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[NUKE9.13]

Like I said, I don't super care what it's called (so long as it changes), so I'll move my vote over to expedite things.
 

Design:
EPIC: (8) NUKE9.13, SC777, Happerry, Blood_Librarian, m1895, TricMagic, Jilladilla, Flabort

Renaming our Network?:
Keep the name Network, because fuck making lore comprehensible: (2) m1895, Jilladilla
The Loom: (2) Blood_Librarian, SC777
The Nexus: (1) TricMagic
The Matrix: ()
The Grid: (4) Jilladilla, Flabort, m1895, NUKE9.13

[Blood_Librarian]

I don't like the grid, so I am gonna be stubborn and keep my vote to the Loom.

[Madman198237]

Evrasium Production Industrial Complex (EPIC):

The E-EPIC is based on the lifeblood and specialized resource on why this planet was very valuable to the first colonization efforts of the progenitor civilization, that of Evrasium and due to its unique properties has allowed for extraordinary manipulation of our known rules of physic, but there always has been a problem of utilizing for both military and civil applications and that is of its rarity and how we current extract and mass produce it. Therefore, we spend constructive efforts of a construction complex and facility that would allow us to gain access to more of this resource and that future applications of Evrasium will be less intensive cost-wise and for further research and design with the material to be more effective.

The facility is streamlined for its current mining network to be attached to an extensive subsurface in which all forms of drift, slope, shaft, and shrinkage slope extraction efforts all while reaching more into the deposits of valuable Evrasium with respective mining vehicles and tools, that are transferred to an automated conveyor belt to transfer to the main building on the top, that of the Main Production facility on the surface in which Evrasium can be more efficiently processed and formed from hard rocks. Automated robotic tools and the processes of crushing, smelting, and further refinement of the material is more streamlined and therefore allowing more of the Evrasium to reach our stockpiles and reserves, allowing for productions that utilize Evrasium to be more feasible and be less draining when we construct designs that have to utilize it.

Evrasium Production Industrial Complex
Difficulty: Very Hard
Roll: 2+4 - 2 = 4 Below Average

Evrasium is rare. We've always known that. You can't take two steps in the shadier portions of the Grid without stumbling into somebody trying to sell Evrasium, an Evrasium miracle device, or an entire Evrasium mine, for a "discount price". Every ad programmed to steal every piece of information on your device, of course. Some things never change.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, EPIC. Well, EPIC is....not really epic. It's more "acceptable" or maybe "underwhelming". It does what it's supposed to do, extracts Evrasium, but it's just so hard to get at the stuff that a single large complex is perhaps not the most efficient way to get at it. Regardless, the EPIC complex is indeed capable of extracting Evrasium in mass amounts. The problem is, much of the equipment and, crucially, the delivery trucks, are controlled via the Grid. As factions come and go, entire shipments of the stuff might wind up in various locations and in the hands of various people, most of whom will only part with their new treasure troves if paid large amounts of money. VERY large amounts of money, which pretty much offsets the savings of extracting the considerable amount of Evrasium that we do manage to extract.

A final problem comes in that since other materials are so much less valuable than Evrasium, once Evrasium is extracted from the collected material, the rest is just dumped. The pile is impressive, but could also be full of other, somewhat less valuable than Evrasium, but still valuable materials that we just don't extract right now.

Right now, we could expect to something of a discount on higher-priced equipment that uses massive amounts of Evrasium, but on the more regular stuff it won't be so noticeable. We have definitely laid the groundwork for related industrial projects, though, that much we're sure about.

It is now the Turn One Revision Phase. You have one revision. Also, as you may have noticed, your computer network is now called the "Grid". Your leader may or may not be referred to as "Clue" from now on. Anyway, does somebody feel like clarifying how you have a working government (or at least a working military) if your government is so easily (and often) replaced by a new one based on who controls the Grid? Or maybe just point out that your GM is an idiot who forgot something/overlooked something/misread something somewhere, that's fine too.

Spoiler: Side Two Tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): A less-than-stellar spacecraft, the ITC is a version of the ships landed on your planet when you first colonized it. It is prone to malfunction, slow, and generally unpleasant. The rocket shuttles used to get equipment from the ITC to the ground have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops and things that can be broken into much smaller parts, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC capacity in total and uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armor or armaments. Now improved, the modernized ITC is Speed 2, uses OKSPD engines and an AER reactor, is no longer prone to malfunctions of most sorts, is fairly durable though still unarmored, and still uses 1-TC rocket shuttles. Slightly smaller and harder to hit and also follows your nation's chosen philosophy for appearances...whatever that is. Has one Oculus laser mount for self defense.
Cost: 2 SPP

Chord MSFSC: A capable, though oversized, ship carrying 3 Oculus lasers. Its Medium armor makes it very survivable, but that and its Evrasium use give it a high cost for its size.
Cost: 3 SPP

Units
Basic Military Unit: (you may rename this if you so wish) A capable group of soldiers trained to operate any equipment you can give them. Field training allows them to keep up to date on the best way to operate the newest deathtraps and self-destructing gizmos you send them even after they’re deployed.
Cost: 2GPP

Ground Weapons
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards on the colony ships, the only real weapon both colonies have. 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 COMPLETELY OBSOLETE

Plastic Universal Machine Pistol: A 30-round magazine Plastic Pistol-shaped machine pistol with a forwards handgrip and generally good qualities as opposed to bad. Issued to all troops for use in close quarters where SIAERA is useless.
Cost: Cheap

Squad-Integrated All-Environment Rocket Armaments: A 20mm guided rocket launcher. Guidance works OK, rockets work OK. Terrible in close quarters, low damage at Short range, lethal and lightly guided at Medium range, lightly armor piercing (if minimally guided) at Long range, otherwise moderately guided at Long range.
Cost: 1 GPP

Infantry Equipment
Basic Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmored 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

Combat EVA Suit: A ballistics-resistant well protected and maneuverable and relatively light EVA suit.
Cost: 1 GPP

Spacecraft Components
Eyebite MCLC: A self-destroying tank of fluoride compounds. Warning: DO NOT USE, DEATH OR SERIOUS INJURY MAY OCCUR.
Cost: You have got to be kidding me, right? COMPLETELY OBSOLETE

Oculus Hardpoint-Mountable Chemical Laser: A reasonable red-wavelength laser ball turret with an attached extra sensor component, a direct connection to the ship's laser chemical reservoir, and a generally decent capabilities list. Requires a spacecraft to mount.

Kinetic Storage Drive: Remarkably effective at occasionally self-destructing. Use not recommended, requires a ship (which you don't have). COMPLETELY OBSOLETE.

Overhauled Kinetic Storage Power Drive: An effective Speed 2 drive. Makes physicists cry to Newton, who is powerless to help them. Fairly expensive due to consumption of Evrasium.

Other
Command Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets, ships, and/or other planets. Currently only useful for taunting your enemy. The transmitter dish comes in a single piece and cannot fit in an ITC shuttle.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 1TC (requires 2 shuttle TC)

Infrastructure
Colony Defense Grid The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to defense the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery now, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

Aggravated Evrasium Reactor: Using the remarkable properties of Evrasium, this device extracts kinetic energy by shining laser light on a crystal matrix, which then punches the crap out of a set of turbines, generating power.
Provides: 2 SPP

Evrasium Production Industrial Center: A huge mining and industrial complex geared only towards extracting Evrasium. A very impressive industrial project, for sure, but it has a myriad of issues that will need to be resolved before it becomes a truly practical object.
Provides: Cost bonus to things that use very large amounts of Evrasium.

Spoiler: Side Two Logistics (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 18
  0 points: Unassigned.
  12 Points: 4 Chords
  6 Points: 3 ITCs

Ground Production Points: 20
  0 points: Unassigned
  16 points: 6x BMU, 4x SIAERA, 4x CEVAS

Units
BMU-1 Basic
  -  Nope!
  -  H
BMU-2 Basic
  -  Nope!
  -  I
BMU-3 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  G
BMU-4 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  Orbit of G
BMU-5 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  Orbit of H
BMU-6 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  Orbit of I

Ships
ITC #1
  -  Location: G
  -  Contents: BMU-4 'Elite'
ITC #2
  -  Location: I
  -  Contents: BMU-5 'Elite'
ITC #3
  -  Location: H
  -  Contents: BMU-6 'Elite'

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

1x Research Credit (finished combat spacecraft)

[flabort]

The Grid is a miracle network. Sturdy enough that no matter how much infrastructure is built upon it, it never seems to bog down. Of course, every single virtual square inch of it is filled with programs, viruses, or users vying for control over it, and the control that gives over every device built upon the Grid. And with power over every device, comes power over the people.

Several factions of users, hackers, politicians, and wearers of hats black, white, or grey formed as the Grid was developed, and now days that translates into many political parties. The common unaware user often votes on policies or actions as they come up on various apps built for the public, but many, if not all of these are compromised - only the skilled programmer knows how to make their vote count. Only the gifted and practiced administrator can wield several votes of the unskilled users at once. Only the strongest factions can turn the tides of an election, short though they may be.

The competition to control the populace, and the Grid, often leaves policies in deadlock, as votes are hacked and swing back and forth, as the factions and truly legendary hackers each enforce their own views on policy. And when your prowess isn't enough to achieve a consensus among the virtual polls that make up the Technate's true power behind any official "government" put in place however temporarily, money greases the wheels and can convince someone to see things your way. And the currency of choice is the EpsilonBlock.

One use of such an advanced system of computers is that almost every computer is capable of quickly computing hash values, and most devices, even ones you wouldn't expect like smart refrigerators, or Grid connected showers, have an extra processor for carrying blockchain calculations. With the shear size of the Grid, and the shear number of hashes being calculated every second, the Technate's cryptocurrency base is nigh impenetrable, with false claims being squashed by patrolling sentinel programs and the very nature of blockchain. An individual EB wallet may be compromised when an advertisement steals every datum worth having out of your phone, but even the dumbest user lets a program manage several wallets at a time at remote servers; banks were created to monitor and manage wallets, and while untraceable physical currency exists in certain black markets, even the shadiest of hackers will trust the Grid to keep their EB safe.

Money doesn't solve everything, though; some disagreements have to be discussed. In the upper echelons of skill, those referred to as the Technicians, who have entire groups of factions under their thumbs, the Grid becomes so stalemated in the battle for control that the only way to resolve matters of policy is through diplomatic talks. The Technicians are probably the truest governmental body that the Technate has, although their identities remain secret to the populace. They go by pseudonyms, and use avatars and alter-egos to communicate with each other and with their subordinate factions.

Clue is one such Technician, and arguably the most popular with the populace. Another is Mr. Grid, and the name Salamander is often whispered in dark corners. Batman may be a Technician, or may be a group of individuals all working independently; every kid tells their parents that they want to be Batman when they grow up. And Goldilocks is rumored to be the richest of the Technicians, though without the ability to trace where EB goes, most people have no idea just how rich he or she may be.

[NUKE9.13]

I'm on board with Flabort's lore above. I've "edited" ChiefWaffle's lore, which I assume everyone is cool with:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hi here's my lore thing.
It still follows the Technocratic Meritocracy. Just with a lot of surrounding fluff.

===1===
Kaden slams his back against the aluminum wall as his body falls to the ground. The sound of fighting -- of gunfire, how did they even get guns -- so overbearing that it almost made ignoring the bleeding wound in his chest an easy task.

NO CONNECTION[/color]
Damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit. Just barely managing the impulse to punch the dim console terminal, Kaden takes a step back. Banging on the door. They probably had weapons now. If contact couldn't be regained then this ship is done. Kaden knew he just needed to regain contact with the first Lander.
His eyes glanced over to the slouched-over corpse of the Captain. No actual authority anymore, apparently. Especially when they killed the goddamn Captain. No amount of emergency first aid gauze could have saved him. At least, that's what Kaden told himself repeatedly. But he needed to focus. The Captain's mistake was in admitting the loss of communications, and thus effectively ceding his authority. If Kaden could regain contact, if he could just find out what the hell is happening in the communications link, he could regain authority. Save his life and the lives of everyone on board the Lander.
A tiny screen on the wall next to the emergency airlock blocking his potential killers lit up. Of course, they're using the safety override. Damn designers couldn't factor in a blood-starved mutiny.

Endless numbers of commands are typed into the communications console. Same result, until--
RECEIVING EMERGENCY COMMUNIQUE DOWNLOADED. ORIGIN: LANDER ONE. SEVERE INTEGRITY FAULTS. AS FOLLOWS:
----
An^#@ out there? Pl#%[corrupted data]* Booster ()!%@& --gone, %@&!!&#only survivor.
----
TIMESTAMP SUGGESTS CRITICAL FIRMWARE ERRORS. REPLACE IMMEDIATELY BEFORE SEPARATING LANDER FROM TRAVELLER.
Kaden almost sighs in relief before realizing just how bad the situation is now. Sure, it became a lot clearer -- something broke the communications equipment. How? No idea. Why? Zero idea. Hell, something like this may very well be affecting every Lander.
But then there's the worse bit of information. Piecing together the annoyingly sparse bits of uncorrupted data, Lander One is gone. And with it, his authority.
Rumbling vibrates the entire ship as it starts to tumble through the atmosphere. The rumbling almost drains out the sounds of the banging against the emergency airlock. The Lander would hit ground soon.

Kaden hits and slouches against the wall and slowly falls to the floor as the retrograde thrusters fire.
He's past thinking about himself here. The entire ship--no, every lander sent to this planet, is doomed. Since the launch, it's all been doomed. Maybe he could buy time to let himself find a way out the ship once it impacts. Probably not. No matter what he does, Kaden knows that he'd never see anyone in the other lands again. Especially not the brave and talented commanders sent on Lander One. Maybe they'd make a city or town around the lander, but that's all it ever would be. Nothing more.

Impact.


===2===
What we know of the Founders is sparse, at best.
We do know them for their legacy. For their achievement. The Network Grid. What brought us all together again, and what powers the planet.

While we all call them the "Founders" and it's likely that's what you call them as well, their actual name is unknown. To this day, we haven't found that out. Despite interviewing anyone we can and looking at every piece of remnant data left behind, we don't know. Maybe they never had a name. But for us, it's fitting we call them by their achievement, and they were the ones that created the single most important piece of infrastructure and technology.
Hence, the Founders.

What? No, the Founders didn't engineer the chaos during the landings. The creation of the Network Grid and likely the creation of the Founders as a group started years after all that. Chances are, the chaos and isolation was just --yes, yes: a fluke. A coincidence. Not something we could have predicted, and not something we could have prevented. The designers of the Traveller definitely wouldn't have sabotaged it, or designed it poorly. It just... happened.

 
Regardless, the work of the Founders is remarkable and Government researchers are still amazed at what they discover about the Network Grid every day. It was built perfectly. Based on how it's made, we can predict that it was originally intended to just connect the cities. We believe that the Founders had cells in every city formed from the isolated landers. These cells were completely separate and independent at first, and just naturally came into being in the omnipresent chaos and lack of order in every city; but somehow they found each other before anyone else from their cities did, and formed into a single group. From there, they started creating the Network Grid. Perhaps to coordinate amongst themselves. Perhaps to garner power. But whatever the reason, they did it.

The Network Grid as it was originally created is not the Network Grid you've heard of today. Its strong base and foundation and core protocols and technical aspects are still identical, yes, but once the Founders dissolved -- we'll get to why we think they did another day -- and eventually others stumbled across it, it was built upon.
Our actual communications networks and the internet do not use the Network Grid. But they're built on top of it, using it as the base for practically everything. While this has allowed for stunning growth of technology and communications, it means the Network Grid has access to practically every computer or piece of electronics there is, and access to what that thing does. The Network Grid is omnipresent. You should stay away from it, but you need to know to respect it and what it's done for all of us.



===3===
Morgan rubbed her temple with her hand.

Already a great number of years from the chaos of the landings, yet she felt as if she had done nothing in that time. But with this discovery, maybe there could be something done. If her informant was right (and they usually were), then somehow there was a network connecting the area to another Lander-city. Maybe even to more cities than just one other one.
Morgan had an opportunity presented, and needed to take it.

Unfortunately, this opportunity came with its caveats. Compromise. Something Morgan had avoided until now, but needed to finally confront. The city had a dozen different groups claiming to be the official government, including hers. She would have to get some of them agree to help her gain enough influence to properly investigate and exploit this Network Grid to use it. Then they'd have to work with whoever was in charge (if anyone was in charge) in the other city. And so on.
But it'd be worth it. The city has never known order or law. Just constant anarchy. She could protect some, but there were too many under the control of despotic groups and gangs. She needed to expand her power and influence to help them. She looked out the window of her room. While quite stubby, it still dwarfed the other buildings of the city in height. Nothing like a symbol of power (regardless of one's actual power) to get the others under control.
But she needed to work now. Her terminal screen tempted her attention with its orange glow. She could access so much through just text commands and output if she got access to this Network Grid.

...

"So you're actually telling me that it can't be shut down?"
"Er--yes. Yes. It's... it's too ingrained already. Our comms needs it. Citizens need it. Everything needs it now."
"Tremendous. And we can't restrict its usage?"
"Nooo... nope. You see, it's j-just that it's already there. And built up--on top of. You can tell people not to use it?"
Morgan didn't respond. Not verbally, at least. Her body language strongly requested that the consultant should go somewhere... not here. And the consultant dutifully listened and shuffled off somewhere. Probably to his office. Doesn't matter.

Her place of work was much more extravagant now. Relatively, at least. Still dwarfing every other building in the city, but overlooking a more developed city and much taller itself. Her office had an official title appended to it now. Director. Director Morgan. She figured a proper title would help set the precedent and maybe lean things her way in the ongoing constitution creation taking forever. It didn't help that the opposition used the Network Grid just as gleefully as Morgan used it to create the Government. It wasn't as useful to her anymore, but unfortunately, as she just officially discovered, it would not be going anyway anytime soon.
Policing usage wouldn't work. Not many people have the know-how to gain access and actually use it, but they'd raise up a storm anyway. Likely ruining the delicate balance she achieved.

It was frustrating. Tremendous amounts of work, yet still the people considered her Government to be more of a suggestion than an actual essential part of society. Elections only did so much. The coming years will be tough, she knew. But she also knew that she's already made a difference. Her Government may in fact always take second priority to those who can use the Network Grid, but at least it can keep a single nation across the planet and unify people. Even if whoever was the top dog of the minute over the Network Grid would have more influence than the Government.
She sighed. A long road lied ahead, likely with no reward, but she was determined.



=======

Basically, there's a government controlling the planet but it doesn't have extensive/good control over its citizenry. Instead, most of the power and influence is limited to those who can use the underlying network of the planet, suitably named the Network Grid, while not being killed/eliminated/ran out by others. Influence via this Network Grid is short-lived, but very useful. It's not like one person has "control" at any given time. It's a flowing non-static entity. People know about this and its power over the government, and are generally fine with it. Most can't do anything with it/don't bother. The elected government covers more mundane stuff (uuussually) and, along with vigilantes, acts as a moderating force over most people that try to use the Network Grid for especially extreme/objectionable purposes.

And I wrote a short lore piece myself:

The Technate is at war. When the transmissions coming from the Network's homeworld were translated, and people realised who they were sharing their star system with, the decision was reached fairly quickly. An unstoppable horde of murderous robots would be bad enough, but the citizenry of the Technate were extra twitchy about the idea of advanced technology rising up against humanity. After all, many of them did not understand the Grid, and for all they knew, it could be vulnerable to corruption by the Network, in which case society would collapse.
Those who understood the Grid a bit more were less gung-ho about the war. They knew well enough that the Grid was a miraculous system that, whilst it could be exploited, could not be fully controlled, and that there was no real risk of the Network absorbing the Grid- at least not without long-term direct access.
But those middle-class Grid-users were overruled by the 'elite'. Why? A question with many answers, some of which are probably accurate. Perhaps those with unfettered access to the original transcripts of intercepted Network communications (which were scattered piecemeal across the Grid) saw in them signs of an expansionist mentality that could threaten the Technate. Perhaps they saw an opportunity to unite the disparate factions from across the planet with a common enemy. Maybe they owned industries that would profit from military buildup. Who can say?

It is, of course, not a simple matter for the Technate to go to war. With central government a tenuous prospect at best, who would command the fleets and armies? For that matter, who would build the ships and train the soldiers? And who, pray tell, would pay for it?
Obviously this called for a new organisation who would be in charge of military matters, a "High Command" set apart from the squabbles of everyday life. This was such an obvious answer, in fact, that several such High Commands were established in short order, by different factions. This, naturally, led to months of squabbling. Eventually, through a combination of mergers and dissolutions, the field was narrowed down to three: the Unified Planetary Techante Military, the Global Defence Org, and the Interplanetary Warfare Foundation. Though not ideal, it proved impossible to consolidate the three, as their philosophies conflicted too much... and so, in grand Planetary Technate tradition, the question of leadership was left ambiguous.
An agreement of sorts was hashed out, wherein all three would collect taxes to fund the war effort, and coordinate- to some extent- their actions. It was agreed that there would be a standardised command structure, where soldiers from the three commands would still obey the orders of officers from another... most of the time. Grand strategy would be determined democratically- ie, the three High Commands would vote on where to send fleets and armies; clearly an insane way of running a military, but what can you do?

[Blood_Librarian]

Closed-Visor Electronics

Our biggest weakness is our armor. Specifically, the fact that we use a clear visor that is vulnerable in comparison to other methods of shielding. BY utilizing large matrix's of tiny laser systems as well as redundant sensor systems, it is now possible to directly "beam" information onto a individuals eyeball to allow for an augmented vision scheme while simultaneously replacing the open visor system with a slab of electronics and metal sheeting, allowing for a much more protective helmet.

The Laser matrices receive visual data from onboard sensors, and the onboard computer processes it on-site into a decipherable format and then relays it to the user as well as to any command station that they are connected to through an onboard, small radio system.

While further vision augments are possible, The software package placed into the suit is designed to act as a Heads Up Display while giving its user an augmented peripheral vision and magnification system. In essence, a soldier should be much, much harder to be ambushed because their peripheral vision is expanded from ~60 degrees to 120 degrees. A single frontal camera is designed to have a zoom function, allowing every soldier to have what is essentially binoculars for spotting. (albeit not as good as a dedicated set.) the Heads Up Display currently does not display the number of bullets in one's gun, nor anything fancy, merely the properties and functions of their suit including the presumably already built-in biomonitoring capabilities in a way that the user can access and manipulate it without using a tactical screen on their forearm. (If our suits do not actually monitor the health of the user like modern-day space suits, disregard.)

Lore
The Triumvirate Military/Nukes unnamed Idea(1): Blood_Librarian
The Technicians/Flaborts unnamed idea(0):

Revision:
CVE (1): BLood_Librarian

[TricMagic]

Is there anything preventing both Lore from being used?

Evrasium Production Industrial Center: A huge mining and industrial complex geared only towards extracting Evrasium. A very impressive industrial project, for sure, but it has a myriad of issues that will need to be resolved before it becomes a truly practical object.

MATS: Mineral Appraisal & Transport System

An add on to EPIC, MATS is meant to better identify the excess materials brought up during mining and extracting Evrasium and determine what they are. In addition, these will be sent straight towards military projects, allowing us to build more ships to use. Evrasium is pretty rare, but all that excess material should not be put to waste once the Evrasium has been extracted.

A side project is to better devise a transport system that won't be hijacked by special interests. These Materials are important. Evrasium may run our engines, but we also need ships to make use of it at all.

[Blood_Librarian]

Exceptionally Warlike Authoritarian Rovers (E-WAR)

E-WAR's are exceptionally militant software run on dedicated server systems for the explicit management of critical industrial systems. These are the designed "exceptions" to the grid in that their goal is not to become a pawn of anyone once they are set up.  In this case, E-Wars are deployed to allow a verifiably controlled logistical infrastructure for our Military Industrial Complex.  They are Rovers because they are equipped with threads to quickly move them form building to building on a daily basis to prevent easy sabotage.

In more simple terms, they are incredibly militant fire-wall systems designed to never take orders from anybody once set up, until it is dismantled. It is unconfigurable barring a shutdown. They can also concurrently run Grid Software, in most cases to run secure data to and from the industrial processes that have been set up and ferry them to the various PMC's and Intelligence Agencies and a myriad other military organizations for the express purpose of allowing these organizations to have the "first dibs" regarding Evrasium as well as any other resource our industries might produce.

[TricMagic]

I'll get the voting started. MATS should give us more material to work with, yeah? Even says so.

MATS: (1) TricMagic

[Shadowclaw777]

Satellite Positioning Active Delivery Engineering (SPADE)

SPADE creates changes to the EPIC in the political and technical level, so that a more streamlined and efficient process of gathering large qualities of Evrasium without the political backwater. EPIC is coordinated through its own private bureaucracy and administrative to the main Grid, that automates it's own tracking routes and mining procedures so that a more centralized organization of the material is proceeded. Therefore, the back and forth of lobbying with other factions for their storage of Evrasium is entirely nil, since it's own by it's own company. Even further, each delivery truck is outfitted with a wireless barcode that continuously tracks it's position on GPS, therefore the logistics of of our transporting the material can never be lost, and we can still errors on why our income of Evrasium is having temporary problems and can be more efficiently solved.

[NUKE9.13]

I have considered things.
I don't like suggestions that attempt to circumvent the issue of the Grid-based chaos by just saying "We don't use the Grid", because that's our whole thing. If we could just build a separate system, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
So, I don't like SPADE, I'm dubious of MATS (it's rather short on detail, so it's unclear how it's solving the Grid issue), and EWAR sounds... incredibly silly (in addition to having the same problem as SPADE).
...
That said, I don't have any better ideas, so, whatever.

MATS: (2) TricMagic, NUKE9.13

[Blood_Librarian]

@TricMagic, I already started the votebox, you kind of missed my vote.

AnteroGrade Objectivised Normalizing cYber sortware (AGONY)

As it turns out, a series of internal re-works of the GRID allows for priority access and control of the resources that are produced monthly for the organizations that are most productive towards critical issues of our society. This is done through a clearly defined and demi-autonomous digital entity that is fed information regarding our goals and problems as well as our societal state/culture/infrastructure, It then outputs a series of "objectives" for entities to compete to complete, as well as a log on how this objective is made.

What is unique about this system is the hardware it runs; High-level super-computers that are the cutting edge of scientific societal directive computing, taken directly from a regime that failed after a gambit gone wrong. With continual maintenance and constant hardware upgrades to keep this wetted edge, personnel with non-societally imperative intentions cannot reliably outcompete and predict what our society needs before the RTS can and cheat the system through backhanded measures. Any hardware found to be more effective than the current set up in AGONY will be prioritized in an acquisition raid.

This effectively allows our society to provide for a military seamlessly and without delay as our societies shifts control from organization to organization while preserving the original framework of the GRID. It also solves the missing shipment problem, as control of the shipments is handed off to the organizations that are most likely to keep it and produce advancements as ordained by the AGONY, rather than those who would primarily use it for their own self-advancement.

While in the future, this may be geared towards societal improvement, the current goals it is fed is based on the design teams' wishes as well as the various logistics agencies that provide for our Warmachine.

CVE (1): BLood_Librarian
MATS: (2) TricMagic, NUKE9.13
AGONY: (1): Blood_librarian

[Madman198237]

MATS: Mineral Appraisal & Transport System

An add on to EPIC, MATS is meant to better identify the excess materials brought up during mining and extracting Evrasium and determine what they are. In addition, these will be sent straight towards military projects, allowing us to build more ships to use. Evrasium is pretty rare, but all that excess material should not be put to waste once the Evrasium has been extracted.

A side project is to better devise a transport system that won't be hijacked by special interests. These Materials are important. Evrasium may run our engines, but we also need ships to make use of it at all.

Mineral Appraisal & Transport System
Difficulty: Very Hard
Roll: 4+1 - 2 = 3 Buggy Mess

MATS perhaps attempted to overreach what we were capable of, but by not focusing whatsoever on the cybersecurity portion of the proposal, we managed to....well...um...we send a lot of bits of mostly worthless rock to our regular mining operations? EPIC was primarily focused on producing Evrasium, and trying to redirect it in such a short time to be capable of accepting the waste materials and attempt to sort through them in any sort of reasonable timeframe was....not a great idea. The minor amounts of metal that can be easily reclaimed from EPIC's waste piles do not represent any significant gain. A more major project that would actually set up a decent program to extract said valuables from the castoff material could conceivably make a gain, but tried now it just failed.

Cybersecurity continues to suffer, with reports of missing shipments and internecine accusations further ripping apart any potential for progress this season. In short: We believe that we overreached, and having a mediocre development season did not help the projects.

Welcome to the Turn Two Strategy Phase. Somebody keep an eye on the turn numbers, I screwed all of them up (in both threads, no less) for the last two phases.

Spoiler: Side Two Tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): A less-than-stellar spacecraft, the ITC is a version of the ships landed on your planet when you first colonized it. It is prone to malfunction, slow, and generally unpleasant. The rocket shuttles used to get equipment from the ITC to the ground have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops and things that can be broken into much smaller parts, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC capacity in total and uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armor or armaments. Now improved, the modernized ITC is Speed 2, uses OKSPD engines and an AER reactor, is no longer prone to malfunctions of most sorts, is fairly durable though still unarmored, and still uses 1-TC rocket shuttles. Slightly smaller and harder to hit and also follows your nation's chosen philosophy for appearances...whatever that is. Has one Oculus laser mount for self defense.
Cost: 2 SPP

Chord MSFSC: A capable, though oversized, ship carrying 3 Oculus lasers. Its Medium armor makes it very survivable, but that and its Evrasium use give it a high cost for its size.
Cost: 3 SPP

Units
Basic Military Unit: (you may rename this if you so wish) A capable group of soldiers trained to operate any equipment you can give them. Field training allows them to keep up to date on the best way to operate the newest deathtraps and self-destructing gizmos you send them even after they’re deployed.
Cost: 2GPP

Ground Weapons
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards on the colony ships, the only real weapon both colonies have. 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 COMPLETELY OBSOLETE

Plastic Universal Machine Pistol: A 30-round magazine Plastic Pistol-shaped machine pistol with a forwards handgrip and generally good qualities as opposed to bad. Issued to all troops for use in close quarters where SIAERA is useless.
Cost: Cheap

Squad-Integrated All-Environment Rocket Armaments: A 20mm guided rocket launcher. Guidance works OK, rockets work OK. Terrible in close quarters, low damage at Short range, lethal and lightly guided at Medium range, lightly armor piercing (if minimally guided) at Long range, otherwise moderately guided at Long range.
Cost: 1 GPP

Infantry Equipment
Basic Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmored 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

Combat EVA Suit: A ballistics-resistant well protected and maneuverable and relatively light EVA suit.
Cost: 1 GPP

Spacecraft Components
Eyebite MCLC: A self-destroying tank of fluoride compounds. Warning: DO NOT USE, DEATH OR SERIOUS INJURY MAY OCCUR.
Cost: You have got to be kidding me, right? COMPLETELY OBSOLETE

Oculus Hardpoint-Mountable Chemical Laser: A reasonable red-wavelength laser ball turret with an attached extra sensor component, a direct connection to the ship's laser chemical reservoir, and a generally decent capabilities list. Requires a spacecraft to mount.

Kinetic Storage Drive: Remarkably effective at occasionally self-destructing. Use not recommended, requires a ship (which you don't have). COMPLETELY OBSOLETE.

Overhauled Kinetic Storage Power Drive: An effective Speed 2 drive. Makes physicists cry to Newton, who is powerless to help them. Fairly expensive due to consumption of Evrasium.

Other
Command Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets, ships, and/or other planets. Currently only useful for taunting your enemy. The transmitter dish comes in a single piece and cannot fit in an ITC shuttle.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 1TC (requires 2 shuttle TC)

Infrastructure
Colony Defense Grid The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to defense the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery now, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

Aggravated Evrasium Reactor: Using the remarkable properties of Evrasium, this device extracts kinetic energy by shining laser light on a crystal matrix, which then punches the crap out of a set of turbines, generating power.
Provides: 2 SPP

Evrasium Production Industrial Center: A huge mining and industrial complex geared only towards extracting Evrasium. A very impressive industrial project, for sure, but it has a myriad of issues that will need to be resolved before it becomes a truly practical object.
Provides: Cost bonus to things that use very large amounts of Evrasium.

Mineral Appraisal & Transport System: A mediocre effort to extract valuable materials from EPIC's castoff material AND secure the shipment problem, it accomplishes neither.
Provides: A lot of disappointment, inroads on the path to reclaiming EPIC castoff material.

Spoiler: Side Two Logistics (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 18
  0 points: Unassigned.
  12 Points: 4 Chords
  6 Points: 3 ITCs

Ground Production Points: 20
  0 points: Unassigned
  16 points: 6x BMU, 4x SIAERA, 4x CEVAS

Units
BMU-1 Basic
  -  Nope!
  -  H
BMU-2 Basic
  -  Nope!
  -  I
BMU-3 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  G
BMU-4 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  Orbit of G
BMU-5 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  Orbit of H
BMU-6 'Elite'
  -  SIAERA, CEVAS
  -  Orbit of I

Ships
ITC #1
  -  Location: G
  -  Contents: BMU-4 'Elite'
ITC #2
  -  Location: I
  -  Contents: BMU-5 'Elite'
ITC #3
  -  Location: H
  -  Contents: BMU-6 'Elite'
Squadron 1:
  -  4x Chord MSFSC
  -  Location: G

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

1x Research Credit (finished combat spacecraft)
1x Research Credit (won lore contest)

[Blood_Librarian]

SPP Budget: 18
maintain 3 ITCs (6 SPP)
maintain 4 Chords (12 SPP)
GPP Budget: 20
Maintain 2 Basic Military Units (4 GPP)
Maintain 4 'Elite' Basic Military Units w/ SIAERAs and Combat EVA Suits (16 GPP)

Orders
ITC #1 move to E and drops one Elite Unit onto its surface.
ITC #2 moves to E and drops one Elite Unit onto the surface.
ITC #3 moves to E, and drops the Elite unit onto the surface.
All Chords move to E.

SPP Budget: 18
maintain 3 ITCs (6 SPP)
maintain 4 Chords (12 SPP)
GPP Budget: 20
Maintain 2 Basic Military Units (4 GPP)
Maintain 4 'Elite' Basic Military Units w/ SIAERAs and Combat EVA Suits (16 GPP)

Orders
ITC #1 move to E and drops one Elite Unit onto its surface.
ITC #2 moves to F and drops one Elite Unit onto the surface.
ITC #3 moves to D, and drops the Elite unit onto the surface.
2 Chords move to E, interception duty.
1 Chord moves to F, emphasis on escort duty.
1 Chord moves to D, emphasis on Escort duty

Everything to G (1): Blood_Librarian
Spread the Firepower (0): Blood_Librarian

[Jilladilla]

Budget:
Maintain Everything

Orders:
ITC #1 moves to D and drops one 'Elite Unit' onto the Surface
ITC #2 and 3 moves to F and drops both of their 'Elite Units' (so 2) onto the Surface

3 Chords move to F
1 Chord moves to D

Right. As noted in the plan name, this is a calculated split.
Largely as, from what I can tell, there's 3 obvious plays:
1: All in on E (the middle and most valuable planet)
2: A split for E and F (F being the one with a lot of SPP)
3: Even dispersal between all planets

Now, why is this a calculated split?
If they dogpile E; the just committed all of their forces where we are not; largely wasting their strength advantage and concentration. If we can maintain this territory split, D and F together are more valuable than E, giving us an advantage.

If they split for E and F, it's logical to assume that they will favor E as it is more valuable. In which case, our focus on F should give us a major advantage there. And of course, our forces to D (arguably the least valuable of the 'belt' planets, it's the one with high GPP) goes completely unopposed.

If they split evenly, our forces at D should hold steady; while those at F should win. The worst case; as we would only securely hold F while they get E; but not an insurmountable hill to climb.


Of course, all of this ignores them doing something crazy like ignoring their interior planets and focusing solely on the 'belt'; but in that case they'd just flood us with numbers no matter what we did.

As always, comments, suggestions, critiques and such are appreciated.