diviner (5 BP)
--[X] Heavy Infantry Armor with integrated void-shields and equipped with basic psychic shields for the diviner (10 BP)
--[X] 1 BP left
--[X] 175 BP Repair Bay left, use for incoming damage on psychic shields due to demonology research
-[X] Research x3 (600 + 85 (Anexa) + 60 (Anexa staff) = 745 RP)
--[X] Demonology (100 RP)
---[X] Anexa assist
--[X] Gravity Weapons (200 RP)
--[X] The Biggest Boom (150 RP)
--[X] Large-scale Machine spirits (75 RP)
--[X] Abacus Manufactoring (50/100 -> 100/100 RP)
--[X] Superconductive Shenanigans (50 RP)
--[X] Efficient Equipment Distribution (100 RP)
--[X] Intelligence Coding (20 RP Overflow)
-[X][Free] Turn Warp Drive, Abacus, Improved Gellar Fields, Superconductive Shenanigans Technology and star charts over to Denva to earn a boon. Warn them that the Eldar are prickly about their webway gate
-[X][Boon] Recruit a Diviner Psyker
-[X][Free] Turn over cultist prisoners to Denva
-[X] 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.
-[X] 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.
-[X] Cia: Assist with Demonology research. E.g. to "banish" demons before we figure out how
The observation deck's view is once again dominated by a gas giant. Aetherion's pale stripes are striking, but they lack the detail of Denva Secundus's blue and green - the world that has held your focus for the past few years.
The mood in the room is a better contrast, with a more hopeful air to the casual chatter of your crew. The cults are crushed, and the system of Denva is once again fully under control. Well, at least as far as you know. Nobody's sure what's going on with the Vellkar on Denva primus, though you're pretty sure that Denva's going to go check on them as soon as they've got some larger ships flying around soon enough.
That will be sooner than later, if you've got anything to say about it. And you do. You do. Though there's a lot of other priorities going on, and once again you wish you could work on three or four times as many thing as you could. But that eventuality will have to wait for you to figure out how to upgrade yourself or build more AIs.
You clap your hands together twice, and your crew stops their quiet conversation and looks up, waiting for you to explain your plans for the next few years.
"We've secured against the cult and warpy shenanigans, but now I'm worried about mundane attacks. If even two more ships like the Echo of Apotheosis show up then we're in trouble." You pull up the sector map and gesture at the colored dots on all sides. "If we wait for the threat to materialize it'll be too late. But it all comes down to how much time we think we have. If we have no time at all then we need ships built yesterday. But if we've got some time it makes a lot more sense to develop some force multipliers."
Anexa cocks an eyebrow. "Which do you think it is?"
You shrug. "I'm genuinely not sure. I think some bet-hedging is in order. We'll build some destroyers and turn them over to Denva, hopefully kick-start their own military development. Then we'll go down this list of research." You flash over the list, highlighting it by section. "Weapons and optimization for ship manufacturing. I want to be able to chuck gigantic explosives at people, and I want to get ready for a somewhat more dramatic military build-out."
You gesture towards the map again. "I'm not sure we have a good handle on the strategic position yet, but one thing is garunteed. We're going to fight somebody. Even if nobody comes to us, then we've still got a long list of enemies. I want to go kick over Xylaris's sand castle, but more important are probably the chaos warbands setting up around in Hearth, and the Orks. We won't lack for things to do with a fleet."
"I notice that my assignment is missing," Anexa says, skimming through the list again. She looks up with a put-upon expression. "What's it going to be?"
"Demonology," you reply with an amused grin. We're going to upgrade the warp lab, then you and Cia are going to figure out how to muzzle Bongo. And any other demons we come across. We've seen the kinds of things that the cults can get up to without heavy demon summoning. But the demons from the east - that has me worried. I want to more about demons and how to counter them."
She nods thoughtfully, then gives Cia a meaningful glance. "Ready to work together again?" Her tone grows teasing. "Maybe as a more active participant this time?"
Cia doesn't reply and rolls her eyes, but the edges of her lips turn up in a small grin.
"I'll be working with interfacing with Denva," Victan says, eyes out the window and on the constant orbital traffic around the gas giant. But I think there's another opportunity we may want to move on fairly soon."
He looks down, lips pursed. "Denva's rebuilding the monastery system now that the cults are mostly powerless. They'd evacuated all of the psykers to secure areas in Aevon, but now they're setting up the old monastaries. However, they also discovered more psykers than expected when setting up shields across the quarantined zone." His eyes grow a bit shadowed. "A lot more. But I think there's one we may want to recruit."
He's got your full attention, as well as that of Cia and Anexa. "Oh?"
He nods, and throws up a hologram of a young woman, along with transmitting her file to you. "Gwendolyn Kytante. Powerful, rated at delta-level. She fled the city with her family before the ritual last year. Seemed to know it was coming. Sister was killed by jumpy guards." He grimaced.
"But, perhaps unsurprisingly, her primary aptitude seems to be divination." He looks up. "She's noted as in the care of Kezathi Zenza right now, and it looks like they're not following standard monestary practices."
"I remember Kazathi," Cia says. "Couldn't really hold it together. Is she better?"
"Yes, at least to the point she's not a security concern," Victan replies. "She's had a number of episodes over the years, but nothing major. She seems to care for her fellow psykers above everything else."
"The question is, do we take Gwendolyn on?" Anexa breaks in, highlighting the issue at hand.
You spend a bit more time skimming through her file. "Gwendolyn seems more stable than I would expect, for somebody raised in the quarantine zone with that level of power. Especially if she saw the ritual coming - they hid that from all the sensors we had until it was ready to kick off. That kind of foresight could be very useful." You nod, decision made. "Yes. Let's bring her aboard. Victan, let's get it arranged. Will the monasteries make trouble?"
He shakes his head. "Not if I get the governments to lean on them. They like to be independent, but we did just save most of the civilian government from cultists. We'll get her."
"I'll handle getting her settled," Cia says, voice firm. "It'll give me less time to help with the demonology, but she's going to need somebody to look to first, and the rest of you can be a bit intimidating."
"And you aren't?" Victan says with a raised eyebrow.
Cia rolls her eyes again, but the matter is settled. There's some more discussion of details, but soon enough it's time for everybody to get to the tasks they've been assigned.
It won't be long until Gwendolyn comes aboard, but you've got a little time. Enough to bang out something you've been meaning to get to for a while. It's not glamorous, it's not the kind of thing that prompts excitement. But it is important. The kind of research that ekes out efficiency gains that turn the tide just as much as novel weapons or glorious charges. Just more quietly.
You're trying to rush the research. While that should be enough time to get it done, it's not quite enough. The variety of things you're trying to optimize get the better of you, and you don't quite get to the improvement in cargo bays you were trying for.
Researched Efficient Equipment Distribution, 15+20 = 35 Poor/normal success Equipment costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing. Unlocked new research Extremely Efficient Equipment Distribution (250 RP)
You finish encoding the new optimizations into your design software just as the shuttle carrying Gwendolyn returns from Denva. Your primary avatar isn't quite in-position because you slightly lost track of time, though you're able to watch through cameras as the rest of your crew greets the new arrival politely, introducing themselves and delaying to give you a chance to arrive and welcome her in person.
You take the chance to examine Gwendolyn and get a sense of her. You've read her dossier and gone over every scrap of public information, and it all points in generally the same direction. She's young, she's nervous, and she looks like she'd fall over in a stiff breeze.
But beneath the waifish exterior hides a spine of steel. She survived as a delta-level psyker in one of the areas that had appeared calm but hidden a morass of corruption underneath. She'd dodged cultists who would have dearly loved to get their hands on a psyker of her power, and most impressively - come through the entire experience with her sanity intact.
But all of those are dry facts. You don't know her. From everything you've seen you think you'll like her, but you're not sure of that. You're not certain she's what you need, or if she'll want to join you. You think she will be, but you refuse to make this decision until you've gotten to know her a little bit.
Your avatar prances into the shuttlebay, where Gwendolyn is still looking around at the ship with wide eyes. She hasn't been in space before, much less to a ship like yours.
"Welcome to The Spark of the Ancients!" you cry out, throwing your arms wide.
Victan chuckles. "You're late. We already welcomed her." He turns back to Gwendolyn. "And this is Vita. Don't let her actions fool you. She prefers to be this way, it's just the circumstances that make her act so serious."
"Are you calling me serious?" you reply grumpily, then address your new guest. "Come in, at least past the shuttle bay. I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'll let Cia give you a quick tour and then get you settled. There's a lot of time to get used to everything, so no need to rush. But if you ever want to talk to me, just call my name."
She nods hesitantly, clearly overawed by your presence. You've noted that more and more as you deal with the people of Denva. You've become a semi-mythical figure to them, and most of them haven't even commented on you switching appearances while you were gone. It's going to take some time for her to get used to you, and you hope that's measured in months or years, not decades.
Still! Cia's already taking on the role of an elder sister to Gwendolyn, and you do some light eavesdropping over then next few weeks as the younger woman settles in. She quickly starts to ask a range of questions of Cia, and is surprised at the level of honesty she gets in return. It's not long before she's taking the now-traditional pilgrimage to your AI core for the reveal of what you truly are.
She takes it well - though at least part of that is likely because she doesn't have the background on why artificial intelligence are so feared. As far as she's concerned there's not so much difference between an AI and the unfathomably-old and highly-augmented human you were pretending to be.
But the biggest difference seems to be the cessation of dreams. You gather that Gwendolyn is used to having vivid and prophetic dreams nearly every night, and those have become dramatically more muted since she's come aboard. Not in the sense she's incapable of having them anymore, but rather that she needs to intentionally reach for the power instead of having it thrust upon her. It generally seems like a positive change, but the lack of something that was constant for so long seems to be unsettling for the girl.
Still, you've got a lot of balls in the air. You'll continue keeping an eye on the new crewmember, but Cia's handling the day-to-day interaction she needs. Leaving you free for research! Specifically, the kind of research you need to do to make your enemies suffer the most horrible of fates - really large explosions.
The first half of that puzzle is the propulsion. Missiles are all well and good but they don't have the lifetime to hit somebody far away. If you add that in then they get slow and easy to spot, and then you need to armor them and that's a torpedo. There's some value in sticking higher-yield weapons on torpedoes.
But the real king of this kind of weaponry is going to be based around gravitic manipulation. You'd use a railgun if it didn't need to be rebuilt after every shot, or a coilgun if using it didn't cause the kinds of magnetic fields that would tear apart the ship. Not to mention the challenge of building a projectile that can survive the kinds of accelerations you're hoping for - which will be measured in the range of percent of lightspeed.
There's a couple of ways you can go with gravity technology - either making it small or big. Right now you're very focused on making it big, creating the kind of large-scale gravitic manipulation that has the concept of weapon stamped all over it. You're not trying to make subtle little drones that float around, but rather the kind of gravitic shears sufficient to tear apart objects at a distance, or propel colossal projectiles at stupendous velocities without tearing them apart.
The physics of artificial gravity manipulation is fairly well-understood, and you have access to a broad set of technical literature on the subject. But scaling and developing that basic understanding into the kind of thing that is good for a weapon requires solving a thousand and one technical challenges. The kind that first look like impossibilities, but once you study them enough are just obstacles to be surmounted.
The resulting weapons aren't cheap, they're short-ranged and power-hungry, but the infantry-scale ones will turn a human into pulp no matter what armor they're wearing, and the ship-scale ones can reach through armor to rip at the internals of any enemy ship you can name - though they're still stopped by void shields.
Researched Gravity Weapons - 48+20 = 68, Good success! You can build basic gravity weapons now. Unlocked new ship weapon blueprints - light, medium, heavy Gravity Blaster
Unlocked small blueprint modification - Gravity weapons.
Unlocked new technology - Improved Gravity Weapons (200 RP)
Unlocked new technology - Nova Cannon! (200 RP) Requires The Biggest Boom.
Of course, that's only half of what's necessary to get to your goal. The second is to build the actual payloads, which are a whole other kettle of fish. There's no theoretical limit for how large of a thermonuclear weapon you can build, but the key word there is theoretical. Like with the gravity research, actually building one you tend to run into all sorts of issues, like how to keep that volume of material from premature detonation under normal handling conditions, to say nothing of being launched out of a cannon at insane velocities.
Well, you'll start with just cranking up the numbers on your physics calculations and seeing what happens. And the answer is... a lot. Physics gets weird when you start releasing teratons of nuclear energy, but the first design you get is about the size of an office building. There's a lot of energy in mass, but you're still only shaving tiny percentages off the mass of your particles as you fuse them together.
Your goal is something closer to the size of a house, but you draw the line at warheads that better resemble architecture. You'll need to do a pretty substantial redesign of your fusion design architecture, but you can do that. It'll even help your reactor design, which will be useful as you make bigger ships.
Along the way you stumble across a few interesting physics problems and solve them, including a few very interesting theories on how matter behaves when subjected to particularly extreme conditions. What happens when you have enough energy present in a space that normal physics breaks down? You follow those theories to their ultimate conclusion and realize that it's a pathway to some pretty incredible yields. Instead of simply smashing atoms together to produce other atoms that have slightly less mass than they should, you're managing to completely annihilate some tiny fraction of your reaction mass. And it really doesn't take a lot of compete anhillation to produce the energy yields you're looking for.
Well. That's interesting. And the greater understanding of normal fusion fluxes means you will actually be able to design better reactors, which is going to make several kinds of follow-up technology easier and better.
The Biggest Boom researched - 94 + 20 =114, Critical success! You can build nukes now. Including exterminatus-grade ones. Have fun! Blueprints available for construction - Nuclear Warhead, Exterminatus Warhead
Unlocked bonus technology - Antimatter is Dang Scary (250 RP) Requires high-energy physics. Discounted existing technology - Grand Cruisers cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Improved Engine Designs cost reduced by 25 RP
Discounted existing technology - Walkers cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Void Shield Discounts cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - High Energy Physics costs reduced by 100 RP
Discounted existing technology - Nova Cannon! cost reduced by 100 RP
Well. That was exciting. Your avatar bounds into the lounge where Cia and Anexa are arguing over a set of diagrams that look like occult symbols, with Gwendolyn sitting in the background and reading a book. You're tangentially aware of what they're working on, but you'll give it your full attention later to see whats happened. What's got you excited is what you just discovered.
"The primary fission cascade can induce a temporal vacuum destabilization event, effectively converting stray nucleonic scatter into an ultra-coherent quark-gluon plasma, and if you shape it right the secondary cascade forces an an implosion wavefront, collapsing the quantum exclusion zone and yielding an annihilation reaction!"
They both blink at you, but their expressions after that are markedly different. Cia just squints in confusion, but Anexa gazes off into space and tilts her head slowly to the side, mouth open.
Cia looks to her conversation partner. "What does that mean?"
Anexa speaks hesitantly. "Really big explosion?"
"REALLY BIG EXPLOSION!" you shout right back, then run out of the room again.
You have to admit, you partly did that to make sure Gwendolyn doesn't take you too seriously. Monitoring the room, you're not sure that you succeeded. She's looking very confused and a little scared, and Anexa is reassuring her that you're not insane, because she can understand what you said. Mostly.
Gwendolyn is not entirely reassured, but Cia's general amusement at the whole situation seems to put her at ease.
Still, there's more to do! You want to crush your way through the bottlenecks that are preventing Denva from building the kind of fleet that could stand up to anything anybody in the sector can throw at them. The next obvious one is scaling your machine-spirits to ships. There's a ton of synergy between machine-spirits and Organic-Machine control implants, since the machine spirits take care of most of the lower-level detail while the organic brain does higher level direction. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts and all of that.
But scaling machine spirits up to larger sizes isn't going as well as you'd hope. You have rules for designing machine spirits so they'll do what you want, but when you try to slap together enough nodes in a simulation then the rules start to break down. It appears that machine spirits don't scale linearly, and you'll need to figure out a new set of rules to get the kind of performance you want.
You... don't fully succeed. What you have at the end of the allocated time looks more like a set of hacks than a governing rule. But it's a start, and if you keep working on it you'll improve it.
Researched Large-scale Machine Spirits - 6+20=26, poor success You can build machine spirits for destroyers. Unlocked new Hull Equipment for void ships - Machine Spirits
Unlocked new technology - Improved Large-Scale Machine Spirits (100 RP)
You're not entirely thrilled with how that went, but you're hoping the next task will go more smoothly. It should - all you're doing is building stuff, and that's rarely been a problem for you. You want to upgrade your psychic shields generally in case of psychic shenanigans coming from the research Anexa and Cia are working on. Or from the flailing of your new and fairly untrained crewmember.
Vita Core Max HP 135-> 270
Psychic Research Lab Max HP 135 -> 270
Warp Lab inner shielding Max HP 200->400
The other priority is to get your shipyards up and running. They've just been sitting there with empty hulks occupying the slips, and it's time for that to change. If there are more visitors to Denva it would be good to have more than a single combat-capable hull.
Large Shipyard repaired!
5 Candles completed!
You'd previously flagged that for Victan, and he gets them delivered into Denvan hands smoothly. They're struggling to finish their own ships due to some lack of shipbuilding personnel, and seem pleased to have some completed hulls in their hands. The Candles are not exactly the most decisive of ships, but a ship is significantly better than no ship.
Your next task is to integrate past research on superconductors into your designs, which should be tricky, but you're not expecting it to be hard. Unfortunately, it is. There are several methods to achieve room-temperature superconductors that you can see, but they've all got caveats. Some still require high pressures to remain stable, others will disintegrate at the slightest disruption. At least one must always be under a significant current. Others seem like a good mix - but are nearly impossible to synthesize in anything but the tiniest batches.
It's all very frustrating, but you keep at it doggedly, cursing the obvious holes in the literature where this group or that group solved the problem and kept it as a trade secret. Still, there are places you can integrate the various approaches into your manufacturing to improve various devices. Nearly everything you build needs conductors, and being able to make small and critical parts have infinite conductance can radically improve some designs where that would otherwise be a limiting factor.
In fact, only in getting into it do you realize how significant it would be to create some kind of "silver-bullet" superconductor, some kind of alloy with normal material properties but infinite conductance. It would improve almost more technologies than you can name, as well as improving your productivity of all of your manufacturing in myriad ways. But you don't have the silver bullet now, and developing it could be quite challenging indeed.
Researched Superconductive shenanigans - 4 + 20 = 24. Poor success. Your manufacturing capability is increased by 5% across the board. New research unlocked - The Promise of Superconductivity (250 RP)
You check in vaguely on other things, and are left somewhat grumpy. Denva is struggling to crew their ships and manuever them effectively, and the demonology research has hit a snag. Not a big one - but it's time to transfer Bongo out to the warp lab for some of the more... extreme experiments. And all of the tasks already have it somewhat riled up, and to get it there you'd need to transfer it through unshielded territory. It's a solveable problem, but an annoying one.
Regardless, you've got one more item to tick off your research list - figuring out how to build warp abacuses. You've got one, the same one that carried you through the Federation back before everything broke, and it's still faithfully ticking away to assist you travelling through the warp, though it's notably worse at it now that the warp resembles a raging storm instead of a placid sea.
But most importantly, after the research a few decades ago you know how it works. The void abacus is a strange cousin of a machine spirit, with a weird quantum computing component that allows it to predict the vagaries of the shifting dimension that is the immaterium. Now you just need to figure out how to build more, which is a whole other task. Quantum computers are notoriously tricky things, with stability problems at the best of times, and interfacing with the modern warp is hardly the best of times.
Luckily, you figure it out with a dozen small optimizations and a few intermediade-sized breakthroughts. You even gain some insights along the way to the strange way that the abacus interacts with the warp, at once so similar and so different than how consious brains seem to do it. There's some insights there into how computers could start to interact with or harnass the power of the warp.
Researched Abacus Manufacturing - 51+20 = 71, good success. You can build void abacuses without any significant challenge. Discounted existing technology - Warp Weather Prediction cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - The Basics of Psychic Computation cost reduced by 50 RP
Discounted existing technology - Scrapcode Generation cost reduced by 50 RP
You put the finishing touches on the manufacturing schematic, then take a mental step back and slot it into the prepared information packet with a sense of satisfaction. You almost consider renaming it to "Interstellar travel for idiots," but resist the urge. They've been having difficulty with setting up a unified military, especially one in space. On the planet that hasn't been too much of an issue because geography makes it pretty clear which of the former national militaries is still in control. But it's been a hindrance from space.
+1 Denva Boon
A few weeks later you get a ping from Victan asking for a meeting. It's not urgent, but you're not especially busy, so you walk into the lounge where he's ensconced himself a few hours later. Gwendolyn's tucked away in a corner, and you note that down. It seems like she's been in the background of several of your interactions with your crew recently. More than chance should dictate, which is interesting. But you won't begrudge her the opportunity to see how you interact with your crew before she officialy joins their numbers.
For all the world it looks like Victan's sitting on a couch and doing nothing but staring into the fishtank on the far wall while sipping tea from the pot at his elbow. He's taken to liking the drink recenty and offers you a cup out of habit before realizing the silliness of the gesture. Then he sits back in his comfortable chair. "Sorry, I've been distracted recently. Denva's military buildup is... not going well. They're still struggling to get construction underway, and in a sense all of the things we've done to help have just made it harder for them."
You frown and he shakes his head in response. "They're not blaming us. It's become common knowledge that they have the capability for interstellar travel now, and everybody from W to the strategic planners to the economic cooperatives are thrilled."
He lets loose a long and tired sigh. "The problem is that they're having trouble putting that will into action. There's actually just nobody who knows how to set up an interstellar military force. They've got five different source military traditions, but none of them want the others to be in charge, and any of the experienced officers from them are both causing tensions with the others and assuming everything they know will apply to space. It's a mess - and it doesn't help that their first round all got blown to hell by the Forsaken Echo.
"Now their second round are busy staffing the candles and not setting up the infastructure to train more people or build more staff."
You move to say something again, still frowning, and he waves it away. "It'll probably be better in the long run. I managed to intervene when they were assigning the ship crews. Luckily there are five of them, and each is crewed by an officer from one of the old nations, with a mixed crew. They're learning to work together, and how void combat is not like ground combat. They're starting to move to more organic-machine control in future designs, and every crewmember who learns the basics of void operations could be a future ship operator. It's teething problems."
He fixes you with a pointed look. "But I get the sense that the entire planet is getting frustrated with their lack of progress in this regard. We could likely fix this without too much trouble. I've taken the luxury of drawing up a plan for a military academy. They really just need somebody to establish a functional heirarchy from the top down that'll stick longer than it takes for the civilian leadership to get frustrated and rip the whole thing out again. A goat could run it, as long as they just sat there and didn't order everybody to change plans every other year."
He flips you another file. "Also, they're frustrated by the manpower of crewing ships. They're very much transitioning to a system where mental labour is the most valuable thing, since the industrial organic-machine control has reached the point where their industry is truly exponential."
Denva Civilian development roll - 48
"So the hardest part of convincing them to build ships is to staff them, since everybody and their mother is convinced that they'll have OMC-controlled voidships sooner rather than later. If you can deliver on that, then there won't be such a clash between their military and civilian sectors."
Victan Mitigation roll for Denva's Institutional Military failures - 94 + 17 = 111 +1 Victan level.
New Denva boon options revealed: Build them a military academy (with Victan's bonus), & deliver them technology that allows one person to control a ship of light-cruiser size.
You wait for a second, then raise an eyebrow at him. "Are you done? Can I talk now?"
He flushes, though it's hard to tell against his dark skin. Still, you've been around him long enough that it's obvious. He gestures for you to go on, but you take a second to review his proposals.
It looks good. "Good job. I'll be sure to take it into consideration. Always too much to do..." you trail off.
"and not enough time to do it in." He finishes for you. "Sorry."
"Really, don't worry about it," you reply. "I wasn't paying attention and you were. Good job preventing it from being a big problem. And setting up options to get involved."
You get up and shoot a glance towards Gwendolyn, expecting her to look away and pretend to be engaged in something else. But this time she catches your gaze and holds it. You stop walking and raise both eyebrows in an unspoken question. She gestures to the other seat in her nook, and you walk over and sit down.
"How are you doing?" you ask.
"Pretty well," she replies, but it's a halfhearted answer. Not in the sense that she's lying, just in the sense that she's distracted and thinking about something else.
You give her a moment, leaning back and checking through everything else going on. There's nothing else that immediately requires your attention, though Cia has recently sent you a brief overview of how Gwendolyn's doing. You take a moment to skim it before she speaks up again.
"Is it always like that?" She waves back towards where Victan is once more immersed in his implants, sending and receiving messages while slowly sipping tea. "Deciding the fates of everybody. If Denva will get a good military. Over tea? Was it like that with the quarantine?"
You study her face before answering. She's not mad, or even upset. Just, curious, if a little morbidly so. After a moment you nod in return. "Yes, more or less. I - we - have a lot of capabilities. I can build ships and armies, and do research that changes everything. So I need to choose what to do with it. I don't consider it my responsibility so much as my choice. In my journey to the neighboring systems I found a lot of people who needed help, and I helped them if I could."
Her eyes are introspective, accessing data on the basic neural implant she's got. Anexa recommended she start with a less-capable model at first, so she's not overwhelmed with data, and Gwendolyn hasn't been pushing on that. You know from Cia's notes that she's looked over this before, but she appears to be seeing it in a new light.
"I looked at it earlier, but not like that. Those people - especially in Vorthryn. They had it even worse than we did in the quarantine, didn't they?"
"It depends on who you mean," you reply. "Maybe. Being hunted by the cults is a special kind of awful. I don't like to make comparisons like that. I could help, and I did."
"And Calderath. You started them down the path of fixing their planet. Everywhere you went you helped people. Why did you come back?"
That surprises you, and you let the emotion show on your face. "Why shoudln't I have? You needed help."
She shakes her head, long hair shaking with it. "You didn't know that. As far as you knew we were doing fine. Unless there's something that's not in your meeting minutes and reports?"
You sigh and lean back, running a hand through your own hair, green to her dirty blonde. "No - you're seeing everything. I think it was more a sense of wanting to check in. See how Denva was doing. I want this place to be a home port, a place to come back to. A place I can be safe. I'm not intending to abandon it anytime soon. Maybe never."
Something about what you said makes her inhale and lean back. "Denva. Not me. I'm not part of Denva anymore. Cia, Anexa and Victan are all from here, but none of them consider it home anymore." She gestured around to indicate the ship. "This is home."
You smile softly, and a bit hopefully. "It is. Do you think you'll be able to accept that? Help me make these choices better. If you'd been here I might have known that Denva was attacked earlier and come back before it got so bad."
She frowns again, but it's a frown of deep concentration. Of somebody about to make a big decision and taking a second to think it over.
Then she turns back to you, resolve in her eyes. "Of course. I have something else. Here." She holds out a hand towards you and opens it, revealing a large seed.
For a moment it seems to glint with golden light, then you blink and its gone. You study it for a second, unable to recognize what it is. You look back up to Gwendolyn. "Where is it from?"
She shrugs. "I don't know. I found it in a dream."
"Oh. Oh. Do you want to keep it? Can I take it to run some tests? Do you want to try and plant it?" You are looking at the seed in a whole new light.
She shakes her head. "I'll know where to plant it. You can run some tests on it, so long as I get it back."
O-kay?
New Technology unlocked - Study the Strange Seed (150 RP) Requires Gwendolyn active action to research.
You aren't at all sure what that means, but you're hoping you can find out. Still, you close her hands around the object. "Why don't you hold onto it for now. I'll ask you for it if I decide my curiousity outweighs my pragmatism."
She chuckles faintly at that, then lets out a breath like a heavy weight was raised from her shoulders. "You know what? Call me Gwen. How can I help? Everybody else is working to make things better. How can I?"
Unlocked new technology - Basic Divination (100 RP) Locked until Gwen reaches level 5.
You pause to consider the idea, and consult Cia's message again. It looks like Gwendolyn's willing to learn to fight, but she doesn't have a passion for it. She practices with her weapon the bare minimum, and holds little love for the suit of customized armor that's been built for her or the force sword she's barely managed to activate.
Instead, her passions clearly lie more in the strategic. Cia has a minor hobby of complex strategy games, and notes that Gwendolyn has taken a liking to them, absolutely trouncing her shortly after learning the rules. She's expressed an interest in learning to coordinate troops, and made a few comments about how she would have handled past military deployments. Some of that may be a person with an armchair and the benefit of hindsight, but you have to admit that it would be nice to have a crewmember trained in military strategy, and you've got quite the collection of texts to unleash her on.
The other option is obviously to develop her divination abilities. They won't lie fallow if you point her down a more military path, but if she entirely focuses on her powers she might become able to provide somewhat more general assistance than mere military assistance.
Vote below on a starting specialty for Gwen, outside of the plan.
After you give your answer you spend more time with Gwendolyn - Gwen - as she settles more fully into her new home. Now that she knows what she's doing the process feels much more natural. She has a role now, a job that keeps her busy and makes her feel useful, even if it's only gaining skills that will be useful later. But with juvenat, "later" is a long time.
Everything's starting to wrap up, and you're looking forward to the next meeting to schedule progress. There's just one thing on the docket left going forward, and it's the demonology research, which has been a bit of a roller coaster.
The overall question is simple - how do you interact with demons. You've seen the aftermath of a summoning ritual, as well as several other rituals. You have the Inquisitorial handbook that has a few tips on demons once you get past the gigantic NO DO NOT labels. And most of all, you have a capitve demon to poke.
Between the three of you, Cia and Anexa you've started to delve into the venerable subject of poking a demon with a stick. Granted, the demon in question is in a very secure enclosure. And the sticks are ever-more-sophisticated symbols made from psychically active materials. Your primary purpose - beyond seeing how it reacts to different sticks - is trying to prompt it to discharge its accumulated power to make it safer to move to a more secure - and remote - facility for the real experimentation.
Bongo resists for a long period of time, but when Cia decides to enter the vault and wield the latest stick personally it finally decides enough is enough. It's apparently decided the scrapcode is a fool's game and unleashes a storm of flame from the mouth of the screaming head impressed onto the back of the altar. It washes over the psyker and continues to impact against the back wall. The flame has some kind of meaning of annihilation impressed into it, and would be able to burn and melt normally fireproof materials. But your psychic shields absorb that section of the attack, allowing the mundane flame to wash against the chilled metal walls of the obliette without significant harm.
-13 Oubliette psychic HP
Cia is even less affected. Her affinity to fire - even daemonic fire - allowed her to divert the flames around her body, though her psychic shielding took some degree of damage from the assault. It's still a success, as Bongo is now mostly drained of energy and you can transfer its physical vessel out to the prepared laboratory in a far orbit of Aetherion. You even take a moment to repair the Oubliette behind it.
+13 Oubliette psychic HP
Here's where you can actually get to the dangerous stuff - like trying to understand how to directly interact with a demon. To do this, the three of you start from the basics. Demons are ideas come to life. Malicious ideas, to be sure, but still ideas. This means that they do not share the limitations of material beings, but instead have their own set of limitations, often baked into their very being from the concepts that gave them birth.
This is all hinted at by your previous materials - and also your past research. The key is now figuring out how to use that to interact with the demons in various ways. To call them, if you're so inclined, to banish them once you're done with them. And most importantly, to bind them in the meantime.
You saw how the cultists intended to do it - at least the summoning part of it. It doesn't appear to be that difficult, since it's mostly about invoking a concept associated with the demon hard enough they decide it's worth showing up. There's some tricks about making the event meaningful in a significant way. After some experimentation and analysis you can't believe what you find.
Some people would term it symbolism. Others would talk about themes. But there's only one word that seems fitting to you, and you express your frustration to Anexa and Cia. "Drama. Demons are drawn to drama! That summoning aboard the Auric Burden probably wouldn't have worked if we hadn't been actively attacking it at the time. The sheer drama of the cult summoning a demon of bloodshed while shedding their own blood in a frantic defense of the ritual was a substantial addition to the effectiveness of the selfsame ritual!"
Cia looks amused, but Anexa only shrugs. "The warp is dreams and ideas embodied. Is it any surprise that a big way to interact with it is by crafting the appropriate narrative?"
You subside a bit. "No, I suppose not. That's still ridiculous." Then your eyes sharpen. "But it does mean that to bind a demon we just need a narrative of it being bound. Are physical chains too literal?"
"No. I do not think they are." Cia answers.
That insight is enough to crack the process wide open. To summon, bind and banish a demon you need to create the appropriate narrative, through meaningful sigils, shapes and overall ambiance. If you do a meaningful-enough sounding exorcism then there's a good chance it'll work, especially if you use a bunch of symbols that have been associated with that kind of ritual by enough people for long enough, and therefore carry the right kind of metaphyical oomph to get the job done.
There's lots of directions to go with this - you've got a pretty good catalog of meaningful symbols from various artifacts, the inquisitorial handbook and all of the cultist information you have. It's not nearly what you'd call complete, but you search in your databases for more from ancient humanity and test them. To your delight, you find that some of them work - the more famous the better. One of the most effective is something known as the Seal of Solomon, a strange circular sigil full of weird mystical lines and symbols. It's absolutely ancient and has enjoyed countless revivals over the millennia as exactly the sort of "lost and forbidden lore" that got various countercultures excited.
Right up until the age of strife, when those sorts of countercultures started actually summoning demons with that shit. Still, your archives are a gold mine where this kind of thing is involved, and you quickly work out various rituals you could use to summon, bind and banish demons, though it works far better the more you know about the demon in question.
Bongo is easy. You've sparred with it for decades, and know the flavor of its attacks inside and out. It's a rules lawyer, one who enjoys finding ways around restrictions that aren't worded with absolute precision, and then insisting that because something is not specifically banned it is therefore permitted. It delights in changing the rules without changing their precise wording.
With that knowledge, you design a precise ritual to bind Bongo into its current shell. You manufacture series of heavy chains hammered from cold asteroidal iron by massive industrial presses. Upon each chain is inscribed ten thousand detailed and intricate rules spelling out every aspect of its imprisonment. You asked a law-bot you have that was designed to write contracts for stupid legal systems to write it, and it provided. The rules cover every conceivable possibility and contain several catch-all clauses to prevent any part of it from being invalidated. Bongo is prohibited from escape and cannot broadcast its power in any way, shape or form.
These chains are wrapped around the scrapcode generator tightly in successive layers, a total of ten chains forming ten recitations of the rules as Bongo struggles against imprisonment. But as every layer of chains are added the struggles grow less, and there's a mounting resonance detectable to your warp sensors. Then, when the last chain is wrapped and secured, the ritual builds to a peak and then is cut off with finality, all of that power imbuing itself into the chains with the feel of a prison of cold and infinite iron.
Then you step back and examine the feeds of your work with satisfaction. "I think that's handled."
Researched Demonology - rolled 43 + 30 = 73. Good success! Bongo is now bound, and can be banished easily at any time. You can now summon, bind and banish demons when you want to with some preparation. Requires some amount of information or intention on the demon in question. Unlocked new technology - Bell, Book and Candle (200 RP)
Unlocked new technology - Read the Fine Print (200 RP)
Unlocked new technology - Sigils of Power (250 RP)
Existing technology modified - Alternative Shielding Meanings (150 RP) New meanings may be especially effective against demons. Existing technology modified - Psychic Shield Tuning (150 RP) Likely to allow psychic shielding to physcially block demons. Discounted existing Technology - Reliable Gellar Fields cost decreased by 100 RP
Discounted existing Technology - The faintest whiff of the Chaos-Touched cost decreased by 50 RP
Discounted existing Technology - The Epicure of Chaos cost decreased by 50 RP
Well. That's an exciting end to your efforts. You aren't sure how relevant it will be until you're actually fighting demons - but it's far better to have the ability before you need it, instead of afterwards.
You're about to call the next meeting when you get a surprise ping - from the direction of Denva Primus. You pull the message up and find an unencrypted audio signal that's nonetheless clear and speaking gothic. "Stellar Ascendency, come in. Receive. We wish to re-establish contact and enter negotiations."
The message continues with a list of requests and - while they aren't exactly framed this way - demands. It seems that the Vellkar have established what appears to be a somewhat decent technical base from the materials Denva gave them in the past and the wreckage of their past settlements. Now they're interested in picking contact back up, but on their terms.
Vellkar Development - 72
Denva gets one of their new Candles over there quickly, ferrying a diplomatic envoy to the surface for talks. The planet is just as barren as ever, and even scans a few years back didn't reveal a significant amount of activity. But it appears that the underground was a buzzing hive of activity, and the Vellkar are looking to establish favorable terms, while Denva is eager to cooperate with them.
The negotiations seem to be starting off on a friendly foot, but they could go many different ways. The Vellkar could join the Stellar Ascendency as full citizens with a say in governance. Or they might create their own governing body and be an ally. But one thing is certain - they want to build their own defenses, and wish to trade for the technology to do that.
Not a bad move.
Nobody's asked for your direct involvement, but you could certainly insert yourself in one way or another, either as an interested third party or with something to sweeten the deal.
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: 8,820
Research Capacity: 200+
Psychic Shielding: Outer Hull 240/240 HP, Vita Core 270 HP, Crew Quarters (203/500) 135 HP, Basic Psychic Experimentation Lab 270 HP, Bongo Oubliette 540/540 HP, Secondary Vault 50 HP, Captive Holding cells (500/500) 50 HP, (repair for 5 BP/point, can be repaired by repair bay)
Bongo Psychic Energy = 0/0 Bongo is Bound.
Juvenat usage: 3/50 people's worth (cannot be stockpiled)
Shipbuilding capacity: 31/64 ship 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, or 100 for tanks. 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. +8190 Void BP/turn (20x130=2600 CP), around Aetherion
1 Large Shipyard, around Aetherion (31/64 ship construction slots)
Contains hulls for 2x Light Cruisers (1800 BP size), 4x Frigate (900 BP size), 7x Destroyers (450 BP size)
Warp research lab, 400 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:
Intelligence Coding (190/400 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. A Strange Seed.
Get their R&D system up and running (requires rolling well, or appropriate tech, or multiple actions).
Refit the full fleet of ships you acquired for their use and hand them over before they get their own fleet up and running.
Build them a military academy with Victan's bonus (and at least a normal success).
Deliver them technology to let one person control a light-cruiser-sized ship.
Ensure that the Vellkar & the Stellar Ascendency come to a profitable arrangement (requires a good diplomacy roll).
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. Current one-time BP boon returns 25,000 bp. Ongoing boons:
Voidforge Miners, +1500 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. +52.5 ground-based build capacity.
Machine Spirit Manufactory (120 BP, 20 CP) As a manufactory, but controlled primarily by machine spirits. +63 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 +52.5 void build capacity.
Machine Spirit Orbital Manufactory (300 void BP, 15 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +63 void build capacity.
Deep Space Manufactory (750 void BP, 40 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +105 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 +126 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
Nuclear warhead (15 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a hive-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in or protected by void shields.
Exterminatus warhead (100 BP, 1 CP) A "variable-yield" nuclear warhead that must be deployed by an orbiting ship. Comes with a ground-penetrating body about the size of a torpedo, and can be shot down. But if not, it'll set off an explosion large enough to crack the crust and cause planetary-scale devastation from the resulting earthquakes, volcanoes, and utter destruction of all planetary cycles. It'll be possible to survive the resulting cataclysm in a bunker on the far side of the planet, but the planet's toast for at least a century.
Ships
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. Basic psychic shields.
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. Basic psychic shields.
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. Comes equipped with basic psychic shields, though not perfectly integrated.
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. Comes equipped with basic psychic shields, though not perfectly integrated.
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. Comes equipped with basic psychic shields, though not perfectly integrated.
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.
Light crewed tanks (100 BP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Need crew. Roughly equivalent to the Imperial Chimera. Basic psychic shields.
Medium crewed tanks (200 BP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor. Roughly equivalent to the Leman Russ. Basic psychic shields.
Basic Crewed artillery (300 BP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication. Basic psychic shields.
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. +52.5 ground-based build capacity, to be spent as the people running it desire. Basic psychic shields.
Residential Space (10 BP)
Enough living space for 1000 people. Beds, plumbing. Temperature control. Basic psychic shields.
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. Basic psychic shields.
Orbital habitat (1750 Void BP per 50,000 people) As city but in space. Includes Hydroponics. Basic psychic shields.
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. Basic psychic shields.
[] 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.
Small 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)
Crewed - (No change in RP or BP cost, completely removes CP cost) Makes a unit operable by a crew of trained humans. Incompatible with Humanization, Machine Spirits decreases manpower requirement. Can be applied to: Vehicles, Small craft, defensive installations.
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, 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.
Gravity Weapons - (+2x base BP cost for vehicles, small craft & bots.) Arms a unit with gravity weapons, capable of ignoring armor and ripping apart enemy internals on high power, or fairly effective short-term crowd control on low power. Power-hungry and short ranged, will be improved by research. 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.
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. Not required for OMC control.
Machine Spirit (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship is primarily controlled by a sub-sapient machine spirit, reducing the CP cost of the base hull to 20% of what it would be normally. Currently limited to destroyers and light defense platforms).
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.
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.
Light Gravity Blaster 300 BP, Very short-range, continuous weapon that wrecks enemy internals while ignoring armor. Ineffective against shields. Medium Gravity Blaster 600 BP, Very short-range, continuous weapon that wrecks enemy internals while ignoring armor. Ineffective against shields. Heavy Gravity Blaster 900 BP, Very short-range, continuous weapon that wrecks enemy internals while ignoring armor. Ineffective against shields.
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:
Multiply the final equipment cost (both combat and non-combat) by 0.9 before applying it to ship designs. So if you have 500 BP of equipment it only counts as 450 for the purposes of ship packing. But it'll count as 500 for actually paying for the ship.
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. (plus 5%)
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 (350 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 (100 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)
-[] Extremely Efficient Equipment Distribution (250 RP) With further optimization, you can fit more stuff in your ships. (Equipment costs count as 0.75x for ship capacity packing. Especially effective for cargo holds on a good roll.)
-[] 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 costs count as 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)
-[] Nova Cannon! (100 RP) This is a dangerous technology in every respect of the word. Hucking teraton-yield nuclear weapons at people at percentages of lightspeed is a great way to win a space battle, but it's also quite difficult. Just knowing the individual technologies isn't enough, you've got to combine them all together into a single package. (Unlocks the ability to build nova cannons. May lead to further research to launch other kinds of payloads, or to build the kind of nova cannon that's the man gun of a battleship.)
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 (250 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 (250 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 "Absolutely not" or maybe even "You're not real" and see what happens. New meanings may be especially effective against demons. (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. Likely to allow psychic shielding to physcially block demons. (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 (100 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 (200 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 (300 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.)
-[] Abacus Optimization (150 RP) The void abacus works, but it's very much not optimized for the conditions of the modern warp. You think you could tune the sensitivity, improve the design, and upgrade the speed. (Upgrades the warp abacus speed by a system or two per action. Leads to further void abacus improvement tech.)
-[] 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 (200 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.)
-[] Bell, Book and Candle (200 RP) Needing to set up a whole ritual for demonic binding and banishment is... potentially an issue. Trying to come up with all-purpose rituals that can be deployed offensively might be a useful tool to have in your pocket. (Develops anti-daemonic equipment for blueprint modification, as well as unlocks new narrative options for dealing with demons. May lead to research for ship-scale anti-daemonic equipment.)
-[] Read the Fine Print (200 RP) Summoning Demons is generally viewed as a bad idea. However, if you take the appropriate precautions, it can be an effective way to gain information, recruit footsoldiers, leave some damned nasty booby traps or even bind them into objects for an extra oomph. (Gains the ability to summon demons without significant investment. May lead to further research to bind demons into objects to make some pretty crazy items. Synergistic with warp manufacturing).
-[] 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 (350 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.)
-[] Basic Divination (100 RP) Gwen's naturally inclined towards futuresight with her power. You could try and figure out more details about how that works, though it'll rely on her to generate somewhat larger-scale effects. (Allows you to build divination- focused psytech, and potentially unlock new kinds of actions or narrative options for Cia) Locked until Gwen reaches level 5.
-[] 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 (350 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
-[] Sigils of Power (250 RP) There are various sigils that are effective in binding, banishing and damaging demons. They can probably be integrated with psytech to be even more effective. (Modifies psytech to be especially effective at hurting, protecting against and evading demons. May unlock further research towards demon-interacting psytech).
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.
-[] Improved Gravity Weapons (200 RP) Your gravity weapons are fairly rudimentary and could be made significantly more elegant. Start by tuning the power flow, then by decreasing the graviton interference... (Improves the range and reduces the cost for gravity weapons. Likely to improve the range for nova cannons, may unlock other applications of gravity technology.)
-[] 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 Advanced Materials.
-[] The Promise of Superconductivity (250 RP) Now that you know the scope of the challenge, you think there's actually a lot of promise here. The problem is that you're not going to be able to just read literature, but actually come up with something yourself. (Discounts across many researches involving high current, a flat production boost of 10-20% depending on rolls, and potentially discounts on ship/bot equipment 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 (200 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
-[] Antimatter is Dang Scary (250 RP) So. Antimatter. A staple of science fiction since time immemorial. The problem with dealing with antimatter is that it requires nothing less than perfection in every respect. One flaw in containment and suddenly you've got an anhillation reaction on your hands. Another problem is actually reacting it in a controlled way, since it favors incomplete reactions which result in the rest of the antimatter going the other direction at a speed close to light. Hmm. That might be interesting to weaponize (Unlocks methods to manufacture antimatter, which is a special resource that can be used to upgrade explosive weapons to incredible yields. May unlock technologies for weapons that fire beams of antimatter, which would be... dangerous.) Requires High-energy Physics.
-[] 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.)
-[] Improved Large-scale Machine spirits (100 RP) You haven't quite cracked the code on incorporating machine spirits into things as large as ships. They act differently at such large scales, and ensuring that they stay predictible is a somewhat difficult task. (Raises the size limit on the machine-spirit hull equipment, leads to further research for larger ship sizes and potentaily machine spirits for megastructures).
-[] 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 (250 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.)
-[] Study the Strange Seed (150 RP) Gwendolyn has a strange seed that occasionally seems to glint with golden light. What's... going on with that? Can you figure out what it is? Maybe clone it? (More information on the strange seed, potentially unlocks the ability to clone it, may unlock a questline of some kind). Requires Gwendolyn active action to research.
-[] 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.)
-[] Collaborative 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 18
-[] 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.
Gwendolyn Kytante, Seer/Strategist?
Level 0
-[] Passive learning action Real actions will be unlocked next turn depending on the vote.
Focus: Combat. Gwen is armed with custom heavy armor and a crude two-handed force sword. She's not really that invested in personal combat.
Abilities: Gwendolyn is a diviner-specialized psyker, currently ranked at Delta
Gwendolyn's Specialization (not part of plan vote)
[][Gwendolyn] Seer She will focus on her divinatory capabilities, giving her some capability to manipulate the dice. Active option will become to pick a specific roll to roll twice, with the second die getting no other bonus but Gwendolyn's level - 10 as a modifier. Has the potential to be enhanced via psytech. High risk of perils of the warp if she rolls low, and passive action also has perils of the warp.
[][Gwendolyn] Strategist Her active action will apply her level as a bonus to military rolls, with the strong narrative flavor of divination, and the potential to be enhanced by psytech. Passive roll will be training, with minimal risk of perils of the warp.
This is the "level 0 class choice" for Gwendolyn. She'll get more choices at levels 10, 20 & 30, with strategist & seer as additional future options. The upgraded strategist probably means she just flat rolls two d100s with full bonus for every military role, the upgraded seer probably means you can designate a set of rolls and her "seer roll" will replace the lowest. If you get a non-psyker strategist they're probably able to get bigger overall bonuses and specialties towards certain kinds of combat, but they won't get to roll multiple dice. That's very much a diviner thing. If you "multiclass" her, then you'll need to choose which she's doing each turn.
I'll tell you right now, that if you crit on a gravitic tech the bonus tech is probably gravitic shields, i.e. shields that create a gravitic shear to deflect projectiles. It's not really a thing in Warhammer lore but I love the idea, so if Vita crits it's the bonus tech.
The equipment efficiency poor result malus was that the follow-on tech was more expensive, and it didn't convey a bonus for cargo holds. I was going to make it double cargo hold effectiveness or something, but now that bonus has to wait for the next level of equipment efficency.
The biggest boom was more of a sidegrade path, and it normally wouldn't have unlocked much in the way of follow-up techs. But you crit, so I decided to unlock what you would have gotten from critting high-energy physics. Now if you crit that, I'll unlock zero-point energy or singularity-reactors or something.
Yes, nova cannon research to unlock it for your blueprints will require another action. This is why I'm prodding you to do this kind of research now, because they require multiple turns of lead-time. The same will be true for the high-energy physics research and the technology behind that. But don't worry, being able to mass-produce nova cannons will be fun for the whole family. Unfortunately, the specs (including costs) for your nova cannons are dependent on how well you roll, so I can't give you the numbers for them yet.
Rolling well on large-scale machine spirits will discount some of the other expensive machine-spirit technology, specifically the ones that involve big machine spirits.
The Promise of Superconductivity is a foundational tech in a way that superconductivity shenanigans wasn't. My plan was for you to do a follow-up research project to apply your fancy new superconductor across your technology after you had it. But you didn't get it, so now you have to come up with it. It'll discount most things that involve high currents, and either in that tech or one behind it is a flat 10-30% discount on high-energy weapon BP costs.
If Denva had not literally failed their military development roll then Victan's rescue roll wouldn't have been necessary. But then he crit, and that prevented it from being a disaster and unlocked you two more boon opportunities, both of which should take about 1 action to acquire, assuming you don't roll like absolute shit. I was trying to decide if he'd be able to fully mitigate this on his own, but he has a staff, so he's not on his own, is he?
Devna's economy continues to scale fast. You invested a lot of research and a lot of boons into ensuring this happens. But note that your 1-time boon BP is up to 25K BP, and Voidforge Miners is up to 1500/turn.
I don't expect it, but if you decide to summon demons you can. It'll take a full action with a somewhat detailed write-in on what you want to do, but you technically possess the information for that now. The unneeded BP used to repair the psychic shielding were used to make Bongo's chains. They're quite tight, and Bongo will not escape anytime soon, and not without warning. Congratulations, you have a demon in a box.
You don't have to get involved in the negotiations between Denva and the Vellkar. If you don't they'll have a flat roll to see how they go. If you get involved you'll roll with yours (and Victan's, if he's involved) bonus, which will rescue a bad roll or boost a good one. Write-in your intentions, if you just want a boon from Denva try to make sure the deal goes well, if you want permission to build manufactories on the planet write in that & what you'll give them in return. You can get both if you roll well.
