A little bit of havoc - but nothing that couldn't be solved with the application of an orbital strike. I wish I was kidding when I said that. You recall the flesh horror that was left here, burrowing? It's gone. Other than that, and finding out I need to put my foot down a little hard to get any kind of focus, it's fine. How are things in our subjective future?
Anyways, materials testing we can do, though I'm wondering exactly how high-volume you're thinking, and what exactly you'll be testing that can't be done in a simulated environment.
And sure, you can borrow Charles for a bit - I had something in mind for him, but it can wait, it's not like the other guy's going anywhere soon.
Well... I guess it's good to know that particular loose end is now nicely tied up.
And a lot of it can probably be VR-tested, but I'm not sure it'll be enough. VR isn't perfect, after all. And you'll probably want to set up those automated systems. Right now, I'm thinking of using, at the very least, ten different materials, and then testing combinations of those with 2 or 3 components each time at least. And then different ways of combining them. VR can sift through the majority of the possibilities and determine which ones are useless, but for the final selection I'll need real-life testing to be sure what works best, and I think I may end up with dozens of options, depending on how rigid I set up the VR simulation parameters.
"Understood Ma'am."
Miyamoto... isn't that one of the commanders of this whole jig? Odd... if it was about propaganda I would have thought Lars would have been the one to contact me...
Awaiting your orders, sir.
Charles frowned, or rather attempt to frown, briefly forgetting that the lack of a facial muscles made is rather difficult to form any expression without the assistance of the display unit. Should his message be more enthusiastic? Formal? Though brevity certainly does seem to be better considering that the General was presumably quite busy. Shrugging, he sends the message.
Very well. Now, I suppose you know that, in order to win this war, we'll need to persuade the current UWM population to rebel, and preferably join our cause. For that, I was planning to create training videos to teach future insurgents how to fight their oppressors. As a part of this, I'll need propaganda videos, meant to help convince those people of our cause and the need to take action.
My mission for you would be to create those videos. Lars is supposed to be head of propaganda, but because he's on mission right now I'm gonna ask you to think about how you'd go about it, to lay out some plans. Then, when he returns from his mission, the two of you can work on those vids together. You can continue working for Simus while you wait, just keep it in the back of your mind or work on it in your spare time if you want to. I'll brief Lars once he gets back.
I'm gonna give you carte blanche, meaning you two can go about this however you think works best. However, one big rule is that you do NOT post anything on the internet before I and Steve have looked it over. ARM needs to look like a professional, dedicated organization if we are to convince these people to risk their life for freedom.
Oh, and a word to the wise: try to prevent Lars from... going overboard on certain aspects. You know what I mean.
This is the task I lay before you, because I think you are the men with the skills and knowledge to bring this to a fruitful end.
Do you accept?
Question for you, pw: since I'm on mission, I refrained from posting in Tinker. Would you mind however if Miya started asking ARESTEVE to begin with research or construction on Hep?
No, thats fine.
Understood sir. I shall endeavor to do so to the best of my ability, you have my assurances that, until I am assigned duties by my commander (my services are not required as much considering that they are not as applicable to more recent matters), I shall make this project my priority.
Charles sends the message before softly muttering under his (simulated) breath:
"A bit of black and white ought to go a long way here... maybe a few shades of grey as well..."
Contact ARESTEVE and inquire about the following:
- What have the most successful and unsuccessful UWM propaganda videos been? Are copies of them available?
- How well can the source of a video on the internet be traced? What measures can be impede this process?
- Is it possible to falsify the source?
- Are there any good ways to ensure that something with a 'false source' is traced back to another false source?
- Are there any good ways to use subliminal messages in a way that seems effective in theory, fails in practice and can be found out relatively quickly, yet is still covert enough to make it seem like it's discovery was unintended?
- What information is available is on the more covert or enigmatic UWM military units (also acquire metaknowledge on the development of the Arbiter's of Peace in terms of how they originally crab walked or ran like a monkey)?
- Got anything the UWM really doesn't want its civilians to know but if mentioned would actually be believable?
1. Hard to quantify that; it's almost impossible to track proUWM actions back to specific sources, but if we judge based on the highest spikes of enrollment after certain advertising and propaganda campaigns, the most successful were the ones following the initial formation of the UWM during the altered wars (Unsurprising) and ones that not only demonized the enemy and glorified the cause, but also offered some sort of incentive to join, such as pay, free travel or training, etc.
2.Depends on the paper trail, so to speak. They could definitely trace it back to wherever it was uploaded from, and maybe where the video was created and with what by dissecting data from the video and looking for landmarks or clues in the footage. But, as long as you didn't use some highly specific video program and uploaded it from a public terminal somewhere, then the chances of them being able to trace it back to you or the sword or anything like that specifically are small. But if you produce several different videos they'll probably be able to rather definitively link them together unless you take steps to make sure you differentiate them.
3.Yes.
4.The easiest is to run them through those false sources. Sneak it into the server of some small production company and have them automatically publish it, something like that.
5. One frame every now and again should work.
6.What kind of information? General or what?
7. Hmm. It's problematic because general knowledge and opinion differs by world. Get info about how Magistars are generally ineffectual to certain planets and they'll freak out, while other planets will be completely unimpressed.
If eyes without iris nor pupils (or without eyes, from the cameras currently slaved to her against her will) could give death glares, Anton would now be receiving one.
Anton, reverse that immediately. Do anything like that again and I will be rethinking your continued work here.
Await the 'hacking' to be reversed. As soon as it is, head back into private VR and sends a few messages:
You might try starting from the basics. There are at least two ways of providing pressure, and one does not depressurize the user if the suit is damaged - mechanical counter-pressure. Perhaps base a new suit off of that?
Please ready a lab or several for high-throughput materials testing.
Trust me, I didn't want to take care of it in such an over-the-top manner, but one of us decided to 'poke' it with a neutron bomb (one of several I was intending to use to mostly, if not completely, eliminate it with with one coordinated strike) without telling me. It didn't like that, put simply.
Anyways, I'm having some labs set up now. You guys find anything interesting out there, or is this something you've come up with yourself?
Then pulls up a listing of modern UWM infantry weapons (excluding the ones that are the same) and compares them to the ones the HMRC currently equips its soldiers with.
It's basically just gonna be more of the same with modifications to make them less powerful. At least with basic infantry.
After talking things through with Pw and Pyro, we decided on what to do with the scientists, as well as those civilian workers on Hep. The details are as follows:
1) We say the scientists are on Hep already (easiest for all involved) and then create three (3) SCIENCE! crews.
2) We say the indentured workers still on Hep form three CONSTRUCTION! crews (there are about 150-200 workers there, so each unit would be 50 people, and include support staff and such).
3) Each SCIENCE! crew represents a coherent 'unit' and can be attached (as a whole) to a research/engineering project to increase its odds, decrease real-life time needed, work on something on their own (e.g. "start testing this artifact"), or whatever is appropriate.
4) Each CONSTRUCTION! crew represents a coherent 'unit' and can be attached (as a whole) to a build/maintenance project to increase its odds, decrease real-life time needed, work on something on their own (e.g. "start setting up automated mines on that moon"), or whatever is appropriate.
5) To keep things simple, a crew cannot, under any circumstance, be reassigned to another task until it's current one is finished.
6) Any crewmember on Hep can commit a SCIENCE! crew without strict permission from Simus/Pyro (= Pyro putting it in his bolded action or through pm). The players might be asked to have their characters notify Simus in-game first, but even if they don't then pw will not stop the action from completing. Simus might chew them out in-game though.
7) Any crewmember on Hep can commit a CONSTRUCTION! crew, but needs strict permission from Simus/Pyro (through Pyro putting it in his bolded action or through pm). Without strict permission from Pyro/Simus, pw will not run the action, and the CONSTRUCTION! crew will not be committed. Note that this is for committing crews, for the actual starting of projects you will need to work out with Pyro how to arrange that.
8 ) Steve and his three generals can commit both kinds of crews, and do not need Simus' strict permission, either in-game or through Pyro's bolded action (for the record, I plan on Miya keeping Simus in the loop as much as possible, but this ensures that, should Pyro be unable to post for a long while due to real life, these crews are still usable, since Hep people can ask a general for permission).
9) It is possible to get new crews of either flavor, but they can't be cloned or grown, they need to be normal humans, and will need to be recruited. Due to time dilation, it should take a good while for them to be 'built' (=to arrive in the system) even if recruitment is successful (which is not guaranteed).
10) We use the wiki to keep track of them all, and the one committing the crew is asked to make the change to the wiki if he can.
Barring people pointing out critical problems, this stuff takes effect as of now. Any questions can be asked in the OOC thread (to keep this thread IC).
Note that these rules are for committing the crews. For simply ordering ARESTEVE to build or research stuff on his own, Hep people will have to work out with Pyro how they'll handle that.
For example:
Piecewise, building a new fleshpit takes a month (30 days). If we were to assign a CONSTRUCTION! crew to the task, how would that influence the construction time?
Hmm. Lets go with a decreasing returns model.
1 Crew means it takes 30% less time
2 Crews means it takes 50% less time
3 Crews means it takes 60% less time.
Rounded down.
Fleshy stuff:
1.Did you mean to say that we can either construct a fleshpit OR the brain forge thingy?
2.If yes, construct a new fleshpit, setup for full-body sods. Brain forge's important, but sods moreso.
3.Can we expand the current fleshpit deeper, without halting production on anything else?
4.If so, start expanding it. Timeline?
The Testament shard rifle:
5.You said the gun would cost 4t, and the magazine 2t. Just to make sure, does the magazine come free with initial purchase?
6. ...If so, can I just get rid of the small magazine, and only provide the large one?
7. I know they barely matter, but what are the Testament's range bonuses/penalties?
8.What is the Testament's stat requirement?
9.Suit thing: Look up some method to make a spacesuit self-sealing, to prevent decompression. Mechanical counterpressure?
"Simus, I... Don't think I'm the best person for that job. I'm not really sure how you could do that, while maintaining a suit that's cheap to produce. Auto-sealing twenty millimeter holes? Seems difficult."
((As Saint says, I have little idea how to do that. As far as 'mechanical counterpressure', I think you mean this, and I'm pretty sure the MK suits are already like that. Even looking on wikipedia for self sealing spacesuits, the only thing that comes up is spacesuits in fiction. Even then, the closest thing is Forever War's spacesuits, which are what MK.II suits are supposed to be.
Eh. Perhaps I could include a layer some type of insulative gel that rapidly expands and hardens under low pressures? Maybe that'd work...))
1.No. You can get them both started at the same time.
3.Yes, but it's really going to be the same kind of work, digging more room out, getting everything constructed, etc.
4. Depends of you use a construction crew. About the same, otherwise.
5.Yes
6.Yes, ya system gaming massenfrasen
7.Similar to the shard launcher, in theory. Middle range is best.
8. I suppose that the current method of chopping off limbs isn't to your liking? Eh. The problem is that we could probably seal small holes in several ways. But small holes are rarely the problem. A hole the size of a baseball is going to be hard to seal using anything except compartmentalization, at least as far as my brain can see.
Anton Chernozorov
If eyes without iris nor pupils (or without eyes, from the cameras currently slaved to her against her will) could give death glares, Anton would now be receiving one.
Anton, reverse that immediately. Do anything like that again and I will be rethinking your continued work here.
Anton starts typing on the datapad again, muttering under his breath - though likely not quite quietly enough for Simus not to hear. "Aye, aye. ye ought to reconsider those overkill tendencies, or I might reconsider my stay here..."
He types a little more and suddenly chuckles. "Heh. XO, you sure you don't want Saint to help me with this? Myopic monkey doing eye surgery here, in terms of coding skill. Hopefully this thing saved the original settings..."
Undo whatever I managed to do with Simus' optical feeds. Can I take 20 on this? (Or take 5, as it were. I.e. autosucceed, taking as much time as needed to keep trying.)
If/when that is hopefully successful, repeat the action sequence from last turn:
Right, then.
Check on the status of the Merchant (salvaged transport ship that hauls a long string of cargo containers and needs booster rockets to reach orbit). Is it FTL-capable? If not, what would it take to make it FTL-capable, and do we have the resources to do it in a reasonable time? (the Blackship was stripped of its FTL equipment when it was converted to the Black Death - can we use that?) Are there limits to what type of cargo it can carry, or does that just depend on the containers used?
Have Aresteve scan Hephaestus orbital space using any means at his disposal, and make a map of all the debris and wrecked ships we still have there. How many ships are there that seem to be worthwhile salvage (i.e. in big enough pieces to at least get parts from)? Anything reasonably intact besides what delivered the orbital strike?
Get an estimate on how hard it would be/how long it would take to recreate the Black Death. Not exactly as it was, but as a purpose-designed fast small ship with an oversized laser or plasma cannon. It did good at the fleet battle despite being very much out of its depth, so having a few would make at least a worthwhile asset.
Check the Hephaestus database for common defense ship classes that we could produce. Check if orbital minefields are still in use by the UWM.
And don't let any repair bots near the Party Wagon. If we have the capability, airlift it to the docks so I can repair it myself later.
You undo what you did and she only shocks you a little bit.
1. Not as it is. A big fucking engine and the automanips to reduce mass as it reaches relativistic speeds. If you stripped them from other ships, yes. You could probably find what you need floating around in that battlefield up in space. The Blackship's stuff is too small for a large cargo ship. Alternatively, you could just use one of the cruisers out in orbit, once you repair it that is.
2.There are 3-4 ships what are still fairly functional and several wrecks which could be salvaged.
3. To make one FTL comparable, you'd need that manip/amp creation area. To just make ones like it that aren't FTL usable, you'd need a shipyard. Our last one got blown up, if you remember.
4.Gonna have to be more specific about their intended use. Also, orbital minefields are rather useless except in extremely specific areas. They occasionally use drone fields with automated bomb carrying ships, but those aren't really mines so much as an automated defense system.
5. Consider it airlifted.
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Topic: Hephaestus No Longer Exists: Crater thread. (Read 191015 times)