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[Draxis]

 

MISSION: OUTPOST 5
 Based on the Outpost 3 and Outpost 4 games, by SakSak and Trent01 of SB, respectively.
Most of the credit goes to SakSak; both I and Trent01 have pretty much ripped off his system and setting, with few changes.
 

           

In the Sol system, one multiverse away, mankind first spread amongst the planets with relatively primitive technology. The first colony to Mars was kept supplied by nuclear pulse drive ships known as Orion drives. By the time the turn of the millenium came, asteroid mining was becoming economically viable using first generation ion engines, and plans for a manned scientific outpost on Titan were completed. Industrial production of nano-scale materials was being looked at, AI research while basic was providing promising vision within a few decades, engine technology was improving to allow for STL interstellar mission. Anti-matter was being synthesized federation wide at particle accelerators in milligram qualities per year, to study containment, transportation and first-generation proof-of-concept type power generators. And despite Einstein's cruel trap appearing inescapeable, plans to slowly spread to surrounding systems were being made.

However, a glorious future was ground to a halt, as in 2040 it was discovered that life in system as a whole was doomed. The system was about to be engulfed by a storm of extra-solar radiation of rapidly increasing lethality from a supernova in relatively short order, from the direction of Wolf 359. Plans and technologies were developed, forecasts made. And the end result looked bleak. Propability of all life dying to the last bacteria within the system was rated at over 30 percent. Propability of mankind surviving as a technological civilization: zero.

It was estimated mankind had only ten to fifteen years to evacuate, depending on vessel speeds, to anywhere over 7 Light years away from the approaching doom, preferably slightly further.

So, humanity chose to abandon the cradle. Four separate Outpost missions were launched into four nearby starsystems beyond the destructive effects of the supernova, to be followed by four different Ark-missions, so that the fate of humanity did not rest on the success or failiure of any single vessel. The intention was to launch an Outpost vessel carrying industrial assets, and land on the target planet. The Outpost vessel will then be disassembled to prepare a colony, so that the Arks - each carrying as many humans as possible and little else - can arrive safely.

The Outpost missions faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge. They had scant years to prepare as best as they could for the incoming, hopefully millions strong, humans. Billions would die back on Earth due to lack of transport capacity. Thankfully, the population at large did not realize this until the Outpost vessels were nearly complete, and tirelessly worked towards building equipment and ships, in the false hope that they all would be saved. Practically all non-vital infrastructure on Earth was repurposed to build the Ark-vessels. Monuments were torn down and smelted for the great scaffolds to be used for the ships. The colony on Mars was abandoned years ago, to conserve resources. Most of the world's excess food production was been processed into liquid nutrients to allow for supplies to the massive cryo storages of the Ark vessels - despite only a fraction being needed for the actual number of ships. The (much expanded) International Space Station became part of the Outpost 1 shipyard. There were no storages left to raid.

Conditions at the target planets are entirely unknown aside from estimated gravity and presence (or lack) of an atmosphere. The availability of construction materials beyond base metals cannot be guaranteed. Due to the extremely tight schedules in evacuation, reliability of equipment packed and even the vessels themselves is unknown to a degree rarely seen in the products of an industrialized society.  Despite this, the Arks and Outposts left over 10 months ago, leaving the Sol system behind them in chaos.

All hell broke loose on Earth, once people realised that United Federation leading council had been feeding them lies for over a decade, and that all their efforts have managed to potentially save only a few million people, as opposed to the billions living in Sol system.

Back on Earth, the Fedaration government practically collapsed, as billions were faced with their certain deaths, and the fact that they had been deceived. In space, however, the Fedaration navy (such as it was) mostly managed to maintain cohesion, under their charismatic Admiral.  He has a plan for ensuring that himself and those few people he can reach will make it out of the system.

The remnants of the Fleet manage to get nearly 50,000 people onto Lunar Base, the support base for the Ark shipyards, and construct a massive coldsleep bunker designed to let as many as possible survive the first Wave of the radiation burst. The infrastructure for the Outpost missions is scrapped, except for one scaffold out of of eight, and the resources are put into the industry of the base, or stockpiled - in short, preparations are made to construct the vessels needed to save the population on Lunar Base.  When the time came to go into the bunker and wait, enough had been done to make that goal possible - not that it would be easy, or a sure thing.  Yet, no other options remain, if they are to survive at all.

Now, after the First Wave, the systems of the bunker have woken first of the essential staff, and even as they begin the process to wake those designated to work on the construction of the new spacecraft, the leaders are meeting to decide their course of action...

This game is a Quest (a form of Suggestion game) where you control the actions of the fifth Outpost mission.  The game is divided into three phases: the Pre-Launch Phase:, the Ship Phase, and the Outpost Phase.  In the Pre-Launch Phase, you build the ships, select a destination and choose cargo to take on the mission.  In the Flight Phase, you deal with any events that happen on the way to the destination - these are generally bad, and there will be more chances for things to go wrong the longer the trip is.  In the Outpost Phase, you will control the colonists after landing, trying to survive and build up a base to support the people from the Ark(s) when they arrive.

It will differ from the previous incarnations in a few ways: there will be a more formal resource system in the Outpost phase, and many changes between O3 to O4 will not be used. Also, the players will have some control over the design of the Ark(s), and those choices will affect how much resources the Outpost will have available.

I recommend reading the previous Outpost games, or at least the first, if you have the time - they are very good reads.  However, I will give advice based on what happened in them if it seems needed, so nobody needs to read them just for insight into this game.

Update directory:

Update 0: Awakening
Update 1 - Destination? Event
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4 - Weapons? Event
Update 5
Update 6

Update 7 -  Launch!

Update 8
Update 9 - Turnover
Update 10
Update 11
Update 12
Update 13 - Space Sickness
    Update 14
    Update 15
    Update 16
Update 17

Update 18 - Planet Choice
Update 19 - Toriga I Orbit
Update 20 - Planetfall!
Update 21 - Hero Selection

Update 22 - Febuary 2091
Update 23 - March 2091
Update 24 - April 2091
Update 25 - May 2091
Update 26 - June 2091

[Draxis]

Update 24 Status: June 2091

Spoiler: Heart of Gold (click to show/hide)

Structural damage throughout the ship
Installed components:

• 4 Ark Cryobays.  Size 10x4, mass 15x4.  -35 power. Severe damage and hull breach to one of them in 5 out of its 10 sections
• Closed-Loop Lifesupport and Hydroponics. Provides food and lifesupport for 15 people. -6 Power.
• Damage Control & Machine Shop.  -1 Power. Provides either a Repair or a Production action, to anything which can fit into the ship to it.  Cannot handle Advanced technology.
• Large Cargo Bay.Cargo Space Filled: 40/40 Minor damage, bay doors cleared.
  • Organic sludge processor Cost 2 RU, Size 2, Mass 1. Small Structure.
  • Optronic Central Computer.  Cost 10 RU. Size 2. Mass 2. Medium Structure
  • Seed Bank. 2 RU, 4 mass, 3 size. Small Structure
  • D&D vehicles. Cost 2RU, size 4, mass 4
  • Powered Exo-skeleton Constructor Units. Cost 2 RU, Size 2, Mass 2
  • Ore Processor. Cost 6 RU, Size 4, Mass 5. Small Structure
  • Advanced Medical Supplies 2 RU, size 1. Mass 1.
  • 2x vac suits 1x2 RU, Size 1x2, Mass 1x2.
  • 2x Air tanks. 1x2 RU. Size 1x2. Mass 1x2.
  • 1x Cement Processor Kit (Ore Processor addon)
• Medical Bay. Allows standard medical procedures at no penalty, 6 beds. -1 Power.
• Recreational Commons. Modified with optronic components in the VR pod. -1 Power. Provides an Engineering design action, at a penalty for more complex technologies used.
• Biodome. Provides food and lifesupport for 10 people
• MCF Fusion Reactor. Provides 75x2 to 37.5 power. Uses 1x2 to .5 Fuel/Yr. Must be swapped out for intensive maintainance every several years.
• Smart Command Centre. Takes 1 staff at all times.  Controls ship systems. -3 Power.
• 10 Small Fuel Tanks.  Hold 25.5 He-3 Fuel 4 are breached
• 3 Improved Ion Drives.  Moderate re-entry damage. Severed from power and fuel lines, external components removed.
• 15 vac suits in hallways.

Rugged Construction:  +5 to all rolls relevant to the ship being overengineered and tested further than usual.
Smart Command Center:  The ship's central computer allows a high degree of automation, independent reaction, and resilience in the computer systems.  It helps with lots of things.

Spoiler: Aboveground Base (click to show/hide)

Road connecting the Ship to the Compound, 25/80
Imrovised Dome: Made of metal. Not sealed.  Can hold a Small installation or equivalent.

Spoiler: Underground Compound (click to show/hide)

Ground Level
  Medium Cavern 1 - contains Prefabricated General Laboratory. Uses 3 Power.
  Medium Cavern 2 - contains Automated Production Line. Uses 10 Power.
  Ore Processor Cavern (small)
  Storage Cavern (medium)

Required power: 59 units.
Maximum power output: 150 units.

Lifesupport: 25
Crew Awake: 25

Spoiler: Planetary Map (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Area Map (click to show/hide)

Road to Digsite: 25/80

Actions:

1 Production or Repair action from the Damage Control/Machine Shop, from anything which can be brought through the ship to it. 4 Manpower.
1 Production Action from the Automated Production Line. 2 Manpower.
1 Construction action from the Powersuits. 2 Manpower.
1 Mining action from the D/D Vehicles. 2 Manpower.
1 Engineering Action - design only - from the VR pod in the Rec Commons.  Gains a penalty for very large or complex systems (like the new reactor design). 1 Manpower
1 Science Action from the General Laboratory.  -10 noncritical to all rolls, unless very basic. 3 Manpower.
Action from the Large Sonar Mapper.  Allows the detection of changes in rock form or composition for up to 150 metres underground. Very bulky and hard to move. 8 Manpower.
Manpower: 23 Available

24 staff awake
-1 monitoring ship systems
35000 people in cryosleep

Life support: 25 (from ship)
        15 from CLLS
        10 from Biodome
Food production: 25 (from ship)
        15 from CLLS
        10 from Biodome
No food stores

Power: 59/150 used.  Uses .04 He-3 Fuel /month.

Resources:
1.6x  Basic Parts
3.7x  Advanced parts
1.0x  Advanced Medical Supplies
2.0x  Pressurized Air
25.34x He-3 Fuel

Bonuses:
Admiral Ellis Wright: Organization+, Morale++, Leadership++
+5 Rugged Construction of the ship.

[Draxis]

Introduction: Outpost Phase

This is the real beginning of the Outpost phase.  Each turn will now last only one month, unless there are interrupts for some reason.  During each turn, a number of actions can be taken.  Most, but not all, of these fall into one of several categories:
 - Construction - This includes the building and unbuilding of structures.  From salvaging the ship itself, to making rooms and supports in a cavern, to carrying a piece of equipment from the cargo bay and assembling it, these actions generally involve heavy things and somewhat less than fine precision.  They also include major hauling projects.  Most construction projects can be done with sufficient manpower, but they can be quite large and difficult without heavy gear.
 - Production - The more refined counterpart of Construction, Production actions are for making things to put into the built spaces.  These generally come from a factory of some sort, though they can be done by hand with greatly varying levels of inconvenience.  Production slots stack the best - it is easier for two factories to build parts of something than for two teams to be digging in the same place.
 - Mining - These actions deal with all sorts of digging and mining.  They can include things like moving around the product of the mines, and shoring up the spaces opened, to some extent.  These, except for minor surface projects, are quite difficult or impossible to do with a Manpower action.
 - Repairs - While general maintainance will be done in the course of normal activity, some things require more time and effort.  If a powersuit is damaged, or a reactor is brought down for maintainance, or the air filter gets full of algae, these actions will be when repairs are made.  These can almost all be done with Manpower actions, and tend to be easier for it than things like Construction and Production.
 - Engineering - Production falls into an obvious category, but before things can be made, they must be designed.  Engineering handles the implementation of technology, designs/prototyping of new things, or modifications of existing machinery.  It is also relatively easy to force other tasks into the Engineering category (with some inefficiency).  Engineering can always be done with a Manpower action, but tend to be quite difficult as such.  Engineering slots don't stack very well.
 - Science - While Engineering is the application of knowledge to making things, Science is finding out that knowledge.  Science equipment tends to be specialised to a certain type of science.  It can be done with Manpower actions, but generally anything above the level of recording visible effects of physical actions will be extremely difficult.  Science slots hardly stack at all.

The oft-mentioned Manpower Action simply means to do something with general handtools and other common equipment.  It tends to be less effective, though some actions are perfectly suited to them.  Generally, there will be a lot more people assigned to these than there are to other actions.

Actions are used, generally, to complete Projects.  A Project has a number of attributes:  at least its cost, its modifier, and its workload.  The cost describes the resources needed to complete it, described in numbers of units.  The modifier represents its difficulty - most science projects have a strong, constant negative modifier, certain easy projects have positive modifiers, and doing things without the appropriate tools will incur a hefty negative modifier.  Workload represents how much work something takes to complete - the roll for whatever Action(s) are applied to a project have the modifiers applied, and be added to the current progress.  When progress exceeds workload, the project is considered complete.

For example, take the following:
Construction Project: Water Electrolyser. Size 2. 80 point project; takes .1 units Basic Parts and .3 units Common Materials. Uses 3 power.  Turns water into oxygen and hydrogen (which may or may not be retained) at a 3:2:1 ratio, max 3 units of water per month.

This project is Construction, because the electrolyser can be built from stock parts and sheet metal, cement, or whatever else is on hand.  It will consume .1 Basic Parts and .3 Common Materials from stocks when started.  Suppose the a Powersuit unit is used to build it.  There will be no modifier because the tools are appropriate - here, even better than needed.  If, say, a 30 is rolled, the project will advance by 30+0 points to 30/80 progress.  Next turn, a team of 3 workers with handtools (Manpower Action) is added to the powersuits to help make sure it is completed immediately.  They would add their roll to the powersuit's roll, at a moderate malus due to inefficiency and their being not ideal - though not bad - for the task.  If this whole system seems terribly subjective and arbitrary, that's because it is.

The result of the project will be a "Water Electrolyser" structure which takes up 2 space (a Small building or cavern), and consumes 3 power and a variable amount of water to produce oxygen and hydrogen.

Generally, a project's modifier cannot cause critical hits or fails, and a negative result due to modifiers won't actually remove progress.

Projects now take Resources.  Resources refers specifically to expendable materials stocked in limited quantities - economically scarce if that is helpful.  They tend to be pretty vague.

• Common Materials.  Refined metals and ceramics, used as material for most production and making Basic Parts.  Also used as stock for building and such.
• Basic Parts.  Made from Common Materials; used in making things with complex parts which are not prefabricated, and provides a bonus to appropriate production tasks due to skipping intermediate production steps.
• Advanced Parts. Needed for production and repairs of Advanced technology.  Made from a variety rare materials, and will probably need a considerable production base to make.

Resources also includes things like fuel, food, water, and so forth.  The list will expand to any scare resource which comes into play.

Spoiler: Ship Modifications (click to show/hide)

    Expanded superstructure. Cost: 20 RU. Mass 15 units. Additional support beams are welded on to the existing superstructure. Increase available size by 30 units. Cannot be done, if >60% of ship size has already been filled with subsystems, or this improvement has been applied twice before.

    Reinforced outer hull. Cost 20 RU. Mass 20 units. By applying a layer of high-quality duranium-steel armor and a layer of lead on top of the more mundane existing plating, the internal systems of the vessel become far better protected from external threats, such as micrometeorite impacts, radiation sources and possible local phenomena at target planet - as well as the likely traumatic landing.

    Atmospheric flight conversion. Cost 10 RU. Mass 15 units. Size 5. While not exactly living up to a promise of flight in atmospheric conditions, the added fixed wings, enhanced thrusters, steering and landing gear do add a degree of maneuverability. The vessel will not be a fighter jet by any means, but will exceed the previous 'falling brick' levels of aerodynamics, allowing pilots far greater control over the vessel during the landing operation if doing so in an atmosphere.

    Planned deconstruction. Cost 5 RU. Mass 2 units. Size 2 units. The plan has always been for the Outpost vessels to be deconstructed at the destination. However, due to the time and size limitations at hand before departure from Sol must begin, to save time the vessels have not been purpose-built as default with systems and designs to make this particularly easy. Executing this modification ensures the outer shell, all subsystems and even controls and cabling are easy to remove and repurpose at the destination, without compromising structural integrity of the completed vessel for the journey.

    Rugged construction.  Cost 15 RU. Mass 5 units. Size 5 units.  While the outpost ships are of course constructed with all possible care, on a spaceship which must remain so long in-flight will inevitably suffer from damage or other problems.  By increasing the tolerances of stressed systems and structures, installing backups and safties where space allows, and ensuring good design for crew action and systemic reliability, the chance of accidents can be significantly reduced, and their control made easier if they do occur.

    [/b]Suggest one![/b]  I will determine the cost, size, and mass, but anything within reason can be either built on or researched and then built, if you think of it.

Spoiler: List of Modules (click to show/hide)

        Provides Command And Control:
    Command centre (electronic central computer) 10 RU. Size 2, Mass 1. Electricity 0.5 MW. Basic ship command. Requires 5 persons awake at all times.

    Command centre (optronic central computer) 20 RU. Size 1, Mass 1. Electricity 1 MW. Improved processing speed, durability and hard drive storage capacity over electronic command, as well as improved automatic systems, make for a smaller, more autonomous, and more reliable command centre. Requires 3 persons awake at all times.  Advanced Technology; takes 3 months to construct.

    Smart Command centre (optronic central computer /w Expert Systems) 30 RU. Size 2, Mass 2. Electricity 3 MW. An optical-electronic computer connected to a series of high-tech expert systems for increased automation, navigation, self-optimization, software debugging and crisis management. Requires 1 person awake at all times. Warning! Advanced technology: major components not in storage. Time to build functional unit: 6 months.
   Provides Thrust:
    Electrostatic Ion Engine. 30 RU. Size 3. Mass 5. Electricity 5 MW. Thrust 7. Does not require fuel.
    Improved Ion Drive. 30 RU. Size 3. Mass 7. Electricity 6 MW. Thrust 9. Does not require fuel.

    VSI Magnetoplasma Rocket. 20 RU. Size 20, Mass 30. Electricity 1 MW. Thrust 10. Requires 1 fuel/year. Note: Rugged technology, unlikely to malfunction.

    Fusion Plasma Torch. 10 RU. Size 25. Mass 10. Thrust 15. Uses 1.5 fuel/year. Note: Rugged technology, unlikely to malfunction.

    Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster. 20 RU. Size 8, Mass 20. Electricity 5 MW. Thrust 12. Uses .5 fuel/year. Requires any fuel tank. Warning! Advanced technology: major components not in storage. Time to build functional unit: 12 months.


        Provides Power:
    Radioisotope thermoelectric battery. 1 RU Size 1. Mass 1. Generates 1 MW for 50 years. Note: Simple technology, fast and easy to install. Extremely unlikely to malfunction. Cannot be refuelled.

    He-3 Inertial Fusion generator /w external radiators. 20/50/100 RU. Size 5/15/35. Mass 5/12/25. Generates 50 / 100 / 200 MW. Uses 1/1.5/2 fuel/year. Note: Rugged technology, unlikely to malfunction. Reactor design maintenance-friendly. Can run at anywhere from 50% output/fuel-use to the listed levels.

    He-3 MCF Fusion generator /w external radiators. 10 / 30 RU. Size 5 / 20. Mass 3 / 12. Generates 75 / 150 MW. Uses 1/2 Fuel/year. Warning! Advanced technology, major components not in storage. Time to build functional unit: 6 / 9 months.  Can run at anywhere from 50% output/fuel-use to the listed levels. Warning! Advanced technology: major components not in storage. Time to build functional unit: 6 months.

        Provides Life Support:
    Biodome /w hydroponics. 5 RU. Size 20. Mass 2. Provides near-indefinite life support for 10 awake persons / 50 cryosleepers. Note: Meditative atmosphere and living plants help stave off psychological issues. Vulnerable to external damage.

    Oxygen scrubbers & water recyclers. 5 RU. Size 2. Mass 3. Electricity 3 MW. Provides life support for 20 awake persons / 100 cryosleepers. Note: Does not provide food. Crew requires food stores. Requires 1 additional person awake.

    Closed Loop Life Support /w hydroponics. 20 / 40 RU. Size 4 / 8. Mass 3 / 5. Electricity 6 / 10 MW. Provides near-indefinite life support for 15 / 30 awake persons or 75 / 150 cryosleepers. Requires 1 additional person awake.

    Composite Biomedical Support Facility (CBSF).  50 RU.  Size 16.  Mass 22.  Electricity 17 MW.  A basic medbay, a closed-loop Life-support system, and 40 compact crypods packed into one module.  Provides life support to 24 awake or 120 cryosleepers, stores 40 cryopods, and provides basic medical facilities. Note: High maintenance; more likely to fail in-flight and to .
           
        Other subsystems:
    He-3 Fuel Tank. Cost 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 RU. Size 2 / 4 / 6 / 8. Mass 3 / 6 / 9 / 12 (including fuel). Holds 8/16/24/32 fuel. Pressurized tank of He-3, to act as all-purpose fuel for a large variety of fusion based systems.

    Multipurpose Care- and Habitation Bay. Cost 18 RU. Size 12. Mass 12. Electricity 8 MW.  A modular bay containing little space for additional cryo pods (15 of them), as well as a standard emergency care medical bay and machine shop with damage control equipment. This bay can be installed as a single unit, but weights slightly more than the individual parts put together.  Additionaly, it is slightly larger than the cargo bay it was based on.

    Cargo bay /w industrial cargo handling system. S / M / L. Cost 1 / 2 / 4 RU. Size 11 / 22 / 43. Mass 0.5 / 1 / 2. Allows the Outpost vessel to carry greater amount of cargo, adding 9 / 20 / 40 units of cargo space.

    Cryogenic pods Mk II (20 persons). Cost 12 RU, Size 5 units, Mass 8 units. Electricity 5 MW. Additional crew for the Outpost mission, this unit allows the vessel to carry a larger complement of human workforce than a standard cryo pod module.

    Automated Satellite Launcher. Cost 5 RU. Size 2. Mass 8. This system is connected to the cargo bays with loading rails, allowing a simple program from the command centre to load, prepare and launch into desired trajectory a stored satellite, prior to landing on target planet.  Without it, any satellites will have to be dumped out the airlock and attempt to get into a stable orbit with attitude-control jets.

    Damage Control & machine shop. Cost 3 RU. Size 4. Mass 2. Electricity 1 MW. Series of metalworking machines, cutting equipment and tools, and diagnosis computers intended to give minor manufacturing and modification capability to a ship. A large help in repairing broken systems, and can even be used for small construction projects. Note: Hands-on types of the crew will find it relaxing, to be able to unleash their imaginations into something concrete.

    Interstellar Communications Laser. Cost 20 RU. Size 0. Mass 1. Electricity 15 MW. Previously a theoretical concept only, this massive mirror and modulated laser should be able to communicate with e-mail type messages, still images and very short small-resolution videos at short interstellar distances – up to 25 light years. Of course, you need someone with similar equipment on the receiving end for this system to be any real benefit. Note: The system is by necessity exposed to space – micrometeors might cause damage. Reliability unknown. Ability to communicate to outside the vessel might help, or cause, psychological issues.

    Medical Bay. Cost 3 RU. Size 2. Mass 1. Electricity 1 MW. Tightly packed, this subsystem provides small scale medical support to a handful of persons. Reference libraries, small drug stores and basic equipment for anything up to and including basic emergency surgery allows for treatmen of most common ilnesses and mundane injuries.

    Recreational Commons. Cost 5 RU. Size 4. Mass 4 units. Electricity 1 MW. A small bay for a VR pod, electronic library, a mini-gym, and soundproofed room for "communal relaxation" with appropriate supplies. Provides for basic human recreational comforts, if there is spare time available.
   
    Focused Detection Array. 6 RU's. Size 1. Mass 1. Electricity 2 MW.  A more focused long-range sensor system than basic sensors. While it requires not insubstantial amounts of power to use, sensor resolution has been improved by 200% and can take long-range measurements and readings of planets from great distances.

Spoiler: Cargo List (click to show/hide)

Resources:  Containers of resources, in the form of raw material or finished parts, to be used for repairs in-flight or for use once the ship has landed. All resources come in Size-1 containers. Available types:
        Common Materials. Cost 1, mass 2. Refined metals and ceramics, used as material for most production and making Basic Parts.
        Rare Materials. Cost 2, mass 2. Ingots of uncommon or hard-to-produce materials, used for production of optronics, superconductors, fancy sensors, and the like.  Also used to make Advanced Parts.
        Basic Parts.  Cost 2, mass 1. Used for easier production of mechanical and electronic machinery, and provides a bonus to appropriate production or maintenance tasks.
        Advanced parts. Cost 3, mass 1. Needed for production of Advanced technology, and some repairs; provides a bonus to maintenance on Advanced technology if they are not required.
        Water. Cost 1, mass 2. Water is vital to most life, and the only so much can be conserved by even the best closed systems.  This provides a source of water, for easy use, or in case there is none available at the destination.
        Air. Cost 1, mass 1. Air is an important part of any Outpost, and it is often difficult to get more useable air from the environment.  This contains tanks of pressurized air, usable for pressurizing the ship, the base, or anything else that needs it.

Food. 0.5 RU, Size 3, Mass 1. Compressed protein and vitamin bars, carbohydrate sludge and other such forms of slightly distasteful if highly nutritious examples of deep space food. Minimal quality, but sufficient for a healthy diet, for 10 awake persons for 1 year.

Advanced Medical Supplies: 2 RUs, size 1, mass 1. A truck-container's worth of advanced medicines, drugs, and miniature medical equipment. Requires medical facilities to use. Can be used to quickly heal injured crew or replace damaged medical equipment.

Air tanks & vac suits. 1 RU, Size 1, Mass 1. For some strange reason, people who routinely travel in space feel better if emergency vacuum suits and pressurized air tanks are available for those rare hull-breaches or life-support failures, for someone to have a chance at fixing them. Provides 5 suits and 24h per suit of breathable air.

--

Orbital Survey Satellite. Cost 10 RU, Size 3, Mass 3. Highly developed satellite intended to be launched in to stable orbit over a planet or a moon. Using a variety of technologies, it slowly if steadily scans the body below it for mineral deposits and transmits the data regarding location, depth, materials and size of deposits to a ship or a ground installation using radio. A single satellite can fully scan an Earth-like planet in 10 years.

Weather Satellite. Cost 10 RU, Size 3, Mass 3. A combination of passive and active technologies, this satellite is intended to gather information of atmospheric conditions. Moisture-analyzers, high-atmosphere wind speed measurers, cloud radar, lightning bolt detectors, particle density optometers and other technologies make this satellite an effective orbital weather- and atmospheric analysis laboratory. Unfortunately, the design cannot incorporate the complex and power-hungry Expert Systems to collate and analyze the data for an on-the-spot prediction of weather conditions. This satellite can only provide a remote user with all the necessary information. In addition, a single satellite can only observe a limited area at a time – the size of central Europe, for reference.

Communications Satellite.  Cost 10 RU, Size 4, Mass 3.  A relatively simple satellite which should allow communications to be bounced across the horizon with great accuracy.  Just point any strong radio transmission at it, starting with a set of target coordinates, and it will beam it down to anywhere within range.  However, that range is theoretically limited to a quarter of a planet's surface, even assuming it were a perfect sphere; also, the further from the center of that range the sender or reciever is, the worse the signal will be.  Any atmospheric conditions which interfere with radio transmissions on the ground will have double the effect on transmissions passed through this satellite.

--

Habitation Dome S / M / L. Cost 4 / 6 / 8. Size 1 / 2 / 3, Mass 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 An inflatable, fairly durable, vacuum rated plastic habitation dome with aluminium/titanium supports. Provides near-instant, basic empty space for equipment, living space or other such purposes. Simply find a flat piece of ground, assemble the supports, and inflate with air.

Armored Habitation Dome S / M / L. Cost 6 / 10 / 14, Size 2 / 4 / 6. Mass 2.5 / 5 / 7.5. With a core of basic Habitation Dome, this upgraded version includes a rigid outer shell of military-grade composite armor. It naturally weights quite a bit more and takes longer to fully assemble. However it provides solid protection from aggressive weather phenomena or micro-meteors, nearly guaranteeing the physical integrity of the Dome even in the most hazardous environments. Small dome is 300, medium 600 and largest 1000 square meters, with top height ranging from 5m to 20m.

Powered Exo-skeleton Constructor Units. Cost 2 RU, Size 3, Mass 2. A pair of advanced, 2.5m tall constructor units. Forget searching for the right tool, waiting for a crane to swing over or even most common hazards. Simply get into one of these, and you're a single-man hybrid of a constructor team and a cargo loader. The variants being offered to Outpost missions are atmospherically sealed.

Digging & drilling vehicles. Cost 2 RU, Size 4, Mass 4. A pair of advanced vehicles powered by electric engines, intended to be operated by a single person each. These drill-headed, tracked vehicles can dig, burrow and drill through most rock without any real problems. Advanced servo technology allows them to dig even straight down, or make 90 degree turns in spaces smaller than they are, the haul out the materials with their internal containers. Atmospherically sealed and rollcage made from starship-hull grade materials make these excellent, modern tools for basic groundworking or underground drilling.

Heavy Bot Mech - 8 RU, Size 3, Mass 3. A hybrid child of a multipurpose bot team and a exoskeleton, the Heavy Bot can perform both mining and construction tasks as well as its normal multi-bot parents whilst encased in a heavier chassis for durability and ease of production with only needing to make one large optronic brain rather than several. The downside is that it works alone and can't perform swarm-logic like its little cousins, and still isn't as good as a dedicated bot team although more efficient than a regular exo duo. Still needs a human remote-control overseer to coordinate activity and make sure it doesn't wander off target.

Constructor Bot Team. Cost 15 RU, Size 5, Mass 4. A team of ten remote-operateable semi-automated constructor robots, that can build anything on personal or industrial scale. These things are not intelligent, but work tirelessly and with precision as long as intelligent oversight is present. They multiply the amount of physical labour a single human can accomplish to staggering amounts. You only need to periodically recharge their batteries. User's manual, remote-interface program, recharge station and maintenance manual included, as usual.

Mining Bot Team. Cost 12 RU, Size 5, Mass 4. Used all over the place in the Sol-system asteroid fields, a single mining bot team works as a unit to dig into rock, excavate the materials, transport them to a site nearby and sort them according to rough criteria (such as "Iron ore here, porous rock there"). They are also often used for underground excavations, for constructor bots to create entire subterranean installations to the space opened up by these units. The bots are not intelligent and a team requires oversight from one human, if they are to accomplish anything. However, they are precise and efficient, and have to pause only for recharging. As usual, everything except actual spare parts are included in the package, to ensure stable long-term operation.

Multipurpose Bot Teams. Cost 17 RU, Size 5, Mass 4. By removing redundancies, half the members of both teams, and top end capabilities, a hybrid remote-operated bot team capable of both construction and digging is created. It cannot do either task as well as a full, dedicated bot team can, but are versatile and still ought to function more efficiently than either human-operated constructors or drillers at either task.

Manufacturing equipment. Cost 9 RU, Size 3, Mass 4. A workshop-type solution for early manufacturing needs. This set contains all the necessary equipment and work benches to construct basic electronics, practice small-scale metallurgy, and turn simple raw materials into spare parts and components, and with time, more complex tools.  Has a limited capability to work with Advanced parts. However, the limited use of robotics makes this manpower-intensive solution and unsuitable for large-scale manufacturing. Requires 8 persons and 1MW of power for optimal efficiency. Effectively zero maintenance required.

Automated Production Line. Cost 20 RU, Size 4, Mass 7. Robotics based self-contained small assembly line. Provide 10MW of power, intelligent oversight from 2 persons and basic raw materials, and simply watch finished parts and components come out. Given time, it can produce all the parts of simple bots, or even an unassembled copy of itself. The basic model is unable to produce Advanced Technology parts, such as optronic circuitry. As these units are often used to provide basic manufacturing capability on remote locations with manpower concerns, they have been optimized for batch type work. This makes the units more complex and overall only somewhat faster than manual labour from a skilled team with basic facilities. As such, it requires high-maintenance, though all the information and tools required to operate and maintain this unit safely are included.  Takes 3 months to construct.

Automated Bot Assembly Line: 18 RU. Size 4. Mass 6. Electricity 8 MW.  A dedicated assembly line programmed to build a variety of bots from preprogrammed templates. In addition to modern-day optronics-based mining and construction bots, it is equipped with schematics for older models of bots as well. The system is rugged and reliable, used in several asteroid belt bases to build their own bots on site. Retasking it to build anything else will be problematic however due to need for significant retooling.  Takes 3 months to construct.

My First Factory kit. Cost 40 RU, Size 10, Mass 20. A package of parts and equipment simply waiting to be assembled at a suitable location and plugged to a power generator. Once finished, this heavily automated batch-type industrial unit is capable of turning raw materials into any finished basic technological product, up to the size of a semi-truck and to the complexity of a simple Bot in a single go. Given time and resources, this facility can produce Advanced parts, and eventually produce components to assemble another one like it. Due to heavy use of robotics, expert systems and simple 3D printers, along with in-built ore processor and electronics fabricator, only a single person is required to oversee the entire factory and blueprints can be directly fed to the system to being production of the intended finished component or product. Compared to simpler automated systems, this unit is highly effective and productive. You only need 20 MW of power, along with unprocessed requisite raw materials (though availability of pre-processed materials speeds up the function of this unit). Users however often note that complexity of this unit also results in high maintenance demand and periodic breakdowns. Note: Advanced Technology. Construction time: 12 months.

Ore Processor. Cost 6 RU, Size 4, Mass 5. Basic, rugged design intended to crush rock and ore, and separate materials within by weight, density and/or magnetic properties. 2 MW of electricity required, throughput per day of 1 unit.

--

Bio-recycler kit. Cost 3 RU, Size 2, Mass 4. Nearly all organic materials can be broken down, when mixed with water and put under sufficient preassure and heat. The rest break down just as easily if you add ozone or some recently developed chemicals as catalysts. This kit provides industrial scale mixers, pressure boilers, separator columns, ozone injectors, necessary chemicals and so forth, to reduce any and all organic waste produced by up to 200 people into basic but useable hydrocarbons. Simply select a place, assemble the kit, provide water and 5 MW of electricity for continued and fully automated operation.

Hydroponics kit. Cost 7 RU, Size 6, Mass 5. All the equipment – barring water – to begin farming at the target planet. Simply excavate a suitable cavern, build a dome, or deploy outdoors if you are lucky, pickup a wrench and begin assembly Within a matter of months, you'll have your first set of harvest coming along nicely. Provides sustainably sufficient food for up to 50 active individuals, as long as water, and warmth with sunlight (or 15 MW of electricity) is provided. The kit also includes full blueprints and technical manuals as hard copies, for easy repair, maintenance and expansion of the farm.

Organic Sludge Compressor kit. Cost 2 RU, Size 2, Mass 1. Newly established installations often have to contend with limited space or resources. Even hydroponics can at times be an unaffordable luxury. The most recent solution: Organic Sludge Compressor, based upon the theoretical concept of protein resequencers. Sophisticated analysis unit recognizes organic materials and a chemistry expert system calculates required input to turn that material into basic edible nutrition. As long as an organic base is provided, even simple inorganic materials can be processed for the missing elements. Once all requirements have been fulfilled, it processes them into basic nutritious goo containing artificial vitamins, proteins and so forth. 5 MW of power required for continued operation, can sustainably feed up to 100 persons. Note: Advanced Technology.  Takes 3 months to construct.

Meat-vat kit. Cost 15 RU, Size 4, Mass 5. More than one army has fallen due to poor food supply, more than one rebellion started from hunger. With the wonders from stem-cell research, an industrial scale petri dish, nutrients and a little power, a juicy beef steak ready for cooking is born. This facility takes in 2 MW of power, any organic materials, and intelligent oversight from one person, to produce fresh and artificial meat as a supplement for dietary needs. At full production, this facility can feed up to 20 individuals with a meat-based diet.

Water Synthesizer. Cost 1 RU. Size 2, Mass 2. Liquid water is a necessity for all known life. Too bad it cannot be counted upon to be easily available at the destination. This 'synthesizer' plant burns hydrogen in a series of fuel cells in presence of almost pure oxygen. Old-fashioned, but effective and reliable. As long as sufficient raw materials are present, a single unit can provide up 1 unit of water per turn, along with 1 MW of power.

Oxygen Extractor. Cost 5 RU. Size 2, Mass 4. Oxygen is a must for human life, but it is not always conveniently available in a breathable format. Recycling units can also break down, and do not offer a solution to expand a population. This all-purpose unit can process any atmosphere containing even trace amounts of the precious gas, and separate it from the other - probably lethal – compounds present. Requires 10 MW of power, produces up to 5 000 liters of pure oxygen a day, provided high enough concentrations in input material.

Seed Bank. 2 RU, 4 mass, 3 size. A seed bank of several hundred varieties of GM plants, ranging from simple grasses to fruit-hybrid trees to hydroponic rice to Mars-soil adapted wheat. Will greatly assist in setting up agriculture on alien worlds. Combined with a biotech lab, these seeds can also be used as a template for future variation and gene-editing.

--

Solar Panels. Cost 20 RU, Size 10, Mass 6. Latest technological improvements at Sol have given solar panels a staggering efficiency, approaching 30% limit. While power output might not be stable, or as high per ton of equipment as fusion generators, solar power is simpler, cannot explode and does not depend upon fuel. Simple take a panel, point it at the sun, and plug in a cord. A single set contains enough panels to provide 30 MW of power on Earth-like conditions.

He-3 Inertial Fusion Generator kit. Cost 15 / 40 / 75 RU, Size 2/10/20. Mass 4/10/20. Generates 50 / 150 / 500 MW. A prefabricated, tightly packed construction kit of the same shipboard systems widely used in ships of mankind – sans the massive heat radiators required to operate such a power plant in space. Lay down the groundwork and keep building, and faster than you'd might think you'll have a stable, easy to maintain, tried and tested type of fusion generator ready to provide your Outpost with power. As long as you can provide it with fuel, and intelligent oversight to make sure it doesn't go boom.

Radioisotope thermoelectric battery. 1 RU. Size 1. Mass 1. Generates 1 MW for 50 years. Take some radioactive isotopes, surround them with heat-to-electricity converters, encase it all in radiation shielding. Presto; cheap, long term battery. Too bad about the radioactive waste and poor efficiency though.Note: Simple technology, fast and easy to use. Extremely unlikely to malfunction. Cannot be refuelled.

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Optronic Central Computer. Cost 10 RU. Size 2. Mass 2. A large series of Expert Systems, combined with centralized databases and computing power, along with wirelessly connected tablet-computers, this unit is ready to function as a central computer hub for a small to medium installation or colony. It provides capability to run oversight or control programs on a large number of other machines, various other programs, collate and store data, or even provide advice. Extensive knowledge of historical applications to solve problems an Outpost might be facing, is combined with special-built Expert System to accept input from the colonists regarding problems and available materials and equipment. The system then analyzes the requirements and seeks to match it with a solution programmed to its database, finally providing the colonists with the fastest, simplest or cheapest solution that fulfills the restrictive criteria. When required, the system can print out blueprints, assembly guides or historical records regarding the solution, as long as such exist within the system's databanks. Note: Advanced Technology.  Takes 6 months to construct.

Prefabricated General Laboratory: 20 RU. Size 6. Mass 4. Electricity 3 MW. A generalist lab setup that can do a bit of everything in most areas of science, but nothing well and lacks specialist equipment. In time, it can be expanded using included schematics for lab equipment. Note: Advanced technology. Takes 3 months to construct.

[Draxis]

Update 0 - Awakening
January, 2052.  Lunar Base.

It is two weeks after the First Wave of the radiation storm has passed enough for the people inside the bunker to safely be brought out of cryosleep.  In that first week, the computer awakened the vital maintainance and medical personnel; over the last week, the commanders and first wave of industrial workers have been woken.  While early reports show that 80% of those in the Base, nearly 40,000 people, have survived, it is believed that the Second Wave of radiation will be even more intense, and that there is a 15-month window, at most, to evacuate fully or else people on the Outpost ship will start dying.

The leaders of the Base - ex-Admiral Ellis Wright, his second-in-command, the pre-Calamity Lunar Base commander, and the hastily appointed Chiefs of Engineering and Personnel - are meeting to determine their way forwards.  The main issue at hand is the design of the Ark - while the previous, massive Arks had little room for modification, with (relatively) so few people to carry, there is a lot more leeway in the design for this one.

The Admiral wants to do the same thing, though on a smaller scale, as the previous missions did - send out one Outpost ship and one very minimal Ark ship, which he says would allow the greatest amount of resources available to the Outpost team and allow the use of the many studies performed on the design of the previous Arks.

The second-in-command would prefer to make the Ark-ship better prepared to deal with any problems in flight, with greater backup systems, damage-control systems, and stores.  This would make it more costly, reducing the resources available to the Outpost mission, but would greatly reduce the chance of in-flight failure of the Ark.

The Base Commander says that it would be best to produce two Ark ships, each one minimal but just as capable as the previous Arks were. "Because we've all seen what having putting all your eggs in one basket leads to."  This would be more expensive than either of the two previously-proposed solutions, but be still more reliable that some of the colonists would make it through.

The Chief of Engineering has an innovative proposal - combine the Ark and Outpost ships.  This would let the Outpost commanders customize everything, would free up more resources due to no need for two ship-construction scaffolds.  However, it would also put all the eggs in one basket even more strongly than any other design, and all those cryopods would have to be somehow maintained until there was life-support for everybody in the planetary colony.

The Chief of Personnel says to make a single Ark ship, but to make it capable of establishing something of an outpost on its own - so that even if the Outpost mission fails completely, there is still hope for a few of those on the Ark.  Also, on the Ark's arrival, the Outpost would get a fresh supply of resources and production capability, which could help them adapt to the sudden increase in population.  Of course, it would be expensive - consuming about as much resources as the two smaller Arks despite the great redundancy in that plan.

Though nobody dares to bring it up, there is another possibility on everybody's mind.  While 40,000 isn't a big population, it is several times the highest estimates of the minimum sustainable population.  It would be possible, hypothetically, to leave some of them behind in coldsleep, tell the computer to wake them after the Second Wave, and hope for the best.  This would be devestating to morale, and almost certainly lead to the deaths of anyone left behind, but it would free up precious resources and increase the survival chances for whoever is taken.


In this turn, nothing really happens; you all get chances to ask questions and make plans, and choose which plan for the Ark Ship(s) will be taken.  The choice will affect the resources available to the Outpost mission, and the chances of the Ark mission's success.

Phase 1 Turn 0 Orders: January 2052.
Event: Ark Planning
    Choose one:
   ( ) Design A - single, minimal Ark ship.
   ( ) Design B - single, more reliable Ark ship.
   ( ) Design C - two minimal Ark ships
   ( ) Design D - single, combined Ark/Outpost ship
   ( ) Design E - single, reliable and well-supplied Ark ship
    Do or do not, and how many if so:
   ( ) Leave behind _________ people.

[evilcherry]

ptw, ftm.

[10ebbor10]

    Choose one:
   ( ) Design D - single, combined Ark/Outpost ship

[zomara0292]

( ) Design C - two minimal Ark ships

[TopHat]

PTW

[Draxis]

Can I get another tie-breaking vote, to be able to run an update?

[TopHat]

    Choose one:
   ( ) Design D - single, combined Ark/Outpost ship

+1

[Draxis]

Update 1
January, 2052.  Lunar Base. 

After some discussion, the design of a combined Ark/Outpost design was decided on.  This would lead to challenges not faced by any other Outpost missions, but would also allow far more resources available for dealing with them.  Within a week, the designs for the core structure are drawn up, and the fabrication of structure and the massive cryobays has begun.  Once again, the top leaders of the Base's crew are meeting, with more important decisions - what to put on the ship, and where to send it.

The unified ship will need, in addition to any provisions for setting up an Outpost, to carry four huge cryobays, the reactors to keep them active, and the fuel and engines to move its massive bulk out of the way of the radiation storm and into another star system.  Also, it will need more wakened crew at any given time, to help handle maintenance of the cryobays, and it will need more maintenance supplies and backup systems to ensure that all the bays remain functional until well after landing, when there is capacity for 40000 wakened people.  However, the industrial capacity freed up from making the Ark-ship means that two more ship modifications can be made every three months - up to a total of four - even alongside the construction of the cryobays.  Also, far more manpower and materials are available to construct the ship that would have been otherwise.


Considered destination systems:
System name, distance (where the closest is at distance 1)

 - System A, distance 1. A small red-orange star, class MV, it still manages to hold on to at least two planets - one small rocky one, close to the star, with a temprature just above freezing and lots of liquid water, and a small, freezing rocky planet.

 - System B, distance 1.2.  A binary system of one brown dwarf and one small red star; the red star has several small- to medium-sized rocky planets and one gas giant.

 - System C, distance 1.5.  Another binary system, composed of two class MV red-orange stars.  There appears to be, at least, one large rocky planet with ice on the surface, but more detail cannot be determined.

 - System D, distance 1.8.  A huge, trinary star system composed of three Sol-like stars.  There is too much interference from these stars to tell more from so far away, but there are likely many planets.

 - System E, distance 2.3.  A single star, about the same size and color as Sol but far dimmer.  At this distance, the only features that can be made out are at least two gas giants.

Phase 1 Turn 1 status: January-March 2052.

Resources: 400 RU.
Starship: unnamed, hybrid Ark-Outpost Ship
Total Size: 80 units
Structure mass: 30 units.

Installed components:

• 4 Ark Cryobays.  Size 10x4, mass 15x4.  -10x4 power.

Total mass: 90 units.
Free space: 40 units.
Required power: 40 units.
Maximum power output: 0 units.
Total fuel:
Fuel remaining at destination:

Destination: none.
Flight time: unknown. (mass/thrust*distance*5 years)

Recommended launch date: April 2053.
Late launch date (chance of getting hit with radiation): July 2053.

Phase 1 Turn 1 orders: January-March 2052.
    Ship modifications: (choose up to 4)
        ( )
        ( )
        ( )
        ( )
    Science/Engineering Project: (choose 1, say how much RU to spend)
        ( )
    Cargo purchase: (choose any number)
        ( )
        ...
   
Event: Mission Destination
    Choose one:
        ( ) Star A - small, cold system with a possibly Earth-like planet, and some others.
        ( ) Star B - small binary system with a gas giant and several rocks.
        ( ) Star C - binary system with at least one large ice-bearing planet.
        ( ) Star D - huge trinary system with an unknown number of planets.
        ( ) Star E - medium-sized system with multiple gas giants.

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, I vote we go for system A. It's close, it certainly has (habitable) planets, and has water. Meanwhile, we don't know anything about the other ships, and binary star systems aren't known to be very stable.

    Ship modifications: (choose up to 4)
        - Expanded superstructure (This is a necessity. )
        - Expanded superstructure (Less of a necessity, but I think we're going to need it.)
        - Ion Engine
        - Ion Engine
    Science/Engineering Project: (choose 1, say how much RU to spend)
        -
    Cargo purchase: (choose any number)
        - Factory kit (Long production time, seems usefull)
   
   
Event: Mission Destination
    Choose one:
        ( ) Star A - small, cold system with a possibly Earth-like planet, and some others.

Anyway, for some interesting suggestions:

- Asteroid hull. Literally, we drill a hole in a suitable asteroid, and dump the entire ship in that. Excellent protection against all possible types of microasteroids, and it comes with resources and such that can be mined as we progress. In fact, it probably contains He-3 as well, so we can afford the additional fuel expense.
- Orbital Detachable parts: Rather than landing the entire ship, you leave the main engines, some sensors, and most reactors in orbit. Information and power can then be beamed down if needed.
- Probably not going to work out, but anyway. It's possible that a robotic system, if properly sheltered, could survive this gamma ray burst event. If we design a Von Neumann machine, and give it proper orders, it could reactivate between bursts, gather resources from asteroids, and use those to construct supply ships (Asteroid + engine), which could overtake us if we're going particularly slow.
- I'm surprised that the Orion system is not included as a potential transportation system.

Question, how much time do we have, exactly?

I made a link for those of you who want to play with engine strengths without doing calculations all the time.

Edit 2: Is there any reason to use He-3 fuel. I mean, said stuff is massive, and takes lots of place. Using the calculator above I haven't yet found a way to get the ship to it's destination using any He-3 fuel using system. Even in minimum configuration ((Ie, cryopods, power for cryopods and engine, and the engine. Nothing else.)), the fuel takes up massive amounts of space.

Edit 3: I've confirmed all fuel consuming thrusters to be useless. The fuel is just too massive , and using them requires that entire parts of the ship have to be given over to fuel storage. The best solution appears to be to spam the Ion thrusters, and use one of the high efficiency fusion power plants. Which means that you spend about 300 RU on ion thrusters.  That or key to a 50 years voyage and using the radioisotopes.
On a side note, going for a 50 year voyage with radioisotopes seems a better solution.

[zomara0292]

As long as we are properly shielded from outside space, which, unfortunately, is not my forte. Space, that is. Get me a good a little more information on the planets in the closest and second closest system. Even if a binary system tends to be more risky, the number of planets means a number or resources we can pull from, if not one or more habitable planet. Would it be to much to ask for 20 ru to go to that end? Ten per system?

[10ebbor10]

As long as we are properly shielded from outside space, which, unfortunately, is not my forte. Space, that is. Get me a good a little more information on the planets in the closest and second closest system. Even if a binary system tends to be more risky, the number of planets means a number or resources we can pull from, if not one or more habitable planet. Would it be to much to ask for 20 ru to go to that end? Ten per system?

20 RU is 5% of our total RU reserve. Additionally, the systems are  20% / 50% further away.

Edit: But I'm waiting for the GM to confirm the fact that the numbers for fuel are indeed correct. Currently, using any He-3 using technology means dedicating more than 50% of your hullspace to fuel.
Edit 2: WE might want to develop a Bussard Ramjet, in order to gather fuel in flight.

[escaped lurker]

How many pods are included in the pre-installed ark-modules?
Read it multiple times, can't seem to find it...

Basically agree with you, ebbor, but I would wait with the engines and research them for the time being. An upgrade or breakthrough there could turn our game around.

Must-have:
Seedbank - 2  RU, 4 M, 3 S
Oxygen Extractor - 5 RU, 2 M, 4 S
Hydroponics Kit (Colony)- 7 RU, 6 M, 5 S
X Habitation Domes
Some sort of Manufacturing / Mining Equipment
Command-Centre type X
Food, Water, Air Supplies
Life-Support-Systems (Ship)

Wishlist:
Recreation-Room
Rugged Construction / Reinforced Hull


So yeah. Factory-Kit would be real nice, not sure we can afford it thou...