NiNES: A Broken Galaxy

[Kozmos]

Niklas a question here: do tier 3 Combat Drones require Evolving AI tech?

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Let me just say that I love this NES for the interaction and diplomacy.

Story tomorrow, I suppose. Also, fear my 1000-pixel-tall map!

Also, colony ships!


Niklas, I have a few ideas for UU:
Colony ship that can colonize hostile planets, or is cheaper, or both
Fighters that can fit more on a carrier/More efficient carriers
Laser drones
More manoueverable Destroyer
Which of these would be allowed and/or feasible?

 

[Kozmos]

Also can we have one ground UU?

 

[TerrisH]

To 襲来重工業
Due to the close proximity of Our nations, we must respectfully decline to Trade Warpgate Resonance with you. We might be inclined to accept an Extreamly favorable offer for the Tech, but we do not wish to offer insult to your nation by proposing it, as the likelihood of you accepting it is minuscule. meow.

OOC: 2 Tier-2 techs.

IC:
To Cybran
Greetings and blessings upon your nation. it is wonderful to meet so many new nations, in this time of expansion and exploration of our once proud Galaxy.
First, would you care to exchange Local maps?
Second: we would Like to offer Bioconstruction, warpgates, and Ship Computers in exchange for Plating, lasers, and Missiles?
Third: If you agree to the above trade, would you care to do another Trade, Exchanging Genetics and Warpgate Resonance for your knowledge in Instant Messaging and AI?
four: we see you, like us, are interested in the augmentation of humans, though you have aimed more for the mechanical augmentation, and we are aimed toward spiritual and genetic augmentation. perhaps we might exchange notes?

to Colonial's
we would Like to inquire if you would like to exchange our Warpgate Resonance for your Remote Control Drones?

 

[Niklas]

Niklas a question here: do tier 3 Combat Drones require Evolving AI tech?

No, just AI.

Niklas, I have a few ideas for UU:
Colony ship that can colonize hostile planets, or is cheaper, or both
Fighters that can fit more on a carrier/More efficient carriers
Laser drones
More manoueverable Destroyer
Which of these would be allowed and/or feasible?

All. Contact me off the thread for discussion.

Also can we have one ground UU?

You can have one UU, which may be a ship or a ground unit.

 

[TerrisH]

To Sol, Rana
now that we have begun to walk the road of proper recovery, we wish to extend a formal Offer of repensentation in the nekomi goverment. To that extent, we hearby ask that you please send three representives. While they would have no vote concerning Intrenal Nekomi matters Unless you decide to become part of our star-nation, they will have full observer status, and will have a full vote on any matter that concerns your planet. you can also, at any time, pention through them to become part of our Star-nation. while a simple vote of confermation among the house would be requred to accept such an offer, we doubt that there would be any reason for the offer to be rejected.

 

[Niklas]

From Sol
To Nekomi
We will gladly accept your offer of representation in your government. At this point we do not wish to join your nation however. Sol is the traditional center of humanspace and as such has always remained neutral, and it is our sincere hope that with your continued gracious help we can rebuild Sol to its former glory and status.

From Rana
To Nekomi
You have been most kind to us, and for the promise and prospect of continued help we will gladly accept to be considered part of your nation.

 

[Kozmos]

It was just another work day for Kozmos. A pretty uneventful one until he received a transmission from a strange people calling themselves Nekomi. He already received a word from the scouts of the Sirrah system that they encountered them. He figured it was simply a matter of time before they contacted him.

He felt that he was in need of some support and activated QAI to assist him. QAI was rather enthusiastic about meeting new people.....and thinking of ways to dispose of them. He has developed a rather sadistic and cheerful personality. Still his usefulness was undeniable and Kozmos grew fond of him.

Pushing some buttons on his desk a large wide screen lowered from the ceiling. It was brand new plasma screen, with HD support and over 5000 TV chanells. It's other secondary function was to receive extraplanetary communications. Taking a moment to collect himself he turned on the screen.

"Greetings...uhm..what the..errm fellow...*squints eyes in disbelief* humans!"

The weird cat like looking being seemed happy and responded with what seemed to Kozmos crazy gibberish:

To Cybran
Greetings and blessings upon your nation. it is wonderful to meet so many new nations, in this time of expansion and exploration of our once proud Galaxy.
First, would you care to exchange Local maps?
Second: we would Like to offer Bioconstruction, warpgates, and Ship Computers in exchange for Plating, lasers, and Missiles?
Third: If you agree to the above trade, would you care to do another Trade, Exchanging Genetics and Warpgate Resonance for your knowledge in Instant Messaging and AI?
four: we see you, like us, are interested in the augmentation of humans, though you have aimed more for the mechanical augmentation, and we are aimed toward spiritual and genetic augmentation. perhaps we might exchange notes?

"Uh huh....QAI please translate this for me."

"Yes Master. Prejudice set to maximum.

...

Translation: 98% probability that this miniature organic wishes to maintain peaceful relations and to conduct trade. There is also a 2% probability that the miniature organic is simply looking for trouble and needs to be blasted. That may be wishful thinking on my part, master."

"Good. Care to elaborate on what kind of trade."

" Yes here is a holographic visual:

• Exchange of local star charts
• Exchange of Cybran Technologies of Plating, Lasers and Missiles for Nekomi Technologies of Bioconstruction, Quantum Gates and Ship Computers
• Further exchange of advanced technology.
• Invitation for a meeting to exchange philosophies and techniques of human self-improvement or perhaps as I speculate IT'S A TRAP!

"

"Settle down QAI. Hmm...interesting. All right then. *turns towards the screen*. We agree to exchange star charts and basic technologies, but we will politely have turn down your offers numbered 3 and 4."

"I will do anything you command master. Even if it means... being *gulp* non-violent."

"So what say you, the Nekomi people?"

 

[TerrisH]

To Sol.
Of course, we will respect Your Neutrality. we will be continuing Our Support of your recovery, and we hope that you will, in time, prosper enough to become a star nation in your own right.

To Rana
Excellent! We will Assemble the House at once, and Proceed with the vote shortly. Once it passes, we will begin immediate Upscaling Of our efforts Assist your Planet. As you will be apart of us, we expect significantly fewer attempts to block and/or divert resources to assist you. we expect we will be able to divert a full 15-30 PP to help you this turn.

To Cybran
Wonderful! we will dispatch a relay ship to you once with the relavent Technologies. we hope for many more Pleasing Trades with you in the future.

OOC:
Mr. Mod.. err. this isn't exactly covered in the rules, so how exactly do I go about integrating and establishing Rana as part of my nation? do I send a colony ship? Military Claim? other?

Cleric: map on the way

 

[Kozmos]

OOC: Good, but dont forget to put the trade deal into your orders or as Niklas says it never happened.

 

[Niklas]

Mr. Mod.. err. this isn't exactly covered in the rules, so how exactly do I go about integrating and establishing Rana as part of my nation? do I send a colony ship? Military Claim? other?

You may assume that Rana is now your colony, but with 0 PP yield initially, i.e. nothing is redeveloped yet.

 

[Symphony D.]

You may assume that Rana is now your colony, but with 0 PP yield initially, i.e. nothing is redeveloped yet.

OOC: I was going to strongly critcise this for the sole fact that Rana doesn't have refugees only to notice that it does. Now I'm just supremely irritated that my negative (since I tried to be fair and balance it relative to my benefits) is vastly more detrimental than some meek slap on the wrist like "sucky infantry" or "suck at espionage". Ah well.

P.S. Shouldn't I have contact with Furians, if only by pinging gates from one side? Since they're showing up on the map...

 

[TerrisH]

True. but then Again, your advantage's more then make up for it.

 

[Symphony D.]

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BEACHHEAD DAY ONE
KAPTEYN ICHI, KAPTEYN, CORE WORLDS
03:16 UTC, FEBRUARY 16, 0007AE
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Everybody can hear it through both their comms and the bay intercom, “T-minus 30 seconds to touchdown.”

It’s enough to give some people the jitters. Well, it could be the constant buffeting and shaking of something the size of a frigate entering a planetary atmosphere too, but I’m sure the countdown doesn’t help either. It doesn’t give me the shakes. What gives me the shakes are things like that bastard Khan’s last little smile, or the way York had reached out his hand for help right after he’d bought it only for it to fall to the ground like a puppet’s. That’s what gives me the shakes at night. But I don’t get jittery during drops. The guys here had been through TY392 though so at least they weren’t complete greenhorns. Better than nothing.

“T-minus 25 seconds to touchdown, initiating retro-thrust,” comes that same sickeningly soothing female voice. It isn’t the Captain, or any of the crew. You just know it’s a voice some lab-tech cooked up to try and calm people’s nerves through just the proper inflection. And of course it does exactly the opposite. Push the air out of my lungs as soon as it says “initiating.” Never a bad move; it’s a codeword, means “Something is coming that you won’t like.”

Retro comes on like a punch in the stomach, knocks the air right out of you, unless you don’t have any when it comes. If the way the Transport shook previously was bad then now it’s just downright awful. Even g-chairs aren’t doing much. Vision’s getting kind of blurry from the constant buffeting. Can’t really turn my head much to get a proper look with the restraints but the guys opposite don’t look any worse than I feel. Not that you can see their faces with the golden glow of visual sensors. Heh, golden-eyed dragons sea-sick and stuck to a chair?

Glance over the M-63 as best I can. Now this is more of a fitting weapon for a soldier. Long barrel, intimidating capacitor load out, sometimes electric ball lightning shoots out the end of it, but light, almost impossible to break, easy to clean—not a bad gun. If you actually have to go up against something with armor I have to say I’d prefer this instead of the popguns, even if they lack as much charm. It’s ammo counter is a bright, cheery lime green, says “1500”. Can’t say I mind going from 100 to 1500.

The comms are definitely there just to irritate, because even over the freight-train roar of reentry and retro you can still hear them in your damn helmet.

“Touchdown in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Impact,” it says smoothly.

And when it says impact, it isn’t lying. Your whole world comes to a crashing halt as the thing hits. Retro or no, a Transport weighs about as much as an old sea battleship, and when it hits the ground at 2m/s, you feel it. The red lights flicker under the strain and I feel myself gasp at the sudden deceleration. It feels like an elevator from hell. Red switches off and goes to amber, and everybody goes for their straps. In moments most are unhooked and lining up into formation while those that lost it are helped out. And I’m right up front ready to lead the section in. I guess that’s what you get for being promoted to Master Sergeant: first to die if the LZ’s hot!

To be fair, during a standard insertion into a hot LZ they’d come in engines down on the opfor to try and fry a few of them, and above the gate are several automated weapons to clear the LZ immediately forward of the hatch, but if it’s really heavy fire rule of thumb is first out, first down. Fortunately this LZ is cold, or so they told us. What they tell you and how things are rarely match up.

The lights cycle to green and a warning klaxon starts up. LT’s already in the back, shouting at us through comms “Look alive you apes, nobody’s been on this rock for almost a decade so look sharp, who knows if Scurvy isn’t still running around out there.”

Scurvy—the pet nickname for the Scourge—like it was some mangy dog that lived out in the alley way. Nobody knew if machines still under its control were roaming around out in the wildernesses of the solar systems or on dead planets. Common logic was no, since odds are after seven years anything that’d kept going that long would be glitching, out of fuel, or in disrepair. But you never knew. Maybe some poor bastard had high-tailed it out of a system into interstellar to try and escape and it was drifting out there among the stars somewhere, like some old horror flick alien. Nobody could say. Only thing that matters to me is that it isn’t down here. I still shudder remembering when that thing got into my suit… and tried to get into my head. Slap on the back of the head brings me back; helmet checks out.

“Lowering ramp,” comes that sickeningly sweet voice and down it goes with surprising rapidity. As soon as it’s more than 30° of the way through its cycle I make for the slit to the nearest side and wave my squad on. Cameron and his squad do the same. It’s not policy, but it’s standard procedure; waiting for the damn ramp to go all the way down just leaves you a sitting duck. Everybody’s seen that old war movie Saving Private Ryan. It was true half a millennia ago, and it’s true today.

Hit the dirt with both feet—good, solid stuff—and scan with the M-63 while moving alongside the Transport. Squad follows along doing likewise. Once we’re about halfway down its length fan out and move to a small set of dunes off to one side and drop down on the back side of one. Scan the horizon with snoopers; no infrared or visual hits. As I’m looking for targets a dull roar makes itself known to me and I can’t quite place it. Suddenly Ramirez is talking on comms, “Hey, Sarge, they dropped us on a beach.”

Roll onto my back and look the opposite way. Sure enough the Transport landed right on the edge of a beach. The water’s still steaming from where it came in and there’s a lot of black glass where it torched the sand. Take my first look around. Burgundy sky drenches everything a kind of carmine, wispy clouds glow pink and mauve from an orange-red star sinking beneath the waves. They’re a Prussian blue, breaking indigo. Looks like an old mercury light burning out. Sand’s a kind of gold color, pretty fine. Some beach grass here and there on the dunes; farther inland there’s some palms. Ditirich pipes up “Great beach for a suntan!”

I murmur “Great place to get cancer.”

“Aww, don’t be so pessimistic, Sarge,” says Ramirez.

Glance down at the envirogauge on my wrist. Temperature’s at 296.7K and falling. Atmosphere’s at 22.63% oxygen. Rest checks out just fine. “You can crack your seals if you want, gentlemen.”

I undo mine. Inhale. Ditirich chats up again “Whew, smells like salt’n’****!”

Somebody’s always got to be saying the obvious.

“Sarge, got a visual on a structure, looks like a factory of some kind, 5.6 clicks north-north-east,” says Gage.

I glance over at him peering with his snoopers and roll over beside him “At least somebody’s doing their damn job.”

Follow his lead and pick up the location. It’s a factory of some kind alright, got two nice big cooling towers. “LT, this is Rheims, we’ve got a visual on some kind of factory 5.6 clicks NNE, request permission to recon.”

LT comes back “Roger, Liana, Madanlal just called it in too; when we’re done with perimeter you can have it if you want, since you asked so nicely, LT out.”

“Affirmative,” I reply.

“Aww, damnit Sarge,” says Ramirez, “You mean we gotta do recon the first night?”

“Beats doing recon the second night when they know we’re here to stay, eh, Ramirez,” I ask. He doesn’t reply.

“Now finish scanning the damn perimeter so we can get on with it,” I add, and admit grumbles the scanning continues.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

The technological sale is acceptable to us.

 

[Symphony D.]

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BEACHHEAD DAY TWO
KAPTEYN ICHI, KAPTEYN, CORE WORLDS
08:23 UTC, FEBRUARY 16, 0007AE
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Securing the perimeter took us halfway through night. LT is, I suppose, thorough, if not also a jackass. But he’s only a Lieutenant, so what can you expect? Maybe he’ll take the edge off by the time he makes Major, but probably not.

At any rate, it is secure. Typical affair: remote mines, autoguns slaved to motion sensors, laser-fencing, foxholes and some sandbag and plasteel emplacements with M-104 heavy MAGs and a few other assorted weapons. They’d even had the good sense to cover the direction facing the sea and had distributed some of the scorched sand-glass farther out in a three-foot band to make noise if anybody stepped on it. All in all, not bad for a good day’s work.

By work isn’t over yet. Not for us anyway. I’m idling at the gate with the squad waiting for clearance to go. It comes down the pipe and off go the lasers and so do we. We move out along the beach. It’s harder to ambush, easier to stay in visual contact with base from. 5.6 clicks isn’t a bad walk, even for a spacecase like Ditirich, and we make pretty good time. Chatter’s pretty minimal. Only sounds are the breaking surf and occasional insects. Lighting’s crap and this rock doesn’t have a moon, but NVG fixes that nicely. It’s part of the reason I wanted out here early. If there is anybody—or anything wandering around, hopefully we’ll get the drop on it.

As we get closer to the “factory” its general outline gets clearer, even under visionamp. It has two large cooling towers, evidently nanocrete, with several industrial structures below. Beyond them are a bunch of tanks and tubing leading into the sea. It looks more or less intact.

As we continued on Ramirez says out of the blue in a hushed whisper “Desalination.”

Everybody glances at him, and I quirk my eyebrow. How does a screw-up like Ramirez know what the hell a desalination plant looks like? Shouldn’t they be doing that sort of thing with biotech these days anyway?

He quickly adds on “I visited this place as a kid. Don’t remember much except when we were on tour this tour guide kept going on about how fresh water was a scarce commodity because the climate was both tropical and arid, so they had to pull a lot of water from the sea.”

He gestures at the dark plant in the distance “This was a Shuurai system and they figured out it was simpler and cheaper to use old methods instead of germs; bugs kept eating the salt, and they could sell it for a greater profit.”

“Sure sounds like the boss,” said Ditirich.

“There is a Shuurai logo on one of the cooling towers,” said Gage, adding “It’s difficult to see properly.”

Setting snoopers to high-gain proves him right. Good old Shuurai Heavy Industries. The bottom dollar is always the bottom line unless it’s designed to blow things up. How fortunate for us that our profession is precisely that. Odds are it probably still worked then, if it worked off simple technology; Shuurai might cut corners on cost and creature-comfort but their big selling point was efficiency, durability and reliability; came from making guns, or so they said.. Might be useful for a settlement if it still functioned. Radio LT about it “LT, this is Rheims, looks like we’ve got a desalination plant out here; might still work, checking for security.”

A different voice crackles over comms than usual, “This is Sharps; LT’s in the sack—affirmative Rheims, keep us posted.”

“Will do, Rheims out,” I say.

Less than a click away now, and we start to head inland, between the dunes. Going over top of them silhouettes you and takes longer, better to go between, even if it’s harder to see what’s ahead. It takes about 15 more minutes until we hit the outskirts. The place is pretty huge. Probably three by two clicks on its sides. The pipes are big around as a man each; place must’ve been designed to pump out a lot of water. As we start to make our way toward the main complex Gage stops me with a hand on my shoulder. I don’t bother turning “Yes?”

“Water’s running in this pipe,” he says.

I halfway turn to him “You mean it’s on?”

He nods and puts a hand on it. I follow suit. There is indeed a faint rumbling of water rushing and the pipe vibrates. “That’s unusual,” I state.

“Guess somebody’s still home,” said Ramirez.

Ditirich, for once, is quiet, though his body language implies displeasure.

I grimace beneath my helmet. “Everybody, check your rifles and release safety; lets go.”

There’s the small click of safety locks going offline and the faintest whine as the capacitors hummed to life, ready to fire. It’s probably bad policy to walk into corporate property and start shooting armor-piercing rounds, but if something was still here seven years after Scurvy hit, I damn well am not taking chances with it.

Locked and loaded, we venture on into the depths of the complex, the tubing and tanks growing ever more monolithic and imposing in the washed out NVG of snoopers…

 

[Niklas]

OOC: I was going to strongly critcise this for the sole fact that Rana doesn't have refugees only to notice that it does. Now I'm just supremely irritated that my negative (since I tried to be fair and balance it relative to my benefits) is vastly more detrimental than some meek slap on the wrist like "sucky infantry" or "suck at espionage". Ah well.

P.S. Shouldn't I have contact with Furians, if only by pinging gates from one side? Since they're showing up on the map...

True. but then Again, your advantage's more then make up for it.

TerrisH has it right there. I've tried to balance really good positives for really bad negatives. That said, I'm more worried that your negative is too weak in comparison to those "meek slaps on the wrist" . But this is no exact science, my expectations for how the game would run are not completely met by reality, so it may turn out in the end that some positives and some negatives are stronger or weaker than expected. So yes, some factions will have a harder time, some will get off more easily, but in the end I dare say those effects are very small in comparison to differences in skill and playing style.

As for the particular complaint (if it was one), I'm not really sure I understand it. Yes, there were refugees at Rana, and the Nekomi spent quite some resources into help for them. And counting the redevelopment costs to get that colony to a 5 PP yield, it's definitely comparable to the cost of a colony ship going there, so he didn't exactly get anything for free. If anything, counting the help sent to Sol as well, he will be at a negative.

Also for your map, it is a mistake of mine (which you could have guessed by the update text and the color code ). Orange should be the Democrats, not the Furians. You have contact with the former, not the latter. I'll send you a new map. (It seems there's something about your faction that makes me constantly do errors in stats and map and sendouts, don't know what it is, maybe I too am influenced by the Shuurai reputation )

 

[Erik Mesoy]

War Committee
6km below the surface of Benalia II
"Gentlemen." Nicholas Churchill, Second President of the Emergents, tapped the synthetic table surface once to call the War Council to order. "Do you mind if I call you that?" He smiled coldly.
"No."
"No."
"Not at all."
"Good. To business." Churchill turned on the table's holoprojector, showing a galactic map, and began to take attendance.
"Theodor Gregorius. Pace Muireadach. Anton Drahoslav. Harald Nagin. Orli Gianna. Millicent Abilene."
In turn, the persons unofficially representing shipyards, fleet, tactics, diplomatic relations, public relations, and research raised their hands quietly.
Harald spoke first.
"As you know, we have contact with five independent factions: The Capellan Magistracy, the Sezuren Colonials, Norsk Automated Mining, Furiana, Nekomi. Here are their known systems, their approximate spheres of influence, and a Cat 3 estimation of how much power they could project. We are also aware of a few other factions, but they are relatively unimportant at the moment. Now I'm going to reshade them towards strong light or opaque dark colors based on our relations."
He did so. "Obvious when put this way, isn't it? Churchill has already seen this. Drahoslav, relative strengths please?"
"Mild advantage to us, though of course all bets are off here in Benalia, where we still have a few functioning defense systems. We'll have to assume they do, too. Since we can't possibly go on the offense unless we spend years building, we should assume defensive positions. Let them come to us."
Pace interrupted. "The Nekomi have developed advanced warpgate travel technology, and they're being secretive about it. We must have it if we are to remain competitive."
Nicholas promised solemnly that Pace would have his warpgate research.
"I would like to introduce a new design." Millicent said. "It's the result of research in ship construction. Gregorius has confirmed its feasibility."
"Why was I not told of this ahead of time?" Nicholas asked.
"Because you've been scurrying around like a rat trying to shrink the Governancy's influence and increase your own power. Not that I mind, since it's rather ineffective at present."
"Very good. Continue, then."
Theodor fed some data into the holoprojector. "This is based on the Destroyer design. It's a medium class capital ship. At this level, the trade-off between factors such as movement, efficiency, firepower, and the like is near an outer-curve point with a focus on firepower. After we got the elerium cells in proper order again, the gain in efficiency was easiest to transfer to shielding and firepower. This bent the curve further towards firepower. But then we calculated that several ship areas can be left more thinly plated, to begin with, since they can be assumed to be sideways and hence will take only glancing blows. We got a near-exponential gain for at least ten percent of the plating, which won us fifteen percent of mobility, but we decided to stop at the earlier, pre-elerium level of effective protection."
"Turn the proj on already, will you?" Anton interjected. "I want to see what this will mean for combat, not listen to a recapitulation of historical development. If I wanted that, I'd go to a hospital."
"Hold your horses." Theodor said, but he turned the projector on, showing the skeletal blueprints of a capital ship. "So then Millicent comes along a month ago with all manner of nift. We get surface doping, creative methods of reinforcing, and most importantly in this case, a mathematical breakthrough on thrust application which lets us reconfigure the engines entirely. Curiously, it doesn't affect anything else on the curve. I'll explain it in a moment, but take a look at this simulation. It pits ten corvettes against two Hunter Killers, which is what we're calling this design."
The simulation was obviously precalculated and recorded, since the holoprojector never flickered. It showed two Hunter Killer-Destroyers mopping the floor with several smaller ships. All twelve ships had approximately the same level of maneuverability. This meant that they dodged one another a great deal. But the Corvettes had to coordinate their attacks to damage a Hunter Killer beyond the superficial level, while each Hunter Killer had at least three weapon groups, each of which could take a Corvette out of the fight if not destroy it.
"Here's the explanation." The holoprojector showed one-eighth of a sphere, resting in a three-axis system, its surface never actually curved but instead approximated by half a dozen sides. "This is oversimplified for the sake of nonmathematicians, but the point is that each edge represents a breakpoint where it's more efficient to use material A over B because of other conditions, such as acceleration stress compared to flexibility. And here's the mathematical breakthrough."
"...I still don't understand it." Orli said, watching the polygonal shape reconfigure itself.
"Muireadach, Drahoslav, would you say that this makes war feasible?" Nicholas asked.
Both men said "No." in unison.
"Well, maybe if you became an evil dictator and forced the entire system to produce nothing but Hunter Killers." Anton added, snickering.
"Or if you got the Capellans and Sezurens to go along with you." Harald said.
"Fine. If nobody has anything else to add, council is dismissed. We meet again in a week." Nicholas turned the holoprojector off with an air of finality.

(UU: Hunter Killer, based on Destroyer) 5505

 

[Symphony D.]

As for the particular complaint (if it was one), I'm not really sure I understand it. Yes, there were refugees at Rana, and the Nekomi spent quite some resources into help for them. And counting the redevelopment costs to get that colony to a 5 PP yield, it's definitely comparable to the cost of a colony ship going there, so he didn't exactly get anything for free. If anything, counting the help sent to Sol as well, he will be at a negative.

OOC: No, I was going to argue that Rana shouldn't be allowed to do that, not having refugees, as it broke the colony ship concept. Then I noticed that it did. Making my argument worthless. So instead I was just sort of generally miffed for again having a huge flaw like in ENES when I had tried to minimize such things. I guess it's less worse. And really, as "strong" as my benefits are, if I really wanted to compensate for my weakness compared to other factions, that's where most of the savings would go. "Play to your strengths" I suppose.

And don't think your balancing attempts have gone unnoticed! I very early on took notice of Epsilon Eridani's low R3 rank compared to most every other start, and the abundance of sub-average systems nearby. I didn't quite think you'd actually looked up metallicity values for the stars when computing their R levels, so I figured it was balance.

Anyway, don't mind me, I'm just a rather critical and annoying player.

 

[germanicus12]

Dr. Holtz was rushing up the brigde that led to the presidential Apartments shouting, "We did it! We did it!" Intrigued I went down to greet him and escort him to my office. After the doctor calmed down and drank some water, I proceeded to ask him what he did. He looked at me with wide eyes and handed me a disc, I put it in my laptop and the screen went dark for a moment before a big ship showed up on the screen and showed dozens of fighters and corvettes leaving the ship. Interested I asked Dr. Holtz what is was, he was besides himself in excitement,

"Mr. President, that ship is the first thing we have invented from stratch, without aid from old programs or pictures. That ship is and will be the pride of our navy. It is projected to hold at least 500 fighters or 50 corvettes, it will also transport 1000 infantry or 100 tanks according to our calculations. It is going to have devastating firepower and with fighters will be almost impossible to bring down. This ship is the result of millions of dollars into the research of ship design, though the cost of building one is astronmical, but if we can research further into the ship design tier we might find a cost effective way to mass produce these carriers. I will let you choose the name for this class."

"Wow this sounds like a great ship and if you are right about its firepower and carrying capabilities, it would no doubt be feared around the galacty as the most powerful ship in the universe! I will name it.... Furian Carrier, fearsome name for a fearsome ship. Get to work on finding ways to reduce price on this ship so we can get it to orbit as soon as possible!" Dr. Holtz left the office and I sat down in front of my laptop and watched the weapons system make short work of an Frigate and Destroyer pitted against it.