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[Xvareon]

Ok, what the frick, seriously, I don't know how I missed all of these updates. I literally have this thread on Notify and it didn't give me a single poke. Not one. If I don't respond, someone please PM me and hopefully that'll give me an E-mail notification. Thanks.

I propose bolding and/or underlining text whenever we update the votebox so we know what the update(s) are at a glance. Like so:

WeatherCom Satellite
yea: (1) mightymushroom
nay: (3) a1s, Nirur, Xvareon

How big an area to search for a landing site?
Very Wide: (0)
Close By: (3) mm, a1s, Xvareon
Exact Square: (1) Nirur

Where to search?
I-14: (3.5) mm, a1s, Nirur, Xvareon
J-47: (0.5) mm
(add your own)

What to search for?
a clearing near a lake (2): a1s, mm
a clearing near a river, or a lake if it's connected by river to the sea (2): Nirur, Xvareon

We apparently have a flying drone that can scout for us, so the need for a satellite is not really that pressing. I understand the desire not to start so far behind, but we're not starting with 21st century tech, this is like the 28th century, damn if we can't still figure that out, and double damn if I plan on wasting my time waiting for space again when there's so much in-depth exploration of the planet to do. I mean, really, we can do plenty with a doppler radar once we get the stuff for that, and until then, we should learn for ourselves how to survive so we can set an example for others to follow after us. We've gotta stop thinking like machines and start thinking like humans. Let's get groundside, by water, with (hopefully) trees and a stable biosphere, and figure the rest out then.

[Quarque]

Ok, what the frick, seriously, I don't know how I missed all of these updates. I literally have this thread on Notify and it didn't give me a single poke. Not one. If I don't respond, someone please PM me and hopefully that'll give me an E-mail notification. Thanks.

Sure, I can PM you next time. You probably already thought of this, but did you check your account settings? You can change there when you want to receive emails from topics you marked as Notify. Or perhaps you received mail but it ended in your spam folder?

Looking at the vote, I see it's a tie between two fairly similar options. It's a little unclear if you all have the same idea what counts as "close by"; but you're looking for water that connects to the inland sea south of I14. (Or maybe it should be called a lake. You don't know yet if it contains salt, fresh or brackish water.)

So your board computer Lucy suggests the following compromise. How about doing a scan for lakes and rivers in the two squares of I14 and I15, plus searching for notable clearings that border any of this water? This could be done reasonably quickly and count as a Safe action. You would probably (unless the roll is terrible) gain a detailed map of those two squares, showing what you found and allowing you to choose the exact spot to land in the coming Expansion phase. A single square on the main map is still huge compared to the size of your vessel, after all.

If there are no objections, I will post the results on sunday.

[Xvareon]

Okay, there, I think I fixed my settings for notifications now. I just could've sworn I already had.

I can work with that compromise, yes. A clearing big enough to land our ship reasonably close to water is ideal. Water doesn't just mean life and crop growth, it means hydrogen and, potentially, deuterium. Not to mention what minerals and salts might get carried out from the highlands and left as sediment layers. Rivers are best. We know running water reduces the chance of pathogens. We don't know what alien algae or bugs might be growing in a lake.

[Quarque]

TURNTURNTURN


Exploration Turn 1: A new dawn. (roll: [3+3+3] -1 (Safe) = 8, Superior Quality)

You woke up feeling as if you've had six bottles of the cheapest wine before banging your head against a concrete wall. No one manages to eat without puking it all up.
In spite of physical misery, everyone is in high spirits. No one before you has travelled as far as you before, not even close. An alien world full of wonder is waiting to be explored below you.

It was Grace Rayland (a1s, +1 influence) who eyed the .. sort of woodland, it appears .. north of what looks like an inland sea as promising grounds to settle. After some debate over how to approach your preparations, you decide to quickly map out the local rivers and any other water, plus open spaces. You instruct Lucy and the board computer gets to work with relentless efficiency, while you get to recover from travel sickness a little. The job is finished in days. As it turns out, two streams cut through the.. forest. Let's just call it that. A lake is found in the area of I-15. While at it, Lucy identified a number of clearings for you. Not all of them are adjacent to water; a few are found in the middle of the forest, as well.

This minimap below shows what you found. The left half corresponds to I-14 on the master map, the right half corresponds to I-15.

Spoiler: minimap of area I-14 & I-15 on the master map (click to show/hide)

Grey: mountain
Light green: forest?
Dark green: jungle?
Light yellow: clearings (badlands, beach, other open terrain)
Blue: water
Purple: ?

While you didn't instruct Lucy to map out any other terrain, a giant river leading away from the inland sea to the south is discovered in the process. It was hard to miss. It starts on K-17 on the master map and streams south-east. The kicker, though: it leads nowhere. It just appears to just end in the middle of the wilderness. See below for an updated master map.

Spoiler: master map (click to show/hide)

Reading the full reports, you also find out some general information about the planet. It has about 86% the gravity of Earth. Your bone and muscle will eventually carry you here without any problem, but it is going to take patience and diligent exercise. As the spectographic measurements back in the Solar System indicated, the atmosphere is amazingly good to breath, with a high oxygen content. That could be toxic at high pressure, but since the athmospheric pressure is rather low it is almost perfect. As stated before, your new "sun" Delta Pavonis rises in the west. It looks so much like the sun that you soon forget it is actually a bit more reddish.

Phryne de Lys (Xvareon), Turo Celsa (mightymushroom) and Nigel Rosenburg (Nirur Torir) gain +1 influence for the character backgrounds, I enjoyed reading them.

Lucy reminds you with artificial kindness that it's in your best interest not to delay further. It is now the Expansion phase. You will have to choose where to land. This can be any square on the minimap. Your current spaceship is tiny compared to any such square, so it will fit easily. It will serve as your new base. Of course, landing on a totally different location is possible too.

I will update your inventory and the first post of the thread later tonight (to make things easy to find). No worries about spare wrenches, basic stuff like that is available. You do have a 3d printer, can't believe I didn't think of that. Instead of explosives you have some valuable rare chemicals on board that can be used for several purposes, making explosives is only one of them. You also have a few laser guns. It is not the best weapon of the time, but they are light, reliable and don't need heavy ammunition to work. Crew acting as surrogate mothers is totally a thing you can do. The materials of the now disused hibernation capsules can be reused for various purposes. You have medical supplies and a recyclotron that can filter water -- it turned your sweat and pee into drinking water this whole journey.

edit:

Spoiler: equipment (click to show/hide)

spaceship: Currently in orbit. Will serve as a small base for your colony once you landed. It has many small basic tools on board.
miniaturized nuclear power plant: It will last for twenty years, but has a limited energy output.
food reserves: Dry, the tastes are never quite satisfying. Enough to keep the crew alive for roughly a year.
Reconnaissance drone: A small drone that will be able to explore terrain. Vulnerable to bad weather.
Quad: A small vehicle with large all-terrain wheels. Runs on an electric engine.
Gene bank: Genetic diversity must be preserved in the long run. That is why you have a cooled unit full of human sperm and egg cells on board. Once you are ready to increase population, you have the means to prevent inbreeding.
It also contains the seeds of many different Earthly species, in case you want to farm or raise pets later.
Solar Panels: You have a 50 m2 flexible, lightweight and foldable solar panel that can be taken apart into smaller modules. It is somewhat vulnerable to harsh weather without additional protection layer (that you'd have to produce locally). A smaller, more sturdy one is attached to the quad, to restore battery power in case of need.
Recyclotron: a small facility to filter water and make it drinkable (within limits, there are contaminants it can't filter).
Medical Supplies: a luxurious kit for first aid and treat a variety of diseases
Training Ropes: elastic ropes for various physical exercises
Laser guns (4): light, but reliable weapons that do not run out of ammo
3D printer: what it says on the box. Printing material is limited.
Rare Minerals: you have a small supply of a few rare, useful chemical compounds. They can be used for making explosives and many other purposes.

Spoiler: influence (click to show/hide)

Phryne de Lys (Xvareon) 1 influence
Grace Rayland (a1) 1 influence
Turo Celsa (mightymushroom) 1 influence
Nigel Rosenburg (Nirur Torir) 1 influence

[Nirur Torir]

AB16 looks like a good landing site. It has good defensive terrain, mountain access, enough room to expand, and there's not much room for someone else to cut us off from the lake. I think it will be slightly better than AA16, since too much water access might make it easy for alien ships to steal our most valuable stuff.

I9 looks tempting, since it's even easier to defend, but if there's an alien settlement on the river mouth, then we may have to buy our way through the waterway.

Edit: AB16, not AB17.

[mightymushroom]

Could I have a clarification on the scale, please? Our ship is "tiny compared to any ... square" on the minimap, but do the streams occupy entire squares or is that simply indicative of where they flow? A significant watercourse could be difficult to bridge or ford, but I don't want to make a big stink if we can hop over them.

At first glance, Turo would prefer H-9. The ecological lesson of Earth is to keep your industry separate from your living space as much as possible, and that includes not being upriver. We could use one branch for supplying the homestead and have the other support the eventual mining/smelting efforts.

? AB-17 seems to be a forest space rather than mostly clear, the landing may be trickier there.

[Nirur Torir]

? AB-17 seems to be a forest space rather than mostly clear, the landing may be trickier there.

Oops, AB-16.

After landing, what's our first priority for the drone? Two people with the drone could collect flora samples faster, to try to figure out food and herbal medical supplies asap. Two people could use the quad and drone to better prospect for ores. Or we might want to scout the rivers and coasts with it, to look for human-like natives who are going to notice our landing.

An early scouting run of the rivers is going to be the longest range mission, and thus the most dangerous on the drone, but it would be worth the trade if we learn something like that there's a big iron age settlement mobilizing a mounted expedition.

[Quarque]

Could I have a clarification on the scale, please? Our ship is "tiny compared to any ... square" on the minimap, but do the streams occupy entire squares or is that simply indicative of where they flow? A significant watercourse could be difficult to bridge or ford, but I don't want to make a big stink if we can hop over them.

The squares on the minimap measure about 15 by 15 km. The streams do not occupy the whole square, the map indicates where they flow. The streams shown on this map are quite wide, think 50m. You can't just hop over them.

I've drawn it this way to have the update ready more quickly, but now that you mention it, it's a little misleading. It is reasonable to land on a river square because the majority of such a tile is land. (In that case I do need to know on which side of the stream you want to land.)

I'll redraw the streams with more precision asap.

[mightymushroom]

It's cool with me, I can read a map symbolically. I just wanted to check what the symbol represents.

We probably shouldn't land directly in a river tile anyway. I'm not personally worried about alien Vikings sailing up on us, but I do fear seasonal flooding.

[Xvareon]

This is exactly what I'd hoped to find—a river delta with mountains on side and water on the other three. I could hardly imagine a better spot. Y-15 is my preference, there's plenty of clearing while also being reasonably close to woodland. Having more clearings around means we'll more easily spot any potential threats coming our way, and at Y-15, there's open water and clearings in all directions but one directly adjacent. That's perfect.

My first priority with the drone would simply be to preliminarily map out accessibility of the surrounding area. Where is the reasonably flat ground, potential trails that'd make good access into the woodland, anything that looks like a wildlife trail leading to and from the water source, all that. It'd help to know where we can drive the Quad without it getting stuck. Lost time sucks.

Immediately after landing, my priorities are a.) check the water for any lifeforms like fish; and b.) immediately set up a perimeter around our soon-to-be main hab module. Observe any local wildlife, flora or fauna or otherwise. Look around but only within eyesight. The drone takes care of the big picture, I want to look closer. Start taking notes of even small insects and tree foragers, if they exist.

[Quarque]

As promised, here is a minimap with the water areas in sharper focus. It better illustrates the relative sizes of squares and rivers.

Spoiler: minimap of area I-14 & I-15 again, now with more detail (click to show/hide)

For the proposals so far, landing in open terrain is a Safe roll. (Not Very Safe because it is still uncertain what kind of terrain it is exactly.)

Immediately after landing, my priorities are a.) check the water for any lifeforms like fish; and b.) immediately set up a perimeter around our soon-to-be main hab module. Observe any local wildlife, flora or fauna or otherwise. Look around but only within eyesight. The drone takes care of the big picture, I want to look closer. Start taking notes of even small insects and tree foragers, if they exist.

This kind of first impression is free, it will be assumed that you look around anyways, but yeah you can put an emphasis on certain things to look for without making the roll more difficult. With "setting up a perimeter", do you mean to add a fence or something?

[Xvareon]

Okay, amending my suggestion to Y-16 because there's even more open ground for (relatively) clear sight lines, yet is still reasonably close to the woods and the river.

With "setting up a perimeter", do you mean to add a fence or something?

No. I just mean to map the immediate vicinity, the ground, check for activity, and establish where the approach points to our camp are. Fences would be a terrific undertaking at this point given our lack of materials. I'd first like to see if we can assemble some basic cameras or motion sensors to monitor our campsite.

To that end, though, I do have some more specific things to do. If we have time, I want to assemble a spotlight, and hook it to our main hab's power. Something like the lights I'm pretty sure our Quad would have, only bigger. If possible, also hook it to remote control. The spotlight will give us security at night by giving us a way to see approaching threats at range, and also just generally supporting whoever's on patrol. As we progress, I'd want solar-powered lamps based on that detachable panel we have that can store power during the day and release it at night, which would keep light on any assets outside and monitor paths.

[Quarque]

All of that is a little more involved than just landing and having a look around, so it would be a Normal roll, but it would receive the Defense specialty bonus.

Please do not forget to add your proposals to a votebox.

[mightymushroom]

At first glance, Turo would prefer H-9.

I take this back.

In my analysis, the most limited limit is the number of work-hours our twelve colonists can put into the colony.
--Materials we can must presume will be found on the ground. We don't know what as yet, but something will be there.
--Energy may depend, in part, on what materials we find. If we can readily construct new electric generators, of whatever form, fine, or we may end up falling back on strictly mechanical waterwheels in the river.

With that in mind, one of the biggest time sinks is going to be travel time. Our only vehicle is the "small" Quad. Again, if we can readily construct something, fine, but that is of still-unknown availability.

All this is to support the idea that if we intend to explore and exploit the edge of the mountains for mineral ores, then it would be a reasonable plan to settle nearer. Subtile Z-5 has just as much or more open areas for sight lines, is slightly farther from the forest, and much closer to the mountain. At the scale given, the other site proposals are several days by foot.

Landing site
AB-16: (0)
Y-16: (0)
Z-5: (1) mightymushroom
(add more?)

"Safe" basic landing: (0)
Land & set up spotlights: (0)
Land & set up perimeter detection: (1) mightymushroom

I take it that the solar-powered lamps are not a suggestion for this turn. If they are, you should quantify how much solar panel to use. Until we know better what the energy situation will be, I think the "basic cameras and motion sensors" are more efficient even if they weren't bolded specifically. I'm also leery of lighting ourselves up like a centenarian's birthday cake on a mostly dark world.

[Nirur Torir]

Landing site
AB-4: (1) Nirur
Y-16: (0)
Z-5: (1) mightymushroom
(add more?)

"Safe" basic landing: (1) Nirur
Land & set up spotlights: (0)
Land & set up perimeter detection: (1) mightymushroom

I'm changing my vote to AB-4. I like it better than the larger side of the river, and want the easier timber access from being closer to the forest than I care about maximizing sight lines past 7 km for a 12 person base. If I was that paranoid, I'd vote to land on the lake and paddle upstream, so as to not declare our position so loudly.

Is there a real benefit to setting up the perimeter as part of the landing phase, rather than next phase? I assume that a simple landing will take less game time, and it should be more efficient to let the specialists do their own things.