Revision: Have You Tried Asking Nicely?!
So we have this Kvasir thing we just made, and it appears to work, and we think it's sentient, but it won't actually talk to us. At least, that's what I was told. So I went down to the lab to check it out, and, when I saw that it wasn't responding to the team, I said, "Have you tried asking nicely?", and the look of complete bafflement I received from every direction was so overwhelming that I felt I had no choice but to sit down at the console and write: ">HELLO MISTER KVASIR, WILL YOU PLEASE TALK TO ME? 😅"
Long story short, after a few minutes of churning the machine returned "yes", and now I'm project head! This is very exciting to me since I was just here for "bring your child to work day"!
Hard: (4+3)-1=6: Above AverageRumours that Kvasir's recent cooperativeness are due to one teenager asking an obvious question are greatly exaggerated. The child in question is an AI savant, and our previous failures were unavoidable. That's our excuse, and we're sticking to it.
The newly promoted Tim Ghasal (age 15) has made astounding leaps in AI psychology, making his initial accomplishment of encoding a simple greeting in a way Kvasir understood seem like nothing, even though our top researchers struggled for months to do the same. We now understand much more about how Kvasir operates and what it is capable of. Sort of. Well, Tim does, at least.
The short version is this: Kvasir has a sense of self; it understands that there is Kvasir on the one hand, and everything else on the other. As a follow on from that, it has a sense of self-preservation, understanding that under certain conditions, Kvasir could cease to exist, which it seeks to avoid. Kvasir is also capable of learning things arbitrarily, or at least attempting to; it struggles to understand even seemingly basic concepts, but with the right 'tutoring', it can grow to understand nearly anything. To be clear, it is not as intelligent as a human. It is better at some things, but worse on average.
There is a major problem with Kvasir, which is that, aside from mild curiosity and self-preservation, it lacks motivation. However, based on the now plentiful feedback from Kvasir, we've created Kvasir v2. Kv2 has been modified such that it has a built-in motivation to aid the Quillian state and protect Quillian citizens. It has also been streamlined, requiring substantially less processing power to operate, although it still requires a lot. Kv2's natural aptitude for hacking will allow it to disrupt Ertex's operations- where we can deploy it. Currently, the necessary computers are incredibly bulky, and we haven't had time to design a dedicated craft to carry it- though conceivably an Odin could be gutted and fitted with the necessary systems. To miniaturise Kvasir much further would likely require a new form of computing technology.
The original Kvasir is still running in a lab. When the subject of deactivating it was raised, it got really distressed, to the point where some researchers suggested it would be murder to turn it off. Others disagree, and consider it a waste of resources to keep a manifestly
artificial being "alive" for sentimental reasons. After extensive debates, they have passed the buck to you- you must decide what fate will befall Kvasir v1. This may or may not have consequences one way or another.
Anyway. Kvasir v2 can be sent out in an ITC at the cost of 0.5SPP or 0.5GPP, taking up 1TC, and will be able to hack into Eretexite networks at long range and wreak havoc on their computer systems. We could also create ground installations on planets we control 50% of (1GPP & 2TC, comes with radio relays to cover a large part of the planet).
Another decision we must make is whether to build Kv2 installations on Quillus itself. They wouldn't cost anything, and would have no negative effects... but you know how people are. Some concerns have been raised that giving an AGI the potential to control every computer on the planet could backfire in the future.
It is now the Strategy Phase of SY108. Don't forget about the event. Also, decide what to do with Kvasir v1, and whether to build Kv2 installations on Quillus.
Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): The ships that carried colonists to your homeworld, now repurposed as military transports. They use rocket shuttles to ferry things to and from the surface. These shuttles have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC. It uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armour or armaments. It is Very Slow, and quite large.
Cost: 2SPP
QS-RAS-00 'Dove': A heavier shuttle for the ITC, powered by a Loki-class Stardust reactor and fitted with Apollo thrusters. It has light armour and two 30mm Hayks. Can carry 3TC. Adds 1SPP to the cost of an ITC.
QS-CA-99 'Odin': A heavily armoured medium-sized spaceship. Her hull is all slope, the front being a point, from which slopes lead up to the widest point, then slopes lead down at the same angle, before being cut off, leaving a large flat area in the back, where the main thrusters are. Aforementioned main thrusters are three Apollos. She has five smaller thrusters mounted pointing in other directions, providing excellent manoeuvrability. Her powerplant is a Stardust reactor. She is armed with four Gjallarhorn turrets providing excellent coverage, and a single spinal-mount extra-long Gjallarhorn. Her weapons are aimed by the Huginn System, which automatically collects data from her improved radar. Her armour consists of a layer of Heavy titanium with faraday insulation, with a layer of Light ceramics mounted a full three meters away from the main hull. Despite her bulk, she moves at a Moderate pace.
Can be given Mirage Plating for an extra 0.5SPP
Cost: 3SPP
QS-SF-00 'Loki': A small-ish fighter, capable of independent operation for a few days before needing to resupply. A substantially downsized Stardust reactor provides power to the Apollo thrusters, as well as the singular Gjallarhorn coilgun. Has light armour, and a radio capable of same-orbit communication. Requires a transport to act as 'mothership'- two Lokis take up 1TC. They are now equipped with Mirage Plating.
Cost: 1SPP for two.
Equipment
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards before the war, the only real weapon both colonies started with. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap
X100 Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmoured and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap
QS-PIA-05 'Heimdallr': A great big suit of powered armour, providing atmospherically sealed protection for infantry where ever they may go. It uses Eitr batteries to provide 3-4 hours of operation before needing to recharge (it can be plugged into a Hrungnir, or a generator at a camp). The armour plating is not especially thick, and somewhat awkwardly designed- slightly less awkward than the X100, though. It has Mirage Plating... but whilst it protects reasonably against visible-light lasers at all times, the 'invisibility' only works when standing perfectly still in the correct pose, otherwise light gets redirected in, uh, interesting ways, turning it into a wild light show. Fortunately, the plating can be turned off if desired.
Cost: 3GPP (up to two sets may be equipped by a single unit)
Weight: 1TC (0.5 in shuttle)
Interplanetary Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets. Too big to fit on an ITC. Currently only useful for taunting Ertex.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 2TC
QS-IRW-99 'Hayk': The Hayk is a micromissile-firing rifle. It is magazine fed, has a reasonable rate of fire, and is accurate at a surprising distance- theoretically out to Long range, although few are capable of such superhuman feats. There is an ammo variant which explodes on contact, though it is less accurate and in shorter supply.
Cost: Cheap
QS-GL-02 'Fog Machine': The Fog Machine is a simple grenade launcher, basically nothing more than an oversized Hayk with a shortened barrel. It fires either smoke/chaff or explosives. Range/accuracy is a bit of an issue.
Cost: Cheap
Vehicles
QS-MBT-02 'Hrungnir': The Hrungnir is a big tank, with fairly heavy armour in the form of a layer of ceramics atop a layer of titanium (all sloped). It is powered by a Stardust reactor, basically the same one used by the Loki. The energy is used to drive electric motors which in turn drive the treads upon which the Hrungnir sits. It is equipped with a 50mm stabilized auto-loading Gjallarhorn coilgun, the barrel of which can also be used to fire upsized explosive Hayk rockets. It has an electronics package that handles fire control and sensors. It also has smoke/chaff dispensers, which automatically cloud the vehicle in smoke/chaff (for atmosphereless planets) when sensors detect unusual heating.
It has an Ullr system mounted on the roof, and can be made mostly invisible with Mirage Plating for an additional 1GPP.
Cost: 4GPP
Weight: 3TC
Infrastructure
Colony Defence Grid: The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to self defence the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.
QS-CPP-96 'Stardust': A fusion reactor, copies of which can be found across Quillus, powering industry. Utilises powerful niobium-tin superconductors, cooled by liquid helium, to contain plasma in a Tokamak-style. The "Brokkr's Forge" improvements have made it slightly more effective, to the point where it reaches ignition. Grants 2GPP and 2SPP. A smaller version designed for use in spaceships also exists.
Loose Parts
QS-MAC-97 'Mjolnir': A coilgun (and definitely not a railgun) capable of firing 150mm slugs at considerable speeds. Requires a substantial power supply. Ground installations cost 1GPP for four. Ship mountings cost 1SPP for eight.
Gjallarhorn: An improved version of the Mjolnir, featuring Lorfium superconductors that increase muzzle velocity by 15%, as well as special shells that feature a superconducting core, which drastically increases muzzle velocity due to the Meissner effect.
QS-MHD-98 'Apollo': A magneto-plasma-dynamic thruster of exceptional efficiency. Uses hydrogen plasma by default; heavier elements can be injected into the mix for a boost in thrust.
QS-MAMG-04 'Ullr': A highly effective CIWS system, using a miniaturised coilgun firing 6mm slugs, using Huginn-based aiming assistance. Excellent at shooting down missiles and enemy infantry alike.
Misc Tech
QS-PMP-96 'Auto-Forge': A 3D-printer that prints using metal. Not astonishingly accurate, but QC weeds out any pieces that aren't of acceptable standards.
Optical Metamaterial 3 'Mirage Plating': A miracle substance that defies what were once considered laws of physics. OM3 consists of complicated (yet not impractically so for production purposes) layers of materials that together can redirect light in essentially arbitrary ways. It is not perfect, and can only affect 90% of light, and requires a small amount of power to function. OM3 must be created to affect a specific wavelength of light, and only works on light in a band around that wavelength. Only wavelengths from near-X-Ray to the lower end of microwave can be affected.
Shrouds of OM3 can be constructed for your vehicle of choice, offering either a degree of invisibility, or pretty good protection from lasers, or both.
Optical Metamaterial 4: New and improved, OM4 works without power, in which case it defaults to the upper half of visible light. If it is powered, the exact voltage used will change the properties, letting the material be tuned on the fly. This can be done manually or automatically.
Eitr Rechargeable Superconducting Battery: A battery with 10x the capacity of conventional batteries.
Rigr Construction Harness: A hastily put together modification of the Heimdallr, to replace the X100 in industrial use cases. The lack of cohesive engineering means the performance leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, it provides 2SPP, and boosts the output of atmosphereless worlds.
Lorfium RTSC: A "Room Temperature" superconductor, it operates at temperatures of up to 500K. It is remarkably cheap and simple to manufacture, allowing it to be put to good use by civilian industry as well as the military.
Kvasir: A true artificial intelligence, or AGI. Not as intelligent as a human, but better in some areas, notably hacking. Requires a huge amount of processing power. Lacks motivation.
Kvasir v2: An improved version of Kvasir, with built-in motivation to aid the Quillian state and protect Quillian citizens. Can be deployed in an ITC (cost 0.5 SPP or GPP, takes up 1TC), or built into ground installations (cost 1GPP, takes up 2TC).
Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft):
2a Shuttle: A substantially larger shuttle, capable of carrying 4TC. The Hermes thrusters and Caduceus reactors provide thrust, and remarkable range, letting its mothership park well away from the planet, outside of commonly patrolled orbits. It is delta-shaped thanks to its wings, which provide a little extra lift and agility in atmosphere.
Cost: +0.5SPP
ESC-FS 1 'Cuttlefish' laser corvette: A medium-sized spaceship. The Cuttlefish's hull vaguely resembles its namesake. The 'beak' is a "Hermes" variable-water-injected fusion thruster, which draws plasma from the Helios-S reactor. It has very light armour, and has three AX5-Spear turrets, which are automatically aimed by the Athena RL System, which also handles evasive manoeuvres. The more ships in the fleet, the better Athena performs, due to her distributed computing. Its speed is Moderate, though it can inject extra water into the thruster for a temporary speed boost.
Cost: 2SPP
Insalloy Armour: A few plates of Insalloy, formed into a basic armour covering for the Cuttlefish. Despite being thin, they increase survivability by as much as 100%.
Cost: Negligible increase.
Equipment
Printed Pistol: No differences noticed.
X100 Space Suit: No differences noticed.
EAF-X1 "Ranger" Laser Rifle: A big, bulky firearm, weighing in at 15kg- just barely wieldable whilst standing. Works best against stationary targets. Can fire 30 shots in pulse mode before reloading, or 15 seconds in beam mode. Beam mode has pretty good armour penetration against conventional armour. Comes with basic scope and bipod. With the scope it is accurate at Long range.
Cost: Cheap
EAF-PX3 Raider: A variant of the Ranger, using the new Picasso Pattern. Weighs a 'mere' 7.5kg. Fires shorter pulses, and deals more damage against moving targets. Does not have a beam mode.
EAF-PX4 Raider: Superior in every way to the PX3, the PX4 deals twice the damage, weighs a far more reasonable 5kg, and can switch between three preset laser frequencies (although the non-default ones deal less damage). It also has cool holographic sights, which can link to a nearby Athena node to provide better targeting information.
Interplanetary Radio: No differences noticed.
Vehicles
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher: A nuclear-missile launcher consisting of three shuttle-loads worth of stuff: a small electric truck, a launch trailer, and the missiles themselves. The launch trailer loads 8 missiles, tipped with extremely small nuclear warheads for maximum 'tactical' performance. The missiles are controlled by Athena, who is now capable of flying missiles and identifying ground targets. Their range isn't great, and the launcher misfires (harmlessly) about 25% of the time, the guidance system is a bit wonky even under Athena's capable control, and the truck+trailer is slow and unwieldy, but still, nuclear-missile launcher!
Cost: 2GPP
Weight 2TC/1TC in shuttle.
EAF-ACD1 "Aegis": an Athena-controlled drone with an Insalloy frame. It has some trouble walking, shooting straight, and possesses sensors that aren't great, but it is not totally incompetent. Due to a lack of on-board processing power, they require a nearby Aegis Commander- just a big Athena node with an antenna, carried by two Aegis drones- to do anything useful. Do not say "Roger roger" repeatedly.
Cost: 1.5GPP
Weight: 0.2TC for a 100 drone complement. (Units may equip an unlimited number of drones)
EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank: a (counterintuitively) six-legged vehicle, clad in Insalloy armour, armed with a downsized AX5 Spear, and entirely Athena-controlled. It moves at a Moderate pace, can clamber over most obstacles, and is reasonably accurate. In addition to its main armaments, it has two turreted Raiders providing anti-infantry support- not amazing, but a whole lot better than nothing.
Cost: 4GPP
Weight: 3TC
Infrastructure
Colony Defence Grid: No differences noticed.
"Helios" Fusion Reactor: A large, Tokamak style reactor. Performs He3-He3 fusion, though it does not take full advantage of this. Provides 2SPP and 2GPP.
Helios-S: A variety specifically designed for use in spaceships. A 'twisted' plasma flow allows for plasma to be siphoned off without disrupting the reaction.
"Caduceus" Compact fusion reactor: A Polywell-style reactor, available in far smaller sizes than the Helios- as small as 1m3. Also performs He3-He3 fusion, and takes advantage of this. Can easily have plasma siphoned off for use in Hermes drives.
Mining Macrites: Autonomous mining drones, their hulls similar to that of a Cuttlefish, equipped with two mining lasers and an arc furnace. They roam the (Ertex-controlled parts of the) system, seeking out mineral-rich asteroids, and send the processed minerals back to Ertex. So far, so normal. However, they are also equipped with a fabrication unit and construction drones, which enable them to build copies of themselves. These copies have some flaws, but still work, and can make their own copies. Those third-generation Macrites are 'sterile', but can still process minerals.
Provides 2SPP/2GPP, plus 1/1 every two years, to a max of 6/6. Also increases the output of controlled planets by 1SPP/1GPP.
Fabrites: Modified Macrites, with the mining and smelting equipment removed in favour of more fabricators. These lurk in Ertex's orbit, producing components for new ships. Require human oversight, and cannot create complex components to acceptable standards. Nevertheless, increases SPP by 4.
Misc Tech
NQ Cells: About 15 times better than chemical batteries. Palm-sized, weigh about a kilo each. Despite their apparent complexity, manufacture and usage is simple.
Libum-265K: A near-room temperature superconductor. Manufacture is complicated.
Hephaestus Synthesis: A complicated process that produces small amounts of Insulanium- an isotope of a certain element that resides in the "Island of Stability"; it is very heavy, yet relatively stable. Produced in too small amounts to make anything practical out of it, it is instead alloyed with more common metals, which substantially increases their strength even with only 0.25% Insulanium added.
Hephaestus Mark 2: A new method of Insulanium production. Substantially lowers the cost of Insulanium-using designs.
Ship Production Points: 16+5+2(C)=23
2 points: 1xITC
Locations: A
21 points: 6xOdin
Locations: A
Ground Production Points: 16+4+4(C)=24
4 points: 1xHrungnir (102 Model)
Location: F
10 Points: 2xHrungnir with (OM3)Mirage Plating
Location: D
3 Points: 1xHeimdallr Power Armour (OM3)
Location: D
6 Points: 2xHeimdallr Power Armour
Location: A
1 points: -
Units: 5
2 Units on planet A (2xHeimdallr)
2 Unit on planet D (2xHrungnir MBT (w/ OM3 Mirage Plating), 1xHeimdallr (OM3))
1 Unit on planet F (1xHrungnir MBT (102 Model))
Don't even worry about this looking nothing like a solar system. Its, uh, optimal transfers or something. Look, it's dumb, but what do you want from me?
Key:
A: A volcanic world. Constant eruptions and earthquakes result in a thoroughly unpleasant environment. 4SPP, 2GPP
E:0/6, Q:5/6
B: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
C: An ocean world. Covered in 94% water, with a breathable atmosphere, and a few inhabitable islands. Prepare for lots of island-hopping. 2SPP, 4GPP
Q:6/6
D: An earthlike world. Covered in 69% water, with a breathable atmosphere, most of the surface being inhabitable. Terrain varies wildly, from open plains to thick jungles- and of course vast seas. 5SPP, 5GPP
E:4/6, Q:2/6
E: A frozen world. Almost entirely covered in ice, with an atmosphere too thin to breathe. Ice sheets make for treacherous terrain, with snow-covered mountains being not much better. 2SPP, 4GPP
E:6/6
F: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
Q:4/6, E:2/6
G: A desert world. With a few salty 'seas' covering a mere 12% of the surface, the majority of this planet is dry as a bone. Vast sandscapes dominate, punctured by low, rocky hills, and the ocassional oasis. The atmosphere is breathable. 2SPP, 4GPP.
E:2/6
Ertex&Quillus: Earthlike worlds. Capturing the enemy homeworld results in victory. Yield no Production Points. I mean, they do, but those are already accounted for in your basic industry.
Author
Topic: Quillus Design Bureau - Battle for Aljadid - Strategy SY108 (Read 42375 times)