any votes on adding the mysterious powder to the nanites as a source material?
any votes on throwing some into a metal furnace to see what metal forged with it does?
after all, whoever was running the factory previously wouldn't have been making simple explosives with it ...
anyway, we need to set up another trade mission -- we're running short on electricity, we've used up all our resources, and we've bunnies to sell
Ebbor: do we have enough power on the buggy for a trade run - if we travel 12 hrs per day, we've got 10 days power, assuming that we can't load spare power into the traders.
anyway, James and a driver will head out with the merchants to the mining colony - its been almost 2 months since we were there last, and i doubt their food shortages have gone away. James should take 1/10 unit of neodynium (micro magnets are still quite powerful, so its a strong demonstration of our refining capability) and head out as a trade envoy. We don't have much room on the buggy to carry things, so we'll continue to pay the merchants and allow them to carry <the trade goods> for us. (i just need to work out how much food we have spare atm ...)
Edit: James should take 2 extra lanterns for power (they were made from 10 cap units, so that's 20 extra energy he can take and recharge as they go)James proposes to a) offer as trading partners with the mining community (refine ore for them,start from a position of 2 units of ore => 1 unit of metal (after all they can't know that we have a very good refining process, and also energy is quite scarce, given they may not be able to refine the ore at all).
In expressing how we are worth having as trading partners James should point out the buggy, and the nifty armor plates on the merchants cars, and tell them that is what became of their last trade with us. Also say that we will take requests for construction of advanced machinery, if the price is right. At the moment we are short on energy, so a full gas cylinder would be most appreciated. (yes i know we have the ethanol but we don't know how long/well the generator will run on that )
Ok: so we've a total of 976 food (a good portion of which needs roasting/ milling or otherwise preparing) 4 weeks to the next harvest, so we've 544 food spare (108 people * 4 weeks used) If the merchants are going to be away for 4 weeks, thats 120+8 food for them and the trade envoy, leaving us with 416 food to trade
15% is for the traders, so 354 food for actual trade (62 food is for the traders).
Utilizing the modular, individual cage design for our rabbit hutches, we also take 1 female rabbit and her 4 young. Given their food shortages, providing rabbits might be quite valuable.
while traveling James talks to Sophia and discusses the proposed trade deal with the miners and ask if they would transport ore for the miners for free, because once we turn it into much more valuable trade goods, they'll get 15% of the more valuable goods anyway, and besides, we'd have to smelt the ore for them anyway.
The merchants should leave immidiatally. (beginning of the week, not the end)
tl;dr. They take 544 food, 128 for eating over 4 weeks, 416 for trade, of which 62 is the merchants; james, and a driver take a spare lantern and 1/10 unit of neodynium. they take a rifle also. Trade priorities are bulk metal ores, and an offer to refine ores for them.
(that leaves us with 0 food, 432 food at the beginning of the week, just right for 4 weeks to the next harvest).
Ebbor: is there any way we can get a boost to a roll, ie add more people with skills, so that something gets done ... (basically roll for how many people it took, rather than if it succeeded)
anyway
16 farmers farm, 8 farmers start planting apple trees on the new plots
10 builders work to a) repair the towers b) build basic defensive earthworks around the south and west sides (is the ground adjacent to the fence flat or steep already? (north and east have gates, and the tower with a anti-tank weapon on it)
6 engineers cut wood using the carpentry tools to shape the materials for the builders
5 scientists work out how to super-charge the fence for a short while (extra power consumption, +1 on the attack roll) (they may need some basic electronics to do so)
5 run the nanofactory, and run simulations to try to work out what would happen if the mysterious powder was used as a food/fuel by the nanites, or if it was forged into/with a metal.
the constructor nanites are set working making more constructor nanites -- we might need these if something comes up in a hurry.
1 powder, 1 graphine, 1 elemental sorting continues. a small amount of rock is placed in the powder producing nanites to see if those elements help the process. (rock is generaly comprised of silicon oxide + aluminium, calcium, potasium, sodium in various combinations -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAPF_diagram ) - and most explosives tend to be based on either nitrogen, potasium, or chlorine (as judged from a wiki search ...) ).
...
5 scientists design a set of small containers which they can attach to the elemental sorting nanites to hold more reactive elements ... (sodium, potasium). Once done, they set about making them, utilizing glass and other materials as needed.
6 engineers note the wind spend the week analyzing why the previous attempts to build a wind-shelter have failed ...
2 blacksmiths, 4 civilians spend the week processing the grain.
5 scientists and Varinius try to run the generator off ethanol for this week (unless in their experiance of re-building it, they know that it would be silly to do so. I guess we just assumed from the beginning that our generator was happy running on natural gas, simply because we found a bottle of it nearby ...)
6 soldiers (3 guns, 3 swords ) take the 4 water carts for their normal water run
10 other soldiers(5 guns, 5 axes) , collect wood, as i can see that any attempt to improve our defences is going to deplete our resources quickly ...
6 soldiers guard (guns), leaving
1 soldier, 4 scientists, 3 blacksmiths, 1 driver and 4 children to help out where needed. (they'll probably end up helping planting, but that's last priority). The children will probably randomly work with whoever is teaching them that week.
Tobias spends the week mulling over fusion power and radio frequencies. If he gets bored he'll write a computer program to link to the radio and scan the spectrum for any new signals.
And i believe that is all 108 people + 30 merchants + the trade envoy and his driver taken into account