It is Year 3, Second SemesterWhat're you talking about nobody failing a research roll? Just last year, Brood and Nirur Torir both failed one.
RESULTSWraith's Riders, CEO Brood of the free planet JuraseFunds: Ж32,600
Selling the old Wraithrider-1A nets you the Hewett Interspace Moving contract, for a profit of Ж20,000 off the bat. You miss the Swadian contract to the latest V.N.C. drone.
Your attempt to discreetly contact banditos to buy the ship at a higher price is a failure, since nobody is going to walk in, say they're a criminal, and pay a higher price. However, your small advertising campaign is surprisingly successful for what it is- turns out particle lasers firing look pretty badass.
You attempted to be build a new, fast scout craft with large liquid engines, an single cockpit and improved AI, two cannons and a tracker. You decided to use a steel frame, since everything else in the craft is rather heavy. You changed to a Titanium frame. You also switched to improved Ion engines.
Cost: Ж8,000
Size: Medium
Weight: Medium
SPEED: 9 (Medium)
ARMOR: 5 (Medium)
WEAPONS: Particle Laser (2)
Mutations: None
This is now one of the tougher fighters on the market. While it doesn't have as much firepower as the militarily-popular Kingfisher-2's, it's capable of fighting them with its higher speed and more accurate weapons. It's also the only entry to the Promian Czarship contract for 15 ships capable of combating the Kingfisher-2's, at the price of Ж8,500 each- so you net Ж7,500 from that contract. To the general populace, it's an excellent fighter but also an expensive one- however, the market for private weaponry is on the uptick. You manage to sell 6 (with the help of advertising, no less), but this only profits you Ж3,000 at your near-cost sales price.
You attempted a large, fast cargo craft.
You decided on a steel ship with liquid thrusters and a single-person cockpit to reduce weight.
You added an improved AI, Large Engines, and a tracker. You switched to a reinforced aluminum frame and tried to make it bigger.
COST: Ж6,000
Size: Large
Weight: Heavy
SPEED: 7 (medium)
ARMOR: 4 (Low)
CARGO: 65 (very good)
Mutations: None
The AI added a bit of weight, but the large engines still made it faster.
You try to sell your biggest cargo-mover yet to Ultor and the public at the price of Ж6,500. The public continues demand, and buys 11 of the craft, which nets you Ж5,500 profit. The Ultor Corporation buys 2, (profit Ж2,000) since it's a bit more efficient than their existing craft even though they're not expanding much this year. Between civilian sales and the contract, the WraithRider-1B has become one of the more prominent craft on the market.
Unity Shipyards, Inc. CEO Nirur Torir, of Swadian planet Achilles IIFunds: Ж85,250
You spend Ж250 on internet ads showing off your new mining laser, but nobody much notices.
You attempted to build a light, two-pilot steel ship with small engines, a small passenger space and a TV. You attempted to scale the defense down to 2 and switch to aluminum, making it fast as possible.
Cost: Ж2,500
Weight: Light
Size: Small
Speed: 14 (Medium)
Armor: 2 (Caution!)
Mutations: This ship's frame includes a bit of empty space that could be used for so-call "smuggler's compartments". It's very cramped inside.
First thing's first, you cut out the televisions and passenger compartment, making the ship little more than a cockpit with engines. In doing so, you also find an issue in which the ship risked breaking up at high speed, but no problem- shrinking the ship down fixed the problem. However, it's going about as fast as it can go with small engines. You send off one to be entered into the races (-Ж2500), and bid for another to be used in Spacewood Studios' latest movie, but the Lamprey isn't chosen. You guesstimate (fun fact: spellchecker says that's a word, I was surprised) you could sell them for Ж3,500, and you get 6 buyers even though it doesn't have a real cargo, passengers or weapons, making Ж6,000 in profit.
Being the only real competitor in the race by a longshot (there are a few customized ships, and mostly old ships from earlier than G+0) you handily win. You get the Ж40,000 prize for the first Galactic Space Race, giving Ж10,000 to your winning pilot and keeping the rest for yourself.
You continue to sell the old Minnow, which with the old Space Taxis no longer being marketed neatly fills in the slot for a faster, slightly more expensive (per passenger) transport. You're nonetheless slightly surprised to sell 8 at your new price, profiting Ж12,000.
-Cloaking: It'll be expensive, at Ж15,000 to finalize the design, but you think you can pull off a basic cloaking system. It will work best on small ships with less heat output, and best while gliding with the engines off.
You finish up the Cloaking project and make use of your old Improved Mining Laser plans, for Ж25,000 total R&D spending.
Kingfisher Ships, CEO Kingfisher1112 of the free planet CrudofFunds: Ж55,500
You vaguely set out to build a ship that meets the Swadian contract, and uses a coilgun/coilguns. You decided on a steel frame, liquid engines, and a one-man cockpit.
Cost: Ж4,000
Size: Medium
Weight: Light
Speed: 7 (medium)
Armor: 4 (medium)
Weapons: Coilgun (2)
Mutations: The weapons seem to have a serious overheating problem.
You set out to fix the overheating problem, and manage to do so without otherwise harming the ship's performance. You don't make the Swadian contract, but you manage to sell 8 ships at the price of Ж6,000 for a profit of Ж16,000, since they've got pretty good firepower for their price- but you think you could have sold more if the ship was a bit cheaper.
Raven's Ships, CEO scapheap of the Promian planet Gaia 1Funds: Ж54,800
You attempted to develop a light, fast scout ship.
You decided on a steel frame, liquid engines, a laser, and a single cockpit.
Cost: Ж3,500
Weight: Light
Size: Small
ARMOR: 4 (Medium)
SPEED: 12 (Medium)
WEAPONS: Laser
Mutations: It's downright spindly, but very fast. There seems to be something else you can't quite pin...
You think it could benefit from lighter equipment or materials, but those aren't available to you just yet. You might benefit from acquiring the coilgun technology, somehow.
You don't win the Swadian contract, but your fast fighter makes a few civilian sales- 12 at the price of Ж4,500, earning you Ж12,000 in profit. It's popular by virtue of being pretty fast and cheap.
V.N.C., CEO 10ebbor10 of the free planet VraxusFunds: Ж43,500
You now have access to the Wraith Riders' advanced AI, but have agreed not to use it outside of specific cases.
You also spend Ж6,000 on marketing the new drone.
You attempted to create a cheap, ultralight drone with Ion engines and a mining laser.
You decided on a steel structure. You switched to an aluminum structure, a regular laser and an Advanced AI.
Cost: Ж2600
Size: Small
Weight: Light
Speed: 5 (Low)
Armor: 3 (Low)
Weapons: Laser
Mutations: None.
Being the cheapest ship capable of matching the crude bandito craft, you win the Swadian Empire military contract with your bid of Ж4,000 each for 20 ships. You profit Ж28,000 right off the bat from this deal. You manage to sell 3 drones to civilians, (profit Ж6000) but Hewett says that stashing the drones aboard cargo craft wouldn't allow them to be ready in time to fight an ambush. Furthermore, the manned Raven-2's are more popular as a basic solution since they're cheaper and faster at similar firepower. Since your total profit on the drones is Ж34,000, you give 15%, Ж5100, to Wraith's Riders and keep Ж28,900 for yourself.
Despite your best attempts, the mining downtick prevents you from selling any stations this year. The tugs become more popular- they're seen as a bit pricy for what they are still, but there's nothing similar on the market. 7 sales earn you Ж14,000 in profit.
Sixes were rolled, sir. Sixes were rolled.
-Distributed AI: A stroke of luck! You're on a lead to develop this highly advanced technology at only Ж10,000.
-Hangars: Another stroke of luck! Your research team projects they'll be able to finalize some hangar designs for only Ж5,000.
You spend Ж10,000 to finalize the distributed AI, but leave the hangars on the shelf for now.
War Finch Enterprises, CEO IronyOwl of the free planet Venom 8Funds: Ж69,500
First thing's first, you run a rival documentary to the Vraxian Naval Corporation's. It's enough to clear your name, although luck has it people are too enamored with V.N.C.'s latest drones to turn any ire towards your rival.
You attempted to build a passenger craft with reinforced steel structure, liquid engines, two-person cockpit, long-range sensors, and luxury passenger space as well as TVs and long-range sensors. You attempted to add cannons, a docking system, and improve the speed.
Cost: Ж6,000
Size: Large
Weight: Heavy
SPEED: 6 (medium)
ARMOR: 5 (medium)
PASSENGERS: 20, Luxury
WEAPONS: Cannon
TOOLS: Televisions, Long Range Sensors, Docking System
Mutations: This ship looks good! However, it's a bit of a gas guzzler, making it expensive to maintain.
The new Egret-1A is featured in the latest Zap Brannigan movie- it's got a weapon, it looks good, and has enough interior to film scenes with the actors standing. During the course of the movie, the luxuriously soft seats see plenty of use and the cannon kills more banditos than it should reasonably be able to. With the aid of the movie's PR, you sell 10 of the new luxury craft at the price of Ж8,000, for a total profit of Ж20,000. It's pretty conceivable that someone could beat you in the luxury market with a cheaper, similar craft, but the public isn't really aware of that.
You also continue to sell the old Warfinch-1A. Despite the market downtick, there's only one competing passenger craft, so you manage to sell 7 at a profit of Ж14,000.
-Spaceship Pool: You're well on track to getting a pool working! You'll just need Ж5,000 to complete the project.
-Improved Ion Engines: You succeed in researching these. It will take Ж15,000 to complete, however.
You finish both the Onboard Pool and the Improved Ion Engines, totaling Ж20,000 spent. The new Ion Engines are pretty much the same as the ones developed by Wraith's Riders.
CURRENT TECHNOLOGYENGINES:
-Solid Fuel: Disposable, good for getting ships into the air and not much else.
-Liquid Fuel: Fairly powerful, but expensive and heavy.
-Ion Engine: Light and economic, but slow.
-High-Powered Liquid: Wraith's Riders Only! More expensive than regular liquid engines, but capable of moving faster.
-Small Liquid: Unity Shipyards Only! Similar to the liquid engines, but capable of being fitted on very small craft.
-Improved Ion Engines: Wraith's Riders and Warfinch Only! More expensive, but better than Ion Engines in almost every way, putting out power similar to liquid engines while being cheap to run.
STRUCTURE:
-Steel: It's moderately priced, and solid.
-Aluminum: A little more expensive than steel, but similarly strong. It's a lot lighter.
-Titanium Structure: A little heavier, a little more expensive, and stronger than steel.
-Reinforced: As another material, but heavier and stronger.
COCKPIT:
-One or Two pilot cockpit: One human pilot, or a human pilot and copilot fly the ship.
-Automated flight system: A computer flies the ship. Capable only of very simple instructions and not always reliable.
-Improved AI: Wraith's Riders Only! Like the other AI, but much more reliable, and a little more capable in general.
-Distributed AI: V.N.C. Only! An AI that networks and becomes smarter the more AIs are in range (equal to range of sensors).
PAYLOAD:
-Cargo: Brought from planet to planet or accrued from space, in arbitrary units.
-Passengers: Space for a given number of passengers, with life support included.
WEAPONS/TOOLS:
-Mining laser: Breaks up asteroids for ore.
-Improved Mining Laser: Unity Shipyards Only! More powerful and faster-working than a regular mining laser.
-Scooping arm: Retrieves asteroid chunks and scrap.
-Cannon: Fires lead rounds using solid rocket fuel (gunpowder doesn't work in space). Capable of piercing armor, but not accurate.
-Laser: Accurate, but expensive and weak. A laser and batteries weighs as much as a cannon and bullets.
-Particle Laser: Wraith's Riders Only! Very similar to the laser, but does more damage- enough to threaten decently armored ships.
-Coilgun: Kingfisher Ships Only! An electric projectile weapon. It's similar to the cannon, but fairly lightweight.
-Docking System: Connects two ships, only needs to be installed on one. Can transfer passengers and cargo. Not a hangar!
-Tugging rig: Allows one ship to pull another at low speeds only. Good for moving stations or disabled ships.
OTHER:
-Short range sensors: Sensors and communications are on a craft by default
-Long rang sensors: Similar to above, but useful for exploration and military scouting.
-Tracking System: Wraith's Riders only! Allows the company to track their ships.
-Cloaking Device: Unity Shipyards only! Allows ships to become undetectable to current sensors, but works best on small ships which are cruising or stationary.
-Onboard Pool: Warfinch Only! Pretty self explanatory.
-The market is growing and it is now possible, in general, to sell larger/more expensive craft.
-There's demand for larger passenger craft on the market currently, as well as luxury ships. Various gimmick features (a lot of simple luxury accoutrements will simply need to be named and not researched) will count a lot here.
-The Ultor Corporation and the mining industry in general is now buying. They're interested in cheap, solid ships capable of mining lots of asteroids, as well as exploration craft- ships with good sensors, speed, and a long range to boot.
-The Swadian Empire is interested in paying Ж100,000 for a single Flagship. The flagship would need the ability to refuel other ships, be refueled, and have far more armor and firepower than anything on the market.
-The Promian Czarship has expressed interest in buying some sort of advanced sensor technology or ships which are more capable of detecting "unidentified alien craft" than current ships.
-The Swadian Empire is also interested in buying five military landing craft, from the lowest bidder. The lander needs to carry at least 20 soldiers, as well as be armed and armored.
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Topic: Manufacture Spaceships Year 4. Promian Czarships claims captured alien craft! (Read 12928 times)