Growing Horizons: Inner Sphere - Quest

[Warringer]

Wonder if we could play with that see if we can make it stronger? Perhaps play with hyperdimensional materials? If nothing else it helps a little.

I have no plans to introduce actual shields.

Not until we get into the followup Quest...

 

[Blade4]

I have no plans to introduce actual shields.

Not until we get into the followup Quest...

Well actual shields would make us even more op to point IS/clans would be utterly screwed.

Full on sheilds on top of current armor or better would make our ships to tough for them to fight.

 

[Warringer]

Well actual shields would make us even more op to point IS/clans would be utterly screwed.

Full on sheilds on top of current armor or better would make our ships to tough for them to fight.

And that is without missile an AMS spam we do. I mean... AMS lasers and guns EVERYWHERE!

 

[Blade4]

And that is without missile an AMS spam we do. I mean... AMS lasers and guns EVERYWHERE!

I really want to see us go to full war mode it will be hilarious and horrifying. As is we got the clans problem of being mighty but to small to actually hold ground but if we decide to bitch slap someone...

 

[Warringer]

I really want to see us go to full war mode it will be hilarious and horrifying. As is we got the clans problem of being mighty but to small to actually hold ground but if we decide to bitch slap someone...

They remain slapped.

 

[Blade4]

Thinking about it i wonder what would have happen if we went alt route of high stealth and none shall pass! Infiltrate enough for interesting tech and resources but otherwise no contact with any meeting us dying or being imprisoned. Never happen our societies would never go for it unless we played up the horror of the IS unending wars and had cause to turtle like repeated attacks like black warriors attempts.

 

[Warringer]

Turn 43 - Spring 2185/3035

WCDC Defense Council:
[] Improved System Defense & Forward Operation Base: active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 45%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 100+5+5 = 110 - Crit Success (Bonus to all military R&D, Bonus to Space Combat R&D)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 21+5+5 = 32 - Failure
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 95+5+5 = 105 - Crit Success
Roll 4 of 4, Roll 1d100: 67+5+5 = 77 - Success
Combined: 81 - Success

The project to create an improved System Defense and a mobile Forwards Operation Base successfully concluded by the end of spring, where the Newport Vesta Dockyards unveiled the new and improved Redoubt class of System Defense Platforms, a 2245ktonne massing platform designed to carry a multitude of the heaviest weapon systems in the WCDC arsenal and the ability to service up to two Squadrons of Advanced Combat Craft simultaneously. Each of these platforms could unload a truly staggering volume of missile fire, with over 20000 Class IV and Class III missiles of tremendous range.

But not only could each of these platforms unload an unholy amount of firepower, but with a Heim-Fenyman Event Generator, they would be able to move from system to system, but for the most part it was intended to be used in situations where only a single jump point, or one of the 'non-standard' jump points, was attacked. In these cases a Redoubt could simply jump in and unleash hell.

While Sol, Beta Hydri and 61 Virginis would be building two of these platforms, it was expected Washington, Hannover and Solidarność would, for the time being, construct only a single platform, until their system infrastructure could cope with the construction of a second one.

The Caladran Dockyards of Beta Hydri, in contrast, presented the first prototype of the Lerbtur class of Mobile Forwards Operation Platforms, the 4th Emperor Rodale, based heavily on the Von Neumann, but with twice as much armor and halved production capabilities in favor for half a million tonnes of cargo space and 50000 tonnes of fuel to supply up to 200 combat craft simultaneously. In a pinch, she would supply any WarShip with new ammunition, and replacement parts, helping the internal fabricators of those vessels to cope.

Reward: New FTL cpable Defensive Station

[] Warship Roles: - 7 votes active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 70%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 26+5+5 = 36 - Success (Bonus to all military R&D, Bonus to Space Combat R&D)

With the WCDC Belusarius finally completed and put into service, it was time to test the vessel and see what it could actually be used for. The massive WarShip was heavier than anything the WCDC had ever fielded by a long shot and its firepower was enough to destroy almost all any system defense as it was at the moment.

It was not the Belisarius alone, but also Petan, who had designed and built a smaller Warship body for himself and was now offering two more to its siblings. And with plans drawn up to modify the base design of Petan into a vessel with a biological crew, tactics had to be derived to cope with the added firepower.

As such, the WCDC requested for Petan to take part in a series of war games to fully ascertain the capabilities of both platforms and enable the Defense Council to draw up plans for what roles these craft could be used.

Likely it would be to counter any Warships in the Inner Sphere. While these vessels had yet to be observed, they likely patrolled in border areas and were stationed in systems with naval bases, it was considered highly probable that the Inner Sphere powers still had access to a number of WarShips, even after the by now Four Sucession Wars and a general decline in its tech base compared to the 'mystical' Star League.

active for 2 more turns

WCDC Survey Office:

[] Deep Cover Intelligence II: active
Time: 10 turns, Chance of Success: 60%
Roll 1 of 10, Roll 1d100: 78+10 = 85 - Success (Permanent Survey Squadrons)
Roll 2 of 10, Roll 1d100: 23+10 = 33 - Failure
Roll 3 of 10, Roll 1d100: 95+10 = 105 - Success
Roll 4 of 10, Roll 1d100: 34+10 = 44 - Success
Roll 5 of 10, Roll 1d100: 73+10 = 83 - Success
Roll 6 of 10, Roll 1d100: 69+10 = 79 - Success
Roll 7 of 10, Roll 1d100: 31+10 = 41 - Success
Roll 8 of 10, Roll 1d100: 46+10 = 56 - Success

Slowly, the A Ship With A View finished a few deals on Marik, before swinging around towards the Lyran-FWL border, using the route from Savannah, over Dieudonne and Alhea to Shiloh. Here, the jump stopped for two weeks to observe border traffic between the Lyrans and the FWL, before continuing on. From Rochelle, to Uruh, Concord to Nestor.

active for 2 more turns

[] Deep Cover Intelligence III: - 7 votes active
Time: 1 turn, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 1, Roll 1d100: 72 - Success

With the availability of No Pirate Life For Me as a second modified jump ship, the idea had come up to simply send out the vessel and its accompanying dropships to act as traders, like on previous Deep Cover missions. Only this time around, the vessels would be cut loose for the most part, free to trade and travel where they would, all the while collecting valuable intelligence about the area they were in.

Now and again, they would emplace a small solar powered satellite to act as a Hyperwave Com relay station and Mesh networking point. This method would allow a Deep Cover Jumpship to remain in almost constant contact with Berlin, while not relying on Comstar as the primary mode of communication with agents. Where possible, the No Pirate Life For Me would make its way to previously installed Deep Cover Agents and supply them with their own Hyperwave Communication system as these were comparably compact.

By the end of Spring, the No Pirate Life For Me was ready to leave from Circinus, entering the FWL to reach Atreus and then Marik, before moving towards the Federated Suns.

Reward: continous intelligence reports over several years, while other operations are available

Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network

[] DSSIN Survey Squadron: - 6 votes active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 21+5 = 26 - Failure (All DSSINOO operations)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 28+5 = 33 - Failure
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 47+5 = 52 - Success
Roll 4 of 4, Roll 1d100: 46+5 = 51 - Success
Combined: 40 - Failure

Even with the continued work of the DSSINOO and more and more survey squadron commanders being more positively inclined to work for the DSSINOO, the higher ups of the Survey Office denied the request to operate one or two Survey Squadrons on their own, constantly surveying the surrounding space.

As the request was denied, the DSSINOO decided to wait for a year before asking again.

Result: No Survey Squadrons, next try on 4 turns

WCDC Diplomatic Corps:

[]Circinus Conference: active
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 65%
Roll 1 of 6, Roll 1d100: 98 - Crit Success

Freaking Comstar Roll, 1d20: 2 - Comstar does nothing

After getting the message from Ambassador Churchill that the Lyran and FedSun heads of state had pretty much forced a diplomatic conference onto the WCDC, the Diplomatic Corps and the various national governments themselves were understandably outraged. This was certainly not something they had expected or wished to deal with, having preferred to slowly get into diplomatic contact with the remaining Inner Sphere.

As the information slowly sunk in over the next few weeks, however, it was decided this situation could be a blessing in disguise. While the conference was forced onto the WCDC, this situation could be reasonably quickly be turned around into an event that could help the WCDC in the long run. Yes, they could well bluster their way through Inner Sphere politics and point towards their, hopefully, adequate military and the threat to annihilate any invading force. A diplomatic victory as a truly neutral force to find peace between two warring nations within the Inner Sphere would be a much preferable alternative. It would put the WCDC on the political landscape in a positive way and reinforce the stance that the WCDC only wished peace.

There would need to be precautions, however, to show the force the WCDC could bring to bear, when put on the defensive, should any of the attendants presume to try and take a more military view of the situation. For the time being seven Expeditionary Regiments were stationed on Circinus, as well as fifteen Combat Craft Squadrons. They would receive some reinforcement over the succeeding months of preparation for the conference and more than one national government demanded WCDC Belisarius should be in orbit of Circinus, once the first delegations arrived. And if possible, one or two of the new Redoubt System Defense Platforms should be stationed at Circinus for the duration, though it would reduce the defense of a single system within the WCDC.

Another thing to plan for would be accommodations for the various diplomatic parties, some of which might even include the head of state for a given Inner Sphere power, especially after Hanse Davion noted he would certainly be present for the Conference. While Clayborne Remembered was the capital of Circinus, the buildings, streets and other infrastructure of the town, which was unsuited to the demands of highly skilled, educated and powerful diplomats and heads of state. Instead, a new compound, perhaps a new town, would need to be built from the ground up to satisfy the Diplomatic Corps.

That was not to even begin with the headache that would come once the members of the Diplomatic Corps had to deal with WCDC internal legalistic battles and nations attempting to give precedent to their own diplomats to head the conference.

active for 5 more turns

[] Long Range Diplomacy - Marian Hegemony:
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 8, Roll 1d100: 79 - Success
Roll 2 of 8, Roll 1d100: 45 - Failure
Roll 3 of 8, Roll 1d100: 66 - Success
Roll 4 of 8, Roll 1d100: 41 - Failure
Roll 5 of 8, Roll 1d100: 100 - Crit Success

As a reaction to almost three months of being ignored and snubbed by the Caesar of the Marian Hegemony, the diplomatic team has had enough and communication with Jerat and the Diplomatic Corps lead to the permission being granted to go for a more drastic way to get O'Reilly to take note.

This began by the Squadrons that was send along with the diplomats to break orbit and land near the Roosevelt, a converted Undessa. Following this display of disregard to the Caesar's military power, especially since the weapon systems of the Sleipnir and Im-umi were pointedly directed at the Mech forces, 'guarding' the diplomatic mission, was a message to the Caesar informing him that the diplomatic mission would leave the planet within 12 hours, no matter what.

Consequently, the Caesar personally arrived at the Roosevelt after one hour, seemingly in a rage, and demanded that the squadron's combat spacecraft left the world and that he would allow the diplomats to leave when he decided they should. The response of the diplomatic teams boiled down to a diplomatic version of 'You and what army?', followed by informing that unless they could actually do their jobs and establish diplomatic relations, of some sort, they would leave, as their skills were more in demand elsewhere.

On the question of what could be more important than the Marian Hegemony, he was informed about the Circinus Conference and that the 'Great Houses' of the Inner Sphere would be arriving at Circinus within several months. The Marian Hegemony was simply not important enough to deal with, if they were received in such a manner.

Upon hearing this, Caesar O'Reilly paled and became speechless, before leaving. Another six hours later, the Legions surrounding the Roosevelt and its escorts were pulled back and an invitation for better diplomatic talks was given. Having gained this success, all squadrons, safe for one, returned to orbit, while the security of the diplomatic team while in their talks was increased.

Until the end of spring, some advances were made, though many of the diplomats believed it had to do with the gunboat diplomacy they had shown earlier.

active for 3 more turns

WCDC Trade Organization:

[] Heavy Combat Space Craft: active
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 65, Roll 1d100: 32+10+10+10+10 = 72 - Success (Stronger Economy, Economic Ties, Military-Industrial Complex, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 65, Roll 1d100: 37+10+10+10+10 = 77 - Success
Roll 3 of 65, Roll 1d100: 99+10+10+10+10 = 139 - Crit Success
Roll 4 of 65, Roll 1d100: 13+10+10+10+10 = 54 - Success

Interstingly enough, the shortening of the time frame did not stop any of the companies and design offices developing new heavy combat craft from continuing their work and at least one was already working on a prototype. Still, there was a bit of a low point within the design community, as the vastly larger Belisarius and Petan took the center stage in various magazines and articles.

active for 1 more turns

[] Mining Town: active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 55%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 81+10+10+10 = 111 - Success (Stronger Economy, Economic Ties, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 20+10+10+10 = 50 - Success
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 16+10+10+10 = 46 - Success
Roll 4 of 4, Roll 1d100: 12+10+10+10 = 42 - Failure
Combined: 62 - Success

While the new existing mines were starting to operate all over WCDC space, several of the new settlements and mining operations that had sprung up on planets, dwarf planets and asteroids did not yield any germanium. This did not however make them any less valuable, as they still managed to produce valuable materials.

In the end, however, the new germanium mines that were set up produced more than three times as much germanium as would be needed when jump ship production would commence at full production rates of 20 vessels per month. Here, the Vereinigte Germanium Werke Spandau on New Berlin had the highest yield of a single mine in germanium, though it was only ten percent higher than the newly constructed deep core mine on Vesta.

While some surplus in germanium could be sold into the Inner Sphere, at least half of it would be put into strategic stores, to be used when the need arose.

Reward: Germanium Mines

WCDC Office for Science and Development:

[] HFEG Jump: active
Time: 12 turns, Chance of success: 25%
Roll 1 of 12, Roll 1d100: 40+10+10 = 60 - Failure (Research Center Sol, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 12, Roll 1d100: 14+10+10 = 34 - Failure
Roll 3 of 12, Roll 1d100: 77+10+10 = 97 - Artificial Crit
Roll 4 of 12, Roll 1d100: 84+10+10 = 104 - Artificial Crit

During Spring, many of the theoretical advances made during winter were refined further, whittling the probable workable theories down to four. These four were widely different, however and it was believed that only massive scale modeling on the most powerful super computers available, one of them a model with more than sixty-five thousand quantum gates that could simulate quantum interaction between particles, but would be taxed on the models for months.

active for 8 more turns

[] Hyperwave Reflection Research: active
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 5, Roll 1d100: 59+10+10 = 79 - Success (Research Center Sol, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 5, Roll 1d100: 96+10+10 = 116 - Crit Success
Roll 3 of 5, Roll 1d100: 3+10+10 = 23 - Failure
Roll 4 of 5, Roll 1d100: 31+10+10 = 51 - Success

Following the problems of winter, the research team working steadily on the Hyperwave Reflection Problem came up with a few ingenious solutions to their problems of combining the Hyperwave Transceiver with the Superlimunal Wave Detector. By cannibalizing both systems and creating a new single hybrid system. By carefully choosing some Hyperwave frequencies too high for any practical use for communication at this time. The only downside of this system was that the transceiver had a much lower range and that the Hyperwaves generated would attenuate once they had reached the Kuiper Belt of the Solar System.

Practically, however, the frequency had been chosen precisely correct, as once the new device was turned on, the returns became a lot sharper. Collating the data from the new device with various informations of space traffic and the like, it quickly became apparent that the new device was essentially a Hyperwave Detection and Ranging system, an FTL Radar, after a fashion.

But while this first experiment was a clear success, a bit more research would need to be done on the system and allow it to properly be utilized as the first FTL sensor, even though it would only detect HFEG equipped spacecraft, Dropships, Jumpships and Warships, as well as any spacecraft carrying an enormous amount of germanium or other carbon group semiconductors and titanium group transition metals.

active for 1 more turns

----------------------------

WCDC Internal Events:

Following some talks between Petan and his siblings, Enthat and Haing, both AIs chose to take Petan up on the offer to be given the following two Petan class WarShip hulls already in production by Petan at Cterin. Both AIs were aware that they were inadequate compared to any Inner Sphere Warship that was out there. They already knew what defeat meant, even if they had been able to defeat the Onouch'l Automatons. The psychological effects still sat deep within their conscious mind'and they were unwilling to let this happen again. Not to the survivors of the Onouch'l Automatons, nor to the Tiaunt or the humans.

Around the same time as Petan was offering the new spacecraft to its siblings, several design offices were at work to convert the purely automated version of Petan's design into a version with a biological crew, while noting the basic design of Petan might be useful for other roles and carry other weapon systems.

Within the diplomatic community of the WCDC, some problems became more and more apparent, as legalistic problems slowly came to the front. The WCDC was merely an organization akin to the NATO of old, with a few roles in the economic and diplomatic side. However, there was no apparent leadership of the WCDC and some problems needed to be dealt with in a way that forced all member nations to make the decisions of national governments. Such systems were problematic if the WCDC would get further involved in external politics, as outside forces, like the Inner Sphere nations, might take advantage and bring single nations onto their side of an argument, changing the power structure within the WCDC.

Additionally, the WCDC had pulled closer together over the past ten years since its formation, much further than the EU or the UN had over a similar time frame. Sure there were potential threats from the outside, but the local space was in this situation together and the next logical step would be to enter an even closer cooperation, not unlike the EU, and form a Confederation.

This Confederation would essentially create an additional central governmental structure to quickly and efficiently deal with any problem that would normally involve national governments. It would also create a more centralized military command structure and establish a new currency, which would become an additional means of payment for the member nations, and allow simpler internal and especially external trade. However, the member nations would retain their sovereignty in internal and most other matters and have the freedom to secede from the new Confederaqtion.

----------------------------

Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network Report:

Lothian League:

There is little of note to say.

Illyrian Palatinate:

There is little of note to say.

Circinus Federation:

There is little of note to say.

Marian Hegemony:

There is little of note to say.

Inner Sphere:

Lyran Commonwealth:
Federated Suns:

Archon Katharina Steiner and First Prince Hanse Davion have informed us that they will personally appear to the Circinus Conference.

Draconis Combine:

While the Combine has informed us that they will take part in the Circinus Conference, it is currently unknown who they will send.

Free Worlds League:
Dutchy of Andurien:

In the war between these two powers, the stalemate continues.

However, at least the Dutchy of Andurien has shown interest in the Circinus Conference, while we have not gotten an answer from the FWL yet.

Comstar:

Comstar is largely silent and based on HPG Radio Backscatter currently merely observing us and our diplomatic mission to Tharkad.

Expansion and Suggestions:

The DSSI Network slowly continues to expand into the Inner Sphere.

-----------------------

Random Event - Nothing Happens

 

[Warringer]

Turn 44 - Summer 2185/3035

WCDC Defense Council:

[] Warship Roles: active (2 turns)
Now that the Belisarius has been refit and put into service, some wargames should be made with her to figure out how to best make use of the massive vessel and any potential warships built by the WCDC in the future.
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 70%, Reward: +20 to any space engagement with a warship present

[] Project Black Light:
On one of the former colonies, an apparent plasma weapon has been recovered. It would be a good idea to take a close look at the weapon and potentially develop a usable weapon from it.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 45%, Reward: Plasma Weapon technology, 50% chance of plasma weapon prototype (1d4 for type)

[] Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols:
While the project to improve the defense against piracy in Known Space around the WCDC was a success, many within the Diplomatic Corps and the Military believed that more should be done to prevent piracy in this sector of space, as the destruction of any 'Pirate Heaven' close by would proove to remain a problem not only for the WCDC, but also for any nearby nation the WCDC had contact with. As such, longer duration and longer ranged patrols to discover any potential pirate havens in known space and destroy them before they can be fully established.
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: Long Duration, long range patrols, reduction of pirate activity to almost zero within known space

[] Capital Weapons:
While the majority of weapon systems used on the Belisarius are in a sense prototypes, it might be a good idea to take a closer look at the various weapon systems taken from the WarShip to figure out how to build better weapons for such massive vessels.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: Multiple new Capital Weapon Systems

WCDC Survey Office:

[] Deep Cover Intelligence II: active (2 turns)
With the Preparations successful, it is time to send the Deep Cover Intelligence mission out into the Inner Sphere and begin trading with the Free Worlds League. And while doing so, gather information about the economy and military of the Inner Sphere nation. It might also be possible to place some deep cover agents into both nations to gather long term information.
Time: 10 turns, Chance of Success: 60%, Reward: Information about the Free Worlds League, 75% chance of emplacing an intelligence network

[] Further Survey V:
Following the Initial Survey, more information should be gathered further outside of the Walker Cluster and the already known space.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: (10+2d20) systems from 60 to 90 ly discovered, followup action allows surveying the remaining space

[] Project Orange Grass:
The complete overhaul of A Ship With A View has been quite successful, so it might be a good idea to request the remaining Invader class Jumpships and Leopard Class dropships to be upgraded to the new Invader MKII and Leopard MKII specifications, to be used for low profile recon missions into the Inner phsere.
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: 7 Invader MKII, 15x Leopard MKII avaiable for Deep Cover missions

[] Deep Cover Intelligence IV:
With a few more Inader II dropships avaiable, it should be possible t o send out a few more of them for long duration deep cover missions to gather intelligence data of all Inner Sphere powers, even those periphery powers that are some distance away.
Time: 1 turn, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: continous intelligence reports over several years, while other operations are available
This option takes one turn to initiate, than continues without using up an option
Dependent on Project Orange Grass

Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network

[] HumInt:
Find a way to emplace HumInt agents into places of interest.
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 40%, Reward: A way to insert agents to planets where they can gather human intelligence

[] Network Extension:
The worlds of New St. Andrews and Niops appear to be good cancidates for the extension of the Network.
Time: 2 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: Network extension into New St. Andrews and Niops

[] DSSIN Survey Squadron: (4 turns)
PErhaps it would be a good idea to put some dedicated survey squadron under the command of the DSSINOO to help them with some survey work in the area surroiunding FOB Pine Gap
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: 1d4 Survey squadrons for the DSSINOO, +1d6 on DSSINOO survey operations

[] Operation Green Granite:
There are a number of Walsingham class jumpships avaiable to the DSSINOO, which have recently been upgraded with HFEGs. They should be additionally equipped with Superluminal Wave Detectors and used to analyze jumpship movements inside the borders of both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League, as well as the Marian Hegemony to paint a good picture of any jumpship operations there.
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%, Reward: Detailed information about jumpship movements deep in the Inner Sphere

WCDC Diplomatic Corps:

[] Circinus Conference: active (6 turns)
The WCDC was forced into this coference by the First Prince of the Federated Suns and the complicit Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth to host a peace conference on Circinus to broken a peace between the FWL and the Dutchy of Andurien. While not something that we wish to do, we should do our best to get this conference to a good end and hopefully impress our neighbours into not attacking us. Perhaps Belisarius might make a good argument for that.
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: Contact with all IS powers, Diplomatic Bonuses: +10 with FedCom and Andurien, +5 with FWL, 0 with Draconis, ? to Comstar

[] Long Range Diplomacy - Marian Hegemony: active (4 turns)
The Marian Hegemony is now a more known quantity and the current Caesar is interested in trade deals. So it might be a good idea to open official diplomatic contact with the Marians. It might certainly help if one could make them uninterested in any military operation against the WCDC.
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%, Reward: Contact with the Marian Hegemony

[] Humanitarian Aid IV:
With the formation of the Prometheus Foundation, it would be a shame not to make use of it. As such, it might be advantageous to send out a diplomatic mission to one of the neighboring systems discovered recently, and offer the planet some humanitarian aid. Rumors within the Foundation note they have been able to produce a couple of Planetary Settlement Kits, usually meant to establish new settlements on habitable worlds.
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 50%, Reward: +10 on diplomatic action on targeted world, targeted world is slowly brought up to a Walker Cluster tech level
Please select a world from the list of Known Habited Worlds neat the Walker Cluster

[] Charm Offensive IV:
In the wake of the Black Warrior Attack and the fears that are still around in the nearby systems, it would be a good idea to alley their fear.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: Better diplomatic relations to the ten known worlds, +5 to diplomatic actions with the ten worlds

[] We need new members:
There are 8 nations in the Three Systems that have declined to become members of the WCDC. The Three Systems can't effort to have some nations working on cross purposes and endanger the entire rest of the Walker Cluster. So there is a need to get them aboard and into the WCDC.
Time: 2 turns, Chance of success: 25%, Reward: 1d6 nations of the 8 nations that declined WCDC membership initially, become WCDC members

[] Invite Others III:
The WCDC was working out nicely and maybe it was time to invite one of the other worlds outside the Three Systems into the WCDC?
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 35%, Reward: The selected world joins the WCDC as a member
Please select a world from the list of Known Habited Worlds neat the Walker Cluster

[] Calls for Confederation:
The WCDC has muddled along as a defense and trade organization for nearly ten years by now and the nations had come together. But while dealing with smaller powers usually was not a problem, dealing with the big powers of the Inner Sphere leaves the WCDC with several legal problems, which would neatly be avoided if the WCDC would turn into a Confederation of nations with a clear leadership and political structure for the Inner Sphere to deal with, while the members of the Confederations would retain their internal independence.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 35%, Reward: WCDC turns into a Confederation, 1dn to decide on new name
Please suggest a new name for the new Confederation (which does not include 'Walker Cluster').

WCDC Trade Organization:

[] Heavy Combat Space Craft: active (1 turns)
After the success of the previous projects to build light and medium space craft with the new technologies, it is not time to begin with the development of heavy combat space craft to replace the current classes of Bombard type spacecraft.
Time: 65 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: One design of a heavy combat spacecraft, 30% chance of a working prototype
This type of vessel is not a super heavy vessel like the Belisarius but at most mass 100.000 tonnes to be carried by a jumpship

[] New Settlement Initiative:
There are many virgin, uninhabited planets nearby discovered by the initial survey missions. So it is only natural that the Trade Organization should offer a few incentives to send out a few new settlement missions. Perhaps one or two Planetary Settelment Kits for free would do for settling an additional planet or two.
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: 1d4 newly settled planets

[] Industrial Export:
Some surprising things have come up during historical research, including the Terran Hegemony flooding the Periphery with cheap goods and systems that killed off local suppliers and left worlds in the cold, following the Amaris Crisis and the following Successor Wars. Now some companies believe they could make a profit selling power generation, atmospheric processors, water purification and other similar systems to the worlds and polities surrounding the WCDC. Some even propose to set up factories for these things on other planets and polities. This would certainly improve the economic situation of these worlds, diplomatic contact with them, as well as improve the WCDC economy.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: +10 to external trade with selected world, +10 to diplomacy with selected world
Select a world or polity to export to

[] Build the Weapons:
Since the weapons used by the Inner Sphere were successfully reverese engineered, it is not possible to build carbon copies of them and perhaps even build up on them, though mostly for export. Handing the plans over to several arms cpmpanies will allow that they can be sold easily
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 70%, Reward: Ability to build IS weapons, Options to create upgraded IS weapons, Possibility to sell weapons

[] Build the Technology:
With mechs been taken apart, it might be a possibility that parts for them could be replicated and sold on the open market in the future. Especially Myomer bundles are interesting in thie regard, though WCDC technology allows to make motive materials that are more compact compared to IS Myomer.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: Ability to build IS mech components, Options to upgrade IS Mech components, Possibility to sell Mech components

WCDC Office for Science and Development:

[] HFEG Jump: active (9 turns)
In the wake of the success with the Jump Drive and the HFEG working in parallel, there have been some signs that it might be possible to combine both systems into a single drive system.
Time: 12 turns, Chance of success: 25%, Reward: HF Jump Drive

[] Hyperwave Reflection Research: active (1 turns)
During the work on the Superlimunal Wave Detector, there were apparently some reflections happening of hyperwaves in some form or another. Research should be done into what caused these reflections.
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 50%, Reward: ?

[] Project Heavy Mysterious Mustard:
With the completion of the Jump Drive Project, it might be a good idea whether or not it would be possible to burn some research time to further improve the Jump Drive, Improve the range, materials, allow faster charing from a fusion reactor, this kind of thing.
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 40%, Reward: Improved Jump Drive

[] Hyperwave Local Area Mesh Network:
The development of the Hypwerwave Communication system has brought a few interesting possible uses for the technology. For one, some scientists have compared it to WiFi technology. Perhaps it would be possible to take the system and develop it into a FTL equivalent for use in local area (system) mesh networks.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 45%, Reward: Hyperwave Local Area Mesh Network

[] Compact Hyperwave Transceiver:
The scientists are sure that it will be possible to create much more compact hyperwave transcivers than the scurrently microwave sized designs. These transceivers might take a hit in range and network speed however.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 45%, Reward: Compact Hyperwave transceivers (1d6 for final size)

----------------------------

2 Action for:

1 Action for:
Military
Survey
DSSIN
Economy

 

[Schreiben]

It was not the Belisarius alone, but also Petan, who had designed and built a smaller Warship body for himself and was now offering two more to its siblings. And with plans drawn up to modify the base design of Petan into a vessel with a biological crew, tactics had to be derived to cope with the added firepower.

So, is this a progress like a ship in a ship, as the Borg sphere nestled inside the Borg cube during Star Trek: First Contact, or is it more like brain transplant into a new body? Because the former is a massive waste of space and mass (all spacecraft duties that would be taken up by the outer shell, like power generation and engines and weapons and so on). I assume it's the latter, but I want to be sure I got this right.

Roll 1 of 6, Roll 1d100: 98 - Crit Success

Oh gee, no bonuses. An early crit is really good though (it pushed the overall chances of success over 70%).

That was not to even begin with the headache that would come once the members of the Diplomatic Corps had to deal with WCDC internal legalistic battles and nations attempting to give precedent to their own diplomats to head the conference.

Oh yeah, lot of places where sand and spanners will be neglectfully or intentionally thrown into the gears of diplomacy. As for the compound I'm imagining an egalitarian approach: circular compound with an inner park, with a semi-random distribution of the delegations' quarters. Or an allotment reflective of the current IS political map. But probably a design with a dual-use purpose for the future, maybe as future government quarters that are uncoloured by the Circinus Federation's history. Or instead of the utilitarian design, go with a pastoral village commune or something. Or something else, I'm not an architect.

[] Project Orange Grass:
The complete overhaul of A Ship With A View has been quite successful, so it might be a good idea to request the remaining Invader class Jumpships and Leopard Class dropships to be upgraded to the new Invader MKII and Leopard MKII specifications, to be used for low profile recon missions into the Inner phsere.
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: 7 Invader MKII, 15x Leopard MKII avaiable for Deep Cover missions

[] Deep Cover Intelligence IV:
With a few more Inader II dropships avaiable, it should be possible t o send out a few more of them for long duration deep cover missions to gather intelligence data of all Inner Sphere powers, even those periphery powers that are some distance away.
Time: 1 turn, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: continous intelligence reports over several years, while other operations are available
This option takes one turn to initiate, than continues without using up an option
Dependent on Project Orange Grass

This is something to keep in mind.

Voties!


As usual for Survey I'd prefer to finish our Further Survey V first to have (hopefully) fully discovered/explored all systems in our radius. So my vote will go to Further Survey V. Orange Grass can wait two turns, it's not that long, especially since we're all but guaranteed to be in the last lap of our second tier of astronomical surveys.
In Military I'll choose the Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols. It slots in well with our foundational goal of removing threats to the WCDC, it pacifies the region, and from a narrative perspective, it fits really well with the peace conference, especially since the finalisation of the conference falls into the same turn as the completion of the Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols.
@Warringer, DSSIN has an issue. Please take a look:

Spoiler: DSSIN options issue

Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network

[] HumInt: active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 40%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 12 - Failure
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 6 - Failure
Roll 3 of 3, Roll 1d100: 49 - Failure
Combined: 22 - Failure

With the total lack of any way to insert a team of agents onto a planet without being observed, put a heavy dampener on the Project and it ended without result and put on the back burner for the next three years.

Reward: Insertion of HumInt Insertion without being seen is put on the backburner for the time being (12 turns)

This was in the Turn 28 results. The twelve turns would be 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, with the option entering availability for Turn 42. We are now voting for Turn 44.

[] Network Extension: active
Time: 2 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 2, Roll 1d100: 2+5 = 7 - Failure (Extended Base)
Roll 2 of 2, Roll 1d100: 24+5 = 30 - Failure
Combined: 18 - Failure

The DSSINOO in contrast was less than successful in their quest to discover the New St Andrews and Niops. Partly this was due to the large amount of space that needed to be searched, the inaccurate navigation data available , but mostly it was blamed on insufficient numbers in their own survey squadrons, even though the squadrons were sorely meant to provide support for expanding and upgrading the existing Seep Space Signal Intelligence Network.

Reward: New St. Andrews and Niops could not be found, option not avaiable for 3 turns

This was in the Turn 39 results. The three turns would be 40, 41, 42, with the option entering availability for Turn 43. We are now voting for Turn 44.
If it's not too presumptuous, may I advise you to change or add these greyed out options to display for which Turn they'll be available again?

As for Economy, let me explain my decision. The conference will last another five turns, while the New Settlement Initiative runs for six, putting us in prime position to possibly launch Industrial Export almost immediately after. Thus if the conference results in trade deals or improved relation with any IS polity, we can jump on them post haste, and—given our fleet of jump traders by then—arrive in bombastic economic style. As for what we'll trade, next turn Heavy Combat Space Craft will finish, freeing up another action. For this we could chose Build the Technology or Build the Weapons, either is fine with me.
————
Military
[X] Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols
Survey
[X] Further Survey V
DSSIN
[X] Network Extension
Economy
[X] Build the Technology

Superseded by later vote

 

[Durabys]

Question. When will we get the Helm Core data, @Warringer? Because it had been percolating through the IS for nearly a decade now. One or two jump traders who visited us had to have a copy of it.

 

[Blade4]

So two Redoubt to a main system but we should build a few spare to actually act as mobile bases. Move them about a bit as well. As for confernce if two systems give up a Redoubt for duration each will still have one for problems and they can just jump between jump points. The Lerbtur not so sure about but will still be useful. Put those in void between stars as deep space outposts. In war maybe pair one with a redoubt as forward supply?

Warship roles of to a poor start but hopefully... Survey is good though No Pirate life for me better make it a quick trip through Marik space otherwise they might not be so lucky with the war. And deep space was a wasted venture. Woo Hoo.

Well ok we can use this conference to secure peace but and a facade of neutrality but that wont fly when their politics keeps dicking with us. Still we can try. If nothing else we show ourselves to be players not bumpkins that can be walked over. We might as well see about admitting Circinus at this point because we are investing so much. At least the people will get a lot out of this and this new city will probable make Clayborne Remembered a ghost town or outright abandoned as they embrace the future and forget the pirate past. Hopefully we keep getting good rolls like that. We will need them.

And Marian finally moving a head. Frankly i would have simply left. We got bigger problems than them and if Caesar wants to be a fool let him. Not like we will get that much out of them and wont have to kick in their shit eventually anyway.

Shit Heavy nearly had a fail. Mines is a win which is great. One less reason to need Marians. And yes stockpile for now.

Research is going well though Reflection is not what i was hoping for. We functionally already have a ftl sensor though this is very useful to. Hopefully opens up more options.

And yes we really need to get a confederation going but probable best to wait till conference is done. Need to make sure that goes well and consequences of it will shape what we need to become as well.

Anyone else think we should go ahead and make the Petan class our standard cruiser weight? Starting from it we can revamp it into a number of designs that have much commonality of parts. Our Texas we can keep using but would like to make our own battleship weight base design not use star league left overs like a successor state.

Marik not responding is worrying. They might do something at comstar prodding or just dont care. Internal politics might actually make it impossible to accept peace at this point. If they let the Andurians leave could fracture the league as more try to leave.

Vote:

[X] Project Black Light:
On one of the former colonies, an apparent plasma weapon has been recovered. It would be a good idea to take a close look at the weapon and potentially develop a usable weapon from it.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 45%, Reward: Plasma Weapon technology, 50% chance of plasma weapon prototype (1d4 for type)

[X] Project Orange Grass:
The complete overhaul of A Ship With A View has been quite successful, so it might be a good idea to request the remaining Invader class Jumpships and Leopard Class dropships to be upgraded to the new Invader MKII and Leopard MKII specifications, to be used for low profile recon missions into the Inner phsere.
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: 7 Invader MKII, 15x Leopard MKII avaiable for Deep Cover missions

[X] Operation Green Granite:
There are a number of Walsingham class jumpships avaiable to the DSSINOO, which have recently been upgraded with HFEGs. They should be additionally equipped with Superluminal Wave Detectors and used to analyze jumpship movements inside the borders of both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League, as well as the Marian Hegemony to paint a good picture of any jumpship operations there.
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%, Reward: Detailed information about jumpship movements deep in the Inner Sphere

[X] Build the Technology:
With mechs been taken apart, it might be a possibility that parts for them could be replicated and sold on the open market in the future. Especially Myomer bundles are interesting in thie regard, though WCDC technology allows to make motive materials that are more compact compared to IS Myomer.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: Ability to build IS mech components, Options to upgrade IS Mech components, Possibility to sell Mech components

Might be crazy but what pirates? We have not heard of any news of pirate activity since tortuga down. @Warringer is there any pirate activity what so ever? In fact where are our mercs? Have not heard from them since they took heavy casualties fighting on Circinus. With us opening up to Inner Sphere more we need more under cover ships to act as pickets and spy ships. We need these ships in position to stalk the increasing traffic we will see. Green granite is only option for deep survey. Perhaps a project to revamp department because they are having a lot of problems of late and their purpose increasingly ill defined and overlapping with Survey.

And build the tech because we need to get it and its sibling weapons done. We keep putting them off but we are reaching point we will be trading with IS soon but we still don't have exports of their gear ready and we still have not studied them for our benefit. Come on guys lets knock these out already. And @Schreiben NO. Industrial export is for uplifting and granting tech and factories to outside factions. We are not giving a House our tech so they can slit our throats with our own stuff.

 

[beast_regards]

[X] Project Black Light:
On one of the former colonies, an apparent plasma weapon has been recovered. It would be a good idea to take a close look at the weapon and potentially develop a usable weapon from it.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 45%, Reward: Plasma Weapon technology, 50% chance of plasma weapon prototype (1d4 for type)

[X] Project Orange Grass:
The complete overhaul of A Ship With A View has been quite successful, so it might be a good idea to request the remaining Invader class Jumpships and Leopard Class dropships to be upgraded to the new Invader MKII and Leopard MKII specifications, to be used for low profile recon missions into the Inner phsere.
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 65%, Reward: 7 Invader MKII, 15x Leopard MKII avaiable for Deep Cover missions

[X] Operation Green Granite:
There are a number of Walsingham class jumpships avaiable to the DSSINOO, which have recently been upgraded with HFEGs. They should be additionally equipped with Superluminal Wave Detectors and used to analyze jumpship movements inside the borders of both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League, as well as the Marian Hegemony to paint a good picture of any jumpship operations there.
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%, Reward: Detailed information about jumpship movements deep in the Inner Sphere

[X] Build the Technology:
With mechs been taken apart, it might be a possibility that parts for them could be replicated and sold on the open market in the future. Especially Myomer bundles are interesting in thie regard, though WCDC technology allows to make motive materials that are more compact compared to IS Myomer.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%, Reward: Ability to build IS mech components, Options to upgrade IS Mech components, Possibility to sell Mech components

 

[beast_regards]

How we can increase the chance of Confederation succeeding? It's the second most difficult action I think.

 

[Blade4]

How we can increase the chance of Confederation succeeding? It's the second most difficult action I think.

I am not sure. It is something that must happen naturally as our various people come together. Hastened or made necessity by outside forces. To stand against the other powers we need to unify. Division or bad actors seeking advantage will just get us all killed or enserfed. We could do programs to boost pr and unity i guess?

 

[Schreiben]

How we can increase the chance of Confederation succeeding? It's the second most difficult action I think.

Off the cuff I'd assume by increasing the political pressure while openly encouraging grass roots approaches. In essence, there're two ways to go about it: top-down and bottom-up. Top-down is the way the European Union is basically handling it, an increasing mesh of treaties and international dependencies that gradually creates a supranational unity. For instance, if you ask Rando European, there's a good chance if they were to put what they identify as and feel loyal to into an order (that is, sort these: European Union, respective nation, region/department/state/canton/prefecture/…, county/municipality, city, district), a noteworthy percentage would put EU ahead of their region/… or even nation. Not a big percentage, mind you, but it wouldn't be zero either.
Anyway, the other approach is obviously bottom-up. By stint of shared language, societal background, experiences, etc peoples feel more kinship towards each other than they had beforehand. A decent, but not well-fitting example might be the many German states before Napoleon did his thing. There were many attempts to unify them under a common system, but for a very long time the German people were considered the barbarians in the middle of Europe.
In practical and realistic terms this isn't as clear cut as I presented it here, of course.

In that vein, to tighten the bonds between the various WCDC nations we could simply encourage joint settlements or put a memorandum on single-language, single-nation, or single-species settlements. Xenophobia (even intranational and intraspecies) is more often than not due to a lack of exposure, and by putting an emphasis on preventing homogeneous settlements, we'll create obstacles to othering and discrimination. It will still happen, but by doing this we'll curtail its extent.

Furthermore, as these newer settlements grow their fractional influence within the WCDC will as well, gradually pushing towards closer bonds with the WCDC nations. This is, by the way, basically societal and cultural engineering, and conspiracy theories will crop up accusing the WCDC of doing exactly that, though their assumptions on the reasoning (by the players, not the WCDC leadership) will be rather off.

We could also go for putting pressure on the wayward nations that didn't join, enquiring if they want to be new members. We last asked them four years ago (Turn 8 (Failure), 13 (Failure), 28 (Success), and almost voted for it in Turn 39.), and in light of the conference they might be more amenable. But then again we failed the action after the Black Warriors pirate attack with a +50 bonus, so yeah.

Lastly, we could encourage our neighbouring settled systems to join, and the more developed worlds would probably more amenable to joining a loose confederation that provided them if not directly with help, then with channel to easily get help, trade, and whatnot. I forgot the process of how exactly Solidarnošč, Washington and Hannover joined, but from a game mechanic standpoint I assume if we spam Charm Offensives, they'll join us sooner or later when an opportune narrative chance occurs.

Incidentally, as of now the odds for overall success of Call for Confederation are about 1 in 6. A single +5 bonus would increase the odds to 1 in 4, a +10 to 1 in 3. Since this is basically an internal diplomatic action, for which we have no bonuses, I expect multiple attempts to be necessary, with fallow times between the action on the order of 1–3 years.

And @Schreiben NO. Industrial export is for uplifting and granting tech and factories to outside factions. We are not giving a House our tech so they can slit our throats with our own stuff.

Hm, okay. Had forgotten about that.

 

[Warringer]

Spoiler: DSSIN options issue

This was in the Turn 28 results. The twelve turns would be 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, with the option entering availability for Turn 42. We are now voting for Turn 44.
This was in the Turn 39 results. The three turns would be 40, 41, 42, with the option entering availability for Turn 43. We are now voting for Turn 44.
If it's not too presumptuous, may I advise you to change or add these greyed out options to display for which Turn they'll be available again?

That was simply me messing up, due to not paying attention and hoping that you don't pay attention...

That oversight, shall be corrected... No harm done, as you could not vote in turns 42 and 43 anyway...

Question. When will we get the Helm Core data, @Warringer? Because it had been percolating through the IS for nearly a decade now. One or two jump traders who visited us had to have a copy of it.

I was not aware that the Helm Core was being shipped around by random jumpships. I was under the impression that only the House Lords had access to the core.

Off the cuff I'd assume by increasing the political pressure while openly encouraging grass roots approaches. In essence, there're two ways to go about it: top-down and bottom-up. Top-down is the way the European Union is basically handling it, an increasing mesh of treaties and international dependencies that gradually creates a supranational unity. For instance, if you ask Rando European, there's a good chance if they were to put what they identify as and feel loyal to into an order (that is, sort these: European Union, respective nation, region/department/state/canton/prefecture/…, county/municipality, city, district), a noteworthy percentage would put EU ahead of their region/… or even nation. Not a big percentage, mind you, but it wouldn't be zero either.
Anyway, the other approach is obviously bottom-up. By stint of shared language, societal background, experiences, etc peoples feel more kinship towards each other than they had beforehand. A decent, but not well-fitting example might be the many German states before Napoleon did his thing. There were many attempts to unify them under a common system, but for a very long time the German people were considered the barbarians in the middle of Europe.
In practical and realistic terms this isn't as clear cut as I presented it here, of course.

The actual bottom-up attempt to unify Germany was German Revolution of 1848.

And so far, the WCDC is seen asa good thing by the majority of the general population. But there are always nationalistic people about.

In that vein, to tighten the bonds between the various WCDC nations we could simply encourage joint settlements or put a memorandum on single-language, single-nation, or single-species settlements. Xenophobia (even intranational and intraspecies) is more often than not due to a lack of exposure, and by putting an emphasis on preventing homogeneous settlements, we'll create obstacles to othering and discrimination. It will still happen, but by doing this we'll curtail its extent.

Furthermore, as these newer settlements grow their fractional influence within the WCDC will as well, gradually pushing towards closer bonds with the WCDC nations. This is, by the way, basically societal and cultural engineering, and conspiracy theories will crop up accusing the WCDC of doing exactly that, though their assumptions on the reasoning (by the players, not the WCDC leadership) will be rather off.

Multiethnic and species settlements are openly and clearly encouraged by the WCDC.

But it does help that the core of the WCDC, the Three Systems, have for nearly fifty years been in a state of fear from the Autowars that destroyed Cterin and several more worlds 3000 years ago and worked closely together because they learned from the past and what happened when the Ormiold, Turukal and Quetzal tried to do their own thing. So at least the people in the Three Systems will be much more positively inclined to a Confederation. But I also thought about a sort of 'associated status' for nations/worlds that do not want to join the Confederation 'proper' yet. For them its merely a continuation of the WCDC and their comitments to that organization.

 

[Warringer]

[X] Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols
[X] Further Survey V
[X] Operation Green Granite:
[X] Industrial Export: Hannover

Hannover, as member of the WCDC and someone who already has access to fabricators and Three Systems open source tech, is part of the internal market, so you cannot export to them.

 

[Eliar]

Well we begun well.

No certain about the rest but I believe anti piracy patrols would coincide well with our current circumstances?
The plasma weapon we can start in 2 turns.

 

[Wildredlifer]

[X] Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols
[X] Further Survey V
[X] Operation Green Granite:
[X] Industrial Export: Llyn ogwynn

 

[Blade4]

And should have not yelled it like that @Schreiben. Eh it works either way but i really want to get to those techs instead of putting it off again and again for the latest thing.

And we might have trouble? Over on SB a guy insists that comstar fleet is actually active in this era just in hiding and their is at least some evidence in canon of maybe? Not sure wha to make of it but yeah. Good thing is our defenses are good enough they would need everything to even try to take out one world i think.

This was easier on the Tabletop - a Battletech SI

If Max Laio and/or Romano decides their going down, ordering nuclear and biological attacks on his enemies and Capellan worlds that surrendered would be in character. Coming to some sort of agreement with Candice is much cheaper. Comstar has roughly 33 active warships and quite a few mothballed...

forums.spacebattles.com

Warringer is there much pirate activity and what happend to the mercs or are you still deciding?

 

[Warringer]

And should have not yelled it like that @Schreiben. Eh it works either way but i really want to get to those techs instead of putting it off again and again for the latest thing.

And we might have trouble? Over on SB a guy insists that comstar fleet is actually active in this era just in hiding and their is at least some evidence in canon of maybe? Not sure wha to make of it but yeah. Good thing is our defenses are good enough they would need everything to even try to take out one world i think.

This was easier on the Tabletop - a Battletech SI

If Max Laio and/or Romano decides their going down, ordering nuclear and biological attacks on his enemies and Capellan worlds that surrendered would be in character. Coming to some sort of agreement with Candice is much cheaper. Comstar has roughly 33 active warships and quite a few mothballed...

forums.spacebattles.com

Hmmmm...

Warringer is there much pirate activity and what happend to the mercs or are you still deciding?

Not much pirate activity at the moment in the area we have knowledge of. As for the Mercs. All safely on Circinus.

 

[Blade4]

So gamble but i would rather work on plasma weapons then waste resources hunting for pirates that are probable not there. If any are left they have probable fled region because they have no safe place to base from. I assume we will see something from the league civil war but the ones fleeing might be avoiding our region because of the press that something dangerous is out here.

 

[Blade4]

Reference for things need to throw research action at but no action for yet:

STL fusion drives- have not study in depth IS drives how they function and how we can use them. Fun thing for them to work they have to be breaking physics so how are they doing it? Fanon is hyperspace chicanery.

Aerospace fighters- also have some modals captured by now i assume but also never really looked at in close. They have a near thousand year lead on fighter development so should have something we can learn from to improve our drones.

Missiles- Yes we have very good ones them but they look to be a increasingly important part of our arsenal so perhaps a general action to improve them. Better flight characteristic/seekers. The IS has, or will have, streak and artemis systems to improve their missiles even if we already have similar we might still learn from them. Payloads and penetration aids to reach targets. If we dont have designs for universal missile pods this would cover it as well. Swarmer missiles, think missile that travels to certain point then releases several class 1/2 missiles or several flights of LRM's to savage fighters or rough up larger craft. Gamma pumped bomb lasers. ECM/ECCM payloads like new ways to spread smart dust perhaps even inside a active hostile ship. Or perhaps kill/sabotage bots?

ECM/ECCM- There is no stealth in space but that does not mean you cant be tricky with radar absorbent/null techniques and materials and black paint. Cold gas to maneuver carefully and venting heat only away from a target. We have AI So why not see if we can remote hack or generally fuck with enemies sensors and computers? Even more fun when we can get our hands of canon guardian ecm systems and beagle active probes. Like missiles we can work on improved targeting systems or better sensor in general. Those can be used both for scientific and war purposes.

Terraforming/ecology- We are building new colonies on thankful very habitable worlds but we do need to think about the future and look into such thing to improve our knowledge. Hell many worlds in IS are desperate for water filtration/purifier systems. If nothing else how can we improve our new worlds or do thing like transplant species to make them better for us? We should also look into creating habitable worlds as long term project. Taking a dead or mostly dead world and see if we can bring it to life. But that might be a very long term project beyond scope of game...

Material science- We already have better armor but i beat we can improve it even more. Play with it and push the envelope. Look into this fabled stuff the IS calls ferro fiberous and endo steel. Let our scientists play and see what the can come up with. This includes the still virgin field of hyperdimensional materials. Can we use them to make better computers? Armor that deflects some damage into hyperspace? Ftl lasers? Hell about a cannon round or missile that ports everything around it on impact into hyper? Or disrupts attempts to go to hyper? enemy jumpships cant jump if a 50 ton bolt latches on and emmits a signal like a jump core scramming systems.

Comment? Suggestions?

edit:

Probable can make jump denial weapons now then just throw a strong enough magnetic field around but does it need hull contact or can we make it strong enough to make a bubble and how big? Sounds like a project?

 

[Schreiben]

Since Warringer changed the options for DSSIN and thanks to Blade4's input I change my vote.

Military
[X] Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols
Survey
[X] Further Survey V
DSSIN
[X] Network Extension
Economy
[X] Build the Technology

W.r.t. pirates, since Operation Mekong Delta we had the chance to intercept random pirate attacks for any of the systems in our sphere of influence by 25%. I'm sure Warringer rolls for them in the random event table, so it was just luck they didn't happen more than once (the raid on Santa Alvarez). Extending the anti-piracy patrol woulds effectively remove them from the table (maybe leave one entry in for the improbable, but not impossible chance) for 'our' worlds and might give us a set probability for intercepting pirate raids outside of our 90 ly sphere.

However, I would advise against admitting Circinus, since it would present a bad precedent of expansion by conquest. Doesn't matter that we were counter-invading, for the warmongers and hawks among and within our nations this will only mean that they'll need an excuse to secure resources or grab clay land and anschluss annex the former threat.

However, a privileged partnership would be doable and probably advisable. I don't know the degree to which the the expeditionary / occupation forces govern, or encourage local sourced and based governing (and root out corruption and nepotism in the latter cases), but we definitely need an exit strategy. In that sense building the technology is a step in the right direction, since we'll be able to sell / lease the CF successor new mechs and jump ships that'll provide some defence and tool to protect their sovereignty.

As for your points, @Blade4…
STL/fusion: I assumed this was basically done with our mix of KF-/HFE-theory research? It sounds like you're angling for an Epstein drive equivalent.
Terraforming: I'm all for it. We have 650 million living in lunar sub-surface habitats, and I assume the 350 million martian dwellers have somewhat similar housings, though probably a higher fraction of domed craters. Heck, for all we know they might already be in the process of thickening the atmosphere to allow for more surface settlements.
Material science: I'm very apprehensive about hyperspace materials. They feel like a copout, and the first step to space magic, which is on a notoriously slippy slope and difficult to keep internally consistent (and not pull abilities from as the plot demands). I'd much rather have weird and counter-intuitive carbon-group and titanium-group alloys that bleed energy into or suck from hyperspace somehow.

 

[Warringer]

However, I would advise against admitting Circinus, since it would present a bad precedent of expansion by conquest. Doesn't matter that we were counter-invading, for the warmongers and hawks among and within our nations this will only mean that they'll need an excuse to secure resources or grab clay land and anschluss annex the former threat.

However, a privileged partnership would be doable and probably advisable. I don't know the degree to which the the expeditionary / occupation forces govern, or encourage local sourced and based governing (and root out corruption and nepotism in the latter cases), but we definitely need an exit strategy. In that sense building the technology is a step in the right direction, since we'll be able to sell / lease the CF successor new mechs and jump ships that'll provide some defence and tool to protect their sovereignty.

As far as it goes, the occupation of Circinus is heavy invested in making sure that the Circinans rule themselves, with some guidance of the occupational government steering them very firmly into the direction of a direct/e-democracy.

As far as admiting Circinus goes, there's always the option of simply asking the Circinans with a vote/plebicite.

Reference for things need to throw research action at but no action for yet:

STL fusion drives- have not study in depth IS drives how they function and how we can use them. Fun thing for them to work they have to be breaking physics so how are they doing it? Fanon is hyperspace chicanery.

As for your points, @Blade4…
STL/fusion: I assumed this was basically done with our mix of KF-/HFE-theory research? It sounds like you're angling for an Epstein drive equivalent.

You are quite right there, Schreiben, I'm more seeing the STL drive as being related to the Epstein drive. Totally vanilla physics, if at the higher middle end of what is theoretically possible with fusions drives. It might be supported by some analysis.

The only think that might have Kearney and Fuchida into the direction of their research on FTL, might be some strange effects that pop up when a magnetic field is strong enough. Here is a nice little link to HF theory and the HFEG, where you need a magnetic field of 75 Tesla to get you into The Everchanging Black/Heim-Feynman Space.

Aerospace fighters- also have some modals captured by now i assume but also never really looked at in close. They have a near thousand year lead on fighter development so should have something we can learn from to improve our drones.

At least Earth has made the conscious decision not to bother with aerospace fighters outside of some models that are definately only meant for atmospheric/LEO use. Our actual equivalent for Aerospace Fighters are drones, equipped with a powerful drice and weapons. Not unlike Wasps from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

Missiles- Yes we have very good ones them but they look to be a increasingly important part of our arsenal so perhaps a general action to improve them. Better flight characteristic/seekers. The IS has, or will have, streak and artemis systems to improve their missiles even if we already have similar we might still learn from them. Payloads and penetration aids to reach targets. If we dont have designs for universal missile pods this would cover it as well. Swarmer missiles, think missile that travels to certain point then releases several class 1/2 missiles or several flights of LRM's to savage fighters or rough up larger craft. Gamma pumped bomb lasers. ECM/ECCM payloads like new ways to spread smart dust perhaps even inside a active hostile ship. Or perhaps kill/sabotage bots?

All already implied with our missiles. Keep in mind the difference between IS and WCDC computer technology. We do have quite advanced seekers, which integrate some machine learning and ALI technology to allow a missile to identify a target (with input from the BattleNet) and even communicate with other missiles to coordinate targeting, so that only a specific number of missiles even targets the same target. And that is not even touching laser illumination, for example. Which might all in all be more advanced than Artemis or Streak.

Submunitions (swarmer missiles) are a mainstray of missile warheads, especially in space, where we got the scattershot kinetic warheads with independently targeting submunitions that talks among each other via a local Mesh network. The same goes for bomb-pumped lasers, though we were going down the route of Cabasa Howitzers.

As for Smart Dust payloads... The idea of using Smart Dust to infiltrate and sabotage your Opfoce spacecraft or vehicles is so prevelant that there are some Smart Dust particles that were specially designed to hunt down and destroy and infiltrator Smart Dust.

ECM/ECCM- There is no stealth in space but that does not mean you cant be tricky with radar absorbent/null techniques and materials and black paint. Cold gas to maneuver carefully and venting heat only away from a target. We have AI So why not see if we can remote hack or generally fuck with enemies sensors and computers? Even more fun when we can get our hands of canon guardian ecm systems and beagle active probes. Like missiles we can work on improved targeting systems or better sensor in general. Those can be used both for scientific and war purposes.

With Smart Dust and the magnetic fields of the MiniMag system the WCDC got, its possible to generate some virtual images inside the MiniMag sphere by using the Smart Dust to reflect light from the local sun in a specific way to hopefully spoof the Opforce sensors. Radar and Lidar absorbant materials are a given, as are black paint. Cold Gas and Head redirection was however not very prevelant, as previously all spacecraft needed very, very large radiator panels to get rid of waste heat, something that's done with Advanced Heatsinks nowadays.

Remotely hacking the Opforce systems? Not possible unless you got Smart Dust on the Opforce vehicle/vessel. This is not hollywood hacking to be done completely remotely. Unless you know a backdoor or two (see nBSG).

General ECM/ECCM. Spread spectrum EM radiation to overpower any spread spectrum communication is a given and likely a bit behind the Inner Sphere. Short distance and mesh networking might help out here for ECCM. Or just using laser coms.

Terraforming/ecology- We are building new colonies on thankful very habitable worlds but we do need to think about the future and look into such thing to improve our knowledge. Hell many worlds in IS are desperate for water filtration/purifier systems. If nothing else how can we improve our new worlds or do thing like transplant species to make them better for us? We should also look into creating habitable worlds as long term project. Taking a dead or mostly dead world and see if we can bring it to life. But that might be a very long term project beyond scope of game...

Terraforming: I'm all for it. We have 650 million living in lunar sub-surface habitats, and I assume the 350 million martian dwellers have somewhat similar housings, though probably a higher fraction of domed craters. Heck, for all we know they might already be in the process of thickening the atmosphere to allow for more surface settlements.

As you said, Schreiben, we have at least a billion humans and mor ethan 2.5 billion Quetzal/Aldmoru living in space habitats. We can easily terraform something like an O'Neill cylinder, but the Inner Sphere/Star League had us beat when it comes to worlds. On the other hand, Hannover, which slid down into an early 20th century technology, managed to construct about a dozen of ghiant factory complexes to keep their world habitable while sliding into a global ice age. And they managed to keep their world terraformed that way. So at least there, the IS is ahead of us.

On the other hand, we can very quickly turn an inhospitable area into a natirtal looking forrest and grasland, by simply moving trees and other plants to the area and doing things to them. Its going to pop up soon...

Material science- We already have better armor but i beat we can improve it even more. Play with it and push the envelope. Look into this fabled stuff the IS calls ferro fiberous and endo steel. Let our scientists play and see what the can come up with. This includes the still virgin field of hyperdimensional materials. Can we use them to make better computers? Armor that deflects some damage into hyperspace? Ftl lasers? Hell about a cannon round or missile that ports everything around it on impact into hyper? Or disrupts attempts to go to hyper? enemy jumpships cant jump if a 50 ton bolt latches on and emmits a signal like a jump core scramming systems.

Material science: I'm very apprehensive about hyperspace materials. They feel like a copout, and the first step to space magic, which is on a notoriously slippy slope and difficult to keep internally consistent (and not pull abilities from as the plot demands). I'd much rather have weird and counter-intuitive carbon-group and titanium-group alloys that bleed energy into or suck from hyperspace somehow.

No Hyperspace materials that shunt energy or damage into n-dimensional space. Carbon and titanium group materials are a form of 'resonator' that makes sure that a field needed to pull a vessel from Einstein into HF Space or Hyperspace can actually do it.

As for 'jump scramming', I'm working off the assumption that Jump Cores also create extremely strong magnetic fields, that punch a hole into space time to jump through. All you really need to do to scram a jump or cause a misjump is to simply disrupt the magnetic field with a strong magnetic field of your own. No space magic needed (technically, as FTL is already space magic).