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[Iituem]

True.  In future, if it's a possibility, put in a vote for Delay End of Phase and unless there's strong votes against it I'll delay ending the phase.

[crazyabe]

Revision 1:
Infra-Red Cell Clusters: (5) NUKE9.13, Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy
Revision 2:
Larval Mitosis: (4) Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy

[RAM]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Design: Xylophagic External Digestive System  [Effectiveness: 1-1] [Cost: 1-1] [Bugs: 3-1]

The XEDS has proved to be an unmitigated disaster.  Quite apart from the ambitious attempt to skip right past any sort of omnivorous stomach based around digesting grains or fruits and going straight to digesting plant matter, we seem to have run into basic chemical failures.  We tried extending the stomachs of some experimental Workers to incorporate more acid, but a lot of them simply eroded themselves from the inside or even violently exploded after any sort of mild trauma.  Worse still, it seems that no amount of acid will actually break apart the cellulose in the plant matter we have tried to digest.  The only thing we have managed to get out of this is a slightly improved mechanism for Workers to expel the contents of their stomachs in a hurry.

Given the total failure, we will not be implementing this design in any of our drones this turn.[/b]

Revision: Clawed Workers  [Design: 1+1]

We ran into some problems trying to add more barbs and ridges to our Workers; over-multiplication.  Several dozen of the early versions ended up with ridges and claws on every part of their body, making them impractical for many tasks, others resulted in barbs that were overly large or even comically small.  We have managed to stabilise at half a dozen ridges on each limb; they aren't clawed in the way that we hoped, but they do provide a modicum of grip when attempting to surmount defences and a slight edge in melee combat.  It may not be much, but multiplied over our entire force it's an edge that may be worth having.[/b]

Cattle mutilation
Clearly we are just using the wrong acids, or something. Go out there and find something that can eat plants and copy its acids to get our X.E.D.S. working!

Enzyme Support
Introduce enzymes to act as catalysts for the acids in our X.E.D.S. project to reduce the intensity and quantity of acid required and thus lower costs.

Tight Genes
Those clawed workers just didn't work. It seems that the claws were inserted into a particularly unstable piece of biology. Tighten up the code a bit to improve the reliability.

Leg Springs
We adjust our legs to conserve more energy as they release to have more energy when they push. Unlikely to help steering and initial acceleration at all, but ideally it would increase top speed and marching stamina a bit.

[kopout]

Would 10ebbor10's suggestion have the same result as NUKE9.13's? If so I'll vote for Infra-Red Cell Clusters because it already has a lot of support but I think secondary eyes are a better way of going about it.

Revision 1:
Infra-Red Cell Clusters: (6) NUKE9.13, Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy, kopout
Revision 2:
Larval Mitosis: (4) Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy

I  don't think Larval Mitosis will actually help, our limiting factor in manpower is food as far as I can tell. RAM's suggestions meanwhile seem more like something to do after we aren't being besieged at our only hive.

[NUKE9.13]

Revision 1:
Infra-Red Cell Clusters: (6) NUKE9.13, Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy, kopout
Revision 2:
Larval Mitosis: (4) Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy
None: (2) NUKE9.13, kopout

I'll edit my IR suggestion to mention the possibility of separating the IR cells into an entirely separate eye.

I'm again going to argue against Larval Mitosis. It is overambitious for a revision- we have no tech like it, it involves changing something we have no experience with- and it doesn't actually increase our maximum manpower, since all them babies still gotta eat.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Design: Xylophagic External Digestive System  [Effectiveness: 1-1] [Cost: 1-1] [Bugs: 3-1]

The XEDS has proved to be an unmitigated disaster.  Quite apart from the ambitious attempt to skip right past any sort of omnivorous stomach based around digesting grains or fruits and going straight to digesting plant matter, we seem to have run into basic chemical failures.  We tried extending the stomachs of some experimental Workers to incorporate more acid, but a lot of them simply eroded themselves from the inside or even violently exploded after any sort of mild trauma.  Worse still, it seems that no amount of acid will actually break apart the cellulose in the plant matter we have tried to digest.  The only thing we have managed to get out of this is a slightly improved mechanism for Workers to expel the contents of their stomachs in a hurry.

Given the total failure, we will not be implementing this design in any of our drones this turn.[/b]

Revision: Clawed Workers  [Design: 1+1]

We ran into some problems trying to add more barbs and ridges to our Workers; over-multiplication.  Several dozen of the early versions ended up with ridges and claws on every part of their body, making them impractical for many tasks, others resulted in barbs that were overly large or even comically small.  We have managed to stabilise at half a dozen ridges on each limb; they aren't clawed in the way that we hoped, but they do provide a modicum of grip when attempting to surmount defences and a slight edge in melee combat.  It may not be much, but multiplied over our entire force it's an edge that may be worth having.[/b]

Cattle mutilation
Clearly we are just using the wrong acids, or something. Go out there and find something that can eat plants and copy its acids to get our X.E.D.S. working!

Enzyme Support
Introduce enzymes to act as catalysts for the acids in our X.E.D.S. project to reduce the intensity and quantity of acid required and thus lower costs.

Tight Genes
Those clawed workers just didn't work. It seems that the claws were inserted into a particularly unstable piece of biology. Tighten up the code a bit to improve the reliability.

Leg Springs
We adjust our legs to conserve more energy as they release to have more energy when they push. Unlikely to help steering and initial acceleration at all, but ideally it would increase top speed and marching stamina a bit.

Hmm, hmm. These all seem fine. We don't have four dice to spend, obviously, only two (we need to save the third for the Strategy phase).
I might vote for it if you reword the enzyme one in such a manner that it suggests we might also lower the cost of our Spitter's acid? I mean, acid is acid, right? (wrong)

[RAM]

I am unclear on the current voting scheme?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It looks like it is like this:

Delay End of Phase:
Aye:
Nay:

Die 1:
Infra-red Revision:
Larval Mitosis:
Infra-Red Cell Clusters: (6) NUKE9.13, Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy, kopout
Cattle mutilation:
Enzyme Support:
Tight Genes:
Leg Springs:
Save it:

die 2:
Infra-red Revision:
Larval Mitosis: (4) Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy
Infra-Red Cell Clusters:
Cattle mutilation:
Enzyme Support:
Tight Genes:
Leg Springs:
save it: (2) NUKE9.13, kopout

Die 3:
Infra-red Revision:
Larval Mitosis:
Infra-Red Cell Clusters:
Cattle mutilation:
Enzyme Support:
Tight Genes:
Leg Springs:
save it:

I would be more familiar with this:

Delay End of Phase:
Aye:
Nay:

Infra-red Revision:
Larval Mitosis: (4) Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy
Infra-Red Cell Clusters: (6) NUKE9.13, Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy, kopout
Cattle mutilation:
Enzyme Support:
Tight Genes:
Leg Springs:
Save 1 die:
Save 2 dice: NUKE9.13, kopout
Save 3 dice:

Which would also be easier to keep under control.

Oh NINJA! (Wait, it is incredible offensive to use a profession as an expression of suffering, isn't it... Meh, they are only ninjas, what are they gunna do, go home and cry to their shadows? Pfft, ninjas...)
Now it looks more like this

Delay End of Phase:
Aye:
Nay:

Infra-red Revision:
Yes:
No:
Larval Mitosis:
Yes: (4) Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy
No:
Infra-Red Cell Clusters:
Yes: (6) NUKE9.13, Shadowclaw, Puppyguard, FallacyofUrist, Crazy, kopout
No: (2) NUKE9.13, kopout
Cattle mutilation:
Yes:
No:
Enzyme Support:
Yes:
No:
Tight Genes:
Yes:
No:
Leg Springs:
Yes:
No:

[NUKE9.13]

Oh. Right. You want every single suggestion in the votebox at all times.
...
How about a compromise, alright? Put the suggestions that aren't being voted for in a spoiler in the votebox; that way they don't clutter the thing up, but people can still see what they are if they want.

As for the format, I think the current one is fine. Unless a situation arises where it becomes a problem, don't fix what ain't broke.

[10ebbor10]

I'm again going to argue against Larval Mitosis. It is overambitious for a revision- we have no tech like it, it involves changing something we have no experience with- and it doesn't actually increase our maximum manpower, since all them babies still gotta eat.

The tech does not improve max manpower, because it isn't supposed to increase max manpower. It's supposed to increase reinforcement rates, which are not at all limited by available food. After all, our available food supplies are good 7200 manpower worth of troops, and we're nowhere near that number.

It's also not too ambitious. It's a single revision that changes a single thing, namely the cost of our workers.

[NUKE9.13]

Right, okay. Increasing reinforcement rates is fine. Still not sure it's worth a revision, but it'd work, at least.

It's also not too ambitious. It's a single revision that changes a single thing, namely the cost of our workers.

Well, hang on, is this about Worker cost or reinforcement rate? Because this won't reduce the cost of workers. We'd still need to feed them the same amount, and that's what manpower cost represents.
If you want to lower unit costs, you'd be better off going with one of RAM's revisions that work towards fixing XEDS.

[RAM]

I might vote for it if you reword the enzyme one in such a manner that it suggests we might also lower the cost of our Spitter's acid? I mean, acid is acid, right? (wrong)

Well shucks, I don't know about acid, but enzymes are definitely enzymes! If an enzyme can make a cell-wall vulnerable to acid, then a cell membrane should be piece of cake!(I suspect that cake contains more cell walls than cell membranes, typically flour would be the main ingredient, right? So, like, actually the opposite...) We'll just load it up and... ugh, sorry, I can't do this. Feel free to make your own version though!

So, the voting system is that we vote what to do with each individual die? With an option for yes or no for each proposal? Should we nominate a die upon which to place the proposal when proposing?

[10ebbor10]

Right, okay. Increasing reinforcement rates is fine. Still not sure it's worth a revision, but it'd work, at least.

It's also not too ambitious. It's a single revision that changes a single thing, namely the cost of our workers.

Well, hang on, is this about Worker cost or reinforcement rate? Because this won't reduce the cost of workers. We'd still need to feed them the same amount, and that's what manpower cost represents.
If you want to lower unit costs, you'd be better off going with one of RAM's revisions that work towards fixing XEDS.

Fixing XEDS is not a short term project.

This thing is supposed to supply additional workers in the short term, so yeah, reinforcements rates.

[NUKE9.13]

So, the voting system is that we vote what to do with each individual die?

Yes, each individual die.

With an option for yes or no for each proposal?

Well, an option for each potential option, and an option for none.

Should we nominate a die upon which to place the proposal when proposing?

Sure. If you want. And if people would rather place it under a different die, we can work that out when it comes up.
Basically, the system is we wing it, and worry about fixing it when it breaks. If you want to vote in a way that doesn't work in the current system, feel free to modify it. Otherwise, leave it simple.

Fixing XEDS is not a short term project.

Right, which is why I said work towards, not finish. Making some progress with a revision will make it easier to complete later, and might yield some short-term benefits as well (like cheaper Spitters, maybe)

This thing is supposed to supply additional workers in the short term, so yeah, reinforcements rates.

Alright.

[10ebbor10]

Oh, another random idea.

We could try giving the clawed worker idea another go. A drone which can climb would be very good in ambushes.

[Detoxicated]

I am in favour for spring legs for die3 as the jumps could be easily used to dismiss enemy formations

[NUKE9.13]

We need die 3 for the strategy phase.