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[syvarris]

1.Well, I guess that doesn't really provide much of an option.  Possess one of my Aux bodies, and go see what ARESTEVE wants me to see.

I doubt I'm allowed to Tinker this turn, but if I can, then do the stuff in the below spoiler. NEVERMIND.  I updated the wiki and realized that there's other stuff that's way more important.

2.You asked Pyro for a list of science projects that are done and need to be explained.  Here:

2A.A project to develop new types of advanced armor (Details here) is finished.

2B.A science team has finished examining the data recovered from the egg-pods that the M14 cult had.

2C.A science team has finished working with the recovered samples of 'flatground' from the anomalous planetoid to find use and possible explanation.

3.Additionally, you didn't give ETCs for three of the projects that were started on January second.  Those would be nice to have for:

3A.A construction crew is currently working on completing a large ship meant to transport and use the compaction automanipulator.  The parts started being prefabbed on Dec.11th, but Pyro just assumed that they had been finished on the 2nd, and told a construction crew to start putting them together.

3B.A science crew is studying the glowworm gun.

3C.A science crew is studying the Gratesplosion artifacts and anomalies. You said "Might take awhile"

4.The orbital shipyard does not seem to have a defined maximum ship size.  The only information on it that I saw was that it can build ships that are larger than the ground shipyard.  What is the maximum size it can build?


For other Hephaestus Personnel:
Construction things that are currently idle:
2 space construction ships, because they're done salvaging the UWM fleet.
A science team
A construction crew
Fleshpits, which can expand without using construction crews or interrupting production.
A ground-based space shipyard
An orbital shipyard
The generic "construction" ability Hephaestus has that doesn't need crews, but is slow.

Also, the party wagon is still sitting damaged in the docks, waiting for Anton to repair it.

Unless somebody comes up with something better, I say we build another Biochemical forge, because you can never have too many sods.  The sci crew should research something from this list, probably either the "blueraditite" or orange goo.  Lastly, the spaceship construction stuff should build warships with a slot for the FTL AM, so that when we get the SMF working it has stuff to do.

[piecewise]

1.Well, I guess that doesn't really provide much of an option.  Possess one of my Aux bodies, and go see what ARESTEVE wants me to see.

I doubt I'm allowed to Tinker this turn, but if I can, then do the stuff in the below spoiler. NEVERMIND.  I updated the wiki and realized that there's other stuff that's way more important.

2.You asked Pyro for a list of science projects that are done and need to be explained.  Here:

2A.A project to develop new types of advanced armor (Details here) is finished.

2B.A science team has finished examining the data recovered from the egg-pods that the M14 cult had.

2C.A science team has finished working with the recovered samples of 'flatground' from the anomalous planetoid to find use and possible explanation.

3.Additionally, you didn't give ETCs for three of the projects that were started on January second.  Those would be nice to have for:

3A.A construction crew is currently working on completing a large ship meant to transport and use the compaction automanipulator.  The parts started being prefabbed on Dec.11th, but Pyro just assumed that they had been finished on the 2nd, and told a construction crew to start putting them together.

3B.A science crew is studying the glowworm gun.

3C.A science crew is studying the Gratesplosion artifacts and anomalies. You said "Might take awhile"

4.The orbital shipyard does not seem to have a defined maximum ship size.  The only information on it that I saw was that it can build ships that are larger than the ground shipyard.  What is the maximum size it can build?


For other Hephaestus Personnel:
Construction things that are currently idle:
2 space construction ships, because they're done salvaging the UWM fleet.
A science team
A construction crew
Fleshpits, which can expand without using construction crews or interrupting production.
A ground-based space shipyard
An orbital shipyard
The generic "construction" ability Hephaestus has that doesn't need crews, but is slow.

Also, the party wagon is still sitting damaged in the docks, waiting for Anton to repair it.

Unless somebody comes up with something better, I say we build another Biochemical forge, because you can never have too many sods.  The sci crew should research something from this list, probably either the "blueraditite" or orange goo.  Lastly, the spaceship construction stuff should build warships with a slot for the FTL AM, so that when we get the SMF working it has stuff to do.

1.There are a few things, but the ones that are most relevant are a particular pair of weapons. The first is a gun that fires mindfuck. Thats what it does. It fires mindfuck. And it doesn't require a manip or anything.  The second, and perhaps more pertinent is more of a system then a weapon. It's essentially a short range teleportation system with some drawbacks. ARESTEVE has it designed to teleport grenades, but warns you that it requires a very specific kind of user, one with skill in conventional weapons and a high degree of intelligence due to some manual distance adjustments that have to be made.

2.

A: There were a few types of armor which ARESTEVE produced. The first is a rather obvious application of the hexagonal material from the AP and that energy eating sand. Using an lab grown version of the hex material (This stuff still needs a name, ARESTEVE refers to it by a 13 digit alphanumeric code) shaped into plates with particles of the sand embedded throughout it, they've produced an armor that is, for all but the most extreme circumstances, laser proof. It also has the capacity to stop more conventional projectiles, but only once. It will always block the first shot, absorbing the kinetic energy, but the shock will shatter it.

The second is a version made using the "Sharkmist" which is capable of self repair. It's essentially a lattice of carbon micro-structures, something like nano-tube armor, produced by the engineered microrganisms and maintained by them using available materials. It's not as strong as battle suit plate, but it's much lighter and can be easily and cheaply grown. Soldiers can repair it by pressing anything with carbon into it.

The third is based on the samples of those rock eating insect creatures. Their armor proved to be a rather interesting silicon construction that had a great capacity to survive shock. A hybridized crystal form of it and the Hex material produced a substance which seems nearly unbreakable. It does, however, appear quite heavy and has a bad habit of damaging its mountings.

B.Much of this was so heavily encrypted that it is impossible to get into without the key (Ciphers that would require solving Transcomputational problems to decode without the key), however there are sections of it which are not encrypted the same way. From these sections we have surmised that the data within those eggs was biocode, the sort of stuff used on things like the Bioorganic forge you have.

C. There are several possible uses, since the matter seems to easily absorb and redirect energy, as well as being very nearly frictionless. The exact reasons for this are still unknown, however the substance can be copied and grown in the lab. It is currently being experimented with for use in machinery, replacing the normal lubricated bearings and similar systems.

A. It will be done by the time the missions end, at latest. Honestly you can pull any crews you have on it off it, since it won't be useful till the missions are complete.

B. two weeks.

C. That one depends. If you want one at a time, you can probably get a new one every few days. If you want them all, it could take weeks or months.

4.Theoretically there's no limit. It's not in a dock or cradle or anything, it's just freely moving sections which can anchor themselves or other pieces in place to be worked on. Think more along the lines of easily assembled and disassembled scaffold rather then ship dock or harbor.

[syvarris]

All the below stuff has been sanctioned by Radio_Controlled.

1.Assign a construction crew to building a Stevebot production line.  ETC?

2.Assign a construction crew to building a Biochemical forge.  Before, this has taken thirty days.

3.Assign a Science crew to researching the "Blueraditite" that we discovered on the anomalous planetoid, with possible use as a power source.  Details in spoiler below.  ETC?

Spoiler: Blueraditite data (click to show/hide)

Small Blueraditite ("Blue beads","Anomalous Shard Fragments","Small Coerulus"):
   Origin:
      -Found near the place where the large Blueraditite that came from the radiation orb from zone 6 impacted the infirmary corridor. They were spread both inside and outside the corridor.
      -Also found in the track the radiation orb left in the ground.
   Physical characterisitics:
      -Rice shaped
      -Milky blue semi-transparent
      -Mildly Radioactive (not dangerous to humans)
      -Incredibly hard
         --Nothing happens if they break
      -Mildly Electrically charged
      -Radiation and electrical charge increase when in proximity to other small blueraditites.
   Danger: No danger exhibited yet, proceed with moderate caution.
      -It is unknown whether or not the objects will remain inert. Periodic checks recommended.
   Location:
      -The vault
      -The track left in the ground by the radiation orb
   Test results:
      -"First thing, Their structure is oddly crystalline, considering they're so smooth and ovoid, and you can make out myriad rombohedral structures through the microscope. They aren't terribly dense, but are extremely tough, as your attempts to test their hardness yield not a single scratch or chip. They are mildly radioactive and electro-active, qualities that increase when near other beads; so much so that visible arcing between beads is observed when they are a few inches apart. Flame seems to have no effect on them, besides blacking them with it's residue, which can be wiped off to reveal the unchanged surface."
      -Shooting them with a hand laser caused them to break. Nothing happened when they broke.
      -Did not react to acids or bases.
   Addendum:
      -The nature of the anomaly that produced them implies great capabilities for energy production. Object may fetch a good price.

Large Blueraditite ("The Hot Potato","Anomalous Shard","Large Coerulus"):
   Origin:
      -Found near the place where the radiation orb from zone 6 impacted the infirmary corridor. It was inside the corridor.
   Physical characteristics:
      -Some physical properties can be extrapolated by experimenting with the smaller artifacts of the same kind.
      -Looks like the middle section of a cylinder
         --? The blue radiation orb was a cylinder? The object in the center of zone 6 is a cylinder?
      -Glowing with a blue glow
      -Radioactive (A few minutes of contact are enough to cause radiation poisoning to suited individuals. Synthetics will fare better due to lack of body.)
      -Electrically charged (visible electrical arcing)
      -Hot
      -Vibratring
   Danger: Highly radioactive, proceed with extreme caution.
      -It is unknown whether or not the object will remain inert. Periodic checks recommended.
   Location:
      -Near the zone 6-1 boundary
   Test results:
      -"Thermal reveals that it's hot, which really isn't a surprise considering all the radiation leaking out of the thing. Motion reveals it's either vibrating slightly or it's causing minor distortion in the thin amounts of atmosphere around here. X-ray can't see inside it and the rest are equally unhelpful."
      -"The thing is quite different from the beads. Where as the beads were small, smooth and ovoid this thing is quite large and is partially cylindrical, with a jagged edge on both sides, as though it was broken off from the middle of a larger rod. It doesn't seem crystalline in nature either, though it's hard to tell without a microscope."
      -"You're not really sure what it or the beads could be made of, but whatever they are they're certainly unstable, and contain a rather massive amount of energy. And neither are amorphous, they're both quite rigid in their shape."
      -"One clear application would be a power source, if you could figure out a way to harness it."
         --Simus
   Addendum:
      -Possibly a chunk of the radiation orb that broke off as it flied near the base towards the crater.
      -Possibly the source of small blueraditite. Small blueraditite chunks must have broken off when the large Blueraditite impacted the infirmary corridor.
         --? The object seems to be incredibly tough. How could chunks of it break off?
      -The nature of the anomaly that produced them implies great capabilities for energy production. Object may fetch a good price.
      -The object seems to be still active.

4.Assign our spaceship construction facilities to start building a fleet of warships, indefinitely.  Since I don't think anyone has actually discussed what our spacefleet is like, can we just decide what the exact composition is afterwards?  If not, build primarily light cruisers, with the orbital shipyard building the largest ship it can in a month.  The ships should have a place to put the FTL AMs, even though we can't currently produce any.

5.Assign the pair of space construction ships to upgrading our jump point defenses indefinitely.

6.Assign the fleshpits to start expanding, and repeat expanding, indefinitely.  This doesn't take construction crews, and typically takes thirty days each iteration.


This is unrelated:

7.Paris and I were arguing about the effectiveness of gauss cannon G-shells against battlesuits, and we ended up finding two confliction quotes from you, one, found by Paris saying that a magazine of G-shells costs six or more tokens, and another provided by AoshimaMichio saying that G-shells cost four tokens each.  Which is the correct price?

Spoiler: Relevant quotes (click to show/hide)

Paris' quote:

What's the price of those nuclear gauss cannon rounds, grav-shells and some kind of armor piercing round that could penetrate a battlesuit with a good hit and burn its insides with explosion or incendiary (like modern anti tank rounds)?

The nuclear tipped rounds are standard, so they're the set ammo price in the armory list. Normal shells are half. Grav-shells are twice as much, if not more. Armor piercing would probably be around the same.

Aoshima's quote:

"I can write up a list, but it will take a bit. I'll have to do inventory. I'm fairly sure we have some others..."

"Sure."

((Does that mean I'll have to give you some time or give her some time? Because I am heading to bed now.))

The armory master heads into the back for a minute and then comes back with a list in hand.

"Lets see. For the rifle we got AP, HP, Melter, Redshell and Blackshot. AP and HP are same price per clip that normal is. Redshell is 3 rounds for a token, and Blackshot is 5 for a token.

For the Cannon we got AP, Standard nuke tipped, straight metal, Hellshot and G-shells.  Ap and standard are same price, straight metal is 2, hellshot is 5 per clip and G-shells are 4 each."

She hands you the list and smirks a bit. "I got a few special shells of my own, but they're probably outside your price range."

8.This is a response to a question you asked last turn.  You wanted to know whether the Gratesplosion artifacts should be revealed one at a time, every few days, or all in a clump after weeks or months.  I want the latter option- all in one go.  What is the ETC, considering the research started Jan.2nd?

[Radio Controlled]

Quick question: the teleporter tech, what is it based on? The same artifact asthe teleporter gun pan bought via nyars? Because I was gonna send that to Hep to reverse engineer it, but I'm not sure now if that's still neccesary.

Oh, and the mindfuck gun, what artifact was that based on?

[piecewise]

Quick question: the teleporter tech, what is it based on? The same artifact asthe teleporter gun pan bought via nyars? Because I was gonna send that to Hep to reverse engineer it, but I'm not sure now if that's still neccesary.

Oh, and the mindfuck gun, what artifact was that based on?

Both the mindfuck and teleport systems are based on artifacts recovered during the second mission.

All the below stuff has been sanctioned by Radio_Controlled.

1.Assign a construction crew to building a Stevebot production line.  ETC?

2.Assign a construction crew to building a Biochemical forge.  Before, this has taken thirty days.

3.Assign a Science crew to researching the "Blueraditite" that we discovered on the anomalous planetoid, with possible use as a power source.  Details in spoiler below.  ETC?

Spoiler: Blueraditite data (click to show/hide)

Small Blueraditite ("Blue beads","Anomalous Shard Fragments","Small Coerulus"):
   Origin:
      -Found near the place where the large Blueraditite that came from the radiation orb from zone 6 impacted the infirmary corridor. They were spread both inside and outside the corridor.
      -Also found in the track the radiation orb left in the ground.
   Physical characterisitics:
      -Rice shaped
      -Milky blue semi-transparent
      -Mildly Radioactive (not dangerous to humans)
      -Incredibly hard
         --Nothing happens if they break
      -Mildly Electrically charged
      -Radiation and electrical charge increase when in proximity to other small blueraditites.
   Danger: No danger exhibited yet, proceed with moderate caution.
      -It is unknown whether or not the objects will remain inert. Periodic checks recommended.
   Location:
      -The vault
      -The track left in the ground by the radiation orb
   Test results:
      -"First thing, Their structure is oddly crystalline, considering they're so smooth and ovoid, and you can make out myriad rombohedral structures through the microscope. They aren't terribly dense, but are extremely tough, as your attempts to test their hardness yield not a single scratch or chip. They are mildly radioactive and electro-active, qualities that increase when near other beads; so much so that visible arcing between beads is observed when they are a few inches apart. Flame seems to have no effect on them, besides blacking them with it's residue, which can be wiped off to reveal the unchanged surface."
      -Shooting them with a hand laser caused them to break. Nothing happened when they broke.
      -Did not react to acids or bases.
   Addendum:
      -The nature of the anomaly that produced them implies great capabilities for energy production. Object may fetch a good price.

Large Blueraditite ("The Hot Potato","Anomalous Shard","Large Coerulus"):
   Origin:
      -Found near the place where the radiation orb from zone 6 impacted the infirmary corridor. It was inside the corridor.
   Physical characteristics:
      -Some physical properties can be extrapolated by experimenting with the smaller artifacts of the same kind.
      -Looks like the middle section of a cylinder
         --? The blue radiation orb was a cylinder? The object in the center of zone 6 is a cylinder?
      -Glowing with a blue glow
      -Radioactive (A few minutes of contact are enough to cause radiation poisoning to suited individuals. Synthetics will fare better due to lack of body.)
      -Electrically charged (visible electrical arcing)
      -Hot
      -Vibratring
   Danger: Highly radioactive, proceed with extreme caution.
      -It is unknown whether or not the object will remain inert. Periodic checks recommended.
   Location:
      -Near the zone 6-1 boundary
   Test results:
      -"Thermal reveals that it's hot, which really isn't a surprise considering all the radiation leaking out of the thing. Motion reveals it's either vibrating slightly or it's causing minor distortion in the thin amounts of atmosphere around here. X-ray can't see inside it and the rest are equally unhelpful."
      -"The thing is quite different from the beads. Where as the beads were small, smooth and ovoid this thing is quite large and is partially cylindrical, with a jagged edge on both sides, as though it was broken off from the middle of a larger rod. It doesn't seem crystalline in nature either, though it's hard to tell without a microscope."
      -"You're not really sure what it or the beads could be made of, but whatever they are they're certainly unstable, and contain a rather massive amount of energy. And neither are amorphous, they're both quite rigid in their shape."
      -"One clear application would be a power source, if you could figure out a way to harness it."
         --Simus
   Addendum:
      -Possibly a chunk of the radiation orb that broke off as it flied near the base towards the crater.
      -Possibly the source of small blueraditite. Small blueraditite chunks must have broken off when the large Blueraditite impacted the infirmary corridor.
         --? The object seems to be incredibly tough. How could chunks of it break off?
      -The nature of the anomaly that produced them implies great capabilities for energy production. Object may fetch a good price.
      -The object seems to be still active.

4.Assign our spaceship construction facilities to start building a fleet of warships, indefinitely.  Since I don't think anyone has actually discussed what our spacefleet is like, can we just decide what the exact composition is afterwards?  If not, build primarily light cruisers, with the orbital shipyard building the largest ship it can in a month.  The ships should have a place to put the FTL AMs, even though we can't currently produce any.

5.Assign the pair of space construction ships to upgrading our jump point defenses indefinitely.

6.Assign the fleshpits to start expanding, and repeat expanding, indefinitely.  This doesn't take construction crews, and typically takes thirty days each iteration.


This is unrelated:

7.Paris and I were arguing about the effectiveness of gauss cannon G-shells against battlesuits, and we ended up finding two confliction quotes from you, one, found by Paris saying that a magazine of G-shells costs six or more tokens, and another provided by AoshimaMichio saying that G-shells cost four tokens each.  Which is the correct price?

Spoiler: Relevant quotes (click to show/hide)

Paris' quote:

What's the price of those nuclear gauss cannon rounds, grav-shells and some kind of armor piercing round that could penetrate a battlesuit with a good hit and burn its insides with explosion or incendiary (like modern anti tank rounds)?

The nuclear tipped rounds are standard, so they're the set ammo price in the armory list. Normal shells are half. Grav-shells are twice as much, if not more. Armor piercing would probably be around the same.

Aoshima's quote:

"I can write up a list, but it will take a bit. I'll have to do inventory. I'm fairly sure we have some others..."

"Sure."

((Does that mean I'll have to give you some time or give her some time? Because I am heading to bed now.))

The armory master heads into the back for a minute and then comes back with a list in hand.

"Lets see. For the rifle we got AP, HP, Melter, Redshell and Blackshot. AP and HP are same price per clip that normal is. Redshell is 3 rounds for a token, and Blackshot is 5 for a token.

For the Cannon we got AP, Standard nuke tipped, straight metal, Hellshot and G-shells.  Ap and standard are same price, straight metal is 2, hellshot is 5 per clip and G-shells are 4 each."

She hands you the list and smirks a bit. "I got a few special shells of my own, but they're probably outside your price range."

8.This is a response to a question you asked last turn.  You wanted to know whether the Gratesplosion artifacts should be revealed one at a time, every few days, or all in a clump after weeks or months.  I want the latter option- all in one go.  What is the ETC, considering the research started Jan.2nd?

You using ETC for when it's done causes me no shortage of headaches. I read it as Etc before my brain does a quick double take and realizes it's Estimated Time of Completion.

Also, I swear we've got more crews assigned to more things then exist.

Yeah, according to the wiki we've only got one idle construction crew. Choose which one to use it on.

Got one science team idle though, so we can work on that. Lets see.

Give them three weeks to figure out some uses.



4.We'll say you get started now, but getting some plans done would be good. Nice and detailed ones if you can swing it.

5.Do we have any free ones? I thought they were all getting space magic facilities finished for the coming parts?

6. Alright, just keep track of it.

7. 4 tokens each seems the better choice; considering their potential.

8. Lets say March first. Oh and if you want, you could throw together a list of all of the artifacts and point out ones you guys are particularly interested in, so we can focus research. Better chance of you guys getting stuff you'd like that way.

[Sean Mirrsen]

((The space shipyard is going to be partially occupied by producing transport ships in the shorter term, and in general Anton is strongly against building up any sort of FTL combat fleet at the moment. The latter is due to his belief that we can't outfight the UWM on equal technology terms, and it will be better not to waste resources building ships that will be no more than cannon fodder. Instead the focus should be on creating new warship weapon systems and similar force multipliers, so that the comparatively few ships we can produce will be able to outfight the greater numbers of UWM ships.))

[Radio Controlled]

Both the mindfuck and teleport systems are based on artifacts recovered during the second mission

in that case, does it still make sense to send that teleporter gun to Hep for analysis, or not? It's the one Pancaek sold a while ago.

Y'know, just checking if we should still bother with that, or if all relevant info has already been extracted.

[piecewise]

Both the mindfuck and teleport systems are based on artifacts recovered during the second mission

in that case, does it still make sense to send that teleporter gun to Hep for analysis, or not? It's the one Pancaek sold a while ago.

Y'know, just checking if we should still bother with that, or if all relevant info has already been extracted.

You might want to. They both use different methods.

[syvarris]

Okay, updated wiki, will do actual post tomorrow.  My brain's telling me it's four, and it's currently only a little before one. >.<

Funny thing:When I saw PW say we didn't have two CCs available, I was confused.  I checked the Hephaestus wiki tab, which said we had two available.  I figured someone had editted it for some reason, so I refreshed.  The "last updated" rolled back two days, and I realized I had never published the update.  Hah.

Anyway, that's why I put the two construction orders up despite PW saying to choose one.  Relatedly, I also wrote that the space construction/salvage ships are improving the defenses, because they were done with the SMF months ago.  They already finished that, and then moved on to salvaging the UWM wrecks.  And finished that, too.


@Sean

I mostly agree with you, but my reasoning for producing warships is the same reason I started building fleshpits a year ago: We have production capabilities, and we're currently doing jack all with them.  If you want to bold an action saying to build something else, be my guest.  Or even chat about what those improved tech ships are, considering the fact that we can retroactively build them.

I do disagree with you about building transports.  I mean, seriously, you already turned almost all of the UWM ships into FTL transports, not to mention the Merchant.  That's five ships, and the Merchant was enough for supply runs to the Sword.  Do you really think we'll need more than four transports for Q'baja's imports/exports, and that they won't be able to provide any themselves?  Yes, current tech warships are basically cannon fodder, but current tech transports are even moreso.

[Sean Mirrsen]

@Sean

I mostly agree with you, but my reasoning for producing warships is the same reason I started building fleshpits a year ago: We have production capabilities, and we're currently doing jack all with them.  If you want to bold an action saying to build something else, be my guest.  Or even chat about what those improved tech ships are, considering the fact that we can retroactively build them.

Well, there isn't much to talk about, really. We just need better (bigger, more powerful, more efficient) weapons, new tech to perhaps defend the ships, etc. We're likely not going to invent any new fleet warfare paradigms, ships like the Black Death are powerful in principle but probably not cost-effective. We can test that, I suppose.

I do disagree with you about building transports.  I mean, seriously, you already turned almost all of the UWM ships into FTL transports, not to mention the Merchant.  That's five ships, and the Merchant was enough for supply runs to the Sword.  Do you really think we'll need more than four transports for Q'baja's imports/exports, and that they won't be able to provide any themselves?  Yes, current tech warships are basically cannon fodder, but current tech transports are even moreso.

The UWM ships are cargo/warships, not dedicated haulers. They kept their main guns and (some) point defenses, mainly because they are the only force we can project at all right now, so stripping them of guns is not smart. They also suck as dedicated transports for that reason. Some dedicated transport ships will be needed, and don't forget that Hephaestus is only the biggest, not the only site the ARM needs to keep supplied. And the Scabbards can be used as mobile operation bases for any future acquisition missions that are too minor for the Sword itself to embark on.

And don't forget that they're my cover-up for Steve's secret ships.

[syvarris]

Well, there isn't much to talk about, really. We just need better (bigger, more powerful, more efficient) weapons, new tech to perhaps defend the ships, etc. We're likely not going to invent any new fleet warfare paradigms, ships like the Black Death are powerful in principle but probably not cost-effective. We can test that, I suppose.

There isn't much to talk about?  Really?  We aren't going to decide whether to use missiles, lasers, railguns, gauss weapons, PSLs, HEPs, crystalline projectors, mindfuckers, nuke teleporters, fighters, rolly surface turrets, overloading manip launchers (cyanine missiles?), oversized automanips, AoW SM spheres, or whatever?  There's plenty of options I missed there.

How about fleet composition?  Are we using mostly heavy capital ships, with cruisers being focused on stealth?  Lots of skirmish-oriented cruisers, with a few battleships sniping?  Massive supercarriers with huge fighter swarms?  A generic balanced fleet?  Lots and lots of almost unarmored blitz ships?

What are we focusing on in our design balances?  Are our ships super-heavily armored, so that we have minimum losses?  Do they have massive amounts of stealth tech, so we can choose our battles and have excellent intelligence?  Armed to the teeth, so that they can destroy a UWM fleet many times their own size?  Extremely mobile, so that we always have the option of fleeing, and repositioning is simple?  Cheapness, so that we can close the attrition gap?


My preference would be heavily armored capships, primarily using upscaled PSLs mixed with FELs and possibly mindfuckers, with the cruisers being stealth oriented troop carriers specialized for orbital bombardment.  Add in a few AoW amp stealth fighters.  Does this line up well with your preference?  Do either of our preferences line up with Pyro's?  Or Radio's?  Or PW's judements on what would be actually effective?

I don't know.  So we should probably talk about it.  If nobody does, I'm going to build whatever I think is best, unless someone else builds something themselves.  A poor decision is far better than none at all.

The UWM ships are cargo/warships, not dedicated haulers. They kept their main guns and (some) point defenses, mainly because they are the only force we can project at all right now, so stripping them of guns is not smart. They also suck as dedicated transports for that reason. Some dedicated transport ships will be needed, and don't forget that Hephaestus is only the biggest, not the only site the ARM needs to keep supplied. And the Scabbards can be used as mobile operation bases for any future acquisition missions that are too minor for the Sword itself to embark on.

And don't forget that they're my cover-up for Steve's secret ships.

Hmm.  Generally, most of our Hephaestus stuff is very OOC, and I usually just assume that IC actions mostly mimic OOC actions.  For example, in my head Steve Saint has talked with Miya about troops about as much as I have with Radio, since he's in charge of sods on Heph.  I'm not sure what to think with this, though, because the hinge is that last line, which is fine OOC, but probably wouldn't be said IC.  I guess I'll just handwave it away as SS asked ARESTEVE to pick up the slack in ship production, since Anton and Simus are acting like shut-ins again; he didn't pay attention to the actual ship composition, and doesn't really care, so he never noticed the inefficiency of the UWM ships.

Annoying that Steve is keeping secrets like that.  It's perfectly logical, seeing as he both knows far more than any of us, and plans to kill us all, but annoying all the same.

Anyway, action:

Heph:

1.I often update the Heph page at the same time as my Hephaestus action, but last time I had forgotten to publish the update.  I had opened up a second con. crew because you said the massive ship built to handle the compaction AM would be done either way, and you authorized it.  Therefore, we should be able to build both a stevebot facility and biochemical forge.  How long will the stevebot facility take?

2.The space construction ships were done with the Space Magic Facility a while ago.  IIRC, two construction crews helped out, so it got finished quite quickly.  In fact, they had also salvaged the orbital wrecks after that.  I decided to mark them on the wiki as improving our JP defenses indefinitely.  Is this okay?

Personal:

3.Examine ARESTEVE's mindfucker.  How does it work, exactly?

4.What range does it have?

5.How effective is it against enemy infantry and battlesuits?  What effects does it have, and how are they mitigated by armor, if at all?

6.What flaws/dangers does it have?

7.Examine ARESTEVE's teleporter.  How does it work, exactly?

8.What limitations does it have?  Size of teleport, range, etc.

9.What flaws/dangers does it have?

[Radio Controlled]

You might want to. They both use different methods.

Good to know, continuing as planned then. By the way, when will the shipments to and from Hep arrive? End of the last mission in the batch, right? And when should we tell you what to ship?

By the way, Hep pinguins (but mostly kingpin pyro), are we still on for sending the pill machine back to the sword next run?


I agree with syv that the composition of our fleet warrants discussion, it's rather too important not to. However, I don't think I'll be able to hold very detailed discussions untill the end of the month or so (small posts are one thing, but these are the kind of topics often warranting walls 'o text). But don't let that stop you!

One thing I would just like to remind us of, is that we really need to work closely with pw/steve when deciding these. After all, he is the one who decides what works and what doesn't in this universe, so even if we have a particular idea which we can back with arguments, it'll still be up to him whether it works. And hey, if you have a big brain to help with the thinking, it'd be stupid not to exploit it.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Spoiler: Wall of text (click to show/hide)

There isn't much to talk about?  Really?

I meant that "we don't have any improved tech of sufficient caliber to talk about yet". We can talk about things, but in the end what we'll use will be decided by what exists and works. Right now that's just the mass drivers, lasers, and missiles.

We aren't going to decide whether to use missiles, lasers, railguns, gauss weapons, PSLs, HEPs, crystalline projectors, mindfuckers, nuke teleporters, fighters, rolly surface turrets, overloading manip launchers (cyanine missiles?), oversized automanips, AoW SM spheres, or whatever?  There's plenty of options I missed there.

My preference would be a mix of advanced kinetic and energy weapons coupled with specialist ships for nonstandard solutions. For the latter I specifically want "barrier ships". Ship-to-ship weapons being what they are, they are very hard to defend against, so I'd like to develop some options for cost- and energy-effective defense, especially against kinetic weapons. I have a number of ideas in that regard, but Anton's "secretive inventor" nature is going to get in the way of getting all of those rapidly developed.

How about fleet composition?  Are we using mostly heavy capital ships, with cruisers being focused on stealth?  Lots of skirmish-oriented cruisers, with a few battleships sniping?  Massive supercarriers with huge fighter swarms?  A generic balanced fleet?  Lots and lots of almost unarmored blitz ships?

Primarily a "workhorse strikeforce" supported by specialists. There's a lot of "ifs" and "buts" here. If the barrier ships work, for instance, then the incredibly costly strikecraft carriers can be viable, as the carriers can then be screened and not taken out with a couple of well-placed shots. If some of my other ideas pan out, a different kind of specialist ships would be possible, one that could pretty much just waltz right up to the side of any enemy ship and do whatever. If we can make teleporter-bombs work on the fleet battle scale, then we won't need any of those - we can just telebomb everything we're up against, including something nasty like accelerated sharkmist bombs to cripple capital ships. The possibilities are endless, but until at least some of the possibilities are certainties, I have nothing to put forward. Therefore, not much to discuss.

What are we focusing on in our design balances?  Are our ships super-heavily armored, so that we have minimum losses?  Do they have massive amounts of stealth tech, so we can choose our battles and have excellent intelligence?  Armed to the teeth, so that they can destroy a UWM fleet many times their own size?  Extremely mobile, so that we always have the option of fleeing, and repositioning is simple?  Cheapness, so that we can close the attrition gap?

I would lean towards tech-advantage. Throwing numbers at the enemy is how UWM is used to fighting. What exactly the tech-advantage will be, highly depends on what tech we manage to develop. Either a defense advantage or an offense advantage will work, but in either case (or in combination) it would have to be decisive. One our ship taking out five to ten of theirs of the same weight class without suffering critical damage kind of decisive. Mobility though... eh. I have a /very rough/ idea of what we could do to try for the mobility angle, but just being able to be (or not be) in a given place when we need it won't let us win a fight where everything else is stacked against us.

My preference would be heavily armored capships, primarily using upscaled PSLs mixed with FELs and possibly mindfuckers, with the cruisers being stealth oriented troop carriers specialized for orbital bombardment.  Add in a few AoW amp stealth fighters.  Does this line up well with your preference?  Do either of our preferences line up with Pyro's?  Or Radio's?  Or PW's judements on what would be actually effective?

Well, see above. On a basic level, yes, it lines up with my idea of a workable fleet composition, but PSLs and FELs won't be enough to tip the scales in our favor. Mindfuck guns are a big maybe, we'll have to test them, but the effect can be resisted, and any automated and robotic systems will be unaffected - so if a ship has a non-biological computer that's been already given orders to target and engage, disabling the crew with the mindfuck effect won't accomplish much. Ultimately, I'd like to at least toss some of the advanced armor composites we've been developing on them as well, at least to absorb laser fire. If we can get ablative armor that can stand up to a single shot of a shipborne mass driver, then we need to use that on everything we have. The ships we can make now, will not cut it at all.

I don't know.  So we should probably talk about it.  If nobody does, I'm going to build whatever I think is best, unless someone else builds something themselves.  A poor decision is far better than none at all.

Okay, let's talk and make plans then. Saint will get a chance to talk to Anton while he's getting some poor Sod's face melted off by his new prototype tomorrow-ish. They can discuss fleet composition plans then, especially since Simus kinda saddled Anton with managing the shipbuilding, so it's his responsibility anyway.

Annoying that Steve is keeping secrets like that.  It's perfectly logical, seeing as he both knows far more than any of us, and plans to kill us all, but annoying all the same.

Yeah. Even Anton has no idea what those ships are for, and he's the one building them. Secrets, secrets everywhere. But the Scabbard class is something Anton actually thinks the ARM is going to need. It's not going to need EIGHT of them, at least in the immediate future, but the two that will actually end up making runs to and from Hephaestus will definitely be useful.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Anton Chernozorov

After being missing for an indeterminate amount of time, Anton once again appears walking within the corridors of the base, somewhat tired but subtly smiling. Sitting on the old-fashioned trolley that he is pushing along in front of himself is... a thing.

The thing is best described as a large metal box, with an aperture on the side and a curious little button on top. A knob next to the button makes the whole thing look a little like the unholy mother of all jack-in-the-boxes, born in the bowels of machine hell and arduously worked upon with 20th century household power tools. It's hard to say what this box once was, but the aperture and the little button combined hint at its current purpose being some form of weapon.

Anton would feel a lot more confident, and safer, if he was certain that his latest prototype was actually a weapon, as opposed to a highly unconventional explosive. With that in mind, he navigates his trolley towards the shuttle bays, and sends a text message on his way there.

Saint, I'm conducting a little prototype test. If you want to see me potentially embarrass myself, fly over to the old salvage yard site. Bring a camera.

I'm also borrowing several Sods. Letting you know in case something happens to them, since you're the one in charge of them. I think.
Dammit I'm tired.

Commandeer a couple of sods as muscle power/lab rats. Acquire several slabs of cruiser armor plate at the ground shipyard for use as targets, load everything and the prototype into a shuttle, and fly over to the old salvage yard site (that's now been cleared) to begin testing.

Since the knob on the device looks and acts like a mechanical valve, may as well refer to it in those terms. Cranking it all the way in one direction would be "fully open", all the way in another would be "fully closed".

1. Start with aiming the prototype at some armor plate from, say, 50 meters, using the trolley, stationing a Sod next to it with orders to press the button when the command is given, and putting the knob in the "fully open" position. Then retreat to a safe distance and give the command to fire. Observe results.
(edit: Saint is providing remote robosods instead of regular Sods. May as well use them instead, as per his post below.)

2. If prototype survives and is still operating (replace tester Sod if needed), put the knob in the "half open" position, replace target slab if necessary, and repeat the test. Observe results.

3. If still operating, replace tester/target as needed, put the knob in the "fully closed" position, and repeat test. Observe results.

4. If complete penetration of target is miraculously achieved in any of the phases, stack all the armor slabs together as one target and repeat the test to find out maximum penetration.

Measure, record, and document all testing parameters. Find out or theorize what went wrong and how, because no way this is going to work without a hitch.

[syvarris]

I never go anywhere without a camera.  I'll be there shortly.

Also, I'll bring a few unoccupied robotic bodies with me, and have some of the robosods possess them.  That way, there's no real loss if they get killed.  Please hold off until we're there.

Go bring ten robotic bodies, possessed by sods, to Anton, before his experiment starts.  Possess one of them, instead of sending an Aux body.  Request Anton use these instead of fleshies, and then watch the (potential) fireworks.

A short amount of time after Saint's text arrives, a shuttle arrives and releases ten robosod bodies, which jog up to his experiment site with eerie synchronization.  They stop near his device, and then one breaks from formation to take a closer look.  After examining it for a moment, it quips "Well, you certainly have a knack for making guns that look like engine blocks.  Hopefully it'll be as impressive as your previous designs."  The body examines the block for a few more seconds, then turns to Anton and shrugs "So what does it do?  How does it work?"