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[RAM]

I like the HE autocannon/Pulse Laser Cutter/Thermobaric Grenade Launcher combination and feel that it could probably lose the pulse laser cutter if that would offer significant advantages. Actually, What I would really like the war queen equipped with would be:
Develop a queen-portable turret that automatically detects nearby magnetic disturbances and attempts to redirect any magnetic projectiles emanating from them.
Develop a queen-portable high-penetration sensor.
Develop a queen-portable threat-detection sensor array that quickly informs its operator of the source of high-speed incoming projectiles, incoming heat sources, magnetic disturbances, elevated electromagnetic-radiation levels, and any other weaponry that could be practically detected.
Develop a queen-portable point-defence turret capable of bombarding incoming munitions with mass or energy. Experiment with a pulsed-laser directed through a refraction array that could be redirected more swiftly than a conventional turret.

1 T-9 Soldier Larvae (Small, Improved Hands, Improved Sensory, Intelligent, Winged, Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged,  Partial Regeneration, Slightly Improved Metabolism, Acid Spit)

That is a lot of traits.

Do we want this as the war-queen's mate then?

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Hmmmm...

So T line got wings in the experiments? Or this is copy-paste mistake?

Also, T-6 looks wrong, they was (L, Improved Hands, Intelligent)
_________


As for future experiments... We shouldn't stop. Acid spit and regeneration are nice, but not enough... putting T-9 aside is a very interesting option, but it's small size makes it far from ideal... So let's leave it in the project for one more round and we

My suggestion for the second wave of experiments (all survived larvae from the first wave)

 All that was done in the first wawe +
1) Concussion damage: Beat, drop, throw larvae in attempt to develop resistance against that and simultaneously improve regeneration further
2) Feed more calcium to them, maybe that will make their bones ( Or whatever Kai internal structure is) sturdier, and again improving defense against concussion damage
3) Force them to breathe gas from human gas grenades, maybe even them force to eat grenades, if nurse not ban this as suicidal. Goal is to make them comfortable when that gas around, and, maybe, teach them to produce it inside their bodies

Tests should be harsher. Target survivability of drones after the second wave - 50%, 3-4 larvae should die or nurse doesn't try hard enough

[Ross Vernal]

Well that's what I get for copy-pasting without glasses on. Fun fact: I legally cannot drive without glasses.

Fixed.

1 S-8 Flying Soldier Larvae (Small, Winged, Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged, Partial Regeneration, Slightly Improved Metabolism)
2 T-5 Soldier Larvae (Large, Improved Hands, Improved Sensory, Intelligent, Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged,  Partial Regeneration, Slightly Improved Metabolism)
1 T-6 Soldier Larvae (Large, Improved Hands, Intelligent, Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged, Partial Regeneration, Slightly Improved Metabolism)
1 T-6 Soldier Larvae (Large, Improved Hands, Intelligent, Sightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged,  Partial Regeneration, Slightly Improved Metabolism Acid Spit)
1 T-7 Soldier Larvae (Large, Improved Sensory, Intelligent, Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged,  Partial Regeneration, Slightly Improved Metabolism)
1 T-9 Soldier Larvae (Small, Improved Hands, Improved Sensory, Intelligent, Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged,  Partial Regeneration, Slightly Improved Metabolism, Acid Spit)

By the way, all eligible males can breed with the War Queen. If We want some Intelligent offspring, have a T-line. More regen, let the Nurse use Royal Jelly to herm out and produce a N-line.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Yes, mating with non soldier is also an option but I really want to specialize our war queen and mate with male soldier
______________________________
I reconsidered an think that "kill soldiers to make slightly better mate "  experiment should be stopped. T-9 is, in fact, a nice solution, because small soldiers are good. Having fast, nimble hard to hit, smart and alert soldiers with hands that can operate complex weapons is a way to go.  Especially in close combat. Acid spit is also a nice thing to have in point blank range. For heavy support we have predators, bots and vehicles.

I propose such nurse action for the turn - spend 1 royal jelly to speed up the growth of T-9 Soldier Larvae, make it fertile and, if possible,  try to make it more nimble in a non-risky way

[kopout]

lay these eggs 3 T-2 Flying Drone Eggs - Tech. And in preparation for our assault on the humans
> construct a mobile hack drone. This will be a modification of the fling mechanical drone that is disinged to be able to patch itself into human systems. Once it is connected it can be used to hack the system.

[Ross Vernal]

Side note: Generally speaking, ten drones working for an hour equals one generic Queen-hour of labor. Certain castes and types are better than others at certain things, and there is overlap. As it stands, generic labor-hours per day-cycle, not counting automation, is around 575.  Obviously, not all of it can be used at any given time - Drones don't design weapons and it would be wasteful for a Tech Queen to be carrying goods and doing minor repairs. Digging Drones are best left digging, etc, etc.

The biggest bottleneck to production is more "space constraints" and "gathering resources" than anything else - more Drones could be put to use in manufacturing if the facilities were expanded. Likewise, more machines to assist in raw material processing would be of great help.

Anyway, proceed with suggestions. The attack IS coming, it's just that preparations are being made first.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

My revised (twice) proposal

1) Tech queen, level 4 nurse, nurse, 15 drones as assistants

As this is top priority project, it requires tech queen herself

conduct extremely harsh tests, until one larva stays alive. Then use royal jelly to heal it and make fertile (or only heal it)

Test subjects - all larvae from previous tests

Tests:
a) Washing in acid, feeding acid
b) Beat, drop, throw larvae in attempt to develop resistance against concussion damage
c) Put them on fire by pouring flammable liquids, firing up and then extinguishing them.
d) Put them in low oxygen conditions. Let them breathe gas from human grenades and other toxic mixtures
e) Feed dead test subjects to alive ones
f) Also stop limiting their diet in any way, instead give them as much as they want and highest quality, as much as they want to help regeneration

2) Tech drone, nav drones, diggers, other drones, War queen
Dig new chamber - weapon factory and Build assembly lines for it, in order of priority:
a) mechanical flying soldiers
b) AEPS
c) land to land long range unguided rockets
d) APCs

Specialized mass production is a key for winning a war. Let's not repeat German mistake and make wunderwaffe spending precious resources and R&D potential

3) commander, all fliers, 10 humans, aircraft,
Attack !

[Ross Vernal]

Generally speaking, Soldiers fight considerably better when lead. They're not going to be stupid berserk things, but an individual human is smarter than an individual Soldier. Sending a Commander or War Queen will help counteract that.

By the way, the Commander will have 20 ready eggs tomorrow, and the War Queen 80 the following day.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Commanders lay eggs? Goood

edited the suggestion

[Ross Vernal]

From the existence of a soldier caste, the pheromones, and the rest, You presume that the Kai once lacked a hive-mind and consisted of individual hives tending their own swamps and raiding the others. Presumably, it is the co-evolution with the Flowers of Life that gradually induced intelligence and other traits.

If the old Hivemind weren't destroyed by the nova weapon, You'd know more about it, but questions as to "What were We like thousands of years ago" are of secondary priority to questions such as "How do we not go extinct right now?"

[Armok]

the load-out should be the HE autocanon+heavy MLR

[RAM]

My revised (twice) proposal

1) Tech queen, level 4 nurse, nurse, 15 drones as assistants

As this is top priority project, it requires tech queen herself

conduct extremely harsh tests, until one larva stays alive. Then use royal jelly to heal it and make fertile (or only heal it)

Test subjects - all larvae from previous tests

Tests:
a) Washing in acid, feeding acid
b) Beat, drop, throw larvae in attempt to develop resistance against concussion damage
c) Put them on fire by pouring flammable liquids, firing up and then extinguishing them.
d) Put them in low oxygen conditions. Let them breathe gas from human grenades and other toxic mixtures
e) Feed dead test subjects to alive ones
f) Also stop limiting their diet in any way, instead give them as much as they want and highest quality, as much as they want to help regeneration

Testing until we have only one left seems dubious as it is doubtful that we can guarantee that the survivor will be the best of the litter. At the very least the currently most successful larvae should be preserved.

2) Tech drone, nav drones, diggers, other drones, War queen
Dig new chamber - weapon factory and Build assembly lines for it, in order of priority:
a) mechanical flying soldiers
b) AEPS
c) land to land long range unguided rockets
d) APCs

Specialized mass production is a key for winning a war. Let's not repeat German mistake and make wunderwaffe spending precious resources and R&D potential

Our superiority is not currently numerical and is unlikely to be so until we have taken control of the entire star-system. It seems best to achieve as great an individual superiority as practical prior to making our forces consistent. We currently have little superiority in the field of personal defences beyond our inherent physiology and almost no personal sensory advantage. It should be possible to construct a sensory array capable of locating active weapons and penetrating many of the biped construction materials. Some form of automated system to disable incoming biped heavy weaponry would also seem viable. Such systems might be practical for individual drones or a support vehicle capable of communicating with nearby drones. Finally, Our weaponry mostly seems to be directed, which is, once again, of little advantage over that of the bipeds. Some form of versatile weaponry, perhaps a radiation emitter with adjustable spread, penetration, and intensity, could provide us with a weapon capable of out-performing the bipeds in a wide variety of circumstances. Of course, radioactive weaponry would have risks of contaminating a region for some time, though similar effects could be achieved with other technologies...

3) commander, all fliers, 10 humans, aircraft,
Attack !

Agreed, reluctantly, either the processing station to create an excess of raw materials or one of the smaller settlements.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

1) OK, agree, let's remove T-9 from the testing, it's pretty good already, and if we fail to improve other larvae and just waste all our second generation soldiers, we'll have the plan B

2) You are looking at war from a video game point of view... soldiers with soldiers. Army vs Army. But in fact it's all about economy and logistics. We need and ability to strike enemy behind his lines, strike him on march, strike his communications aviation and artillery are what we need for this. 

As for all that active defense system and radiation rays... that's what I call wunderwaffe. Expensive, situational, non reliable.

3)
We are attacking a small isolated settlement to setup the second base

[RAM]

1:It is as reliable as we make it, if the technology is unreliable then we will discover that during development and we can make an informed decision, but there is no pressing reason to believe that they will be unreliable without any practical data.

2:From a logistical perspective, if we can render some portion of a hostile force's arsenal ineffective then they have effectively lost that arsenal. If one unit of our military is worth many units of the opposition's then a smaller force can be deployed confidently against a larger. Smaller forces are typically easier to supply, easier to redeploy, easier to control, and much more capable of operating independently within hostile territory. Obviously there may be issues with power consumption, maintenance, and operation, but those exist within our current arsenal. The technology seems worthy of review prior to being dismissed...

[Ukrainian Ranger]

It is as reliable as we make it, if the technology is unreliable then we will discover that during development and we can make an informed decision, but there is no pressing reason to believe that they will be unreliable without any practical data.

Anything complex is less reliable then simpler things, and you are talking like R&D time worth nothing

From a logistical perspective, if we can render some portion of a hostile force's arsenal ineffective then they have effectively lost that arsenal.

Problem is that we are at numerical disadvantage, and humans can just spam that active defense with tons of shots or simple carpet bombing.

If one unit of our military is worth many units of the opposition's then a smaller force can be deployed confidently against a larger.

Germans had similar doctrine in WW2... didn't work that good. Problem with this approach that smaller force can be 1) surrounded 2) suppressed by raw firepower 3) avoided

Smaller forces are typically easier to supply, easier to redeploy, easier to control, and much more capable of operating independently within hostile territory.

That's true. But to use  this natural advantages of smaller forces we need  mobility and firepower
And again, we need ability to strike supply lines, supply depots, production centers. That's much more important than ability to kill enemy soldiers slightly better