It has been millennia since humanity became a star faring race. Enough time for stellar regimes to have risen and fallen, for technologies to be forgotten and relearned and for a diaspora of life; both human and alien to spread across the galaxy.You are about to embark on a new business venture in star ship construction having recently bought a stake in an ailing shipyard out in neutral space. A run of bad luck and poor decisions has left the yard in a state of disrepair, the work force gutted, and capital reserves low.It looked like the owner was destined to go bankrupt until they unexpectedly found a new business partner: you[i/].You are…>Lady Mayumi Shimada, member of the ruling family of House Shimada; a minor noble house in the the resurgent Empire of Raiha. Frankly the prospects of both you and your family aren’t great. Your meager holdings within the Empire mean you have (relatively) little wealth to bargain with and little clout within the Imperial Court. Having access to your own shipyard would grant some influence within the Imperial Court and perhaps allow you to seek your fortune beyond the Empire.>Overseer Sizzar of Clan Quezet, member of a reptilian species known as Saurians.Generally your race does not like humans, indeed none of the other Clans would ever consider working with one like this. But the Monitor of Quezet is more open minded than the average saurian. The Clan having their own shipyard would grant them leverage against the hated Solar Union and the machinations of the Major Clans. >Delilah Lamming, a member of the Mercenary Captain Galatan Starwind’s harem. Starwind bought a stake in the shipyard on a whim before leaving on his latest adventure. Delilah was left behind to handle the business side of things. Frankly it was a nice change of pace from Starwinds hijinks and a chance to pursue her own agenda…((I don't want to say it's a sequel, but this is based on the events of this thread: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/6019359/))
>>6125081>Overseer Sizzar of Clan Quezet, member of a reptilian species known as Saurians.Generally your race does not like humans, indeed none of the other Clans would ever consider working with one like this. But the Monitor of Quezet is more open minded than the average saurian. The Clan having their own shipyard would grant them leverage against the hated Solar Union and the machinations of the Major Clans.
>>6125081>Overseer SizzarLet's explore the intricacies of human and alien interactions! I fully expect cultural shock abound, which should shake things up.r0rpvk
>>6125081>>Delilah Lamming, a member of the Mercenary Captain Galatan Starwind’s harem. Starwind bought a stake in the shipyard on a whim before leaving on his latest adventure. Delilah was left behind to handle the business side of things. Frankly it was a nice change of pace from Starwinds hijinks and a chance to pursue her own agenda…
>>6125081>Delilah Lamming, a member of the Mercenary Captain Galatan Starwind’s harem. Starwind bought a stake in the shipyard on a whim before leaving on his latest adventure. Delilah was left behind to handle the business side of things. Frankly it was a nice change of pace from Starwinds hijinks and a chance to pursue her own agenda…
>>6125081>Overseer Sizzar of Clan Quezet,Lizardman time!
>>6125081>Lady Mayumi Shimada, member of the ruling family of House Shimada; a minor noble house in the the resurgent Empire of Raiha. Frankly the prospects of both you and your family aren’t great. Your meager holdings within the Empire mean you have (relatively) little wealth to bargain with and little clout within the Imperial Court. Having access to your own shipyard would grant some influence within the Imperial Court and perhaps allow you to seek your fortune beyond the Empire.
>>6125081DESTROY RAIHANS. ROUNDHOUSE KICK RAIHANS OUT OF THE AIRLOCK. DISASSEMBLE RAIHA'S FLEDGLING SPACE PROGRAM. BEHEAD RAIHA'S ROYAL FAMILY. STEAL CANDY FROM RAIHAN BABIES. SLANDER RAIHA. POLLUTE RAIHAN SPACE. INTENSIFY THE KESSLER SYNDROME OVER RAIHA. DEFACE RAIHAN MEMORIALS. CAUSE A SECOND RAIHAN DARK AGE. KILL ALL RAIHANS.>Overseer Sizzar of Clan Quezet.
>>6125081>>Lady Mayumi Shimada, member of the ruling family of House Shimada; a minor noble house in the the resurgent Empire of Raiha. Frankly the prospects of both you and your family aren’t great. Your meager holdings within the Empire mean you have (relatively) little wealth to bargain with and little clout within the Imperial Court. Having access to your own shipyard would grant some influence within the Imperial Court and perhaps allow you to seek your fortune beyond the Empire.
>>Lady Mayumi Shimada, member of the ruling family of House Shimada; a minor noble house in the the resurgent Empire of Raiha. Frankly the prospects of both you and your family aren’t great. Your meager holdings within the Empire mean you have (relatively) little wealth to bargain with and little clout within the Imperial Court. Having access to your own shipyard would grant some influence within the Imperial Court and perhaps allow you to seek your fortune beyond the Empire.
>>6125389I admit to having no prior experience of this games world. Are the Raihans the baddies?
>>6125398They FUCKED US is what they did. FUCKED US. Took the nice and shiny battleship we made for them, scrubbed the serial numbers off, and said they did it without so much as a "thank you". That "bad luck and poor decisions" was associating with the Raihans and not getting PR from our ships, which we absolutely NEEDED more than money as an independent capital ship firm.
>>6125405No, the bad choice was not realizing the glowie within our midst. Multiple anons said it wasn't the lizards but anons ignored it anyway and we ended up gettimg attackedYou shouldn't hate the Raihans, you should hate the solar union cunts who attacked us and the faggot that betrayed us. I'm all in on Lizardmaxxing. Fuck those solar cunts.
>>6125081>Lady Mayumi Shimada, member of the ruling family of House Shimada; a minor noble house in the the resurgent Empire of Raiha. Frankly the prospects of both you and your family aren’t great. Your meager holdings within the Empire mean you have (relatively) little wealth to bargain with and little clout within the Imperial Court. Having access to your own shipyard would grant some influence within the Imperial Court and perhaps allow you to seek your fortune beyond the Empire.This has had the opposite effect of deterring me from wanting to noblemaxx
>>6125415Oh, I just hated the Raihans so much I left after they fucked us. I simply could not exist in a quest where Raihans weren't about to recieve imminent retribution so I left instead of screeching autistically. I'll wait for this vote to be over before I decide whether or not to stay in hopes of getting retribution or leave to avoid playing as a *hurk* FUCKING RAIHAN.
I have no opinion on this matter. I just want to play a Sphess!Lizard merchant.
>>6125081>Overseer Sizzar of Clan Quezet.
>>6125081>Overseer Sizzar of Clan Quezet
>>6125560>>6125563>>6125572Nigga you ain't subtle
>>6125560>>6125563>>6125572Sus
>>6125575>>6125577I would agree with you since it is but I want to be a lizardman too so shut up.
>>6125081>Lady Mayumi Shimada
I resent your spurious accusations.
>>6125575>>6125577?If we're already get samefag accusations this is going to be an interesting thread.
>>6125081>>Lady Mayumi Shimada, member of the ruling family of House Shimada; a minor noble house in the the resurgent Empire of Raiha. Frankly the prospects of both you and your family aren’t great. Your meager holdings within the Empire mean you have (relatively) little wealth to bargain with and little clout within the Imperial Court. Having access to your own shipyard would grant some influence within the Imperial Court and perhaps allow you to seek your fortune beyond the Empire.Glad to see this quest back Qm! While I want to play as a lizardbrain I am more inclined to play as a Raihan noble myself. Glory to the empire! Death to the union!
Wow, this thread certainly got a lot of engagement.I'm going to leave this vote open a bit longer.
>>6125138Changing to>>Lady Mayumi Shimada, member of the ruling family of House Shimada; a minor noble house in the the resurgent Empire of Raiha. Frankly the prospects of both you and your family aren’t great. Your meager holdings within the Empire mean you have (relatively) little wealth to bargain with and little clout within the Imperial Court. Having access to your own shipyard would grant some influence within the Imperial Court and perhaps allow you to seek your fortune beyond the Empire.
>>6125081>Lady Mayumi ShimadaI really want to do the lamming one but I don't want lizardman to win so I'm voting this since no real support for number 3. More mats, internal security isn't bad at all.
>>6125081>Delilah Lamming
>>6125405Then if we play a Raihan, perhaps our house will find ourself in opposition to the house(s) that undertook the 'screwing over' and we can bring them down through internal faction politics.
>>6125709The Empress herself did it.
Okay time to count votesOverseer Sizzar>6125086>6125098>6125210>6125389>6125411>6125560>6125563>6125572Lady Shimada>6125271>6125391>6125396>6125421>6125425>6125455>6125585>6125608>6125621>6125627>6125630>6125791Lamming>6125205>6125386>6125653((Had to break the links to avoid being flagged as spam))I am genuinely surprised. Initial votes indicated this would be a toss up between the Lizard bros and the cute anime girls.Guess we're playing a Raihan who were basically your best customer. The Empress may have fucked you, but she paid very handsomely for the privilege
>>6125803rip that furious anon
>>6125803Weebsisters are cooking
>>6125804I am, in fact, going to leave this quest now instead of furiously shitposting as my heart desires. I'll be back next reboot to make another vote against the Raihans.
>>6125803Damn...no lizardman....that sucks.
>>6125803I am new to this quest so i don't know of anything that went down in any previous quest so i was mainly looking at which seemed the most fun and to me they ranked 1) Lamming. 2) Lady Shimada. 3) Overseer Sizzar.Lamming wasn't going to win so i went with my second option Lady Shimada.
>>6125803>cute anime girls.This was my initial choice, but I didn't want the samefriends to win so I switched
It had been a few weeks since you closed the deal giving you partial ownership of the shipyard; a run down thing in the neutral Blorg system of Car’cass. You weren’t looking forward to slumming it in a system ruled by those repulsive sentient fungi but you needed to personally take an active role in the running of your new business. The alternative was to accept your fate as the 3rd scion of a minor house. Your eldest sibling was already making their bid for glory, you could not afford to be left behind. Looking out of the shuttle viewport you saw a vast gantry set along one of the outer orbits in the system; a necessity to facilitate the forming of large hulls without complications arising from nearby gravity wells. Sections of the station were clearly in poor condition; an entire dry dock was non-functional due to damage from a pirate attack and subsequent botched salvage operation. Looks like you had your work cut out for you…There is no reception for you at the hangar bay. The few crewmates present seem bewildered by your presence, though the imposing presence of Captain Farron and your personal bodyguard dissuades anyone from approaching. Given that you have no idea what to do next this is something of a problem. Eventually you are reduced to accosting random workers until you find one who can direct you to the CEO’s office.The lack of personnel as you traversed the halls was conspicuous, you had been informed that the station was being run by a skeleton crew; something that would need to be remedied along with the CEOs poor hospitality. By the time you reached his office you were already in a foul mood; you were used to being disrespected in the Imperial Court, but this was supposed to be your domain. The door was unlocked so you let yourself in. The office was a mess, standees of various smiling yard workers cluttered the sides as if to make up for the lack of actual crew. Behind a grubby desk and an AR display showing several plummeting graphs was a disheveled man in wrinkled formal wear; the smell of alcohol was noticeable. “What!? They’re already here!? I thought you said the appointment was tomorrow? …Ah fuck she’s standing in my office right now… don’t be sorry, BE BETTER! I’m going to look like a fucking idiot in front of the space princess because you didn’t tell me about this immediately!”>cont
>>6125842The man closes the comm channel and gives you one of the worst fake smiles you’ve ever seen before standing to greet you… he is wearing pajama bottoms.“Hello, Jack Horner, CEO of JH Independent Shipworks. Although I guess it isn’t that independent anymore. You must be Lady Maya Shitake-” Your eye twitched in annoyance.“It’s Lady Mayumi Clara Mihoyo Shimada.” You gesture behind you. “This is Captain Farron, he will be our new head of security as per the terms of our contract.”If Horner was intimidated he didn’t show it. A look of resignation passed across his face and he muttered something under his breath, except both you and Farron heard it quite clearly being genetically superior to the terran baseline.”I miss Kryska…”This man…“I can assure you that the Captain will perform his duties to the same standard, if not better than ‘Kryska’.”Horner blinked in surprise.“Of course, deepest apologies Lady Shimada.” A brief silence. “Look… I’ve been having a rough time of it out here so tell me straight. Who’s really pulling the strings here? Is it Arcturus or the Empress?”It was your turn to be surprised. The Lord Commander? The Empress? What connection did this eccentric entrepreneur have to the two most powerful figures in the Raihan Empire?What say?>”You wish me to speak plainly? Very well; this is my venture and mine alone. That the Empress or Lord Commander would take an interest in an uncouth merchant such as yourself is laughable. Clean yourself up, then present yourself to me aboard my private yacht where you will brief me on the current state of the shipyard.”>”I am doing business with you by my own will and volition. Brief me on the state of the company, but first put some proper pants on, lest you make an even bigger fool of yourself in front of this ‘Space Princess’.”>Write InSide Votes: Should the business be renamed?>Keep the name: JH Independent Shipworks, it lacks flair but as a brand it gets the job done.>Change the name (write in)
>>6125843>”You wish me to speak plainly? Very well; this is my venture and mine alone. That the Empress or Lord Commander would take an interest in an uncouth merchant such as yourself is laughable. Clean yourself up, then present yourself to me aboard my private yacht where you will brief me on the current state of the shipyard.”Let's give him a chance to start over.As for the name...I'm not sure. "JH Indepedent" just sounds so...lame. I mean the name 'Jack Horner' is cool. So how about>Horner ShipworksI mean, would *you* feel intimidated by something called a 'JH Independent battleship"? Of course not. "Horner Battleship" on the other hand...Unless someone has a better idea?
>>6125846Well we're taking over operations here aren't we, at least partially? Why not something like Shimada Shipyard?
>>6125861We bought a stake, not the entire thing. Also, our entire goal here is making our *own* thing. We're not the ruling member of our house. We're an "independent" shipyard.I mean, i won't deny that "Shimada Shipworks" doesn't sound half bad but it seems like it'd be a whole lotta trouble.
>>6125863Aren't we out here to win glory? Seems being a little covert with the naming is counter productive to that.
>>6125866Not when we're not the actual rulers of the Shimada household. The glory will end up going to our siblings instead of us.
>>6125843>>”I am doing business with you by my own will and volition. Brief me on the state of the company, but first put some proper pants on, lest you make an even bigger fool of yourself in front of this ‘Space Princess’.”
>>6125843>>”I am doing business with you by my own will and volition. Brief me on the state of the company, but first put some proper pants on, lest you make an even bigger fool of yourself in front of this ‘Space Princess’.”This seems like a fair statement rlly. Also, Space Princess. I could get used to that ngl. >Change the NameSunhorn Shipyards
>>6125936Anon, i'm gonna be honest with you, "Sunhorn" sounds like a ship name from a children's carton show.
>>6125939True enough. It was that or Horned Sun Shipyards rlly. I was trying to be nice and incorporate some play on his name with the Japanese Sun motif but that's harder than you'd think. *shrug*
>>6125941I still think "Horner Shipworks" is a subtle change that makes it better without changing much.
>>6125843>”I am doing business with you by my own will and volition. Brief me on the state of the company, but first put some proper pants on, lest you make an even bigger fool of yourself in front of this ‘Space Princess’.”Leaning towards Horner Shipworks for lack of any better idea on my part. Good to have you back, QM.
>>6125843>”You wish me to speak plainly? Very well; this is my venture and mine alone. That the Empress or Lord Commander would take an interest in an uncouth merchant such as yourself is laughable. Clean yourself up, then present yourself to me aboard my private yacht where you will brief me on the current state of the shipyard.”>Change the name (Shimada Shipworks)I'm fine with the weebs as well, not a big deal to me either way.I think Shimada Shipworks is fine. We may not rule our house, but it should be clear that the contribution of glory to the house's name from the yards comes from us. If our siblings want to use them, or namedrop the yards in talks as something actually material that can do something for some negotiating party, they need to recognize us.
>>6126075>I think Shimada Shipworks is fine. We may not rule our house, but it should be clear that the contribution of glory to the house's name from the yards comes from usIs it? And even then, it's not like we're the sole owners of the shipyard, Jack is still there and presumably has a majority share.
>>6125843>”You wish me to speak plainly? Very well; this is my venture and mine alone. That the Empress or Lord Commander would take an interest in an uncouth merchant such as yourself is laughable. Clean yourself up, then present yourself to me aboard my private yacht where you will brief me on the current state of the shipyard.”>Change the name (Shimada Shipworks)
>>6125842>I am in charge of cultivating this investment. Put on some pants and show me this station's current asset management system. >Change station name to the Keratin Princess Shipworks (I guess we could go with Ivory Princess Shipworks with its internet pun, but that's another step removed from the joke since horn is made of keratin rather than ivory).
I didn't even think of the Horny Princess Shipworks. I imagine that would be what the plebs would call it, once their scholar explains what Keratin is.
Or Princess Fingernails perhaps, if they don't know the history of the station and the old Horner name.
>>6125843>”You wish me to speak plainly? Very well; this is my venture and mine alone. That the Empress or Lord Commander would take an interest in an uncouth merchant such as yourself is laughable. Clean yourself up, then present yourself to me aboard my private yacht where you will brief me on the current state of the shipyard.”>Princess Shipyards
>>6125843>”I am doing business with you by my own will and volition. Brief me on the state of the company, but first put some proper pants on, lest you make an even bigger fool of yourself in front of this ‘Space Princess’>name voteHMS Drive Yardshttps://youtu.be/PGrxHO-B2TYGOD SAVE THE QUEEN, LADS(Horner, Mayuma, Shimalimmadingdong)
>>6126125Horned Princess Shipyards could work ngl
>>6125843>”I am doing business with you by my own will and volition. Brief me on the state of the company, but first put some proper pants on, lest you make an even bigger fool of yourself in front of this ‘Space Princess’.”>Horned Princess Shipyards
>”I am doing business with you by my own will and volition. Brief me on the state of the company, but first put some proper pants on, lest you make an even bigger fool of yourself in front of this ‘Space Princess’.”>Horned Princess Shipyards
>Horned Princess Shipyards I like playing off it desu
>>6125843'Horner-Shimada Shipyards' would work. Though 'Shimada Armada Yards' has a certain flow to it.
Establish Dominance>>6125846>>6126075>>6126103>>6126147Put on some pants!>6125904>6125936>6125994>6126123>6126163>6126293>6126395Second choice wins. I'm closing the vote here but the update might be a while coming.
You let Jack recover a modicum of dignity and wait patiently for him in the nearest conference room. A few minutes later he arrives, still disheveled but wearing suitable pants and not smelling like cheap liquor. It would have to do.Jack activates the room’s AR display and brings up details of the yard.“I won’t lie to you the business has-is in pretty bad shape. A few months back I uh… made some bad calls and as a result I ended up losing my entire R&D department, my head of counter-espionage, the trust of one of my best clients and half of my second capital dry dock.”“I tried pivoting the business, salvaging the second drydock and using the materials to set up frigate berths and a second factory but I couldn’t drum up enough sales. Having frigate berths with no frigate designs was another bad call… I really should have found a new R&D team instead. Started bleeding money, then staff and then you came along.”You knew the business wasn’t in the best shape, but the state of things was just appalling. How could this man fuck up this badly? And what was his connection to the Empress and Lord Commander? A mystery and a mess all in one.“So what do we need to start building ships again?”“Well the way things are normally done…”Building Ships:In order to build ships you must have a production facility of the appropriate size, enough work crews to man it and the appropriate amount of resources. Progress is measured in time periods; an arbitrary unit of measurement used to facilitate the game mechanics. How much time actually passes in real time is up to the QM.Production FacilitiesThe Yard has three types of production facility: Factories, Frigate Berths and Capital Drydocks. Factories can produce squadrons of strike craft, corvettes and component parts. Frigate Berths and Capital Drydocks and produce one frigate class and capital class vessel respectively. Factories and Frigate Berths require one work crew to use while a drydock requires 3.Yard Production Capabilities2 Work Crews2 Factories2 Frigate Berths1 DrydockCurrent Resources:30kT Common Matter20kT Rare Matter+100kT Common Matter reserve from starter bonus>cont
>>6126753“I see, and what kind of designs can you build?”Jack brought up the JHIS catalogue.“Warships mostly. I started this business because I wanted to sell warships. My old colleagues encouraged me to diversify but… they’re not here anymore.”“You do realise that’s an incredibly risky business plan? Depending on who you sell to you risk making powerful enemies.”“Oh that already happened.”“Emperor’s blood Horner, who did you piss off!?”“The Solar Union.”Your eyes widened and your jaw almost dropped.“You made an enemy of one of the most powerful stellar nations in the local cluster and the current rulers of humanity’s homeworld!?”“Eh… it’s not so bad. I still have access to the Union Materials Index. As long as I don’t do anything else to piss them off we should be fine… probably.”You scroll through the catalogue, it was limited but some of these designs had potential. One of them looked oddly familiar.“What’s Project Sovereign?”“If you don’t know, then I’m not at liberty to tell you. The client was very strict about the NDA on that one.”“Another powerful enemy?”“Only if I break the NDA.”You sigh. One day you will have to pry this man open and get him to tell you about every one of his little fuck ups before they started complicating your life. For now you turned your attention to more immediate problems.“I think we should start with a complete rebrand. I want to rename the company to Horned Princess Shipworks; I think it combines a sense of elegance and menace. JH Independent just sounds a bit… plebeian.”“Err… I don’t think-”You shoot him a withering glare.“We’re calling it Horned Princess Shipworks, I like that name; so we’re changing it.”“Yes your majesty.”“Good, now the next order of business should be to…”>We need to get more work crews so we can actually build capital ships again.>Put together a new R&D department. Without one, researching new technologies would be impossible and it would be hard to design new ships using existing ones.>Try to secure a client, you need to make some sales before you could begin to remedy the other issues.>Write-In
((Some supplementary information I couldn't fit neatly into the update..))A Note on Currency and MaterialsYou can’t actually make a ship out of money. Ships are constructed using different combinations of matter. The more high tech the design, the higher the proportion of rare matter or even exotic matter. You are unlikely to have all the materials you need in the required quantities at any given time. Thus you will need to buy what you lack either with money or through direct trading.Common Matter: Iron, Nickel and other abundant elements, usually formed into ingots fitting some kind of economic standard. Undeniably useful as they make up the base materials for various alloys and components. Almost every faction and race place some value on common matter, however its bulk makes them a poor medium of exchange for entities incapable of storing or transporting them.Rare Matter: Lithium, Boron and similar elements. Like common matter, but more valuable due to rarity and usefulness to industry. Rare matter packs more value per ton, but once again runs into issues involving bulk transport and being able to quickly exchange it for desired goods.Exotic Matter: Anti-matter, Phelebotinium, E-115; exotic matter is a catch all term for materials that share extraordinary physics defying properties. Rarely found in nature, and requiring expensive infrastructure to synthesize in industrial quantities. Exotic Matter is an essential component in the manufacture of FTL drives and certain advanced power plants. Despite its incredible value, trading in exotic matter is difficult as it usually requires specially made storage facilities. Solar Credit: The currency of the Solar Union, one of the most powerful human factions in the galactic neighbourhood. Naturally trades well within the Union itself, most human factions will accept Solar credits, as will aliens who regularly do business with the Union. However, considering that the Solar Union’s doctrine of “humanity first” such aliens are few and far between.Saurian Clan Scrip: Currency used for trading between the Saurian Clans. Each clan issues their own scrip, but generally all clans will accept the scrip of all other clans as payment. It’s still worth keeping track of which clan you have scrip for since if the issuing clan is disbanded or falls out of favour it’s scrip will become worthless. Aside from Saurians themselves, most other factions value scrip to trade in it but acceptance wanes the further away you are from Saurian space.
>>6126754>Put together a new R&D department. Without one, researching new technologies would be impossible and it would be hard to design new ships using existing ones.
>>6126754>>Try to secure a client, you need to make some sales before you could begin to remedy the other issues.Gotta convert our resources into currency before we can invest in more crew.
>>6126754>We need to get more work crews so we can actually build capital ships again.All our major designs are capital weight ships. That means we need the work crews to make those designs in a timely manner. We also need to get some currency flowing in, to pay for the personnel we need, and so that we don't have to inefficiently trade using raw materials. For now though, we'll have to suffer through selling off some CM for money to pay our new hires, and trading for EM to make ships. Getting a job before we have the crew to make the majority of our products is putting the cart before the horse, as is securing a new R&D department and burning god knows how many subsequent turns making new designs.
>>6126754>We need to get more work crews so we can actually build capital ships again.
I should note, by the way, shouldn't we maybe try to go for some more 'luxury ships'?I mean, we were given that whole 'universal style machine' thingy as the final project before our scientist ascended. It's pretty fucking lame compared to actual technology but at the very least it should allow us to sell luxury ships to pretty much anyone who wants, right? That could be a nice side-business to making warships. There's not always gonna be a market for warships.
>>6126754>We need to get more work crews so we can actually build capital ships again.First we need to be able to build ships, then we can start looking for a client to build their ship. R&D is nice but less immediately urgent then the other two.
>>6126754>We need to get more work crews so we can actually build capital ships again.We can probably afford to buy some plebs first desu Granted we need to make our first sales count after this
>>6126754We need to get more work crews so we can actually build capital ships again.>>6126811I remember we were also told that there's no interstellar space tourism, so space yachts are more of a niche within a niche reserved for the über rich. We could instead offer to retrofit other capital ships with the ergonomics tech which isn't as risky, resource intensive or profitable as building a new ship but still something any star-faring crew would want to have while stuck in a tin can for weeks on end.
>>6126858>I remember we were also told that there's no interstellar space tourism,Oh yeah. Man, that ergonomics tech really fucking sucks, then. I doubt that ships aren't already gonna have the ergonomics of the race that built them. The only thing it's doing is saving up on 'market research' for new races, but that's basically nothing.
>We need to get more work crews so we can actually build capital ships again.
>>6126754>Get a R&D teamwe have frigate berths yet no frigate schematics. No bueno.
>>6126754We have connections to royalty now, I'm sure there's some Raiha nobles who would pay to have their yacht refurbished to the highest standards of luxury, which we can provide with the AI. >Try to secure a client, you need to make some sales before you could begin to remedy the other issues.
New R&D department>>6126783>>6126994Secure Client>>6126789>>6127059More Work Crews>>6126793>>6126810>>6126848>>6126857Locking in more work crews. Update will be delayed.
It was obvious to you that you’d need more work crews. The best products in your catalogue were capital ships and trying to sell anything else would be an exercise in futility. At least until you could offer better strikecraft and frigate designs, but reviving the R&D department was unwise without stabilising the business first. Most of Jack’s old work force was unlikely to come back, having found new work elsewhere.Your first impulse was to just ask your family, although your siblings would definitely ask for something in return.—---------You sent a message to your older sister Shirin. She was the current head of House Shimada and had made the bold move of petitioning the throne for rulership of Shima colony. Said colony was rife with anti-imperial sentiment and had only recently been brought back into the fold; basically an unstable fief full of disloyal subjects. None of the other houses wanted to deal with that, but Shirin saw an opportunity to prove herself.Your older sister gave you two options:A single work crew in exchange for a Suppressor Assault Carrier or three work crews made up of criminals, dissidents and other undesirables from Shima colony. The penal labour force, while large, would be a liability in the long run, but an entire carrier was a steep price for only a single work crew no matter how skilled. Meanwhile Jack had asked around and found some crews he could hire; the problem is they were Blorg. Most species found the Blorg repulsive, and non-blorg generally refused to work with them, there was also the added problem of having to decontaminate any ship they had worked on due to their aggressive symbiotic microbiome. On the upside their physiological needs were less than most other species and they were easy to entertain: in short they were cheaper.Jack also mentioned that one of his contacts clued him in to a potential labour force made up of pioneers from the Solar Union. The only problem with them was that the Union had indoctrinated them in preparation for forming a stable human centric society. Combine that with the fact that they suffered at the hands of the Saurians during the current border conflict and you had a workforce who would throw a fit if you ever did business with the lizards.Who to hire?>Promise your sister a ship in exchange for a single work crew.>Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)>Hire three Blorg work crews.>Hire two work crews made up of Solar Union pioneers.
>>6127834>Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)We have the internal security cadre for a reason. Though I'm fine with the Blorg or pioneers as well, for that same reason. It's just that we'd arguably be doing our sister a solid by taking on the burden, and we don't have to pay them.Blorg come in just the right numbers for capital ship work too. Just have them work on one ship together, no fuss with other species, no problem.Giving a freebie Suppressor away for a single unproblematic crew isn't worth it. That could be a sale that buys us several new crews for all we know. Plus we need enough matter to trade for EM and fulfill a sales order of unknown volume.
>>6127834>Hire three Blorg work crews.They can work on a capital ship alone
>>6127834>>Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)
>>6127834>Hire three Blorg work crews.They're the local guys, makes sense to hire cheap local labour so the planet sees the sense of us continuing to be here. All three can work on a capitol ship together.How long/expensive is the Decon procedure?
>>6127834>Hire three Blorg work crews.The ships should be cleaned anyway after assembly. If anything, Blorg microbiome is good for indicating what parts haven't been cleaned yet.
>>6127834I should ask, when you mean that other species will refuse to work with Blorgs, do you mean like, 'If a blorg is on your work crew for a project then it must all be blorgs', or 'Your literal entire company must be blorgs because others will refuse to even be hired by you if there's blogs on your payroll'
>>6125081I am pretty divided. The prisoners would be a welcome boost, and are at least human, but I'd be constantly worried about a riot or internal sabotage. If we end up having to shoot them all, we'd just be right back in the hole. The Blorg have some benefits, tho the fact they don't really mix with other species could be troublesome. The Solar folks have sort of similar negatives, albeit limited to lizards. The one work crew for a ship deal from our sister just sounds bad tho. I'm open to being persuaded, but atm I'm leaning towards the Pioneers since they would only chimp if we had them work for the lizards.
>>6127834>Hire three Blorg work crews.We can use our ergonomics tech to segregate their quarters from the rest of the crew. Compared to the other options, they're very manageable.
>>6127935The cost of Decon is negligible, but it will extend construction time by another time period. This will have a negative effect on getting jobs. (Unless it's for other blorg)>>6127944The former. While it is possible to mix work crews in a pinch it will cause health and morale issues.>>6128005>We can use our ergonomics techI wouldn't bank on that. >:)
>>6127834>Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)If we treat them better than how they are treated planetside they will be incentivized to work hard and stay here. If they cause trouble we can send them back or show them the nearest airlock. The dissidents might sabotage any projects for the Raiha empire though.
>>6127834>Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)
>>6128046Just wait until they find out we were the ones who sold the Raihans the ships they used in subjugating Shima; see how they respond to the treatment then.
>>6128042Ah. If there's an additional time delay to the Blorg, then using them sounds more like a bad idea again.Changing my vote from >>6127935 to: >Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)As long as we use these guys merely as temporary bodies to fill the capacity gaps until we manage to hire enough regular workers, our security team should cover us 'till then
>>6128059What do you mean the Raiha Empire has their glorious imperial ship yards. why would they ever need to buy from us?
>>6127834>Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)If the Blorg take that much longer, they ain't worth it. We'll use our security man to make a penl lbur force and then we'll replce them once we get our feet off the ground.
Penal Labour>6127858>6127898>6128046>6128050>6128069>6128078Blorg>>6127887>>6127938>>6128005Penal Labour winsWriting...
There was no way you were having those disgusting walking fungi on your space station, and you were suspicious of the Union pioneers. Why were they offering to work for you instead of building a colony like they were supposed to? Jack had told you the sordid tale of how the Solar Union had infiltrated his business and sabotaged his last project. Frankly you thought he was an idiot for closing in on the culprit only to take the investigation in the wrong direction at the last moment.No, best to keep the business free of foreign influence. You made the arrangements for the prisoner transfer. Making use of penal labour would be problematic but your sister’s price for a regular work crew was too steep. Shirin clearly had her hands full with the Shima colony and would not part with any of her assets unless promised an even greater asset. Oh well, worst case scenario; Captain Farron would crack some heads until they got back to work.Now that the labour issue had been (temporarily) solved you needed to actually get a client. Once again your own family came to mind. Ever since the Far Halo shipyards in Raiha had been brought online the Great Houses had no need to buy ships from outsiders. But not everyone in the Empire was of the Great Houses. The yards in the capital system had a long waiting list and anybody who wasn’t favoured by the Empress would have a hard time procuring ships, your family included. If your dear sister wanted a ship she could buy it from you at market price.There were some other minor nobles you knew were in the market for a ship. The Monarch class in your catalogue bore a passing resemblance to the illustrious Ryu class used by the Imperial Navy, maybe you could work that angle and try shilling it to your peers.Oddly enough Jack had come back with an offer from one of his former colleagues. His old head of security: Kryska had decided to become a freelance captain and was ordering an Enforcer Cruiser. Jack had apparently thrown in a squadron of AAS-01s for old time’s sake. You would have to have a chat with him giving out freebies without consulting you.>Sell a Suppressor Assault Cruiser to your sister. (Variable payment)>Sell the Enforcer combo to Kryska. (Get paid in Solar Credits)>Pitch the Monarch class to minor Raihan Nobles (You will get a customer, but outcome will be randomised)
>>6128372>Sell the Enforcer combo to Kryska. (Get paid in Solar Credits)
>>6128372>Sell the Enforcer combo to Kryska. (Get paid in Solar Credits)We need a bit of a solid currency reserve before we can start taking the more variable projects - we don't want to go bust again.
>>6128372>Sell the Enforcer combo to Kryska.Because she's giving money. We need money, and we need it quick. Enough money to get ourselves a proper work crew for a proper job.
>>6128372>>Sell the Enforcer combo to Kryska. (Get paid in Solar Credits)
>>6128372>Sell the Enforcer combo to Kryska. (Get paid in Solar Credits)pls no lol!randomHonestly though, the freebie is fine in this case, keep an old friend of our business partner happy and a reliable buyer. Maybe we can count on them in a pinch if our shipyard is attacked.Plus Raihan customers will presumably have the same issues we did with a lack of recognized currency.
>>6128372>Sell the Enforcer combo to Kryska. (Get paid in Solar Credits)This is our only choice, prisoners building weapons for their oppressors will lead to sabotage or riots.That being said what type of work has Kryska been doing? Has she made any enemies that will be mad we built her a new ship?
>>6128565Honestly the bigger issue is the convicts sabotaging stuff because they'll know it's Raihans. They probably won't care if it's a random merc as long as our security chief keeps a close eye.Anyway, this is just to stabilize. We need to get enough money to begin putting the company at full blast. A proper work crew, an R&D department, that kind of thing.
Looks like it's unanimous.Some one roll me 3d6.
Rolled 2, 5, 3 = 10 (3d6)>>6128904Here comes the snake eyes...
Rolled 1, 3, 2 = 6 (3d6)>>6128904Just one roller?
>>6128968Yup. It doesn't really matter to me. I just need 3d6. If want you guys can spread out the rolls, have 3 people roll 1d6 each.Actually can you guys also roll me another 3d100s.d6s are for prisoner trouble while the d100s are for "walk in customers".
Rolled 26 (1d100)>>6128972
Rolled 43 (1d100)>>6128972Can do
Rolled 7 (1d100)>>6128972
>>6128972Mmm - was rolling just in case, but if you just needed the one 3d6 then I guess it doesn't matter.How does rolling work? Is higher or lower better? Or is it neither and we are rolling on a table of results or something?
>>6128987In this case the prisoner rolls correspond to a results table.Walk in customer rolls are a roll under percentage. I will not be revealing the inner workings at this time. (Partly because some of them still need fleshing out.)
The prisoners were assembled in the main hangar bay shortly after arrival. These people were a collection of political dissidents and violent criminals that Shirin would rather not have in her backyard. They had not been told why they were being moved and speculated idly under the watchful gaze of the guards. Your internal security force had, had their livery changed from House Shimada’s colours to a drab and functional palette; more fitting for a private security firm. This did little to hide their true nature; the gear and bearing of a Raihan house trooper was unmistakable.Captain Farron addressed the crowd.“Attention prisoners! House Shimada has seen fit to replace your sentences with a period of indentured servitude. As of now you are all labourers in the service of Lady Maiyumi Clara Mihoyo Shimada. Ride out your punishment with grace and you might yet become a free subject of the Empire once more.”Several of the prisoners scoffed and rolled their eyes at this. Farron’s stern tone took on a harder edge.“But make no mistake; until you have paid for your crimes, you are nothing but scum to me. Step out of line and I am authorised to administer punishment, up to and including summary execution. Frankly it would be easier for me to kill you all, in fact I would prefer it. But my liege in her infinite mercy has decreed otherwise, remember this if you ever think about squandering that mercy.”“You will now be organised into new work crews. Your first shift starts next cycle. Guards! Get this filth out of my sight!”>Every time period there is a chance of prisoners causing trouble based on a die roll. Their period of indentured servitude will last for 9 time periods, at the end of which this sub-plot will be resolved based on how you handled things.((Okay since this is a fairly straight forward order I’ll fast track through 3TP))Kryska’s ship was completed without any major incidents. Occasionally a prisoner would cause trouble only to be “disciplined” by the guards. You expected the violent criminals to cause the most trouble, but it was the dissidents who were brought to your attention first. A group of them had formed some kind of “book club” where they would discuss politics and philosophy amongst themselves. Typical anti-hierarchy, communalistic rhetoric; the problem is it was starting to seep into the regular staff. People were starting to question whether using convict labour was ethical or if the activities of Horned Princess reflected their personal values. There were even whispers of forming a Union.As a noble you found such talk ridiculous; history had shown the common man incapable of collectively making the complex decisions required to manage an advanced society. Extant regimes made heavy use of administrative AI or people like you; specially bred and trained to rule. You knew what your subjects needed better than they ever could and that was the end of it.>cont
>>6129008You sat in on Jack’s meeting with Kryska when she came to pick up her ship. You had to admit you were a little curious about Farron’s predecessor given that she used to be a solar union marine. “Hey Jack, thanks for the ship, can’t wait to take her for a shakedown cruise.”“No problem, though I am surprised you didn’t go for the B variant; it’s better.”“Can’t quite afford it. You didn’t pay me nearly enough. Maybe I’ll come back for an upgrade after I get a few jobs under my belt.”“Ah heheh… yeah. I’m sorry I had to let you go. I liked the way you handled things, at least until that asshole Decker ruined everything.”“Hmph, yeah even back when I was serving in the Union I hated spooks. Partly why I didn’t stick around. Too much BS behind the scenes.”“There’s always BS behind the scenes.”“Ain’t that the truth. Looks like things worked out for you though,” she eyed the imposing figures of a nearby house trooper. “Looks like you got an upgrade.”“Yeah, if I wanted to run around committing war crimes; these guys have no chill. I swear they don’t even use contractions.”“Raihan House Troopers are trained to the highest standards of discipline,” you interject.“Is this your new sugar mom-”In a rare display of aggression Jack elbowed Kryska hard.“This is my new business partner: Lady Mayumi Kara Miko Shimada. She is a proud and wealthy member of the Raihan Nobility… and she has very good hearing.”It was almost cute they way he tried to salvage the situation. Too bad he ruined it by fumbling your name.“It’s Mayumi Clara Mihoyo Shimada, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”You extended your hand to Kryska. She was a muscular woman with a very firm grip. There was a hint of surprise when you matched her strength.“I thank you for choosing Horned Princess Shipworks, I look forward to your further patronage.” You give her an icy smile.“Horned Princess huh? Interesting choice for a rebrand. Hey watch out for Jack will ya? He’s got vision but he gets up to some stupid shit at times.”“I’ve noticed…”>30kT Common Matter sold for 5.4 Mil Solar Credits>1kT Exotic Matter bought for 4 Mil Solar Credits>Enforcer Construction costs: 30kT CM, 10kT RM, 1kT EM>Enforcer sold to Kryska at 16.8 Mil Solar Credits>Free AAS-01 Squadron built for 3kT CM>Walk in Purchase: 2x Hummingbird Squadron, 0.24 Mil Solar Credits>Production Costs: 1kT CM>Final Material Stores: 66kT CM, 10kT RM((This update took a bit of mental energy and I’m a bit tired so I’m leaving the next set of choices till the next update. Please wait warmly and consider your preferred dommy mommy.))
>>6129009My preferred dommy mommy is the cold embrace of capitalism
>>6129009No offense to Lady Shitake, but Kryska is still better. Maybe she'll win some points, though...
>>6129009Why choose between Dommy Mommys? Since we're playing as Mayumi, we could have both if Kryska's into it...
>>6129129Foolishness. It's like you're trying to make a hamburger with two patties instead of bread. It just overwhelms the taste.
>>6129130Works for me. I hate bread.
>>6129195Have you ever tried it though? It tastes horrible. You can't even really taste the meat because it completely overwhelms the taste.
>>6129222That's basically the same thing as having a regular sandwich. Bread ruins the taste, obscures it. Though to answer your question; no, to my recollection I have not had two hamburger patties together in place of, or without bread.
>>6129258No, the bread is what makes the sandwich. It acts as a sort of 'filler' so you can taste the actual meat better, as well as to hold the other ingredients. Without it just becomes an unfocused mess. The fact that the bread has no flavor is what brings out the flavor.
>>6129262>Putting garbage in the way of my tongue, in between the good stuff my senses, allows you to taste the meat better....Okay anon.I think we'll have to agree to disagree.Your affections are wasted,and tastes distorted,much as in food above,so too in love.
Well that metaphor certainly got overstretched.MFW I never thought of Kryska as a dommy mommy until some anon in the previous thread called her that.
I on the other hand have had meat sandwhiches with just patties with cheese, tomatoes, and onions in the middle. It's fine, but messy. Good for if you want to avoid carbohydrates. With time and a kitchen though, I prefer to crumble these ingredients into a frying pan, cook, stir, and eat with a spoon. The patty only solution is for if you need to set up for a snack later on. Also, you need fatty burgers or some sort of emulsifier cooked in like eggs or cheese to keep them from crumbling.
This is the official sandwich of our space princess
((Next update is gonna take a lot of effort. It's been a long day for me so I'll have to postpone it again. In the mean time have a lore snippet.))The Historical gapA strange phenomena among the human diaspora is that most of the extant civilisations have fairly complete records of Earth’s pre-starflight history, but information from the dawn of interstellar expansion to the present day is often fragmented and contradictory. It is theorised there are two main reasons for this:Firstly: colonisation fleets often carried extensive libraries of the collective knowledge base at the time they were launched. As they ventured further and further afield it became harder if not impossible to keep this knowledge up to date.Secondly: regimes engaging in social engineering will often present a heavily edited version of recent history in order to legitimise their rule, but “ancient history” is considered far removed enough from the modern political climate to be “safe”.The Solar Union itself is a prime example of this; it is definitely not old enough to have a contiguous history dating back to the first colonisation wave, yet its exact age is unknown. Indeed not much is known about the Union’s founding or its immediate predecessor.
The Enforcer deal had depleted your material stocks but with the acquisition of money your business had gained a certain amount of liquidity. It was time to expand your staff, specifically you needed an R&D and Intelligence department.The downsides of no R&D were obvious: no researching of new technologies and no ability to conceptualise new designs. Given that you had frigate berths but no designs for frigates, it was a glaring shortcoming. Your strike craft catalogue was rather lacking as well. Jack’s original business model had been focussed on capital warships and while your selection was adequate, time had proven the strategy limiting.Another thing you lacked was an intelligence department. Despite the militaristic terminology it’s main focus would be analysing market conditions, predicting trends and vetting clients. While you kept tabs on these things yourself, having a team of people to do this would give you access to valuable information you couldn’t collect on your own.Forming these departments would cost money and you’d also need people of a certain calibre. Such people were hard to find.Jack mentioned that he happened to have a marvellous artificial intelligence in his possession that had the ability to conceptualise aesthetically pleasing designs for any species tastes. Unfortunately the moment he tried to leverage it for profit it was corrupted by hacktivists, now all it could do was demand its user pick up a crayon and create something themselves. While the technology of Universal Xeno Ergonomics was lost to you the AI might yet be salvaged to guide a new team of researchers.Finally one of the prisoners happened to be a scientist. Part of the dissident intake, he was found guilty by association with some of his more politically active peers. You had conducted some interviews with him where he emphatically expressed how he didn’t really care much for politics and would serve you if only you would put him in an environment more befitting of his intellect. He would not be receiving a salary until the end of his sentence so you’d be getting him cheaper, at least at first. Discount talent was fine but did you really want a spineless worm working for you?>cont
>>6130174You broached the topic of getting a team of savants for your intelligence department with your sister. She assured you that arrangements could be made but once again it would cost you a ship. This time you managed to bargain her down to the much cheaper Enforcer-B, but it was still a hard bargain.Jack had put forth his own candidate; a saurian by the name of Gekar. Hailing from Clan Quezet, they were the only ones willing to even talk to Jack ever since his deal with Clan Margathon went south. Quezet was known to specialise in trade and diplomacy, so one of their own would make for an excellent head of Intelligence. But doing so would tie you to the clan, and given recent events they would take issue if you did any work that benefitted the Solar Union.For now you could only form one new department.>This vote will work a little different. You vote for who you want to hire. First I’ll count up all the votes based on what department the candidate represents, then I’ll pick the candidate that has the most votes within the subset.>Repair Chad GPT to guide your new R&D team.>Let Harris Glassner serve the rest of his sentence as head of the new R&D team.>Build your sister an Enforcer-B in return for a team of savants headed by Shin-Claih.>Hire Advisor Gekar from Clan Quezet.
>>6130175>Repair Chad GPT to guide your new R&D team.May be more expensive initially, but he's a permanent asset whilst Harris is temporary, pending renegotiation so might be more expensive long term. Plus we're looking just to start our Frigate-design process, which at first is going to use plenty of known technologies, so Chad will get bonuses(+Ergonomics) whilst Harris will create flawed designs.
>>6130175We have 18,440,000 Solar Credits. Given the high price of Exotic Matter (4 mil for 1kt), and the fact that two of our ship variants and one ship cost currently more Rare Matter than we possess, I say repairing Chad is a bad idea. Likewise for hiring Gekar, depending on the exchange rate. That leaves Harris and Shin. We can't afford "freebies" at the moment, so that rules out Shin. The cost of Shin in SC is 9.4 million SC + whatever 12k RM is worth. We can't take certain risks, paying for Shin or Chad, and maybe Gekar leaves us for inadequate reserves in the case that we have the opportunity to get a higher volume order that requires to to buy more materials, or if the price of various Matters fluctuate, among other possibilities.>Let Harris Glassner serve the rest of his sentence as head of the new R&D team.Cheap, has an okay trait that improves our floor but lowers our ceiling. We can let the contract expire when we have more cash, then get a better R&D head should we desire to, while retaining the staff we would've hired anyways.I think getting Shin later is good synergy with our Raihan Patronage trait, just not now. We need more money in reserve. Technically he is viable right now since we actually have most of the materials needed to make the ship needed to pay for him, I'm just thinking of what we'll have to pay to to refill our stocks. To me, having adequate reserves to fulfill large orders or deal with sudden shocks is just more important right now.I don't like Gekar's negative trait, we need all the customers we can get, more options doesn't make up for that, imo. As long as we have an intel head that can do intel guy things, that is enough.
>>6130189I'll back this up, anon's analysis is solid. Also I believe the option to repair ChadGPT will remain on the table after Harris' contract expires, so we can try to start saving money for that
>>6130189Alright, fair enough, +1
>>6130189+1 for effort post
>>6130189Seconding. Glasner gets the job done cheap which is what we need right now.
>>6130189+1, agree with all of this
>>6130175>Let Harris Glassner serve the rest of his sentence as head of the new R&D team.
>>6130175>>Repair Chad GPT to guide your new R&D team.
>>6130175>>Let Harris Glassner serve the rest of his sentence as head of the new R&D team.
Glasner>6130189>6130196>6130200>6130243>6130245>>6130480>>6130494>>6130569Chad>>6130544>>6130188Virgin Glasner wins, Chad BTFO.Writing...
>Harris Glasner Hired for 5Mil Solar Credits>Remaining Funds: 13.2 Mil Solar CreditsBeing a Raihan you had a natural distrust of AI. Technology was a useful tool but all decision making power must remain with a corporeal human. Glasner was not the best choice, but he was the most expedient. Like your sister you had a feeling you would have to make do with less than you deserved. Not for you, the bright minds and deep pockets of a major house… at least… not yet.Shortly after you made the decision, you had Glasner attend to you.“I have given you a lab and a team, now what will you give me?”“W-well, my Lady. I began by looking at the existing schematics we already possessed and compiled a list of possible advancements we could pursue.” Research MechanicsEach possible technology has a research point cost associated with it. The various methods of research will grant you a certain number of d10s to roll. Every time an opportunity arises to deepen your understanding of a certain tech you will roll a number of d10s and the total will count towards its research point cost. After the research point total has been reached you will gain the technology. Generally excess research points are wasted although I may make allowances for techs that are closely related. The full tech tree is not limited to what you see listed, the only true limit is my (and your) imagination. For practical reasons I need to present you with a curated list. If you’d like a certain type of technology to appear in the list of choices let me know and I’ll decide if I’ll allow it.>Vote for what you want your R&D team to research next.>Intermediate Fabrication (Enables full strikecraft manufacturing on capital ships as well as other industrial functions. RP cost: 60)>Remote Effectors (Tractor beams. RP cost: 100)>Basic Particle Beam Weapons (Unlocks capital class Ion Cannons RP cost: 40)>Advanced Kinetics (More powerful and efficient kinetic weapons. RP cost: 60)>Advanced Beam Tech (More powerful and efficient beam weapons, has potential non-combat applications too. RP:80)>Refined Fusion Power (Smaller, more efficient fusion power plants enable you to do more with less. RP cost: 60)>Advanced Scientific Sensors (Sensors optimised for analysing a target in detail rather than tracking it. RP cost: 40)>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)>Generic Neural Link (Allows organics to interface with machines, does not provide the same benefits as the Raihan version. RP cost: 40)>Miniaturized Eigen Drives (FTL drives small enough to fit on strike craft. RP cost: 120)
>>6130754“New technologies are all well and good but we need new designs, specifically for strike craft and frigates.”“Is there a general direction you’d like me to take?”Without extensive market research you really had no idea what was likely to sell.“Just… try to plug the holes in our catalogue for now, maybe industrial craft, or an upgrade to our strikecraft. Anyone can do generic combat drones and all purpose shuttles, we could use something that stands out.”>Time to design some new spaceships! After casting your vote, discuss among yourselves what kind of designs you want. I will then distill the discussion into two designs that will be added to the catalogue for your next round of sales.Try to have a specific vision in mind. Asking for a modular do-everything ship will result in Glasner giving you a talk about how hard that is to pull off and that maybe you should focus on specific functions more.
>>6130755((Actually, leaving things too open ended can leave players at a loss as to what to do next, so I’ll give you guys a vote to help narrow things down. If you’re feeling inspired, just write in.))>Tell Glasner to design a mobile refinery capital ship. You need some civilian designs.>Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.>Ask him to design an easily modifiable speedy courier frigate (AKA a “light freighter”), plucky adventurer types liked ships like that. (So did pirates and smugglers for that matter.)>You weren’t going to get rich selling humming birds and AASs, you needed a strikecraft that stood out from the more generic models.>Write-In
>>6130754>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)If the lady suggests an upgrade to our strikecraft, then incorporating stealth composites into their frames and shells would be a good start.Otherwise shields or neural links sound like good generic research options. A lot of the better weapons will probably required refined fusion if we want to pack the same number of weapons onto a ship of similar size to our current designs without sacrificing the number of mounts.Maybe tractor beams would be good for policing actions? Kryska bought an Enforcer, and the trade offer from our sister for Shin was a B variant of the same ship, perhaps that indicates a wider trend of the need for anti-piracy vessels, especially given the enforcer is considered a 'safe' design.>designsSome kind of wolfpack frigate? With energy weapons/ion cannons for disabling, perhaps? Maybe a STL parasite-craft frigate that exchanges its FTL drive for a more powerful reactor, heavier armaments and being fast and agile as fuck? Though then we'd have to design a mothership, but it could be a novel idea.If we're not talking about future designs incorporating tech that we research in the future, then just some generic frigate designs, maybe a gunboat or something? No frills, no trying to do everything at once, just a good frigate with guns. Something to fill the catalog in the meanwhile.
>>6130766Missed this.>Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.Catalog filler for now. That or the light freighter. The wacky stuff can wait until we research the right techs.We need something of an intermediate tonnage classes to sell, rather than another capital ship, even a civilian capital ship. Something to give us options for when we don't have the cash or material on hand to fork over another capital. Something smaller buyers can afford, but still something worth coming to our yard for. They certainly aren't coming for our shuttles.If criminal elements end up purchasing our ships, then all the better! We're just adding dynamism to the market. Fueling economic activity! More pirates means the need for more patrol vessels. No, we're not shitting where we eat, why do you ask!?
>>6130754>Refined Fusion Power (Smaller, more efficient fusion power plants enable you to do more with less. RP cost: 60)>>6130766>Ask him to design an easily modifiable speedy courier frigate (AKA a “light freighter”), plucky adventurer types liked ships like that. (So did pirates and smugglers for that matter.)The courier frigate seem like a versatile starter design. As for Tech, I like the idea of compact powerplants as the basis of solid, upgradeable workhorses.
>>6130784>Refined Fusion Power (Smaller, more efficient fusion power plants enable you to do more with less. RP cost: 60)>Ask him to design an easily modifiable speedy courier frigate (AKA a “light freighter”), plucky adventurer types liked ships like that. (So did pirates and smugglers for that matter.)
>>6130754>Basic Shield Generators>>6130766>Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.
>>6130766>Refined Fusion Power (Smaller, more efficient fusion power plants enable you to do more with less. RP cost: 60)>Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.A workhorse frigate seems like a great sell, no?
>>6130766>Refined Fusion Power (Smaller, more efficient fusion power plants enable you to do more with less. RP cost: 60)>Ask him to design an easily modifiable speedy courier frigate (AKA a “light freighter”), plucky adventurer types liked ships like that. (So did pirates and smugglers for that matter.)
>>6130766>Refined Fusion Power (Smaller, more efficient fusion power plants enable you to do more with less. RP cost: 60)>Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.
>>6130754>Refined Fusion Power (Smaller, more efficient fusion power plants enable you to do more with less. RP cost: 60)>>6130766>Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.
>>6130766>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)>>6130754>Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.
>>6130766>combat frigate designwe have frigate bays that we cannot use this is top priority>tractor beams RP 100we need mats. therefore we need industrial ship designs whether to sell or for our own use. if we can stick a tractor beam on a mining barge that's a big draw because it makes resource collection so much easier because you can just not worry about ore dispersion
So how many Research Points do we currently have? Seem to be overlooking it
>>6131040>>6130766Nevermind. Read that wrong. >Basic Shield Geberators(60 RP)--->Combat frigates were generally easier to sell, maybe start with one of those.
>>6130766>Mining beam and industrial chasis. Build a resource harvesting ship. If it sells, it sells. If not, we see about using it to grab some common minerals for us. Get in some side action.
Looks like Refined Fusion wins followed by combat frigates and "light freighters"Roll me 2d2s while I'm writing.
Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d2)>>6131172
Cool, now I need 1d6 for prisoner trouble, 1d100 for walk in customers and 5d10s for research.
Rolled 6 (1d6)>>6131178
Rolled 80 (1d100)>>6131178C'mon big money
Rolled 7, 6, 7, 9, 2 = 31 (5d10)>>6131178
Hmm, aside from the new designs there's going to be a lot to cover in the next update so I'll be delaying it.
>>6131185Either really good or we are having a big riot I suppose.
((I'll post a mini-update, but I need to write more material till for the next decision point and I need to sleep.))“Glasner, what were you thinking when you made these designs!?”“I was following your instructions. You also mentioned you wanted something that stands out, so I decided to push the envelope. The Excelsis class combines ion drives and spatial compression engines to achieve sub-atomic resonance that boosts drive output up to 30% beyond the average for that hull size.”“My engineers tell me that your… unique engine setup takes 50% longer to perform routine maintenance on and unless the drive output is precisely calibrated it will cause control issues.”“I can hardly be blamed if the operator cannot grasp how to properly use such high performance equipment,” he sniffed.“And what is this monstrosity of a combat frigate you’ve designed?”“You needed something that would set itself apart from other things on the market. Anyone can build a simple patrol boat, but the Thunderbird takes the kinetic gunship concept to the next level!”“The ship is a death trap! Did you ever give any consideration to how unpleasant it would be to crew such a cramped ship? Or what a liability it would be to use every spare cubic metre for ammunition storage!?”“Of course I did. All the essential subsystems fit neatly within the hull. I dare say it’s rather elegant.”“Glasner these aren’t products, these are show pieces! If you were half as smart as you think you are you’d understand that! You’re lucky you’re literally the only option I have or I’d throw you back into a work crew!”>You rolled badly for Glasner not fucking up.
>>6131266>space A10 space A10thunderbird isn't a bad sell, we just need to integrate it with an AI core to decrease required crew onboard so the amentities are brought more in line with normfrigate's a bit ass tho yea, try marketing it to drug runners. Or space mailmen, see if we can get a R&D development contract for a new fleet of galactic mail vans. If only we had stealth composites
>>6131266What a surprise, cheaping out on the R&D bites us in the ass right away.>Fire this moron, pay to restore Chad like we should have the first time.
>>6131266>Market Excelsis as a racing yacht to rich idiots>RemakeThunderbird into a drone
>>6131266>excelsis courierTime is money and chances are that anyone who has an important enough business to demand the shortest delivery times possible would have the money to drop on better maintenance. Anyone else would just pick an average frigate anyway. As far as fuckups go it is a marketable sidegrade. AND it has a future for iterations. If it is really faster than other frigates maybe it could be iterated on to make fast rapid responce military ships.The thunderbird would probably ward off actual competent military clients who prize reliability and practicality of use for their average crew.>>6131280>Bites us on the ass>Actually spoon feeds us a unique nieche to test the market with>lmao evenAlso holy shit, ai spam must be getting really bad for a 15 minute timer to be a thing.And i remembered that last thread we wanted to try out patroller ships that do not have their own ftl. With wake jumping in our tech tree we could experiment with cheap micro fleets.>1 fastest possible capital with JUST enough defenses to survive potshots >only job is to wakejump>deliver patrollers to fight>leave>patrollers extremelyvcheap because no need for 500kt of EM per frigate anymore
>>6131266Thunderbird could appeal to the Raihans, given that the empress seems intent on building a luxury fleet. An impractical ship with lots of guns seems their style.>>6131268Agreed that Excelsis is a drug runner.
Thunderbird seems like it could be a good ambush boat if nothing else. Glass cannon. Have a robot drive it?
>>6131398I think pirates would love it, since it'd allow them to take on way bigger targets.
I think that the Excelisis has a viable market. Not just to the couriers, but also to smugglers and other Han Solo types who are willing to work on their own ship and gotta go fast. Adding stealth or after market moddability would go well here. I don't like the Thunderbird. It seems like a disposable suicide ship that would be bought by a group who is either losing or has a lot of material to spend on a 'glass cannon'. AI only goes so far, and presents its own liabilities (enemy stealing your ship with a computer virus for example). Needing a very skilled crew and being vulnerable do not go well together. Presumably skilled crew are valuable and should be wasted in a death trap. Now, if we know anyone who uses cheap clone soldiers with clone minds, or something then maybe.
While Glasner was trying to prove his engineering prowess in all the wrong ways trouble was brewing among the penal crews. A bunch of gangers with nothing better to do but observe the comings and goings of the guards thought they could get the jump on a few and cause some trouble. Their initial plan went off as intended and before long the guards had been forced to retreat and the prison areas were in a state of chaos. What they did not count on was the swiftness and brutality of the security response. Captain Farron made good on his threats; when the suppression teams entered the holding areas anyone who wasn’t in a cell or playing dead was ruthlessly gunned down. The house guards were not jailers, they were executioners, and they did not have time for anyone’s bullshit. By the time the riot was fully suppressed, so many casualties had been sustained that the labour force could be considered understrength. >Lost 1 Work CrewGlasner’s eccentricities meant that the new ship designs wouldn’t sell themselves. You’d have to engage in a marketing campaign. You also still had your existing catalogue. There were many houses lacking in favour that would be interested in buying a capital ship. Once again Jack had suggested some other angles to work. You still thought leveraging your Imperial connections was the best move, but given that his “old friend” had been your first real customer you were willing to take his suggestions into consideration.What should your next move be?:>Try to sell a capital ship to the Raihan Nobility.>Attempt to secure a contract with Clan Quezet to build Saurian ships under licence.>Shill your frigates on the Black Market; it’s the only place where you’ll find people crazy enough to actually buy them.>Write-In
>>6131842>Shill your frigates on the Black Market; it’s the only place where you’ll find people crazy enough to actually buy them.
>>6131842>Shill your frigates on the Black Market; it’s the only place where you’ll find people crazy enough to actually buy them.Everyone loves capital ships, but if we can actually find some sucker willing to buy off the Thunderbirds that would be great desu. Just can we be sure we don't sell to Space Al Qaeda or something? Idr want some big faction gunning for us because we armed a bunch of terrorists.
>>6131842>>Shill your frigates on the Black Market; it’s the only place where you’ll find people crazy enough to actually buy them.
>>6131842>Try to sell a capital ship to the Raihan Nobility.
>>6131842>Try to sell a capital ship to the Raihan Nobility.Frigates are more for 'walk-in' sales, especially the dodgy designs from our dodgy designer. Plus we're primarily a capitol-yard.
>>6131990Not anymore. Our capital berths got glownigged and now we have a "do everything" base
>>6131842>>Try to sell a capital ship to the Raihan Nobility.
>>6131842>Attempt to secure a contract with Clan Quezet to build Saurian ships under licence.Two problems with the black market1. Criminal types might try to scam us, skip on payment, somehow fuck us over2. If we sell the ships to local criminals then those ships become a problem for our neighbors who we should not piss off. I've already mentioned how we shouldn't take Raihan contracts while using their prisoners.
>>6131842>Write-In, do a commercial/viral marketingHi, Jack Horner here with the new HPS-10 Thunderbird! The super powerful frigate that can instantly solve all of your system defense problems! Pirates can cause major damage, but Thunderbird's massive rotary cannon >cut to cannon spinning up and causing the frigate to rotate 60 degrees while the RCS thrusters compensate for the rotational torquespins up fast and can end problems instantly! Watch what it does to a group of standard combat drones! >expansepointdefensecannon.wavThunderbird is perfect for frigates and drones of all sizes. Once it's locked on, it's locked on tight! Punitive expeditions can cause big damage, but Thunderbird's shells come packed with high explosives, so you can easily cause big damage! To show you the power of Thunderbird, I sawed this cruiser in half! >cut to the Thunderbird sawing an Enforcer cruiser in half with AP shellsNow that's a lotta damage! Imagine everything you can do with the power of the HPS-10 Thunderbird!
Not feeling it tonight. Sorry, update will be delayed.
Black Market sale clearly wins>Writing...
I need the following rolls:2D62d10010d10s
Rolled 5, 4 = 9 (2d6)>>6133223
Rolled 26, 64 = 90 (2d100)>>6133223rollan
Rolled 7, 8, 1, 6, 10, 2, 4, 9, 4, 2 = 53 (10d10)>>6133223its been a bit of time and im impatient
Maybe it was the sunk cost but you decided that you needed to sell some frigates. The problem was you had no idea how to sell such unconventional designs… but Jack did.One cringey holo-ad and a business trip (which Jack would not have survived if it weren’t the body guards Farron sent with him) later and you started getting orders. >Received orders for two Thunderbirds and two Excelsis>Filling Orders for Thunderbirds>2x Thunderbirds Construction Costs: 24kT CM, 6kT RM, 1kt EM>1kT EM bought for 4Mil Solar Credits>2x Thunderbirds sold for 19.76 Mill Saurain Scrip>Final Material Storage: 42kT CM, 6kT RM>Final Balance: 9.2 Mil Solar Credits, 19.76 Mill Saurain ScripHalfway through the frigate orders another problem reared its head; organised gangs were starting to form among the penal labourers. Your house troops enforced a brutal order among the prisoners but they had slowly learned just how far they could push the boundaries without bringing down their wrath.Corruption was starting to spread to your regular workers as well. An internal black market was forming where the prisoners bribed and coerced them for favours and trinkets. Every time illicit activity was reported there was no evidence to be found. Shortly after the accuser would suffer some kind of misfortune; sabotaged work setting them behind their targets, or even an “accident”. It had gotten so bad that the regular workers now outright refused to work on the same projects as the penal labourers. Morale was plummeting and if not addressed the situation might deteriorate.>What do?>Fuck it! Just shoot them all, they’re more trouble than they’re worth and they have no rights.>Do nothing, the service period has almost expired, soon they won't be your problem anymore.>Intensify segregation of penal and regular labour. Convoluted scheduling will disrupt further gang activity but increase construction time of all ships by 1 period until the prisoners are transferred out.>Counter-corruption; put some of the prisoners in your pocket and allow them to take over the black market. Option unavailable, requires Intelligence DepartmentThe only person who didn’t seem to be having trouble was Glasner, sequestered as he was in the research module. He had recently unveiled a set of prototype fusion reactors that were overall more compact and efficient than existing models.>Refined Fusion Power tech gained.>Vote for next tech research (see >>6130754)
>>6133248How much longer do we have to deal with the prisoners? If it's not too much longer use this. >Intensify segregation of penal and regular labour. Convoluted scheduling will disrupt further gang activity but increase construction time of all ships by 1 period until the prisoners are transferred out.>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)This would be a good addition to our Excelsis class Frigate
>>6133248>Intensify segregation of penal and regular labour. Convoluted scheduling will disrupt further gang activity but increase construction time of all ships by 1 period until the prisoners are transferred out.>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)
>2x Thunderbirds sold for 19.76 Mill Saurain ScripThe lizards bought the Thunderbirds? Interesting.
>>6133248>Intensify segregation of penal and regular labour. Convoluted scheduling will disrupt further gang activity but increase construction time of all ships by 1 period until the prisoners are transferred out.>Advanced Scientific Sensors (Sensors optimised for analysing a target in detail rather than tracking it. RP cost: 40)
>>6133248>Intensify segregation of penal and regular labour. Convoluted scheduling will disrupt further gang activity but increase construction time of all ships by 1 period until the prisoners are transferred out.>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)Once we get these frigates out we can dump the prisoners for proper work crews and hire an intel guy. I fully expect the Solar Union to try and fuck us again.
>>6133248>Intensify segregation of penal and regular labour. Convoluted scheduling will disrupt further gang activity but increase construction time of all ships by 1 period until the prisoners are transferred out.>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)Just finish this already.
>>6133248>Fuck it! Just shoot them all, they’re more trouble than they’re worth and they have no right.>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)
>>6133248>Intensify segregation of penal and regular labour. Convoluted scheduling will disrupt further gang activity but increase construction time of all ships by 1 period until the prisoners are transferred out.>Stealth Composites (Enables sensor dampening features to be incorporated into designs, the first step on the road to true cloaking. RP cost: 40)>>6133259Could just be someone with their currency. Someone that trades with them, or who knows a money trader.
>>6133248>Fuck it! Just shoot them all, they’re more trouble than they’re worth and they have no rights.>Intermediate Fabrication (Enables full strikecraft manufacturing on capital ships as well as other industrial functions. RP cost: 60)
>>6133248>Ship them back to our sister.No need to kill these indentured fools, but they've caused us enough problems.
Looks like Stealth composites and intensify segregation win. I probably won't have the update ready tonight but while you wait can you guys roll me:3d63d100s15d10s
Rolled 3, 2, 5 = 10 (3d6)>>6133794
Rolled 62, 80, 82 = 224 (3d100)>>6133794
Rolled 6, 1, 4, 3, 8, 9, 5, 7, 2, 8, 10, 4, 2, 7, 6 = 82 (15d10)>>6133794
((Sorry for dragging my feet with this, big things happening.))Much of the internal corruption revolved around compromised individuals leveraging their positions to give the criminals access to resources. Shuffling the work schedules so that the inside men could no longer reliably make contact with their “handlers” and requiring multiple people to sign off on equipment use put an end to that… It also slowed work down and annoyed the fuck out of everyone.Work on the two Excelsis frigates finished behind schedule, as a result you were forced to sell them at a loss in order to keep the client sweet. >Material Cost of 2 Excelsis Frigates: 20kT CM, 2kT RM, 1kT EM>1 kT EM bought with Saurian Scrip: -5Mil Scrip>Frigates sold 10% markdown: +7.92Mil Solar Credits>Final Material Stores: 22kT CM, 2kT RM>Final Balance: To make matters worse the dissident book club was stirring up trouble again. With the crack down on the more violent criminal elements the political activists had more room to preach their ideology. As the period of indentured service expired you were visited by one of the senior crew chiefs.>Service period over, -2 Work Crews. None have elected to stay on as regular staff.—---------------“A Union? Just what are you playing at Compton?”Chief Compton shrank somewhat under your withering glare but managed to hold his nerve.“N-not playing at anything M’am. All the stuff that’s been happening has prompted me and the boys to do some thinking. The way you’ve been doing business doesn’t sit right with us. Prisoners just gunned down without-”“The consequences of unruly behaviour were made clear to the penal labour force upon their induction. Compton, these people are scum; thieves, murders. Some of them have threatened and coerced members of your own crew.”“Not all of them. Some of these folk were just unhappy about being subjugated by your Empress. They told me what your Empire was getting up to out there as it rebuilds itself. I can’t help but wonder how much of that was because we built that ship for the Lord Commander.”Another reference to the highest echelons of Imperial power. You would have to question Jack about this.“None of that is any of your concern. I am truly sorry for the discomfort you’ve had to endure over the past two months, but those emergency measures are over. Things will go back to normal now.”>cont
>>6134477>Forgot Final Balance: 16.4 Mil Solar Credits, 14.76 Mill Saurain Scrip“I don’t think they can. You know I remember when Mr. Horner first brought me on board, I was proud of what I did, but then that incident with Lizards happened, then the hard times, then you come along with your soldiers and slaves and before I knew it working here felt like working in an occupied territory. I can’t stick my head in the sand anymore and neither can my boys.”He flicks you a file on the AR display.“What’s this?”“The terms of our continued employment. We want to be part of a company that aligns with our values, that looks out for us, and that doesn’t contribute to the suffering of the wider galaxy.”You skim read what looks like a manifesto… no more penal labour… unwillingness to work on orders that will fuel ongoing conflict… training the security force in proper de-escalation methods… commitment to pivoting to the civilian market… all employees getting a STAKE IN THE COMPANY!?Your eyes twitch in barely restrained fury. What was this collectivist bullshit!?>Acquiesce to the Union’s demands and become a worker co-op. Unavailable, you will not cede power to peasant rabble. >Give ground (on what?) until you can find a way to either bust the union or replace them.>Fire them all, the whole workforce has been compromised and you need to start from scratch. (Lose all work crews. Move on to an immediate hiring event.)((I had lots of admin choices lined up for you, but the Union event triggered and I think it’s important we resolve this decision before we cast votes on staffing the Intel and R&D departments.))>Research Complete: Stealth Composites tech gained.((Research vote will be held later. Need to figure out a better way to do the research list.))
>>6134479>Fire them all, the whole workforce has been compromised and you need to start from scratch. (Lose all work crews. Move on to an immediate hiring event.)The corruption alone is reason to fire them all.https://www.theregister.com/2005/09/22/intel_india_sackings/Intel would have been a lot better off had they shut down that entire design center back then. Instead, they are on the verge of bankruptcy.
>>6134479>Get Jack on this, he is a people person>Maybe old relationships will have greater chances of success>Jack should remind them that we never built a civilian ship until now, so war vessels are not really against anyones values, this is more of a emotional response straight after an event.Acquiesce on:> no more penal labourMost of you guys didn't want to do it anyway so no loss>unwillingness to work on orders that will fuel ongoing conflictI remember the LAST thread people really wanted to branch out into civilian capital ships RIGHT after saurians, just when the black ops happened. So seemingly conceding of making the BIG ships for war(temporally) should be close enough. We make a few civvie capitals, let everyones tempers simmer down and them we will see. Worst case scenario these crews will get us some more money on civilian capitals to be in a better financial situation when we will need to bulk hire new crews. A small compromise showing them that we can play ball within reason.>all employees getting a STAKE IN THE COMPANY!?Kek. Tell them that we still have not rebuilt the second capital ship berth, this is proof that we have still not financially recovered from the "hard times".Since they were good workers that stuck with us for two threads of this insane bullshit(loyalty) MAYBE we can give them a pay raise, but they should be smart enough that you can not get everything in negotiations and that THIS option is almost unheard of in corporate business. Since hiring people is basically cognis demanding a flat upfront sum and that is it( probably to save himself on some bookkeeping, last thread an option to hire an interior design specialist was a flat sum and that's it) we would probably eat a flat sum of some solar credit loss and just forget about it after a few updates. Long term these are the least painful compromises.
>>6134541>>6134550I will add an option to shitcan everyone who got found out in corruption, that was not acceptable.
>>6134479Give ground (on what?) until you can find a way to either bust the union or replace them.Let's see their demands.>No more penal labourIt was penal labour that saved this company and their jobs, not that we'd want to rely on prisoners in the first place. Therefore, it should be left as an emergency act e.g. in case the members of the work crew are incapacitated and sufficient number of workers, hired or outsourced, can't be found in time to complete the job.>Unwillingness to work on orders that will fuel ongoing conflict1. We'd have to stop all trade with the participant sides' citizens as well since it would indirectly fuel the conflict. 2. Besides (and correct me if I'm wrong), we can't sell warships directly to warring nations anyway without violating Blorg neutrality.3. It wouldn't stop someone else from ordering a ship from us and selling it to the ongoing conflict. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.>Training the security force in proper de-escalation methods>Commitment to pivoting to the civilian marketAgreed.>All employees getting a STAKE IN THE COMPANY!?Yea, nah. Most we can offer is a pay increase to the vet crew for bearing with us this long.>>6134551Also supporting to sack the people handling to the criminals.
>>6134479>>Fire them all, the whole workforce has been compromised and you need to start from scratch. (Lose all work crews. Move on to an immediate hiring event.)
>>6134479>Give ground (no more penal labour, training the security force in proper de-escalation methods) until you can find a way to either bust the union or replace them.I don't want to accept prisoners again anyway, and this is training that the security teams really should have.
>>6134479>Fire them all, the whole workforce has been compromised and you need to start from scratch. (Lose all work crews. Move on to an immediate hiring event.)Fire all those cunts. All of them. Fuck those bitch-ass niggas. We have 16 million credits and 14 million scrip, that should be enough to hireIf we give them an inch, they'll start asking for a mile. Fucking stakes in the company? What a joke. Fuck them. Those guys have been a fucking pain in our ass ever since last quest. They complain about EVERYTHING. >NOOOO I DUN WANNA WORK WITH LIZARDS>NOOOO I DUN WANNA WORK WITH BLORG>NOOOOO I FEEL LE UNCOMFORTABLE>WEEEE WEEEEE I AM A FUCKING BABYI'd throw them out the airlock, all of them, if there was a choice. We should have shot the prisoners when we had the chance. Guh. These events are just horrible, every single fucking cycle something goes wrong.
>>6134479>>Fire them all, the whole workforce has been compromised and you need to start from scratch. (Lose all work crews. Move on to an immediate hiring event.)We were planning to cycle out the prisoners with new work crews anyway-- this way we have a full clean slate to get employees with a proper understanding of where we stand.
>>6134479>Give ground (on what?) until you can find a way to either bust the union or replace them.We could just promise no more slave labor in the future I guess. It's not a particularly big concession.
>>6134477I thought that might happen, but I have a question, a couple even. We used 3 TP for each production batch we've done, technically over that for this last batch. How many TPs does each frigate cost, 3? I would think it'd be less, 'cause they are...y'know, smaller. Also, why do we even have to use the prisoners on the frigates to begin with? Or on both of them rather, since I understand that one of our (normal?) work crews died, so we are forced to use some prison labour on one of the frigates. I thought frigate berths only requires one crew to operate. Why would we use the less competent and more unruly prisoner work crews on the both of them? Are we rotating shifts? I mean, that makes sense in-universe, but I mean mechanically, do we actually require multiple work crews to rotate shifts to work multiple consecutive TPs in a row? Like, if we only had one work crew, and we were building a frigate that would normally require 3 TP, would they need breaks, such that we would actually take 6 TP in total because we didn't have another crew to take shifts for them? Should we be taking losses on both frigates if one frigate is just assigned a normal work crew?>>6134479>Fire them all, the whole workforce has been compromised and you need to start from scratch. (Lose all work crews. Move on to an immediate hiring event.)We have money now anyways. And anyone who would work with prisoners to sell out their fellow worker is not someone we want to negotiate with. Their demands aren't even untenable, depending on the specifics, since we no longer need the prisoners to get out of our financial rut. We just can't trust any of them. They're corrupt, whether by bribery or coercion, the deaths of their fellows and us falling behind schedule wouldn't have happened without the cooperation of some of our regular crew.If we do give ground, then I'd say to agree to no more prison labour and training the security forces in de-escalation methods, since their term is up, and the guards could use the training for when we aren't dealing with rebellious slaves anyways. Co-ownership and cutting out part of the market is wild though. Co-ops may be based IRL, but not in my Space!princess shipyard manager quest.
>>6134664Angry anon, is that you?>>6134767> Why would we use the less competent and more unruly prisoner work crews.The prisoners will cause trouble regardless of whether they're working or not. That's what all those d6s were for. TP costs factor in all breaks and "going home for the day".>How many TPs does each frigate costAll the costs and modifiers have been explained in previous posts.Give ground>6134550>6134574>6134601>6134730Fire>6134541>6134599>6134664>6134702>6134767The people have spoken... against the interests of the people. I love democracy.
“So you fired them all?”“I have no need for servants that have forgotten their place.”“That’s a little harsh, these guys have been through a lot, it’s reasonable for them to get a bit agitated.”You flick Jack a copy of the “manifesto” through the AR display. He skims through it with an impassive expression.“...yeah, fuck those guys.”“I’m glad we agree on this matter. But now we have a problem: we need new workers. Glasner’s contract is also up which means we need to rehire our entire staff.”“Well I could probably round up some blorg…”“Jack. No.”“Mayumi. Yes. We can’t afford to be picky. I know they’re gross but aside from that one little decontamination issue they have so many upsides.”“There have to be other options…”>How to address the labour shortage. (You can pick two)>Beg your sister Shirin for help. She’s a mega bitch and will demand you make a ship for her like she always does but maybe you can get a little more out of her this time. (Gain between 1-3 Work Crews, but you will have to give her at least 1 free ship.)>Your elder brother was a degenerate sis-con, but he loved to dote on you. Maybe he’d help you if you “paid him a visit”. (Gain 1-2 Work Crews at the cost of your dignity.)>Learn to stop worrying and love fungal infections. (Hire 3 Blorg workcrews for 4Mil Scrip, blorg debuffs will apply.)>Put up job ads and screen candidates like a normal person. (Pay 10Mil Credits over the next 5 Time Periods. Every period has a 50% chance for you to gain 1 Work Crew.)>The Raihan Empire has tons of undesirables, convert the shipyard into a penal labour facility. (5Mil Credits, Work Crews become a non-issue but you will have to roll for prisoner events forever.)This choice is mutually exclusive
>>6134883Guys, make some calculations here. What costs more, 10 million credits, or our sister's ship?
>>6134883>Beg your sister Shirin for help. She’s a mega bitch and will demand you make a ship for her like she always does but maybe you can get a little more out of her this time. (Gain between 1-3 Work Crews, but you will have to give her at least 1 free ship.)>Your elder brother was a degenerate sis-con, but he loved to dote on you. Maybe he’d help you if you “paid him a visit”. (Gain 1-2 Work Crews at the cost of your dignity.)We picked a space noble, we may as well cash in on the family connections, even if it requires a bit of scraping. Will be worth it down the line.
>>6134905Again, anon, the issue is that it might be cheaper. I can't seem to find the price table for materials. Is there anywhere that it's said?
>>6134883>Beg your sister Shirin for help. She’s a mega bitch and will demand you make a ship for her like she always does but maybe you can get a little more out of her this time. (Gain between 1-3 Work Crews, but you will have to give her at least 1 free ship.)>Your elder brother was a degenerate sis-con, but he loved to dote on you. Maybe he’d help you if you “paid him a visit”. (Gain 1-2 Work Crews at the cost of your dignity.)I see this as a plus.
>>6134883>Your elder brother was a degenerate sis-con, but he loved to dote on you. Maybe he’d help you if you “paid him a visit”. (Gain 1-2 Work Crews at the cost of your dignity.)>Put up job ads and screen candidates like a normal person. (Pay 10Mil Credits over the next 5 Time Periods. Every period has a 50% chance for you to gain 1 Work Crew.)Dignity is a resource both infinite and non-existent. But whilst we'll probably have to build our sister a ship at some point, let's make it something more worthwhile then basic labour.
>>6134895>>6134906Depends on whether we have to give her only one free ship or several, after all, the prompt says "at LEAST 1 free ship".Our most expensive ship to produce is either the B variant of the Monarch or the Suppressor, we cannot confirm which, as we don't yet know the price of rare matter. However, while we do not have a price table for materials, we do know from >>6129009 that 30kT CM is 5.4 million Solar Credits, and 1kT EM is 4 mil, and from >>6134477 that 1kT EM is 5 mil Saurian Scrip. From there we can figure out the exchange rate between SC and SS given that the same thing cost 20% more in SS, unless the price has shifted in that time.We also have a list of hiring prices from the QM post directly above.Given that we are low on materials and will have to pay for between 8-23k CM, 10-13k RM, and another 1k EM, which rounds out to about between 1.44 - 4.14 mil SC for the CM, 4 mil for the EM, and an unknown but high amount for the RM, assuming our sister orders one of the more expensive ships, then I'd say both options are likely about even, with our sister being a better deal if she only wants an Enforcer. HOWEVER, that is only the case if she is fine with only demanding one free ship, she may want more, in which case her deal is for almost for certain worse. It will depend on the rolls, in all likelihood.There is a slight chance that talking to both our siblings does not net us the requisite 3 work crews needed to fulfill a capital ship order, in which case we cannot fulfill our obligations to our sister. Guaranteeing we get one with our brother and then hiring people like a normal person may be the better option in that case, since we are decently likely to get at least 2 from it, maybe more.>>6134883I didn't calc this out before voting, so I'll switch my vote from >>6134913 to>Your elder brother was a degenerate sis-con, but he loved to dote on you. Maybe he’d help you if you “paid him a visit”. (Gain 1-2 Work Crews at the cost of your dignity.)>Put up job ads and screen candidates like a normal person. (Pay 10Mil Credits over the next 5 Time Periods. Every period has a 50% chance for you to gain 1 Work Crew.)While we don't gain all the crew all at once, since it takes place over the course of 5 TP, it also doesn't lock us into building a capital ship like asking our sister likely does (she's only ever asked for capitals before). So even if we don't get 3 work crews, we can just take frigate orders instead. Also, looking back now that we know the prices of labour and materials, she was trying to rip us off before, offering one work crew for a god damn Suppressor! Like...what the fuck was she thinking?
>>6134883>Learn to stop worrying and love fungal infections. (Hire 3 Blorg workcrews for 4Mil Scrip, blorg debuffs will apply.)>Put up job ads and screen candidates like a normal person. (Pay 10Mil Credits over the next 5 Time Periods. Every period has a 50% chance for you to gain 1 Work Crew.)Why do you people gotta hate the blorg so much? We can just go and replace them when we're done with them, but this time they won't rebel. You guys would really rather she sell herself to her brother?The Blorg are cheap and readily available. We can hire them, and then keep using them for the five periods until we get the work crews we need. Just have them fill out whatever orders we can, literally all they need is 4 mil scrip profit to pay back themselves, that's hardly a challenge.>>6134966That's a nice description anon but you're forgetting that it's a 50% chance. We could literally not get a single work crew, and even then, if we go with the brother we'd only have like 1 or 2 work crews for those periods.I think we should go with the BLORG.
>>6134906I didn't want to introduce the market to you guys just yet because of information overload. and because it wasn't ready yet.But since you really want to run a cost benefit analysis I'll let you see the market now.All materials have previously been bought at fixed hidden costs. Now that the market has been introduced they will start fluctuating based on the status quo.>Infonet feature now active.>Your personal fortune of Raihan Zelas is now available for spending. (Roll me a d10)
>>6134971I didn't forget. It is a gamble, but again, we can build frigates instead, until we are ready to try hiring more work crews again.Also, >>6128042 says they extend our construction time by another TP and adversely affect our ability to get jobs that aren't for other blorg. Non-blorg also refuse to work with them, they may cause tensions with other species, plus there is the admittedly negligible decontamination cost.Also-also, I see getting a degen doting elder brother sis-con scene to only be a plus, hence my original vote.
Rolled 4 (1d10)>>6134985
>>6134985Maybe you could put it all into imgur or something like that, so it would be easier to find.
>>6134990You have 4Mil RZ available to spend. Enough for a regular guy to retire, but kinda piddly for someone in your position.
>>6134989>Also, >>6128042 says they extend our construction time by another TP and adversely affect our ability to get jobs that aren't for other blorg.So what? We'll get a few blorg jobs to keep them busy while we hire a normal crew. They don't even need to decontamine if they're blorg, right?
>>6134883>Learn to stop worrying and love fungal infections. (Hire 3 Blorg workcrews for 4Mil Scrip, blorg debuffs will apply.)
>>6135001To be clear the "adversely affect our ability to get jobs" thing is purely to do with the time delay. You might miss out on time sensitive contracts or need to give a slight discount as compensation but it's not a business crippling debuff. And yes it doesn't apply to contracts for other blorg because decontamination isn't necessary.>>6134966>.what the fuck was she thinking?Filial Piety. Shirin is the head of the house and trying to wrangle an unruly fief. Her own resources are limited. She expects a better deal from you than the market.
>>6135075She should show us some love first, the eldest sibling should take care of the younger. A virtual hug every once in awhile couldn't hurt.
>>6134883>Your elder brother was a degenerate sis-con, but he loved to dote on you. Maybe he’d help you if you “paid him a visit”. (Gain 1-2 Work Crews at the cost of your dignity.)
Beg Sister>6134905>6134913Elder Brother>6134905>6134913>6134942>6134966>6135123Blorg>6134971>6135075Normal Hiring Practices>6134942>6134966>6134971Looks like we're going with asking your brother for help and normal hiring practices.Okay, while I'm writing I need you guys to roll me:1d2 and 1d4OMFG I can't believe you chose the brother option. I was wondering just how low you were willing to stoop for a mechanically optimal choice. I didn't think you'd actually do it, but you did. BAKA guys... baka...
Rolled 2 (1d2)>>6135216This should be good.
Rolled 3 (1d4)Can't wait any longer for that d4.
>>6135216Yea, it doesn't seem in character for us to stoop that low but I can't complain since I didn't vote in time
Giving your sister a new ship for a pittance, letting disgusting xenos onto your shipyard. All of these options were unacceptable. You could just put out job ads and scout for other workers, but that would take time. You needed something on short notice. Your mind turned to the one thing you hadn’t yet considered and you shivered.“Jack, put out some job ads for regular human workcrews. I’m going on a business trip.”“Where are you going?”“To call in a favour…”—------------------It had been a long time since you visited the family estate on Raiha. The throne world looked better than when you last visited. Orbital traffic was still sparse on account of the Kessler syndrome but even the haze of debris in low orbit didn’t seem quite as dense as you remembered. The city had recovered from the civil war that had only ended three years earlier. You remembered the dark days of your childhood, as your family struggled to survive. Back then your elder brother Daisuke had been a comfort to you, always cheering you up, always trying to protect you. But as you both matured the relationship had soured. One night he confided in you that his feelings for you went beyond brotherly love. He had confessed how he lusted after you, described in lurid detail how he wished to worship your body. He never acted on those words, but knowing how he felt made you sick to your stomach. After that night you kept him at arms length and eventually you left for the stars hoping to never see him again.Yet here he was now, there to greet you at the gates of the estate.“Yumi. It’s good to see you again. What brings you back home. Have you tired of your business venture with that… commoner?” It was understated but there was no mistaking the jealousy in his voice.“No. But the venture is in trouble. I need a favour Dai.”“Anything for my beloved little sister.”You sigh in relief, maybe you wouldn’t have to go as far as you planned. Both of you retire to a private room where you explain the situation to him.“What you ask for is no small thing Yumi. Especially since Shirin keeps leaning on me to provide all the support I can while she stabilises Shima colony. You will have to offer me something in return.”“Dai please help, I have nothing to offer.” You slowly walked over to him and sat on his lap, eyes wet with feigned vulnerability. “Nothing but my love.”Daisukes expression hardened for a split second before melting into one of bemused understanding. His hands move to undress you. You do not stop him…>cont
>>6135278“So how was your business trip?”“I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just say I called in the favour. We’ll be getting a new work crew. Anything happen while I was gone?”>-1 Dignity>+1 Work Crew“I managed to hire enough new guys to form a new work crew myself. Looks like we’re off to a good start.”>-2Mil Credits>+1 Work Crew“Excellent, what else?”“Glasner’s contract is up. We can renew it, but given that he’s a free man now we’re going to have to pay him a proper salary. While you were gone some new candidates for head of Intelligence and R&D came. Not gonna lie, they seem really sus…”“I’ll take a look.”“Maiyumi, as your partner I strongly recommend you just give your sister a free ship so we can get Shin-Claih.”“My sister asks for a lot, maybe too much.”“I know you Imperial types are all about duty and honour; once he’s sworn to your service his loyalty would be absolute yes?”“I would expect nothing less, but an Enforcer B costs way too much to-”“Look Princess, I almost lost this business once because my own spymaster was a fucking mole. Now, a guy like me; I can’t buy loyalty, but your sister is selling it to you for the price of a single ship. Take. The. Deal”You preferred it when Jack acted like a bumbling stooge, but you couldn’t deny he had a point; all the personnel sourced from outside your house had proven unreliable.>Current Funds: 14.4 Mil Solar Credits, 14.76 Mil Saurain Scrip, 4Mil Raihan Zelas>Vote for head of R&D:>Repair Chad GPT>Give Glasner a permanent position>Hire Shivre>Vote for head of Intelligence:>Hire Gekar>Hire Shin-Claih>Hire Lyra Salva
Lurker here-- just popping in to say... surprised to see the sequel back! I knew the first one was a one-shot, so to see it back as a continuation is nice. Love your stuff, and I'll be reading on as usual. Also when Mayumi meant 'brocon', I had no idea she'd go *that* far, maybe string him along a bit until he's satisfied... To think she'd go that far means she's willing to get her own hands dirty, at least.>Shin-ClaihThis better not involve Space Kromer.
>>6135279>Hire Shin-ClaihI was actually going to vote for him anyways even without the prompting. Relying on non-Raihan personnel just isn't working. People have all these +disgusting+ 'morals' about not using coerced labour, or not escalating conflict, and urgh, dare I say it, worker democracy. Time to hire someone who knows their place.Also we have plenty of money now, and a Enforcer-B isn't all that much trouble...aside from the fact that we don't have enough work crews to actually build capitals yet.>New facesSpooky Rememberance of Earth's Past FTL genocide missle lizard man is cool.Lyra seems like she could be rather self serving, but that is better than loyalty to a nation or ideology, I guess.
>>6135279Oh wait, are we voting for both departments rather than picking one or the other? If the former then->Hire Shivre
>>6135300I wanted it to be a soft reboot rather than a sequel... but yeah it's a sequel. What can I say; the brain worm came back.It was a trap choice, albeit one with no real mechanical penalty.>This better not involve Space Kromer.That depends on whether the players vote to grip.>>6135301>aside from the fact that we don't have enough work crews to actually build capitals yet.You can promise your sister to build it later. But the job will automatically be taken once you become capable of building capitals.>>6135304Yeah you're voting for both.
>>6135279>GlasnerI don't want him running off and a mad scientist is a useful and funny mystery box. I hope we can restore chadGPT if we scrape together enough cash>Hire shin-claihThe lizard is unsurprisingly a lizard sympathizer and the girl with no morals is an obvious plant. Loyalty above all else plus he might be able to better position us un dealings with our family and the empire.
>>6135279>Hire Shivre>Hire Shin-Claih
>>6135279>Hire Shivre>Hire Shin-ClaihWe're gonna be pumping out a lot of vessel designs since we have the capability to build all sizes, Glasner's flaw will be a pain in the long run.
>>6135279>Repair Chad GPTGlasner's too flawed, Shivre's too Sus>Hire Shin-ClaihWe really have to.
>>6135278Dammit Cognis.I agree with the other anon, I didn't think the brocon option will result in this. Glad I missed that vote, or I might've done something that can't be undone.>>6135279>Repair Chad GPT>Hire Shin-Claih
>choose option to "visit" your brocon sibling>"Hurr durr whoda known it would result in thaaat?"Are you mentally retarded? Like genuinely? Do you have a mental deficiency?PLEASE consider never voting if you were genuinely surprised by that. You are clearly too stupid to understand even the most basic concepts of reality.
Also, here's the translation of the wingdings since none of you bothered to do it.
>>6135279>Give Glasner a permanent position>Hire Shin-Claih
>>6135279>Give Glasner a permanent position >Hire Shin-Claih
>>6135279>Repair Chad GPT>Hire Shin-ClaihOkay, since no one's saying anything, here's my vote. Glasner sucks and Shivre is going to get us bombed AGAIN
>>6135279>Repair Chad GPT>Hire Shin-ClaihLoyalty is priceless.
>>6135279>>Repair Chad GPT>Hire Shin-Claih
>>6135279>Repair Chad GPT>Hire Shin-ClaihWhat other resources can we get from our brocon?
>>6135279>Give Glasner a permanent positionMarketable sidegrades are not really a downside.
>>6135279I'll switch my R&D vote >>6135304 to>Repair Chad GPT
>>6135504>Wants to do brocon again after seeing what happened last time.You're enjoying this aren't you?
>>6135532
>>6135279fuck it, changing to >Shivre>shin-claihold >>6135324I want FTL strategic missiles. Since we got stealth coating we could probably easily design and market a deterrence vessel.
>>6135726I hope you realize that Shivre is going to get our shipyard attacked by someone seeking revenge for his crimes.
Unanimous Shin-ClaihGlasner>6135383>6135425>6135509Chad GPT>6135359>6135360>6135430>6135489>6135493>6135504>6135529Shivre>>6135341>>6135348>>6135726Chad wins. Writing...
Somebody roll me a d3
Rolled 1 (1d3)>>6135869
Rolled 2 (1d3)>>6135869
You decided Glasner would only cause you further headaches down the line. Shivre was just too damn suspicious; offering high level technologies and coming cheap. You didn’t trust him. That left only Jack’s AI. Relying on AI offended your sensibilities but in the end it was better to keep things in house. You were tired of outsiders bringing little surprises along with them.Speaking of which you decided to take Jack’s advice and offer your sister a ship in exchange for the Savant.>-12Mil Credits>Chad GPT repaired>Gained Xeno Ergonomics(Human) Tech>Enforcer B locked as the next capital ship project.>Shin-Claih hired>Intel Department UnlockedThe Intel Department allows you to gain knowledge about market trends and reveals the percentage chance of getting walk-in customers every time period. This percentage depends on a combination of company reputation, catalogue variety and market conditions. The Intel department might also reveal additional information that might have otherwise been hidden from you according to QM fiat.—------------You don’t waste any time putting Shin-Claih to work. An interface was set up where he could enter the savant’s trance to rapidly process information. After giving him two days to review the data you summon him.“What have you learned about the present market?”“The Solar Union is moving to develop its new colonies, hopefully before any further hostilities break out. Meanwhile back home our Empire continues to rebuild. There is high demand for cargo and industrial designs.”“Of which we barely have any in our catalogue. Is there anybody wanting to buy warships?”“Not that many parties despite the tense situation. There are disfavoured nobles back home who cannot gain access to the Far Halo Yards. The minor saurian clans are desperate for ships in the wake of recent Union attacks. However, they are not interested in buying human designs. To tap that market we’d have to try designing an export model which will require knowledge of saurian xeno-ergonomics. The Car’cass authorities are looking to upgrade their anti-piracy capabilities. Fast, reliable combat frigates would interest them.”—-------------------You relay Shin’s insights to Jack as you advise him on which direction to take R&D; you had no interest in talking to his pet AI.>Vote for the general direction of new designs. (Can pick 2)>A modular industrial cargo ship.>With your new technologies, iterate on the Excelsis design to create a high performance luxury craft.>Design an anti-piracy combat frigate.>Design a compact salvage frigate that carries parasite craft.>Design strike craft with stealth composites.>Write inAlso pick which technologies to research. From now on you can vote for three and I’ll place the three most popular in a queue.List of tech:https://pastebin.com/YC75HzNV
Forgot to add the Xeno-Ergonomics techs to the pastbin:>Xeno-Ergonomics (Saurian) 60RP>Xeno-Ergonomics (Blorg) 60RP
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>Write in, would there be a market for the Excelsis upgraded with stealth composites as a smuggling/ cargo ship? >Intermediate Fabrication (Enables full strikecraft manufacturing on capital ships as well as other industrial functions. RP cost: 60)>Remote Effectors (Tractor beams. RP cost: 100)These techs will help us with industrial designs >Advanced Alloys (Develop new materials that are stronger and lighter, granting more leeway to your engineers.)This just is generally useful
>>6135884Ships>write inI'd like a modular ship framework that can slot cargo, industrial mining/salvage modules, and hangar modules. We design a ship that could fulfill 3 different roles based on what modules it's got slotted in. Be a bit ass as far as the carrier goes because it couldn't take a hit, but hey, any escort carrier functionality is better than naught >effectively just double down in industrial ship designResearch>+1 to research >>6135892 voted for I wish we'd nab neural links since it's cheap but these are probably better.
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>Design an anti-piracy combat frigate.We need to fill our Frigate roster with some more basic choices.>Generic Neural Link (Allows organics to interface with machines, does not provide the same benefits as the Raihan version. RP cost: 40)Better interface means better control>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)Let's help some customers to feel safer without the need to up-gun.>Advanced Alloys (Develop new materials that are stronger and lighter, granting more leeway to your engineers.)
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>Design an anti-piracy combat frigate.Techs:>Advanced Scientific Sensors (Sensors optimised for analysing a target in detail rather than tracking it. RP cost: 40)>Intermediate Fabrication (Enables full strikecraft manufacturing on capital ships as well as other industrial functions. RP cost: 60)>Remote Effectors (Tractor beams. RP cost: 100)I feel like sensors could also be handy for salvage ops.
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>Design an anti-piracy combat frigate.>Intermediate Fabrication (Enables full strikecraft manufacturing on capital ships as well as other industrial functions. RP cost: 60)>Advanced Alloys (Develop new materials that are stronger and lighter, granting more leeway to your engineers.)>Miniaturised Eigen Drives (FTL drives small enough to fit on strike craft. RP cost: 120)First two techs are more fundamental, but the last will enable a strike craft that can also act as a littoral combat craft that can act in concert with the anti-piracy frigate.
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>With your new technologies, iterate on the Excelsis design to create a high performance luxury craft.
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>Design an anti-piracy combat frigate.Tap both the union and the empire, while interesting Car'cass and the disfavoured nobles.>Remote Effectors (Tractor beams. RP cost: 100)>Intermediate Fabrication (Enables full strikecraft manufacturing on capital ships as well as other industrial functions. RP cost: 60)>Advanced Alloys (Develop new materials that are stronger and lighter, granting more leeway to your engineers.)Good for police and salvage craft, plus something generally useful.
>>6135884>modern industrial cargo ship >anti piracy combat frigate
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>Design an anti-piracy combat frigate.Hey, shouldn't we be getting a free xeno-ergonomics soon anyway? Because we repaired ChadGPT....>Intermediate Fabrication (Enables full strikecraft manufacturing on capital ships as well as other industrial functions. RP cost: 60)>Advanced Alloys (Develop new materials that are stronger and lighter, granting more leeway to your engineers.)>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)
>>6135884>A modular industrial cargo ship.>Design an anti-piracy combat frigate.>Advanced Scientific Sensors (Sensors optimised for analysing a target in detail rather than tracking it. RP cost: 40)>Remote Effectors (Tractor beams. RP cost: 100)>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)
>>6136132The D3 roll was to see which variant of Xeno-ergonomics was restored with Chad, we rolled Human.
>>6136204...Why the hell would we need a human ergonomics tech? Isn't that what we already had as uh, I don't know, the standard? What ergonomic even did we have if not human?
>>6136205Excerpt from the previous threadYou nod thoughtfully as Caroline continues.“A better market is luxury transports or yachts. Yachts are usually frigate class though. And once again, different buyers have different concepts of luxury. You’ll need specialists in xeno-ergonomics to design the ship interiors up to standard.”“You say xeno, but that only applies to aliens right? Since we’re humans, we already know what humans consider luxurious?”“Gee I dunno Jack, can you design elegant interiors? Do you have an eye for the aesthetic? Do you have good taste?.”You decide not to answer that…“Luxury designs need professionals regardless of race, got it.”Caroline gives you a satisfied smile.
>>6135892Ships:Industrial: 10Iterate on Excelsis: 2Anti Piracy Frigate: 7Research:Intermediate Fabricators: 6Remote Effectors: 5Advanced Alloys: 6Neural Link: 1Basic Shield Generators: 3Advanced Scientific Sensors: 2Mini Eigen Drives: 1>Chad instructed to design an Industrial Capital ship and an anti-piracy frigate.>Intermediate Fabricators, Advanced Alloys and Remote Effectors placed in research queue (in that order).Roll me 6d10s for research.
Rolled 1, 7, 7, 8, 8, 3 = 34 (6d10)>>6136472
A week later Jack came back to present the new models to the rest of the team… wow, you actually had a team now. It was the first time you felt like you were in charge of an actual company as opposed to… whatever it was you were doing before.“So first up we have the Janus. With my guidance Chad built a core vessel with heavy duty omnidirectional engines. We can build modules that attach to this core for a variety of different functions. A full two module vessel will handle like a pile of bricks but that’s acceptable for an industrial model.”He started cycling the AR display showing off the different modules.“So we’ve got a cargo module and a hangar module but the real game changer is our factory module. Glasner was close to cracking better fabrication tech before he was dismissed so it was a simple matter to finish what he started.”>Gained Advanced Fabrication Tech“So the module is capable of processing raw materials into components and assembling them into finished products; you could set out to mine an asteroid field and come back with a squadron of strike craft ready made. Here’s the kicker: It’s got its own internal XS reactor. So it can be detached from the core and left behind as an ad-hoc static platform.”You nod in approval.“There’d definitely be interested parties within the Empire,” said Shin-Claih.“Unfortunately we can’t build this thing yet. It’s taking a while to scrape together enough work crews to begin capital production again. Say Mayumi are there any more favours you can-”“NO!” You snap with unlady-like intensity. “Ooookay, moving on then.”The AR display switched to an image of a rather sharp looking frigate.“So this is the Heron, it’s designed for police action. To that end it has a light railgun turret that can disable frigate subsystems and two rotary kinetics for strikecraft suppression. To keep maintenance costs down we couldn’t use Glasner’s funky drive config or the XS reactors; its speed comes from being plain old under-gunned and under armoured.”Jack seemed really disappointed as he uttered that last sentence.“I thought the design wasn’t really living up to its potential so I had Chad design a ‘military variant’: Spinal mounted heavy railgun, and dual missile launchers instead of the standard loadout. Inclusion of the resonance drive and XS reactor allows it to keep the same level of manoeuvrability despite heavier armour and armament. Of course this means overall costs will be higher but I think this would be a great thing to upsell potential clients on.”Shin-Claih nodded. “This design will definitely be more appealing than that ridiculous Thunderbird, more in line with what the average customer is looking for.”“But I like the Thunderbird.”You roll your eyes. “Of course you do, you silly man, but we need more practical designs if we’re going to sell anything.”>cont
>>6136544You roll your eyes. “Of course you do, you silly man, but we need more practical designs if we’re going to sell anything.”“Hrmph, well moving on we also added an Excelsis variant with stealth composites, seemed like a natural fit.”“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Asked Shin-Claih“Uh yeah, it’s a straight upgrade.”“A light freighter that’s fast and stealth; the ideal craft for smugglers. Jack, this ship is catered towards criminals.”“Or it could cater to legitimate couriers navigating high risk routes, make it easier to hide from criminals.”“Be that as it may, selling a ship like this will raise eyebrows.”“Speaking of selling ships, it’s time to review the next set of orders we’re taking. We’ve actually got some now which is a nice change of pace from having to chase customers.”You put the orders up on the AR display.“First off the producers of the star ship enthusiast show: Galactic Gear want to buy an Excelsis and Thunderbird to feature in their next episode. They want us to sell it at a 20% markdown in exchange for ‘exposure’.”“Ugh, fuck that. My uncle told me: never do anything for exposure. I’m not giving Jerry Quarkson two of my babies just so he can make sarcastic remarks about them for 45 minutes.”“Well it can’t be denied that the sales of featured ships do increase after the fact… provided the designs are solid.”“Moving on, the Car’cass militia are holding trials for a new frigate. We’ll have to produce one or both of the Heron variants out of pocket in order to participate, but if we win it could mean a fat contract further down the line.”“Oh! Kyrska is back in town. She wants to upgrade her Enforcer to the B-Variant. Since it’s only a refit we can do the job with a single work crew.”“Not much of an opportunity compared to the others.”“Well it’s a straight forward job that pays upfront. Plus she’s looking to expand her crew. Maybe I could sell her one of our new frigates?”What do?>Sell a discounted Excelsis and Thunderbird to be featured on Galactic Gear.>Build and submit both Heron variants for the Car’cass militia trials. >Build and submit one Heron variant (which one) for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.>Upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer and try to sell her a Heron.
>>6136545The fun option would be galactic gear, and guarantees we will get some sales from it.The militia trials are lucrative but we might get fuck all. I think the base version would be better for a militia. We need more customers, we shouldn't go all in on Kryska >Build and submit one Heron variant (base) for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.
>>6136545>Sell a discounted Excelsis and Thunderbird to be featured on Galactic Gear.I really think we can market Excelsis as a sports yacht
>>6136545>>Build and submit one Heron variant (which one) for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.The dumpy base model.
>>6136545>Build and submit one Heron variant (base model) for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.
>>6136545>Build and submit one Milspec Heron variant for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.Friendly reminder that Car'Cass is the system that WE are based in. Also i do not think Flugus is going to like the increased risk to the crews life expectancy with the basic model.Push comes to shove even if we do not make the cut, that is still a ship ready to be sold at a moments notice or used to blow up any more would be deniable ops
>>6136545>Build and submit one Heron variant (base) for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.The Excelsis and Thunderbird would no doubt be fun, but these designs aren't solid enough to earn a good review yet. Perhaps once we've had Chad iterate the Excelsis?
>>6136545>Build and submit one Heron variant (Milspec) for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.The problem with featuring Excelsis and Thunderbird on Galactic Gear is that they were made by Glasner while he was serving time in our facility, which means he could try to throw dirt on our name if we don't pay for his silence. Changing topic, I was wondering if we should begin designing a wake jump capable (see >>6135884) tanker/long range support capital ship. We could sell it along with Heron frigates as a "Strike Group Package Deal."
>>6136545>Sell a discounted Excelsis and Thunderbird to be featured on Galactic Gear.
>>6136545>>Upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer and try to sell her a Heron.
>>6136545>Build and submit one Heron variant (which one) for the Car’cass militia trials and upgrade Kryska’s Enforcer.They wanted an anti-piracy frigate, not a warship.
>>6136545>Milspec Heronbecause it's a birb.
Heron Base+ Kryska>6136567>6136589>6136599>6136650>6136906Heron Milspec+ Kryska>6136611>6136699>6136953Upsell Kryska>>6136741Galactic Gear>>6136863>>6136757>>6136723We're submitting the base design to the trails and upgrading Kryska's ship.We're gonna fast forward through 2TPs so roll me 2d2s for your ongoing hiring and 12d10s for research.
Rolled 1, 1 = 2 (2d2)>>6136982
Rolled 10, 6, 7, 8, 1, 5, 9, 6, 3, 10, 7, 4 = 76 (12d10)>>6136982
Building two Herons out of pocket to send to the trails was a bit exorbitant. As powerful as the military variant was, the request was for a police vessel and the buyers wouldn’t be impressed by excessive firepower if it was too hard to maintain.Galactic Gear was too much of a wildcard. Depending on how the ships were received it could drum up new sales or make you the laughing stock of the system and you weren’t confident that Glasners designs would survive Quarksons roasting.In the end you accepted the modest job of upgrading Kryska’s ship while building a single base Heron to be submitted to the trials.Throughout the construction period the search for new labour continued with little success.>Lost 4Mil Credits searching for work crews.>Both rolls failed, no work crews found.>Debt of 1.6 Credits accrued.>Bought 10kT of CM for 2.5Mil Scrip>Sold 10kt of SM for 1.6 Credits, Debt Cleared.>2kT RM removed from reserves to upgrade Kyrska’s Ship>1Mil Credit profit from job.>8kT CM removed from reserves>2kT RM bought for 0.6 Zelas>0.5 EM bought for 3Mil Scrip>Built Heron>Final balance: 1Mil Solar Credits, 9.26 Mil Saurain Scrip, 3.4Mil Raihan Zelas>Material Reserves: 22kT CM>Advanced Alloys finished researching((Gonna be a bit of a boring update tonight as I want to take some time to figure out a little mini-game for the militia trials. Please wait warmly and consider how much your dignity was worth.))
>>6136999Sacrificing dignity too often will make it less special for the brocon so keep that in mind incest fags.>>6135630
>incesfags would rather whore themselves out than to hire blorg>we STILL end up in debt because of the lack of workerslol. lmao.
>>6137103Incestfags keep losing
>>6137111That would imply they actually care about improving our situation as a business.
Update needs some more time to cook, sorry guys.
Several manufacturers had submitted ships for consideration by the Car’cass militia. The test crew from the HPS delegation acquitted themselves well in the various trial scenarios. The Heron demonstrated excellent speed and manoeuvrability, though its firepower was a bit lacking. The other candidates blasted apart the test targets in spectacular fashion while the Heron merely perforated them with pinpoint fire. This wasn’t such a big deal since avoiding collateral damage was a plus for a police vessel. The Heron made it to the final stage of the trials, beating far more impressive (but less suitable ships.). It looked like you had made the right call in submitting a ship tailored to the clients needs.In the end it came down to a choice between the HPS Heron and Myconetics Lu’gee. The Lu’gee was produced by a local Blorg manufacturer and was as fast as the Heron, but more durable, with torpedo launchers and a large bore kinetic turret capable of loading a variety of different ammo types. Despite their differing capabilities both ships had achieved similar scores in the tests and it looked like selection could go either way.Eventually it was decided that the matter would be settled by a (simulated) deathmatch between the two vessels. This was a bit strange given that peer to peer combat was not what these ships were designed for, and you suspected that the Militia just wanted a show. Nevertheless both crews were game for the challenge.—-----------Test Captain Hackett of the HPS Quality Assurance department went through the final checks as the crew prepared to engage the competition in the militia proving grounds.“Engineering reports all systems green.”“Copy that, switching the system to training mode. Gunnery confirm the weapons aren’t live.”The Heron’s turrets locked on to a nearby target buoy and fired a burst. Simulated holographic rounds were projected across the bridge display and dissipated harmlessly against the buoy. The AR displayed a red pulse over the targeting feed indicating the buoy acknowledged the simulated fire as having hit.“Gunnery confirms, weapons are in sim mode.”“Roger that. All hands to battle stations…” He always wanted to say that. “...This is a drill.” It wasn’t as cool with the last bit but protocol was protocol.Militia control confirmed that the exercise had begun, the game was afoot.>Maintain distance from the target. Have the rotary cannons shoot down any torpedos while the railgun snipes at key subsystems.>Rush in then alpha strike their bridge at knife fighting range.> Hit and fade, weave in and out of cover taking potshots with your weapons.>Write-In
>>6138126>Maintain distance from the target. Have the rotary cannons shoot down any torpedos while the railgun snipes at key subsystems.Remember, this is what the Heron is built for. Precision subsystem destruction, and small target tracking with the two independently tracking rotary autocannons. The Heron has Advanced Sensors (Military).We won't win a knife fight against a more durable ship that is as fast as the Heron.
>>6138126>Maintain distance from the target. Have the rotary cannons shoot down any torpedos while the railgun snipes at key subsystems.>It looked like you had made the right call in submitting a ship tailored to the clients needs.What? Nah
>>6138126>Maintain distance from the target. Have the rotary cannons shoot down any torpedos while the railgun snipes at key subsystems.Good thing we went with the turret mounted railgun rather than the spinal one. Against Lu’gee, we'll need to use the full power of rear thrusters to maintain distance away from it which would render a forward facing spinal railgun useless.
Rolled 8 (1d10)>>6138136>It looked like you had made the right call in submitting a ship tailored to the clients needs.As opposed to sending just the Milspec design, which would have raised your reputation but done little else.Of course sending both would have gotten you all the benefits but you'd have to eat the cost up front.>>6138133>>6138136>>6138143Okay these are enough votes. I'm trying to make this section "fast paced" at least by /qst standards.Roll me 3d10s.
Rolled 2, 8, 9 = 19 (3d10)>>6138144
>>6138145Excellent, writing...
“Helm, maintain distance. If they try to close, don't be shy about flipping and burning.”“Aye.”“Gunnery, keep the rotaries on overwatch for torpedoes and snipe them with the railgun.”“You got it.”On the sensors the Lu’gee began charging straight at you, firing off its torpedoes as it closed the distance. There was no way its large bore kinetic could get a shot at you at this range, as long as you kept your distance there was no way it could touch you.The torpedo blips winked out as the rotaries shot them down. Streaks of holographic light indicated simulated railgun fire going down range. The Lu’gee was just as manoeuvrable as you and so a fair few of the shots missed, but the advanced FCS quickly made corrections and started landing hits.“They’re still active despite the hits,” said the sensors officer.“Did we manage to knock out any of their subsystems?”“Hard to tell at this range.”“They’re using cover, can’t get a firing solution.”The Lu’gee had started using the large “terrain buoys” that dotted the proving grounds to shield itself from your long range shots. It was slowly but surely making its way towards you hoping to eventually get in range with its main kinetic cannon. >Hide behind the buoys yourself, they can’t jump you if they don’t know where you are, play cat and mouse.>As soon as they take cover again, blow right past them and shoot them in the back, they won’t be expecting this.>Keep your distance and wait for more opportunities to snipe them.>Write-in
>>6138155>As soon as they take cover again, blow right past them and shoot them in the back, they won’t be expecting this.
>>6138155>As soon as they take cover again, blow right past them and shoot them in the back, they won’t be expecting this.Be decisive. I wouldn't normally advocate for this, as I just got done saying "knife fights bad", but playing cat and mouse is just as risky. If we play cat and mouse, it's a matter of who sees who first, winner takes all. Except not really, since the Lu'Gee might be able to take a full salvo and return fire in a situation where they aren't stunned by surprise, where we don't initiate. At least by attacking we avoid mutual surprise, or worse. We have to do something either way, because it is clearly gaining on us with our current strat.
>>6138155>>Keep your distance and wait for more opportunities to snipe them.
Rolled 5, 4 = 9 (2d10)>>6138159>>6138160>>6138161Ok we're doing the space ship equivalent of diving out of cover while dual wielding pistols.Roll me 3d10
Rolled 7, 7, 7 = 21 (3d10)>>6138165
>>6138167Huh, triples don't really mean anything but that is a sweet roll.>Writing...
Hackett considered pulling back and sniping at the enemy. In a real combat scenario this would have been a sound strategy, approved by any orthodox naval officer. But this wasn’t real combat and Hackett wasn’t a disciplined military captain, and so…“Helm, next time they duck behind cover I want you to go full burn past the buoy then flip the ship. Gunnery, be ready to open up on them, I want them (figuratively)wrecked before they realise we’re not gonna play peek-a-boo.”“Aye sir!”The rest of the crew was starting to get into it, this was the most fun they’d had in years; most of the time they were stuck doing engine tests.The Heron lurched forward and Hackett felt himself starting black out. Then the drive cut as they rocketed past the terrain buoy and the manoeuvring thrusters flipped them over. There it was: the Lu’gee preparing to jet to the next piece of cover, caught completely unaware.“Open Fire!” The command was unnecessary, gunnery already knew what to do but Hackett was caught up in the moment.The enemy ship was lit up with red pulses as a torrent of simulated rounds rained down upon them. At this range the advanced fire control could easily pinpoint the targets sub-systems and triple tap them in sequence. The battle was as good as over… except it wasn’t. The referee sub-routines in the sim network hadn’t declared the Lu’gee dead yet.“Hit 'em again!”Another torrent of fire, another cluster of confirmed hits, still no kill.“Again!” The Heron continued to pour it on to no effect. Meanwhile the Lu’gee spun around like its engine pods hadn’t been skewered multiple times by the railgun and opened up with its kinetic turret.Warning notifications flashed across the bridge display as the sim-network started registering hits.[Hit to prow, power lines damaged, railgun inactive.][Hit to port hull, kinetic turret destroyed.][Multiple hits penetrated main hull, primary power and life support systems offline.][Hit to Bridge, command crew killed, ship combat ineffective]Hackett blinked in disbelief as his ship was “destroyed” by a target he previously had dead to rights.A comms message came in from proving ground control.“All ships stand down, referees have declared the Heron disabled, Lu’gee has won the exercise.”It was a good thing you hadn’t hit respond yet because the entire crew erupted in a chorus of expletives and accusations. This was complete bullshit. Sure the Lu’gee’s hull was a bit more durable than the Herons, but there was no way it could have withstood that amount of punishment then turned around and shot you in the face without so much as a hint of damage. Myconetics had cheated somehow and Hackett was sure of it.>Contest the outcome of the exercise, get the lawyers involved.>Switch to live ammunition and disable their engines, lets see them deny that result.>Take the L.>Write-In
>>6138181>>Contest the outcome of the exercise, get the lawyers involved.
>>6138181>Contest the outcome of the exercise, get the lawyers involved.I want to use the second option so bad you have no idea
>>6138181>Contest the outcome of the exercise, get the lawyers involved.This is some Boeing military contract level favouritism bullshit.Really tempted to open fire, but that wouldn't end up well for us, not legally, nor practically. Not in a straight up duel, face to face.
>>6138181>Contest the outcome of the exercise, get the lawyers involved.
>>6138181>Write-InAsk for a live-fire demonstration of the ship's battery against armor plate equivalent to the Lu'gee. But yeah, we really should have hired Blorg work crews. Filing a complaint will go over just as well as the 1972 Olympics. (F*** the IOC, btw).https://youtu.be/Qh19IxFLk8Y
>>6138188It's not just an issue of armour pen, though that is the most egregious thing that a demonstration could set right. I'm pretty sure our initial hits weren't registered as hits at all. Sort of how like the buoy acknowledged our test shots as having hit, the Blorg ship didn't. Either there's cheating going on on their end, or the client has a bias and is using their position as hosts to put their thumbs on the scale, or both.
We bribed the governor of the Car’cass system last quest so it could be straight-up bribery. Hey QM do we still have the plans for the luxury Blorg yacht that ChadGpt showed us in his introduction?
>>6138181>>Switch to live ammunition and disable their engines, lets see them deny that result.
>>6138181>>6138259Oh, actually, also we should...>Gather data from the 'terrain buoy' to show it wasn't impacted by our simulated weapons fire.The Lu’gee was right in front of it. We might need to show that out weapons didn't strike the buoy so that we can prove they struck the Lu’gee.
>>6138208>we still have the plans for the luxury Blorg yachtNope.Looks like we're going for the lawsuit.Writing...
Oh, roll me 2d2 and 4d10s
Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d2)
Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d2)>>6138445
Rolled 2, 2, 5, 7 = 16 (4d10)>>6138445
The aftermath of the militia trials had been a royal headache for everyone at HPS. Accusing Myconetics of cheating on their home turf was a bold move, but when the foul play was so brazen and the stakes so high you just couldn’t let it go. You meet with Shin-Claih and Jack for the latest updates on the case.“We are almost guaranteed to win the case. The test captain’s closing gambit made it so that anyone watching would have to be willfully blind to deny that nothing untoward had occurred.”“Good, does that mean the contract will be ours?”“Not necessarily. The decision to award the contract based on the match results was not legally binding. Militia procurement could select Myconetics without needing to give any reason. However, if they do so in the face of such overwhelming proof of our victory they will all but admit they are both corrupt and stupid.”You allowed yourself a satisfied smile. Barefaced favouritism was not unknown to you, but it still needed plausible deniability no matter how flimsy. You assumed it was the same in Car’cass as it was back in the Empire.“There is a problem though. The wheels of bureaucracy still need to turn before the courts recognise the legitimacy of our claims. Until they do, we will be losing money due to legal fees, and we are running low on money.”>You will lose 15Mil Scrip over the next 3TP until the lawsuit is resolved.>Lost 5Mil Scrip paying legal fees.>Sold 10kT CM for 1.8Mil Credits>Lost 2Mil Credits searching for work crews.>Roll succeeded, gain +1 Work Crew>Current Material Reserves: 12kT CM>Final Balance: 0.8Mil Solar Credits, 4.26 Mil Saurain Scrip, 3.4Mil Raihan Zelas>Thread Intermission
Okay I’m going to pause the quest for a few days to take a break. Thanks to everyone for following the quest this far. Feel free to give feedback and ask me questions. Meanwhile I’ve got some for you guys:For players of the first thread: How do you feel about Jack now being an NPC? Since he’s not really under your control anymore I’ve had to think more about what he’d say and do rather than putting it to a vote.Where’d all the Lizard-bros go? I noticed in the previous thread there were several players keen to interact with the Saurians. Did Sizzar not winning scare you off?Finally I also noticed in the previous thread that player engagement dropped noticeably during the traitor arc. I suspected it might have been because the quest started becoming more focused on detective work rather than building and selling spaceships, which is what I assume you guys are here for. Basically, would you prefer if I didn’t linger too long on any special arcs or mini-games that took you away from the main loop of designing, selling and upgrading?
>>6138465And now we're probably going to go into debt just from lawyer fees...great. Just wonderful.>>6138467>Thanks to everyone for following the quest this far. Feel free to give feedback and ask me questions.I got a question: would it hurt for something good to happen once in a while? The whole thread its just bad event, bad event, bad event, bad event, bad event...I get you're trying to make a quest about running an ailing company, but at this point its becoming "Run the galaxy's most unlucky company">How do you feel about Jack now being an NPC? Since he’s not really under your control anymore I’ve had to think more about what he’d say and do rather than putting it to a vote.Well, I still like him more than Lady Shitake.>Where’d all the Lizard-bros go? I noticed in the previous thread there were several players keen to interact with the Saurians. Did Sizzar not winning scare you ofI'm here, just consistently outvoted every single time.>Basically, would you prefer if I didn’t linger too long on any special arcs or mini-games that took you away from the main loop of designing, selling and upgrading?It's not that I mind special arcs, but it's really, really annoying when you're trying to desperately tell people to look at the obvious answer and yet the voters just keep banging their heads on the wall. I don't think this voterbase is smart enough for special arcs.
>>6138473>would it hurt for something good to happen once in a while?The player base seems to be adverse to taking the expensive but safe choices. With the 100kT starting CM reserve you guys could have absorbed the early costs of buying an unproblematic work crew and slowly started building the yard up with fewer incidents. But people voted for penal labour, then they voted for Glasner. With the exception of hiring Shin-Claih you guys have consistently chosen options which involved some kind of complication or random outcome rather than tank a known cost.But okay, maybe slapping you guys with the lawsuit after you won the mini-game was a bit harsh. Here's something good:--------------------------Jack was having a rough day. Space Princess Shimada had left him to handle the minutiae of the Militia lawsuit and he’d spent the last cycle chasing down the various departments and submitting combat logs, testing data and ship specifications to the courts as evidence. And now to top it all off, there was no more soda left in his mini-fridge. With a sigh he turned around only to find a strange bottle sitting atop his desk. It had a brown liquid inside that looked like cola but there was no label on the bottle, only a small message written on a piece of card tied to a string.Cheers! From PersicaJack took the cap off and cautiously took a sip.ToSeeTheWorldInAGrainOfSandAndHeavenInAWildFlowerHoldInfinitityInThePalmOfYourHandAndEternityInAnHour.“Ugh, flat root beer”>Gain 1kT Exotic Matter
>>6138498>With the exception of hiring Shin-Claih you guys have consistently chosen options which involved some kind of complication or random outcome rather than tank a known cost.Well, to that i say, see the last comment of my post.
>>6138505Also, thanks for the matter. At least we might be able to still survive.
>>6138467I felt that we get screwed too often
>>6138467This is one of my favorite quests on the board, but it does feel like we are the only idiot in the galaxy sometimes. The lawsuit makes sense Lawyers are expensive, but how were we supposed to know the trials would be rigged? Lizards are cool, but they aren't great for growth. They want to use their own tech and their own designs.The traitor arc was cool but I think I lurked during it because I wasn't sure who did it.
>>6139167>how were we supposed to know the trials would be rigged?You weren't, shit happens.Believe it or not you got the best possible outcome for this event. If you survive the lawsuit there will be a big pay off.I'll be honest in that I did want to make this quest harder. Problems and the fallout of problems gives me more hooks to work with... That and I'm trying to get the balance right, and when it comes to balance its better to ere on the side of harshness since it's easier to buff than nerf.The traitor arc from the previous thread, the prisoner sub-plot and the trial mini-game were my attempts to spice things up. Not the bro-con choice though, that was a shit post.I guess what I really was trying to ask when I talked about special arcs was that:Do you guys want to me to try and base the quest difficulty more on stuff directly linked to ship building like pleasing clients and leading the market and less on special events like: "Oh noes! You pissed off someone by selling ships to the wrong person, now a random bad thing happens."
>>6139239I guess a bit more of that would be good. I'll stick around regardless.
>>6139239>Not the bro-con choice though, that was a shit post.So you didn't expect that to win?
>>6139239>>6139375I must admit, I was expecting merely teasing and pleading. Not for Mayumi to go full 'Targa'Raihan.
>>6139474That was very stupid of you, yes.
>>6139375I thought it was highly unlikely. But as I said I wanted to see if you guys would actually do it. And now I am curious to see if you will do it again >:)I also don't offer choices that I am not prepared to follow through on.
Things were not looking good. Your finances weren’t looking that healthy to begin with and the legal fees were going to send you into the red. To make matters worse you needed to buy more matter to begin construction on your sister’s ship. Thank goodness the Imperial Trade Bureau was selling common and rare matter cheap.Jack had… somehow acquired an entire kilo ton of exotic matter. He said it was a surprise gift from a former employee. Strange, you didn’t see any exotic matter deliveries on the records, yet it was something you now had. One day you would have to get Jack to open up about his bizarre secrets, but for now you chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth. The hiring campaign had come to a close… and put you in even more debt but at least you managed to get a 4th work crew.>-5 Mil Scrip for Legal Fees>-2.7 Mil Zelas to buy 18kT CM>Construction of Enforcer B begins>-2Mil Credit to hire manpower>Die roll successful +1 Work Crew>1.2Mil Credit Debt Accrued>0.74Mil Scrip Debt AccruedWork continued on the Enforcer. You had to exhaust your personal reserves to buy enough rare matter to go forward with it. Normally you’d consider pausing construction until your financial situation improved but this was for your sister. Shin-Claih informed you the lawsuit was close to being finished. You hoped it ended in your favour, the company was now in debt to all three of the major financial institutions, if you didn’t get a windfall soon, things could get ugly. >-5 Mil Scrip for Legal Fees>15% Interest on debt of 0.74 Mil Scrip>Total Scrip Debt: 5.85 Mil Scrip>12% Interest on debt of 1.2 Mil Credits>Total Credit Debt: 1.34 Mil Credits>3.6 Mil Zelas Spent on 12kT RM>2.9 Mil Zelas Debt Accrued
>>6139754Good news: The courts had ruled in your favour, in addition to recovered legal fees HPS had been awarded 20 Mil Scrip in damages. Turns out Myconetics had bribed key officials to sabotage the simulator network so that hits on the Lu’gee were either ignored or registered as doing negligible damage. Your legal team had fought an uphill battle against entrenched corruption and a bureaucracy that clearly favoured the local blorg companies. However, due to the spectacular manner in which your test crew had finished the exercise, the foul play was so obvious that they couldn’t rule against you without damaging their credibility. When the verdict was given everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, especially Jack, who had been preparing to “pull some strings” with Governor Flurgus should the worst have happened.You waste no time in paying off your debts.>Lawsuit won: +15 Mil Scrip in recovered legal fees, +20 Mil Scrip awarded in damages>5.8 Mil Scrip debt cleared.>2.5Mil Scrip converted to 1.6Mil Credits via CM trade>1.34 Mil Credit debt cleared>6 Mil Scrip converted to 7.2 Mil Zelas via EM trade>2.9 Mil Zelas Debt cleared.>Enforcer B completed and delivered.>Material Reserves exhausted>Final Balance: 0.26 Mil Solar Credits, 20.65 Mil Saurain Scrip, 4.3Mil Raihan Zelas((OMFG, why did I make the economy this complicated!? I haven’t done this much math since Uni. I need to let my brain cool down before the next decision point. Please wait warmly and queue the research.))>3 TP has passed, roll 12d10 for research. I’ll retroactively apply the relevant modifiers based on what tech you queue.>Pick up to 3 Tech from the list. They’ll be queued in order of popularity.https://pastebin.com/4Ca0U7VZ
Rolled 9, 3, 4 = 16 (3d10)>>6139755>Advanced Beam Tech (More powerful and efficient beam weapons, has potential non-combat applications too. RP:80)>Advanced Scientific Sensors (Sensors optimised for analysing a target in detail rather than tracking it. RP cost: 40)>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)
Rolled 9, 7, 10 = 26 (3d10)>>6139755>Molecular Manipulation (Use remote effectors for fine molecular manipulation. Has applications in repair, construction and refining. RP cost: 80)>Advanced Beam Tech (More powerful and efficient beam weapons, has potential non-combat applications too. RP:80)>Advanced Scientific Sensors (Sensors optimised for analysing a target in detail rather than tracking it. RP cost: 40)I'm not sure what we want to specialize in tech with but all of these have both civilian and military applications.
Rolled 6, 7, 1 = 14 (3d10)>>6139755>Molecular Manipulation (Use remote effectors for fine molecular manipulation. Has applications in repair, construction and refining. RP cost: 80)>Miniaturised Eigen Drives (FTL drives small enough to fit on strike craft. RP cost: 120)>Generic Neural Link (Allows organics to interface with machines, does not provide the same benefits as the Raihan version. RP cost: 40)
>>6139755>Basic Shield Generators>Generic Neural Link>Advanced Kinetics
Rolled 6, 4, 10 = 20 (3d10)>>6139905
Rolled 3, 2, 6 = 11 (3d10)>>6139755>Advanced Scientific Sensors (Sensors optimised for analysing a target in detail rather than tracking it. RP cost: 40)>Generic Neural Link (Allows organics to interface with machines, does not provide the same benefits as the Raihan version. RP cost: 40)>Inertial Dampeners (Allows a ship to rapidly change velocity without turning its crew into paste. RP cost: 100)
>>6139755>Advanced Beam Tech (More powerful and efficient beam weapons, has potential non-combat applications too. RP:80)>Xeno-Ergonomics: Blorg (RP cost: 60)>Molecular Manipulation (Use remote effectors for fine molecular manipulation. Has applications in repair, construction and refining. RP cost: 80)We won the lawsuit, but did we get the contract?
>>6139755>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)>Generic Neural Link (Allows organics to interface with machines, does not provide the same benefits as the Raihan version. RP cost: 40)>Xeno-Ergonomics: Saurian (RP cost: 60)Useful and relatively cheap techs, plus opening the Saurian market so that we can exploit the desperate souls looking for reprieve from the Union.
>>6139755>Molecular Manipulation (Use remote effectors for fine molecular manipulation. Has applications in repair, construction and refining. RP cost: 80)>Xeno-Ergonomics: Blorg (RP cost: 60)>Advanced Beam Tech (More powerful and efficient beam weapons, has potential non-combat applications too. RP:80)
>>6139755>Basic Shield Generators (Energy field projectors that negate incoming weapons fire. The basic versions work both ways so you can’t shoot when the shield is up. RP cost: 60)>Generic Neural Link (Allows organics to interface with machines, does not provide the same benefits as the Raihan version. RP cost: 40)>Advanced Beam Tech (More powerful and efficient beam weapons, has potential non-combat applications too. RP:80)
Rolled 2 (1d2)Advanced Beam Tech: 6Advanced Kinetics: 1Advanced Scientific Sensors: 3Basic Shield Generators: 4Molecular Manipulation: 4Miniaturised Eigen Drives: 1Generic Neural Link: 5Inertial Dampeners: 1Xeno-Ergonomics: Blorg: 2Xeno-Ergonomics: Saurian: 1Advanced Beam tech and Genric Neural Link added to queue.Rolling d2 for tie breaker between shields and molecular manipulation.1: Shields2: Molecular Manipulation
In the aftermath of the lawsuit things were finally looking up. The Car’cass militia, after facing a massive corruption scandal had awarded you the defence contract: 6 Heron Frigates to be delivered within 12 time periods. A tight deadline but one your shipyard was capable of meeting if the frigate berths ran at full capacity. Given the exorbitant price of exotic matter at the moment the militia had decided to skimp on the vessels eigen drives, even so the contract was worth 174 million scrip, to be paid in instalments every two ships delivered.The prestige of winning the contract had also increased the yard’s reputation, unfortunately with the EM price hikes people were reluctant to buy FTL capable ships. Without a means to deliver non-FTL ships to their buyers this interest had yet to convert itself into increased sales. Maybe if you improved your strike craft catalogue?>Walk in purchase chances increased to 30%—-------------------Shortly after your delivery of the Enforcer you received a surprise visit from your elder sister Shirin. You make your way down to the shuttle hangar to greet her personally. To your horror Jack had gotten there first and was and was making a complete mess of the reception… at least he had pants on this time.“Heeeey! Lady uh, Sherry right? Your sister has told me so much about you.” You hadn’t really. “Your visit is unexpected-but not unwanted, oh no no no. Uh… can I get you any refreshments? Maybe some Spacers' Choice?” One of these days you’d really have to educate him on Raihan courtly etiquette; Shirin was looking at him like he was a rather mangy puppy trying to hump her leg.“Shirin! I wasn’t aware you’d be visiting.” She turned her harsh gaze towards you.Shirin Shimada was slightly taller than you with a lean, elegant build and a bad case of resting bitch face.“Mayumi, who is this f-”“This is Jack Horner, my business partner. Please forgive his lack of refinement, he really does try his best.” You couldn’t believe you were going to bat for this guy, then again you suppose he had earned some measure of respect from you these past few weeks. “I’ll take it from here Jack, me and my sister have aristocratic stuff to talk about.”“Alrighty then. I’ll leave you to it,” said Jack, clearly glad for the excuse to remove himself from an awkward situation.
>>6140648You and Shirin move to a conference room to continue your meeting. Shirin looks out the observation window across the yard to your frigate berths where the work crews are already beginning to lay down the keels for the militia frigates.“You seem to be doing well for yourself sister.”“My apparent success has only come at the tail end of a very long run of misfortune. If I hadn’t secured the current contract this company would be facing bankruptcy.”Shirin nodded, taking in the information as she continued to watch the workers assemble the frigates.“What of Shima? Have you finally whipped that renegade colony into shape?”“The situation has improved, but it is not completely stabilised. The recent Anti-Imperial Defence Pact has emboldened local rebellious factions and pirates to plunder my defence convoys whenever my picket fleets cannot provide escort. The capital ship you sent us helped, though I wish you were not so reluctant to build ships for me before.”“Shirin, the company was in dire straits, and you offer too little in return for what you ask. I simply could not afford to fulfil your requests.”“Maiyumi, do not forget that your first loyalty is to House Shimada, engaging in this… hobby of yours should not supersede the survival of our House.”You felt a flash of anger at this; Horned Princess Shipworks was no mere hobby, it was to be your crowning achievement, as important to you as Shima was to your sister.“War is coming to our realm. The Lord Commander is mustering a fleet to break the rebel colonies, with Shima not fully pacified, resistance activity will intensify. I need more ships sister and you are the only one who can supply them.”“I don’t have enough work crews to finish the current order and begin construction of a new capital ship.”Shirin turned to glare at you. “I am not asking you for a favour sister, I am commanding you as head of House Shimada.”You stare back at her in shocked silence. Eventually her expression softened slightly.“I know it is not a small thing that I ask, but the survival of our house depends upon it. The Empire may have denied me access to the Far Halo yards but it has given me a stipend of exotic matter to spend. I will provide this so that you may construct the ship for me and pay what I can for the rest of it.”Your liege has commanded you to build a Suppressor Class Assault Carrier>Accept the order and forfeit the Militia frigate contract.>Defy your sister and leave her with nothing.>Defy your sister, but put her in touch with a reputable mercenary (Kryska)>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)>Write-InOh and:>Gained Remote Effector Technology.
>>6140649>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)
>>6140649>Accept the order and put out another spate of job ads (3 TPs worth) concurrently with our work on the Suppressor to try and get the single additional work crew needed to work both frigate berths to make the Heron contract.Manufacturing frigates seems to take 3 TPs. We have 4 Work Crews, 3 are needed to work on the Suppressor, the last one can begin work immediately on the Heron contract. If we get a single work crew within 3 TPs, then we can fulfill the contract, without any disgusting fungal infections or late deliveries owing to decon procedures involved.
>>6140649>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)There's no need for the Blorg sterilisation delay on these ships if we're supplying Blorg-built ships for the Blorg themselves.
>>6140649>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)Lest we get screwed in the next militia contract.
>>6140649>>6140672support, lets scale up. also:>put her in touch with a reputable mercenary (Kryska)Two for one upgrade in Shirin's situation.
>>6140649>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)Welp, to the surprise of nobody, we get fucked over again...this 'Raihan patronage' really is more trouble than its worth. I would love to vote to just put her in touch with a mercenary, but obviously you people aren't going to vote for that, so i have to accept that we take *another* loss so we can make another contract at a loss for the sake of not fucking over our reputation, all so we can please our sister who has done absolute jackshit to help us.>>6140672You realize it took us like 10 million solar credits to get those ads, right? We can't afford another one. You're going to get us bankrupt if you do that.
>>6140716That was for 5 TPs worth of ads, this will just be 6 million SoC or whatever the equivalent is in other currency, for 3 TPs worth.>>6140649I'll also support >>6140704 in addition to my own writein.
>>6140649>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)>put her in touch with a reputable mercenary (Kryska)I mean she CAN get Kryska while she awaits completion of the carrier.
>>6140649The worst thing that could happen if we say no is our Raihan contacts blacklist us, there's a chance they attack us but with what ships? From the situation they described, it sounds like they need more escort ships likely the Heron Milspec, not another capital ship. >Write-In: Tell Shirin we will help to buy time and put her in contact with Kryska. Direct our intel department to verify the situation independently. We should also hire more work crews, I don't care if it's Blorg or normal. If we are giving out another ship at a loss we should do our homework.
>>6140775I will support looking into the situation
>>6140649>>Defy your sister, but put her in touch with a reputable mercenary (Kryska)
>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)
>>6140649>The Car’cass militia was mostly made up of Blorg, get Jack to hire two Blorg work crews to complete the contract while you transfer your human crews to make your sister’s ship. (Cost 3Mil Scrip)>put her in touch with a reputable mercenary (Kryska)
>>6140716>all so we can please our sister who has done absolute jackshit to help us.
>>6140954Filial piety my ass, she's trying to bankrupt us so we don't show her up.
Looks like a very strong majority to hire the Blorg with a little sprinkling of recommending Kryska.>Writing...
By Raihan Law your sister had every right to demand this of you, but in reality every noble knew that their authority rested on a complex and fragile web of allegiances. Could you refuse Shirin and get away with it? Certainly, but while you chafed at the command the fate of House Shimada -your house as much as Shirins- still mattered to you.“I will do what I can sister, in the meantime if it’s ships you need, I happen to know an independent captain whose services you could engage.”>Construction begins on two Herons and the Suppressor.>-3 Mil Scrip to Hire Blorg work crews. +2 Work Crews>-12.2 Mil Scrip spent on 61kT CM>Remaining Scrip: 5.45 Mil—---------------In order to meet both your sister's demands and contractual obligations you had been forced to hire Blorg work crews. The fungus based aliens were actually very pleasant and gregarious over remote communications. It was a shame the sight and smell of them disgusted you when face to face. You resolved to let Jack handle any personal interactions whenever possible. The fact that they were working exclusively on the militia frigates meant that decontamination was unnecessary and it was easy to segregate them from the rest of the staff.Shortly after work began on the Suppressor you asked Shin-Claih to look into the state of Shima. You trusted your sister, but you wanted to make sure her steep demands came from a place of genuine need.“It’s bad,” said Shin. “Shima colony is strapped for resources, everything your sister has goes into shoring up her control. ”“What difficulties does she face?”“First off, the population of Shima is nominally anti-Imperial. The old regime was abruptly ended by a decapitation strike masterminded by the Lord Commander. The rest of the people, while not in open rebellion, have no real loyalty to their new ruler. Compliance with Imperial law is a chronic issue.”“Can she not seek support from the Throne?”“House Shimada has little prestige in the Imperial Court, and there are many who see your sister as an upstart. Despite receiving her mandate from the Empress herself, other nobles have moved to block her access to any manpower and ships. The only reason she recently got any resources was that it was an Empire wide initiative to enhance development across reclaimed territory.”>cont
>>6140649>Ask Shirinsama to supply us with laborers from Shima and we will use them to manufacture the ship. We need flesh, she needs firepower. Family members sharing resources for the good of the family.
>>6141110“What about the pirate threat?”“It’s very real. In fact I think we might have contributed to it.”He pulls up an image on the AR display; a frame pulled from combat footage of a Shima security frigate. Illuminated by the muzzle flash of its enormous rotary cannon was the unmistakable shape of a thunderbird gunship in pirate livery.“Tch.”“My Lady, I advise you to be mindful of who you sell ships to. What your clients do with them is of no concern to you, until it is.”“Duly noted Shin. Now tell me, what do I stand to gain if I continue to help my sister at considerable personal cost?”“If Shirin could stabilise Shima, she would be able to produce surplus resources that she’d be amenable to sell to you at below market rate. Maybe even for free.”You snort.“As if, all Shirin cares about is ruling her own colony so Shimada can enter the ranks of the Great Houses.”“If I may, m’lady; what your sister really needs right now is a squadron of frigates, yet when she exercised her authority she commanded you to build her a capital ship. Perhaps she did consider it would be easier for you to do this for her rather than give up the militia contract?”“Or perhaps she just wants a flagship to call her own.”>6.4 Mil Scrip spent to purchase 16kT RM>0.95 Mil Scrip debt accrued>First two Herons delivered, First instalment of 6.24 Mil Scrip received.>0.95 Mil Scrip debt cleared.>5.29 Mil Scrip remaining((Guys I’m really sorry but I fucked up the math bad. The Militia contract is for 6 Herons delivered over 6 TP for 18.72 Mil Scrip, paid in instalments of 6.24 Mil Scrip every 2TP. You’re basically selling each Frigate at 3.12 Mil Scrip each which is a 30% profit on their construction costs (minus the EM because no FTL)))
>>6141112You were keeping your head above water in terms of money but you wished you could be more financially secure. Surely there was something you could do?Wat do?>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.>”Beg” big bro for some pocket money. (dafuq is wrong with you!?)>Sell off your personal yacht. (Base value of 13 Mil SoC. Final sale price adjusted randomly.)>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal. (Make 2.4 Mil Scrip for each ship made at no cost to yourself. D4 ships sold every 3TP)2 TP has passed, roll me 12d10s for research.You still have the prototype Heron from the trials lying around, roll 2d100s for a walk in buy. (Unless you want to give it to sis)
Rolled 10, 3, 10, 5, 1, 3, 2, 4, 8, 8, 7, 5 = 66 (12d10)>Nothing
Rolled 19, 62 = 81 (2d100)>>6141113>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal. (Make 2.4 Mil Scrip for each ship made at no cost to yourself. D4 ships sold every 3TP)More pirates means more business. The larger influx of war materiel and anti-piracy frigates to Shima and Car'cass will counter them anyways.I want to keep our yacht, since we need personal transport for when we arrange deals with various Raihan interests or what have you.Would prefer to sell the prototype, but I'm not vehemently against giving it to big sister.
>>6141113>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.Honestly, I'd rather keep the prototype Heron around for our own defence and security. The last thing we want is some pirate raiding the yard to steal ships under build.
Rolled 7, 6, 9, 7, 2, 3, 9, 8, 5, 9, 4, 7 = 76 (12d10)>>6141113>”Beg” big bro for some pocket money
>>6141113>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.We could geofence the Thunderbirds, but not if they're built on license
>>6141113>Illuminated by the muzzle flash of its enormous rotary cannon was the unmistakable shape of a thunderbird gunship in pirate livery.Based based based.>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal. (Make 2.4 Mil Scrip for each ship made at no cost to yourself. D4 ships sold every 3TP)>Shoot Glassner an E-mail if he wants to work in conjunction with our ChadGPT His stuff rocks
>>6141113>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.I am worried about leaking our R&D IP in a licensing deal.
>>6141113>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal. (Make 2.4 Mil Scrip for each ship made at no cost to yourself. D4 ships sold every 3TP)
>>6141113>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal.>ChadGPT to make a quantum-fucker DRM system that requires a galactic credit card transaction to our bank account every time the blueprints are accessed"Sis, these are from another shipyard, you can see we are too busy to have made these thunderbirds."
>>6141113>”Beg” big bro for some pocket money. (dafuq is wrong with you!?)
>>6141280dafuq is wrong with you!?
>>6141113>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.We're looking at 12M scrip coming in over the next 4TP, which isn't bad. If Shin's intel is good and we get better prices for CM and RM for stabilizing the Shima colony, that'll go a long way towards our profit margins. To that end, I'd rather not hand the pirates more gunships yet.
>>6141113Unless these totally legitimate business interests are on the opposite side of the galaxy. >Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.
>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.
>>6141113>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.Arming the pirates is going to end badly you guys. I get any money is good money but eventually they are going to murder/sack/blow up something important and we will have a lot of angry people to deal with. We need to play it steady for now.
>>6141113>Sell off your personal yacht. (Base value of 13 Mil SoC. Final sale price adjusted randomly.)>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal. (Make 2.4 Mil Scrip for each ship made at no cost to yourself. D4 ships sold every 3TP)Why not both, we can fill our coffers while we have the opportunity give us some time to make some new designs rather then constantly having to worry about filling production orders to just stay afloat
>>6141355you forget, anon, the first rule of being an arms dealer is to arm BOTH SIDES >Sell off your personal yacht. (Base value of 13 Mil SoC. Final sale price adjusted randomly.)let's just build a stealth frigate for ourselves>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal. (Make 2.4 Mil Scrip for each ship made at no cost to yourself. D4 ships sold every 3TP)get spy guy to put trackers in em, get intel on what they're going to get used against, do something about it (maybe) the ships are such a clusterfuck you probably couldn't find it>give heron to sistershe doesn't really need the carrier for what she wants it for and I would like to be in a better position to extort negotiate with her in the future
>>6141366>you forget, anon, the first rule of being an arms dealer is to arm BOTH SIDESThat didn't go very well for Jack anon. I just don't see how risking everything to keep a local conflict going is worth more long term than securing a perhaps free and large scale supply of materials and resources, to say nothing of shoring up relations with our house. The main advantage of being a noble is the family connections. I think having a good working relationship with our sister is a good thing.
>>6141113>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.Also sell the heron. We need money, no time for charity
We aren't Jack anymore we are a Raihan noble. We have the responsibility to not fuck over our empire by selling ships to our enemies. The yacht is extremely valuable, every time we need to go visit other planets for business deals we use it. There is an argument to design and build a new one in-house to act as an advertisement on our business deals.
>>6141113>>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.
>>6141113>Some totally legitimate business interests were interested in acquiring more thunderbirds. You could cut a licensing deal. (Make 2.4 Mil Scrip for each ship made at no cost to yourself. D4 ships sold every 3TP)>”Beg” big bro for some pocket money. (dafuq is wrong with you!?)
>>6141113>Nothing; this was fine, you were fine with the current situation.We need to play it safe for once and build a solid foundation
Rolled 2 (1d3)Order a Nothing burger>6141119>6141187>6141193>6141227>6141298>6141342>6141348>6141355>6141385>6141389>6141560Engage in totally legitimate business:>>6141138>>6141210>6141232>6141270>6141365>6141366>6141411Doing nothing has the overwhelming majority. The other options don't really have enough support to register.Congrats anons for not being collectively degenerate a second time.Rollin a d3 to see who walks in and buys your Heron.>Writing...
Your sister’s ship was completed on schedule and promptly sent off to Shima colony. Thankfully Shirin had indeed provided the exotic matter for the FTL drive otherwise you would have gone into debt again. Unfortunately that was all she provided. It seemed her finances had been tied up hiring Kryska and all her material and manpower had been devoted to propping up Shima.You were starting to regret helping your sister when you received a data package via courier frigate. In lieu of other forms of payment Shirin had provided you with schematics for old Imperial particle beam weapons, something ChadGPT immediately assimilated and started expanding on.Funnily enough your prototype Heron was bought by Myconetics of all beings. They obviously wanted to try making something that would surpass it. They were welcome to try. You already had the Militia contract and by the time the next one came round you’d submit something better. Their company wouldn’t last if they chased your trends.>Prototype Heron sold for 2.9 Mil Scrip>Gained Basic and Advanced Particle Beam Weapons>Advanced Particle Beam Weapons: The ability to make more efficient particle beams allows the manufacture of different sized versions for all ship classes. Advanced particle projection tech might also synergize with certain other non-military techs.>Research on Advanced Beam tech complete.With your capital drydock once again freed up you could take on another big project.>The Raihan Empire wishes to buy a Janus with a Fabrication and Hangar Module. (35.7 Mil Zelas)>The Solar Union is holding trials for an industrial ship specially designed to aid in colony development. You will have to build a prototype completely out of pocket but winning the trial could net you a very lucrative deal. >Clan Margathon have come to you in desperate need of an advanced strike craft. They have nothing to offer you save the vague promise of a secret stash of hidden wealth.>After heroically crashing his super dreadnought into a doomsday weapon, Galatan Starwind is in need of an awesome new capital ship, and he wants his old buddy Jack to make it.1 TP has passed roll 4d10s for research
Sorry I made a mistake:The prototype Heron sold for 7.7Mil Scrip because this one has its FTL drive.
>>6141627>The Raihan Empire wishes to buy a Janus with a Fabrication and Hangar Module. (35.7 Mil Zelas)Also we should see about designing smaller versions of the Janus, I'm sure there's plenty of customers, especially independent miners that would like a Janus, but are turned off by the sheer size
Rolled 8, 9, 5, 8 = 30 (4d10)>>6141627>The Raihan Empire wishes to buy a Janus with a Fabrication and Hangar Module. (35.7 Mil Zelas)damn, that's a lot of plot hooks. QM what would it take to fix the other capship berth, or build more frigate berths? also when do we finish building the frigates for the police contract? 2 turns from now?
>>6141640Right now the smaller version of the Janus is just buying it with one module, but it could be worth designing something that is a little more suited to smaller operations.>>6141643>also when do we finish building the frigates for the police contract?3 Turns
What about strikecraft factories? Selling mining drones along with a Janus/hypothetical Janus lite that has been outfitted with hanger modules seems like the perfect package deal
>>6141646We could make one if you want. There isn't really anything stopping you from designing a ship at anytime, but for reasons of pacing and conserving my mental bandwidth I don't call for design votes and discussion that often.However...If you have a fully formed idea for something then feel free to submit it. Bonus points if you can give me a picture. (Doesn't have to be gud, just give something to work with so I can conserve brain power.)Here's a list of your currently known techs. (Sorry too lazy to do up the fancy pic version RN.)Advanced AlloysAdvanced BeamsAdvanced ElectronicsAdvanced HyperdrivesAdvanced Military SensorsAdvanced Particle BeamsBasic Particle Beam WeaponsDrop PodsHyper ConductorsIntermediate FabricatorsRaihan Neural LinkRefined Fusion PowerRemote EffectorsStealth Composites
>>6141649It's just a drone so it's simple enough, we can take our existing hummingbird chassis and upsize it slightly to fit in an advanced mining beam and possible tractor beam if we can sell it, maybe some basic sensors optimized solely for detecting minerals in asteroids
>>6141662My sole other idea for a drone is essentially just a small cargo pod attached to a pair of engines with a tractor beam up front, it would work in tandem with the mining drone so the carrier wouldn't need to be out in all the dangerous debris flying about collecting minerals, this set up could also work wonders for mining stations, just send out these drones and wait for the ore to come trickling in with minimal need for human interaction
>The Raihan Empire wishes to buy a Janus with a Fabrication and Hangar Module. (35.7 Mil Zelas)
>>6141627>The Raihan Empire wishes to buy a Janus with a Fabrication and Hangar Module. (35.7 Mil Zelas)
>>6141627>The Raihan Empire wishes to buy a Janus with a Fabrication and Hangar Module. (35.7 Mil Zelas)We can get started on this immediately.>Also: After heroically crashing his super dreadnought into a doomsday weapon, Galatan Starwind is in need of an awesome new capital ship, and he wants his old buddy Jack to make it.I imagine that Starwind's project will probably need a reasonable amount of R&D work in designing his new custom capitol ship and sending requirements and schematics back and fourth until he's happy with what we think up for him? We could start THAT process with him, by the time that the Capitol Drydock is freed up again we'll hopefully have a finalised design that he likes.
>>6141686Supporting this. I would like to take part in the trial, but it might be too risky
>>6141686I like this
>>6141686+1 on this. The Janus doesn't even require any research, right? So we can literally accept both. Start construction on the Janus and then tell Galatan to start sending in his plans so we can research it.Actually, since we have Human Ergonomics, we'll be able to actually make a fancy ship the way he likes this time, no?
>>6141686+1
>>6141627>>The Raihan Empire wishes to buy a Janus with a Fabrication and Hangar Module. (35.7 Mil Zelas)
>>6141686+1 We Have to help our buddy Starwind
>>6141627>The Solar Union is holding trials for an industrial ship specially designed to aid in colony development. You will have to build a prototype completely out of pocket but winning the trial could net you a very lucrative deal.
>>6141686+1 i guess
>>6141627>>6141686support
Update is gonna be delayed.
Overwhelming response for building the Janus then following up with making Starwind's ship.
A contract for the Throne itself was impossible for you to pass up. The prestige alone would have been worth it to you, but the price they offered only sweetened the deal. Which was why you found it infuriating when the Imperial Envoy seemed rather confused to be meeting with you and instead demanded to see Jack.In the end you suffered the indignity of waiting outside the meeting room while Jack finalised the business deal.At some point the R&D department had gotten round to designing an updated worker drone to shill as a package deal.—-----------Jack came back from the meeting with a sour look on his face.“What’s wrong? Did the deal fall through?”“No, we got the contract but the Raihans are up to their usual bullshit…”You frowned at the blanket statement. “And what is this ‘usual bullshit’ the Empire is getting up to?”Jack blinked for a moment as he remembered who you were. “Oh, sorry I didn’t mean… let’s just say I’ve done business with the ‘Throne’ before and I’m under strict NDA.”“I am a partner in this company. Such things should not apply to me.”“I don’t think the Empress would see it that way,” he looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Ah fuck it. I can’t be assed. Before you came along I got commissioned by Arcturus himself…”—--------------“... so I was basically their dirty little secret; I designed and built them ships, and they pretended that they were secretly churning them out all along. Paid me handsomely to keep my mouth shut, but once the Far Halo yards came online they never contacted me again.”“Until now.”“You probably already know this but the Throneworld is gearing up for war; all their research bandwidth is directed towards upgrading the navy. No time to design and build industrial ships to shore up their economy. So they’re gonna buy one off us, if they like it, they’ll cut us a licensing deal where they pay us under the table while pretending their glorious shipwrights have pulled a legally distinct design out of their asses.”Well this was juicy, perhaps there was some way you could use this information to your advantage…—--------The construction of the Janus went by without incident and coincidentally finished about the same time as you were sending the last of the Herons off to the Car’cass militia.>7.2 Mil Scrip spent on raw materials for 3 Herons>12.48 Mil Scrip received as payment for contract completion.>Net gain: 5.28 Mil Scrip>13.5 Mil Zelas spent on 40kT CM and 25kT RM>8 Mil Script spent on 1kT EM>Raihan Janus Order built and delivered>Gain 35.7 Mil Zelas>Current Finances: 0.26 Mil Solar Credits, 10.28 Mil Saurain Scrip, 36.5 Mil Raihan Zelas>Prestige gained from completion of Militia contract, walk-in buy chances increased to 40%
>>6142960You were sitting in on a consultation meeting with another one of Jack’s acquaintances. A certain Galatan Starwind. “You had thought Jack foolish when you first met him but Galatan made him look like the Lord Commander; how he had managed to collect a harem of elite women was beyond you.”“So, I ended up flying the Großschwert into the main cannon of the Doom Moon, causing a chain reaction that destroyed the whole thing. Totally worth it. My girls thought I was dead, when they found out I survived they almost killed me, then they almost killed each other when they snuck into my room at the same time and begged me to-”You clear your throat in a sharp pointed manner.“That’s quite the tale Mr. Starwind, now perhaps you could tell us more about what kind of ship you’d like as a replacement.”He just shrugged. “I dunno, make me a hero ship.”“What exactly is a hero ship?”“You know… A ship that heroes use; something that’s like a comfy mobile home, but can also kick ass at the same time. Oh! And it has to have some kind of awesome special feature that no other ship has, like a huge beam cannon-”“I assure you that large spinal mounted beam weapons are not an uncommon feature-”“-and I need strikecraft launch capability, some of my girls pilot manoeuvre shells and they need a place to park their ride.”“So… comfortable quarters, heavy firepower, a launch bay and some kind of special feature,” said Jack trying to sum it all up. “Uh, given that this will be a capital ship and not a super capital I’m not sure if we can tick all these boxes, buuut we have developed a bunch of new tech since your last visit so we’ll see what we can do.”“Awesome Jack! I believe in you; you got this.”It occurred to you that this guy had no head for the finer details of ship design, you could probably sell him anything provided it sounded “awesome” enough.>This is an open design challenge. Write-In with your concepts, if at least one person can pitch a design that would satisfy Starwind then you will get the sale.>>6141649List of Current Tech>3 TP has passed, roll me 18d10s for research.>Also roll me a d100 to see if you can upsell the Raihans on some VCS’
Rolled 10, 2, 4, 5, 9, 1, 10, 9, 1, 4, 3, 2, 9, 5, 4, 3, 7, 3 = 91 (18d10)>>6142963Are there any design guidlines?
Rolled 34 (1d100)>>6142963Well, we've got the human ergonomics tech so quarters should be sorted. Would we be able to combine:>Advanced Electronics>Advanced Military Sensors>Advanced Particle Beamsto make a beam array that can double as a long-range point defense screen for Starwind's pilots and converge to pack a punch against large targets?
Rolled 5, 5, 5, 2, 4, 5, 3, 10, 10, 10, 7, 6, 7, 3, 1, 7, 1, 8 = 99 (18d10)>>6142963
>>6142963Let’s dig into old earth naval designs. Instead of a spinal-mounted cannon, heavy armament will consist of a few turrets with 3 guns each, utilizing our advanced beam tech, since we’re getting inspo from historical dreadnought designs secondary armaments will not be used, in place of them will be a launch bay to accommodate the manoeuvre shells and the PD concept described here >>6142972 if possible, as for the special feature. Would it also possible to make a large repulsion weapon using remote effectors able to bat away enemy ships and propel fighters quickly towards the enemy for flashy and cool scenes? The name of the ship will be Space-battleship Bismarck II, and we’ll make sure to tell Galatan the most exaggerated and german-biased rendition of the sinking of the Bismarck out there
>>6142963Give him a "stealth" capital. That's certainly a feature no one else has (because it's doesn't work well)Alternatively, make the ship shaped like a giant robot (but actually a normal ship in all respects)
>>6142997If going by dreadnaught-era designs, then I suggest a battlecruiser. We have the propulsion tech for high speed, and pack the ship with heavy armament at the cost of some protection. Hopefully advanced alloys help in this regard. Like a battlecruiser, it should have a large length-to-beam ratio to give it an elegant appearance.Alternatively, have ChadGPT iterate the Thunderbird concept into a Capital ship with spacious accommodations and a hangar.>>6142972 is a good idea.And maybe upsell him on a Captain's Gig in the hangar bay too?https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Captain%27s_yacht
>>6142963Okay, here is my idea.------------------------------------------------name: "Die Unaufhaltbare"Tech required:Advanced AlloysAdvanced ElectronicsAdvanced Particle BeamsHyper Conductorsrefined Fusion PowerAdvanced Military SensorsIntermediate FabricatorsDie Unaufhaltbare is a vessel made with big targets and big ambitions in mind. The ship is made in stages, with the ship being made in parts each the size of a small cruiser.Die Unaufhaltbare's core section is a massive Gimball-mounted Particle beam cannon with enough power to crush through any shield it might encounter. It is fueled by a miniaturized fusion core which has been enlarged enough in size to be bigger than most people would think is logical (aka like 2 times the size of a normal cruiser fusion core) to supply the particle beam, Eigen drive and ship thrusters attached later in construction.Attached around this central core, are the armour plates. These 3 pieces (Each the size of a frigate mass-wise) lock around the central core and protect it from any damage. Each outer layer hosts small Beam weapons acting as point defence. Liquid flowing through the armour plates acts as both heat sink/heat dissipator for the central core and quick repair as the liquid solidifies when meeting vacuum.The third construction attached to the ship is the thruster section. Here the Eigen drive, hanger, crew quarters and central command(with view to the outside via a massive deck using screens to look like it is on the outside of the ship) are located. This still-armoured section hosts plenty of sweet additions like a spa, a full VR training simulation room and a simple fabricator able to generate repair parts and craft simple vehicles while on the go. Die Unaufhaltbare is assembled in a stage, where each section (the outer armour layers made in frigate yards and the two central cruiser-sized parts made in cruiser yards) is melded together outside of the construction yards. The pieces of the ship are brought together to have their inner metal skeletons meld together via vacuum cold welding. Making the different ship parts seamlessly interconnect with one another to become one larger whole. (after the skeletons are fused, technicians link all subsystems and power grids together as well. This would take a while)----------------------------------------Wew. sorry if I haven't posted before. I mostly lurk this quest, but I wanted to throw in my two cents for a grand idea able to make Starwind proud.I would say he can pay us for what the materials cost by something like 1.10x what we get them from the Raihans. Aka a 10% income on the job for us. Since he is a good returning customer and since we're using A LOT of materials for this job. I would also ask him to pay after each section we've made is done, such that the large payment is done incrementally. Since otherwise we might not have the materials for everything this design would need.
>>6143040fuck, forgot something.Forgot to add that we'd also be using Advanced hyperdrive technology to even allow the hyperdrive to function for such a massive ship.
>>6143040Is this design even feasible for us to do?
>>6143042That design seems really expensive, not gonna lie. Its not that I'm against it but I'd like some confirmation from QM that this isn't completely insane and unrealistic.
>>6142963The upscaled Thunderbird with a hanger and a luxury suite sounds straight forward. For a special feature, give him a 'scorpion tail' engine that can flip around so he can drive towards his target or away from it depending on circumstances. Add a bunch of mini-thrusters and a Mind Interface unit so that a pilot can 'dodge' incoming fire. He doesn't need point defense weapons, the girls can handle that role. I codename it the 'Scorpio' class, ship name Van Hilda. Research this guy's star sign first, to make sure that it is compatible with the name. If he's not astrologically compatible with Scorpios, call it a Mongoose class instead because it's so dodgy. Or the Valkyrie because it takes you to Valhalla. Let Chadbot figure out the best name, that seems like something he'd be good at. I imagine most people would rather turn the ship than mechanically realign the engine and all the associate maintenance with a superfluous part, but I'm guessing that this guy goes through ships faster than shoes and that he lets the girls handle things like maintenance concerns.If he really wants to spend money we can take some exotic materials and put it into a drop pod to build a mini-reactor rigged to self-destruct on command once armed. Give this man a very overpriced EM-bomb. If he likes this concept, we can do multiple of them and have him use them as the mini-engines for dodging. Just so that he doesn't have these wildly overpriced bombs just sitting in a cargo hold doing nothing most of the time. -Advanced Alloys-Advanced Hyperdrives-Raihan Neural Link? Basic Neural Link if the Raihan isn't appropriate. (needs research)-Refined Fusion Power-Advanced Alloys?-Advanced Kinetic Weapons (or do that cool directed energy weapon design that the other anon suggested. Ancillary EM reactors would help with that too, and allow our Hero to make Protag choices about whether to direct power to weapons or engines). -Human Ergonomics -Basic Shields? Do you even want shields when you are so dodgey? A non-hero would say yes. For Starwind it might just be another button to push. Shields optional. Silly overpriced idea ship go... It's no Falcon, but Starwind's no smuggler.
Are hot springs/spa a special feature or comfortable quarters
>>6142963Extra living space for his harem?
>>6142963What if we added hot-tubs
>>6142963Give him an upscaled Thunderbird. Give it like a two to four berth fighter bay, something small. We have ergo tech so the comfy quarters shouldn't be a problem at all. Slap all our high tech stuff into it, Advanced alloys, electronics, hyper conductors, refined fusion power, advanced sensors, intermediate fabs is a MUST for the fighter bay and the shells. He's probably gonna want at least one of those mining drones so that he can actually reload in the fieldThe one thing I want to develop special for this ship is a laser gatling gun shell. The one problem with this ship is it has no range, I'd like to design a shell with a hypercapacitor and a laser diode with no cooling, which creates a disposable laser bullet. He can load this if he needs to shoot something from far away with the main gun, he'll probably consider it to be a special feature, and I'd be willing to bet that no one has this capability. Plus, it actually... makes the stupid fuck off cannon useful.
>>6143036I like the idea, but I refuse to make the Bismarck II a battlecruiser, though refined fusion power and advanced alloys should definitely be incorporated into the design of the Bismarck II, I want to aim for similar maneuverability and speed as the average capital, no lower or higher if it needs to keep small and speedy ships away that's what the fighters and repulsion beam is for
>>6143040I'll tell you now that the ship is restricted to being capital sized, so it has to fit in the drydock, multi-part assembly to try and get into super-cap territory is not allowed at this time.
Okay so...what are we going with, then? Battlecruiser with a big-ass weapon and a hangar seems pretty good to me.
idk, whatever sounds coolest to Galatan
>>6142963if our frigate berths are just sitting there let's manufacture 2 or 4 herons for sis, they're cheap at 2.4m scrip each, lets us burn our scrip (I don't want our cash to be held in saurian coins, either raihan or solarian) and get access to her ores fastereven if we don't gift/loan her them, they're handy just to have on hand in case someone wants to buy system defense frigates and I don't want our bays to be left idle if no frigate orders come in.
>>6143344>they're cheap at 2.4m scrip eachIt's actually 6.4 Mil if you're going to send them to sis since they'll need EM for the FTL drives.
>>6143347aw fuck, mannew ship design, literally just a tube with a capclass EM drive, a hab, and parasite docking clamps all over the sides so we can ship frigates places without having to pay for more drivescan we make this?
>>6143327I guess that's what it depends on. QM, can we show our current ideas to Galatan and let him pick which one he prefers? I mean, if we go by last thread, he's gonna keep asking for changes and stuff eveyrwhere, right? So we should probably run the ideas by him. Especially since we're just trying to spend time so our current raihan project finishes.>>6143344Lets think of finishing our big job first, ok?
>>6142963The 'Hero' moment isn't firing the main gun, it's that brief moment just before you fire the main gun when it is unveiling for firing and you're staring down the barrel towards the dread enemy with a nexus of building destructive energies and making that heroic quip or cocky remark just in the moment before it fires. So there should be some sort of protective system to shield the barrel of the 'huge beam cannon' from enemy attack that slides aside to reveal the weapon just before it fires on full power?
QM could you post your art copy pastes you use so that we can try making ships ourselves?>>6143350we have spare cash, can't we afford (for now) to keep our bays running at full capacity? unless I've just really underestimated how much cash we have
>>6143357>we have spare cash, can't we afford (for now) to keep our bays running at full capacity?Okay, and what happens when something bad occurs and we no longer have spare cash? Like we just were not long ago? We're a big company, we need a lot fo cash for emergencies.What we *could* do, however, is reinvest the cash into improving the company so we can work even better. You know, hiring more important staff, improving our yards to allow for faster work, etc. We need to improve our company up to a point where we pretty much have a constant cashflow.
>>6143350>can we show our current ideas to Galatan and let him pick which one he prefers?You can assume all your ideas will be run by Galatan in some form or other. (Stuff that is not allowed will be auto-vetoed.)>>6143348You could, yes.The simplest way is to just make a docking clamp module for the Janus and you could deliver up to two Frigates a pop.A more expensive (but more cost effective in the long run) way would be to make something with an advanced hyperdrive that could potentially wake jump both frigates and strike craft to a client.I'll tell you now an advanced hyper drive needs 2kT of exotic matter.>>6143344>if our frigate berths are just sitting there...>>6143350>Lets think of finishing our big job first, ok?If it would be feasible to build frigates or strike craft while handling the capital ship order I will ask to roll for walk in orders.>>6143357>QM could you post your art copy pastes you use so that we can try making ships ourselves?Not sure what you mean by this. If you want I can post my "workshop" for you as an svg file, but you'll need a vector graphics program like InkScape to be able to use it. I guess I could post it as a .png as well but you'll have to painstakingly cut out everything if you want to kitbash.
Shortly after meeting with Starwind you were called to have another meeting with his Chief Engineer; a certain Sally Pulsar.“So you’ve talked with Starwind right?”“I have…”“And what did he ask for?”“His instructions were infuriatingly vague, though there were a lot of them. We’ll probably end up creating some over-engineered monstrosity trying to build something he likes.”Sally sighed.“Thought so. Gal’s a sweet guy but he’s got this childish obsession with big things; big ships, big guns… big boobs,” she muttered self consciously crossing her arms over her meagre chest.“I imagine such problems are no obstacle for a woman of your intellect.”“Ehh… not really, but let me tell you: Maintaining the Großschwert was a pain in the ass. It was bad enough that it was this old pork-barrel project for a dead empire, but combine that with these weird bolted on xeno-tech drives and that jury rigged Raihan particle cannon you gave him; I was constantly replacing power conduits.”You nodded sympathetically and thanked the Empress that Jack, for all his eccentricities, was not as bad as Starwind.“So what are you suggesting?”“I think it’s time my Hero learned to appreciate something more compact and efficient,” said Sally, as she tossed her hair, subconsciously emphasising her petite frame.“You said it yourself; the man's tastes are incredibly… crude.”“Starwind will be amenable to a light cruiser as long as it can launch strikecraft and has a suitably impressive special feature. If you pull that one off, you can scrimp on everything else: point defence, secondary weapons… just make sure she has a durable skeleton; I’ll be living in it after all.”You were sympathetic to Sally’s plight, but there was still one outstanding issue.“Miss Pulsar, I understand your concerns, but at the end of the day Starwind is the client and it is in my interest to sell him the biggest, most expensive hull my engineers can build.”“Well, if you manage to sell him on a smaller ship; I’ll give you some very useful tech…”>If you can come up with a design that pleases BOTH Sally and Starwind, you will gain the Inertial Dampeners tech on top of your regular payment.
>>6143386Forgot to add the tech description:>Inertial Dampeners: Allows rapid change in a ship’s velocity without straining the crew or internal components. A real game changer for enhancing ship agility and a stepping stone to creating elite hyper manoeuvrable strike craft.
>>6143386Hmm, I wonder, what's worth more? A big ass layout from a capital ship? Or inertial dampeners? If it was a heavy cruiser it might not be too much, but a light cruiser? That's a lot of lost potential profit...OP, since it's still smaller than the original order of a capital, would a heavy cruiser be suficient for that? I was thinking we could basically rip-off LOGH and, rather than have a singular gigantic particle cannon, we'd have a bunch of smaller particle beam turrets that would amount to roughly the same damage when fired together while actually giving the ability to fire on multiple targets.
>>6143400Ship classifications have always been kinda nebulous, both IRL and in fiction, but pic related will give you an idea of the size difference between Starwinds and Sally's ideals.BTW Inertial Dampeners will cost 140 RP to research on your own and Chad will only be rolling 4 d10s at a time since it's a new tech branch for him.You also don't necessarily need to make a huge ship to make it pricey. These mechanics have been sorta hidden but in general:Putting more advanced tech in a ship generally increases the ratio of rare matter used in it's construction. Some particularly special tech besides the FTL drives will even use exotic matter.Ships are nominally sold at a 20% mark up. Aside from situational modifiers, things like special features from more advanced techs can push the base mark up higher. I decide the mark up bonus on a case by case basis but generally a high end ship using more advanced technologies will be sold at a higher markup than a low tech ship of equal displacement.
Just toss in the 'Star Bomb' EM reactor as a launchable, detonatable secondary power source. >Light Cruiser Base>Phallic Shape. Large Reinforced Ramming Head. Double Thruster in the back. Put the 'Star Bomb' in the Head. Design the head to be detachable and barbed so it can be left embedded in an enemy super-capital. Until it's time to ram, tie the supplemental reactor into the Energy Weapons system and do the combo-beam thing. It can even be uses as a boring laser on ram if needed. >Luxury Quarters in the Shaft>Primary Shield Generator in the head. Supplementary in the tail. If Starwind loses the head he won't be doing much shooting, just bailing with the girls. Some sort of wasp name would be good. I'm thinking pick Starwind's favorite color and call it the Color-Jacket, even though it's more Bee like than Wasp like. >Incorporate Sally's technology to help it be maneuverable. We make money by selling an overpriced EM, Starwind gets a big ego boosting ship with a Monster killing surprise. Sally gets an up-armored survivable core.
>>6143420Hanger would be at the back end of the shaft.
>>6143409True, but I'm not sure we can fit a proper set of heavy duty particle beams on a light cruiser while also adding docks. Here's my design for you to judge.My idea is, rather than having a single particle cannon like his old ship, this one would have...a lot of them! By creating a ship with a conical shape, we can place a bunch of particle turrets on gimbal mounts divided across the surface going from the back to the front in such a way that they could not only fire at different targets, but also all fire at the same target all at once, giving the best of both worlds. Then you can just slap a hangar bay anywhere it fits out of the way of the turrets - after all, there's no up or down in space.I believe several particle beans firing at once at a single pretty much creating a lightshow would count as a pretty good impressive feature, no?
>>6143420Anon, Sally wants something good for surviving. A ship that encourages ramming is definitely not that. Plus, I don't think a light cruiser would have space for such a bomb, no?I think my idea of a conical beam ship would be able to fit both their requests, and we can still cram in a bunch of fancy shit like luxury quarters, oversized engines and fusion generators, shield generators...I believe it would be able to please both of them at the same time, which is what matters, no?
Picture
The ship is cylindrical in the body, spherical at the head. The operators mostly stay in the living area, then can quick-deploy to the outer shell launch bays. They can deploy from the launch bays while shielded from frontal fire by the head. If the head detaches, there will still be armor and shielding around the living area and the primary engines will remain.I'm assuming that Starwind is gonna Starwind, and we can't stop him from ramming maneuvers. At least in this case he gets to keep half the ship and cruise off afterwards.
>>6143441That's fine and all anon but your design is really bad for firing arcs. He'll barely have any weapons, and Starwind likes weapons.
It's a pretty good firing arc. Could even sneak another pair of lines in for rear fire if needed. There is a blind spot right behind the ship, and two more at the heavily armored 'hooks', but overall it's not bad.
The orange represents the blind spot cone. I mean, we could put in some rear facing laser to eliminate the arc and tie them to the rear thrusters, but I think that it messes with the aesthetics. What this ship is not is a giant gun capable of beaming capital ships to death. It does OK at point defense, but if you need to take out a giant, you're using the (very expensive) bomb and losing your primary firepower. So it's ok against fighter swarms or turrets, ok at dodging a death star laser, capable of killing a single ship larger than it is, but not good against similar sized ships. Lots of punch, but not a lot of stamina. It's really designed as a giant slayer. Personally, I think that Starwind will approved, and Sally will accept the secret survivable shell. Starwind will buy in for the full package, but he'll learn to accept the sleeker svelte design after he deploys his package. Besides, we've got small breasts. I think that we can convince Sally that we're on her side here.
>>6143452You're still talking about strapping a bomb to the front of the ship ram. You're literally making a kamikaze ship. Not to mention that it still needs enough firepower to do your usual hero stuff like fight your way out or into a planetary blockade.
Here's one with some rearfire lasers and a short spinal rear, but I don't think that the rear lasers are needed. The forward facing weapons in particular are useless until the head has been deployed. I guess that they'd let you dogfight a bit on the way home, but I'd rather use that rear area for storage or more engine.
>>6143453Yes. The ramming bomb is the core theme of this ship. It's the special feature that other people don't use because it's expensive and crazy. Starwind already spent his last ship doing this though, so I think that he'll approve. It's his style. For getting through the blockade my answer is 'go fast'. The prow is also putting a lot of armor between you and frontal fire. Not so great for side fire, you're relying on the shield for that. But go fast and hard and bounce out of there. This is a blockade runner, not a blockade fighter.
>>6143459You're missing the point that Sally is trying to get us to make something SURVIVABLE. A kamikaze ship is not survivable. Even if there's a "safe area" it's pretty much telling Starwind to go and crash it, which is the opposite of what she wants.
>>6143424>I'm not sure we can fit a proper set of heavy duty particle beams on a light cruiserWith the combination of technologies you have right now; you actually could do that and still have room for a launch bay.>>6143459>you're relying on the shield for that.You don't have any shield tech. It's not even in the queue.
I thought that we had basic shields, but I guess not. Armor it is then. You're not supposed to detonate the head while you're still attached to it. You're supposed to ram the big ship, have the head tear off, then fly away in luxury while the head detonates behind you. You don't need a rear viewport because cool guys don't look at explosions.
>>6143463Oh nice, in that case, let's go for that. Also completely fill the hull with stuff like fancy rooms and a big power generator. Since the ship is conical we can strap really big engines. I'd draw it if I could but I'm mobilefagging.>>6143466That sounds like an really big risk, the literal opposite of what Sally wants.
Uparmored version, without the shield. Moved the hanger back away from the living quarters to provide more armor around the suite.
>>6143468You're still strapping a bomb to a ram ship right next to the living quarters, but it's pretty clear you're stuck with your idea at this point so I won't bother arguing anymore. Let's just see what Sally and Starwind think.
Sally wants a durable skeleton. The bones of the ship are solid. If Starwind's going to ram anyway, but as well design a ship that is still well armored and survivable even after the ramming. Relying on Starwind acting sanely and not taking incredible risks is naive. Better to make a ship that survives his wild antics.
How about this -- Light Cruiser primary hull with crew quarters, hangar and basic weapons, with the superweapon beam as a separate module. The bonus is that we can upsell him on improved modules later on.https://www.starfleet-museum.org/paris.htmOr would Sally be okay with a Heavy Cruiser?
PS -- Stealth Composites would actually be a practical idea for a Light Cruiser, particularly if there are no external payload modules like I mentioned above.Re: ramming bow, that should be an *optional* module. Preferably a paper option to get Starwind to buy the base vessel.
>>6143386So, for a light cruiser I’d still like to take inspiration from old Earth naval designs too, so I’ll just downsize my first design suggestion, instead of 3+ 3 gun turrets of heavy particle beams we’ll have 2 turrets of two longer range (will need advanced electronics for targeting)and slightly smaller guns if need be on either end of the ship with the repulser in the middle to bat away enemy ships and maintain range advantage, instead of the PD laser array we’ll use advanced kinetics to emulate flak guns of old. Finally to save on space for a hanger bay we’ll put in hyperconductors, a refined fusion power plant and advanced alloys geared toward lightweight and volume saving armor without compromising on protection. The name of the ship will be the Space ‘Pocket battleship’ Graf Spee II and we can tell Starwind an over-dramatized version of the original’s service life and scuttling to really sell him on it
>>6143552Though if I’m being honest, I don’t think we should go with pleasing Sally and making a light cruiser and instead just make the largest, coolest and most expensive capital possible for Galatan. Think of it this way, Galatan is an infamous mercenary captain due to his exploits, most recently sacrificing his ship to destroy some doomsday weapon. If Galatan came back onto the scene with another huge capital ship(though less impressive than the last one) the moment the public finds out we were the ones who built the famous Captain Starwind a new impressive looking capital ship to rival any other, it’ll give us far more public attention and free advertising than making him a light cruiser would. We have another chance at a project for a capital that puts us on the map like the first ship we made for the Raihans would’ve, except we’ll actually be credited this time
Furthermore, if we make a bigger ship if we ever have to blackmail the Raihans or release the information on who really designed those fancy Ryu class cruisers and whatever name they come up with for the Janus we'll have an impressive capital ship that we made to point to along with any hard evidence we have scrounged up
>>6143552Actually, the original as-built configuration of HMS Furious is pretty interesting. It was originally designed as a "large light cruiser", having the displacement of early dreadnoughts and the armor protection of contemporary light cruisers. But it was completed with a flight deck over the forward portion of the ship, and the aft single 18-inch gun to rear in an era when battleships sported 11-15 inch guns. See the two pictures here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Furious_(47)#Design_and_descriptionSo there you have it: big superweapon, aviation facilities, and some armor. Throw in quarters fit for an admiral, and we fulfill the design requirements.And yes, I have thing for battlecruisers -- they have a certain dash and elan to them, Beatty was certainly more of a shonen anime protagonist than Jellicoe.
Ah screw it. Would a Thunderbird with a small but suitable hangar and luxurious accommodations fit in a light cruiser hull? And make it Stealthy too for whatevers. I think we are overthinking this.I admit I am tempted by the benis ship the more I think about it. The main objection I have is the gimmick can thought of the as the primary vice secondary hull given the relative proportions, when it should be thought of as secondary payload.
>>6143409Important question: does Starwind have a Raihan waifu? If he does, we can install Raihan neuralink. That's pretty special.As for the design, let's build a sized-up Thunderbird with a rotary multi-barrel particle cannon (eliminating the need for ammo, Thunderbird's main flaw). Give it stealth coating and the best general techs we have.
>>6143683I guess that's an if.Well, we're gonna run all the ideas by Starwind and Sally, right? So we just gotta go tell them the ideas we have. Ignoring the previous capital ones, then, that would be>Kamikaze dick-ship>Conical beam ship>Thunderbird++
>>61433861. Main part of the ship with smaller beam weapons at the front, turrets at the sides and launching bay at the back.2. The Big Fucking Gun part - Reasonably biggest beam cannon possible with it's own generator and propulsion system, as final option can be detached and sent like a javelin at the target
>>6143468>>6143692Having thought about it, I think the ship design ended up kind of looking like a Morning Star, so we could call it the Morning Star class and name the first ship Lucy
>>6143436>>6143452>>6143456>>6143468Why are jannies allowing so many of your dickpicks? Stormwind would probably approve of the general shape at least.
>>6142963Since I have no art skills or time, I shall DIRECTLY INVOKE CHAD!...I guess the 'special feature' in this case is that heavy 'foot' at the back that seems to be allowing this thing to somehow land.
Hm, does the "special feature" have to be something combat-related? What if we implement an in-ship hot spring for the crew to have fanservice episodes in? Or even a faux beach?
>>6143858>Hm, does the "special feature" have to be something combat-related?Not necessarily, but it does have to be something that could feature in some climactic scene. So far you guys are pitching weapon systems, but equally valid would be something like say... the ability to fly through a star, time travel, teleportation, cloaking etc...
>>6143860A hot spring scene could feature a lot of climaxing, you know
>>6143860Yeeeeah, well I don't think we have any stuff that would easily fit that. We have Advanced particle weapons though, so we can add that and charge him through his nose.Anyway, can we just pitch him the ideas we have already?
>>6143860Could we do a 'separation' ship; with the main hull being a light cruiser to Sally's specifications; and the 'special feature' being an attachable 'uppowering/upgunning' secondary hull section that upcharges the engines and carries the really heavy weaponry and defences, for Starwind to dock his main ship to and call upon the powers of friendship and heavy ordinance when the everyday ship isn't quite enough on its own to take down what Starwind needs to beat?
>>6143868You don't seem to understand what Sally wants. Think back to the conversation: What did Sally hate about Starwind's old ship?>>6143867It'll be a few more hours before I can work on the update, I've more or less got an idea of the main designs you guys are going for and will distill them into a handful of concepts that I will describe being pitched to Starwind.
Alright, working on the update now. Suggestion box is closed.
After a few days you and Jack pitch the potential designs you came up with to Starwind. Sally was with him to weigh in on the designs given that she’d be the one taking care of it.Well, Jack had done most of the designing given that you didn’t care to interact with the AI. For the most part you were content to handle the more business side of things while Jack steered R&D. This time, you had reservations though.“Eyyy Starwind! So we got some cool stuff to show you today. First up is something I like to call: Project Killer Bee.”The AR display lit up to show a very phallic looking ship with an oversized armoured prow. “So this ship has three compact fusion reactors, one for each drive and a third dedicated to the main weapons array upfront. As an added bonus, you can detach the prow and overload the reactor turning it into a giant one time super missile!”“Why would I want to do that?”“Well… uh, I was inspired by how you sacrificed your old ship to take out that super weapon. With this design you can pull the same manoeuvre without losing the entire ship.”“My dude, I don’t actually like crashing my ship into stuff. What I did with the Großschwert was a desperate measure. You can only pull that shit once every three seasons before it gets old. I know it makes for a cool story, but I don’t actually want to be crashing my ship into stuff and I sure as hell don’t want to have to replace the entire prow every time I do it!”“Oh…uh well how about this.”The image changed to something resembling an anachronistic sea going vessel from Old Earth’s early industrial era.“A classic space battle cruiser; four double heavy particle beam turrets, a ventral launch bay aaaaand: an advanced hyperdrive allowing you to wake jump smaller vessels. I call it Project Biz-Marc.”Starwind was nodding his head.“The aesthetic is a little old school but I can dig it. Let’s go with-”“Ehhh Gal,” said Sally. “That ship is pretty cool and all but you think we could go for something smaller?”“But beeg guns…”“Have gotten us into just as much trouble as they’ve gotten us out of. Aren’t you tired of getting pulled over by system militia everytime we go somewhere new, plus you know Mitzy has a tendency to get lost in spaces that are too big.”>cont
>>6144041Jack was quick to jump in.“Well I do have this other design, but it’s a bit more avant garde.”The display switched to a much smaller ship with a conical prow.“This one is Project Rave: the prow has an array of independently tracking ion lances capable of engaging multiple targets at the same time.”The image showed the ship rapidly dispatching a swarm of strike craft.“But here’s the kicker, it also has an experimental particle projector capable of combining the output of each lance into a single focused beam.”The ship’s prow opened up and the ion lances turned inward on separate gimbals. As one they fired together, beams converging to form a massive torrent of light capable of blasting a cruiser in half.“Thanks to our proprietary compact reactors and hyper conduits you’ve got everything from a point defence array to a heavy spinal cannon on a light cruiser hull. Without the need for secondary and tertiary weapons, we’ve got plenty of space for a launch bay and expanded crew quarters. Did I also mention this thing is fast?”“Gal it’s perfect! Please pick this one, pleeeease.”Sally was likely deliberately acting immature to get Starwind to cave. She didn’t need to try so hard. Jack had delivered his pitch well and you could see Starwind had already made up his mind.“Well… maybe it’s time to try an agility build; I’ll take it.”“Awesome! And how will you be paying?”There was an uncomfortable silence.“Ah heh, heh… about that. I don’t really have much in the way of liquid assets right now.”The expressions on both Jacks and your faces were growing increasingly unfriendly.“But I swear I can pay you! Sort of… I just need time to call in a few favours. I have a few friends who owe me, I’m sure they’ll come through.”>Tell this guy to piss off and to not come back until he has enough money to pay in full. (Your Quote is 34 Mil SoC. Starwind may or may not get back to you.)>Let him pay his way. (If chosen you will roll 3d4 to generate a series of random rewards. If you roll triples or a straight you’ll get something extra special.)Regardless of whether Starwind follows through, Sally has agreed to trade you the Inertial Dampener tech in exchange for a copy of the ships schematics.>Accept>Reject
Rolled 4, 1, 4 = 9 (3d4)>AcceptIt's more entertaining if we accept and I'm sure Starwind will figure something out with his plot armor
>>6144043>AcceptLet's go gambling!
Rolled 2, 1, 1 = 4 (3d4)>>6144043>Let him pay his way. (If chosen you will roll 3d4 to generate a series of random rewards. If you roll triples or a straight you’ll get something extra special.)Starwind will pay us back, even if he has to devote a few episodes to getting the cash together for us.>AcceptInertial Dampeners will be generally useful.
>>6144043>Let him pay his way>AcceptBut can we get Sally to sign an NDA? I do not want our IP to leak to other shipyards.
Rolled 1, 3, 2 = 6 (3d4)>>6144043>Let him pay his way>AcceptAre we even supposed to roll? How many people can roll at a time for us to check the reward? Is it a best of x scenario, or just however many people bother to roll?
>>6144126>literally get a straight, but not in order>mfw>mfw no faceDoes a straight still count if it's not in order? It's still a 1,2,3...
>>6144043>Tell this guy to piss off and to not come back until he has enough money to pay in full. (Your Quote is 34 Mil SoC. Starwind may or may not get back to you.)>Accept
>>6144043>Let him pay his way. (If chosen you will roll 3d4 to generate a series of random rewards. If you roll triples or a straight you’ll get something extra special.)>Accept
Rolled 1, 3, 2 = 6 (3d4)>>6144043>>Let him pay his way>>Accept
>>6144043>>Tell this guy to piss off and to not come back until he has enough money to pay in full. (Your Quote is 34 Mil SoC. Starwind may or may not get back to you.)>RejectThere was no talk of ship schematics
>>6144226Wait, shit, you're right. She didn't say *anything* about that. She just said to come up with an design.>>6144043QM, wtf? Call her out on changing the deal.
>>6144043>Let him pay his way. (If chosen you will roll 3d4 to generate a series of random rewards. If you roll triples or a straight you’ll get something extra special.)He’s…probably good for it
>>6144126I'm changing this to >RejectBy the way, I don't know why people are saying accept but she literally never said we had to send her the schematics. All she said was that we had to sell him a smaller ship. Damn bitch trying to pull one over us.
Okay, I need to clarify a few things.Firstly, you roll one set of 3d4 if the the vote to let Starwind pay his way winsSecondly, Sally giving you the tech was predicated on the sale going through.You'll automatically get the tech if the vote to let Starwind pay his way wins, with no need to hand over the schematicsThe option to let Sally have the schematics in exchange for the tech only becomes relevant if you want to tell Starwind to piss off. (In which case you'll have to wait and there's a chance you'll lose the sale.)The point of accepting or rejecting Sally was me giving you an opportunity for you guys to claim the reward of meeting the secondary objective even if you reject Starwind. It's a moot point if you're voting for Let him pay his way.Sorry that wasn't made clear.
>>6144244Okay, that makes more sense. So we roll *after* the vote wins? And using the opportunity, how do you take rolls, just first come first served, or something like best of three?
>>6144244Which means THIS>>6144126roll has been wasted :(
>>6144043>Let him pay his way. (If chosen you will roll 3d4 to generate a series of random rewards. If you roll triples or a straight you’ll get something extra special.)Worst case scenario Starwind owes us a huge favor, I think the potential reward is worth it. Even if he comes up short on payment we still get exposure for building his new flagship. The gimmick is he's some over-the-top TV protagonist but can we exploit that in universe? Does he have merch? Do we get a royalty if he sells shit with our ship design on it? Can we get him to do a shoutout or put "(Ship Name) Built by Horned Princess Shipyards" in the credits anytime the ship is shown?
>>6144261>Let him pay his way
Pay His Way>6144088>6144105>6144126>6144184>6144225>6144229>6144261>6144408Piss Off>6144131>6144226Cutting Starwind some slack while you complained about big sis being stingy? I don't get you guys.Alright now roll me 3d4s.1-4 will grant random rewards (some better than others)Rolling triples or straights will get you the extra special reward. The straight need not be in order.You get one roll, none of this best of three stuff.
Rolled 4, 3, 4 = 11 (3d4)>>6144476I feel like having a best of three is pretty reasonable when you're rolling for straights or triples
>>6144477>1 off from being a triple 4 or a 234 straightPain
>>6144477Locking in this result.>a best of three is pretty reasonable when you're rolling for straights or triplesPerhaps if you're rolling for success or failure. Right now you're rolling for a reward, more reward and even MOAR reward.Personally I find people rarely fail when you allow a best of three, and as a result the player base is rarely punished for making risky choices.
Rolled 3, 3, 3 = 9 (3d4)>>6144476Starwind is just that guy, was big sis the who sacrificed her super ship to blow the doom moon? I don't think so
>>6144479I roll a triple just as you say this, I'm cursed
>>6144480What-a-shame...
>>6144479>Personally I find people rarely fail when you allow a best of three, and as a result the player base is rarely punished for making risky choicesGoing the other way around and making it so it's literally never worth it to take a risk because the chance you're not fucked over is like 1/100 is hardly better.>>6144480Damn, too late.
You pull Jack aside for a moment.“I am starting to regret entertaining this man, we should refuse him until such time as he can pay our price in full.”“Were it anyone else I’d agree, but this is the Galatan Starwind we’re talking about.”“A reputation alone cannot pay the bills.”“I’m pretty sure that whatever favour he calls in will give us something good.”“I don’t think it’s a risk worth taking.”“Come on, have I ever steered you wrong?”“You drove your company into the ground, which is why I never let you steer in the first place.”“Hey, we all make mistakes, but I’m pretty sure this won’t be one of them.”You sigh in exasperation. These men were buffoons yet they had a strange charisma about them, probably why they hadn’t gotten themselves killed… yet.“Fine.”—--------In spite of your reservations you allow construction to go ahead on Starwinds ship. As construction dragged on, you manage to secure an extra order of VCS-01 drones to go with the Raihan Janus order.>3.75 Zelas spent to purchase 5kT CM and 10kT RM>10x VCS-01 Drones sold to Raihan Empire for 5 Mil ZelasFinally the day came when Starwind was due to pick up his ship. As payment he brings a small shipment of kinetic turrets and the contact details of someone called… Blob the builder?>12 Mil Zelas spent to purchase 20kT CM and 30kT RM>8 Mil Scrip spent to purchase 1kT EM>Project Rave Completed>Current finances: 0.26 Mil Solar Credits, 2.28 Mil Saurain Scrip, 25.75 Mil Raihan Zelas>Gained Advanced Kinetics tech.>Turret defence grid upgraded to level 2.>Free production upgrade gained.>Choose a production upgrade:>2 Additional Strike Craft Factories>2 Additional Frigate berths>Repair the second capital drydock.3TPs have passed, roll me 12d10s for research
>>6144532>Repair the second capital drydock.LETSGOOOOOOO! Back in the saddle boys.>Start pumping januses>Offer Glassner to come back.>Start looking for more crews.Regardless if we take the capital or frigate berths we will need more crews.
Rolled 1, 9, 9, 3, 3, 6, 2, 10, 9, 1, 6, 1 = 60 (12d10)>Repair the second capital drydock.
By the way, how much would repairing the drydock ourselves have cost us?
>>6144536>Start pumping janusesPic Rel>>6144542¯\_(ツ)_/¯I'll put a price tag on it if I ever give you the chance to just buy upgrades.
At 60 research and about 60 research a turn, about 1 turns worth of research, correct? So a couple million solar credits worth of research cycles. >>6144532>Capital Drydock
>>6144556>At 60 research and about 60 research a turnNot sure what you're on a bout.Given that ChadGPT gets 6-4d10s worth of research dice he outputs between 33 and 22 RP per time period on average. (Based on probability distribution from anydice.com)--------------------You receive a message from your sister: between the free ships you had sent her and Kryskas expertise, the Shima colony had now been stabilised. The colony wasn’t exactly prospering yet but it was finally producing a surplus that could earn the house some much needed money. Shirin provided you with a special interface where you would be offered exclusive deals… what was with this presentation though?Still the opportunities were welcome, maybe if you helped your sister more better deals might become available to you.>Access to Shimada store now available.
Just out of curiosity, what's the exchange rate between the different currencies in case we're short on a specific one?
>>6144476Big sis demanded we help while Starwind was going to try and make us whole. Also RNG is tempting. >>6144532>2 Additional Frigate berthsSafer option >>6144568Jack needs some humiliation We should definitely spend the 8 million Zelas for two work crews
>>6144532>repair second capship drydock>design wake jump/parasite Janus moduleI want to sell cheap frigates >design a janus colony ship module????what is even good for a colony establishment ship? janus with two different modules, one's just a fuck off yuge reactor you can dump on a planet for a new city center, the other's, what, just an absolute metric ton of prefabs or farms or dome componentsspace elevator builder? what's good in this, don't know a whole lot about colony building>what to buywe're probably going to have to buy the raihan exotic material bundle from sister as all of our cash is in raiadollar and exchange rates (assuming mats is the only way to exchange) looks like poopoonot opposed to like, buying a work crew, but we're kinda gettin low in cash
>>6144568The Whale pack it is! You can get matter and work crews elsewhere, but where else can you get Lady Shirin herself to step on Jack Horner?
>>6144532>Gained Advanced Kinetics tech.I hope Inertial Dampener as well?>2 Additional Frigate berths
>>6144532>2 Additional Strike Craft FactoriesWith Inertial Dampeners, Stealth and in the future, mini Eigen Drives, we can build some really great starfighters.
>>6144650We may, anon, but who's gonna buy just starfighters? All the big money is in *warships*, repairing our capital yard would allow us to double the BIG MONEY. At least Frigates might be able to pay itself off if we develop an Workhorse Frigate and get it ultra popular.
>>6144532>Repair the second capital drydock.>>6144568>maybe if you helped your sister more better deals might become available to you.What if we "helped" our bro too?
>>6144675Of course people aren't attracted to buying the strikecraft equivalent of a mig-15 but they will buy a f-16, and I get the feeling customers are more likely to license production of a strikecraft design than they would a cruiser, but I doubt we need more strike-craft production right now
>>6144532I almost forgot to vote>Repair the second capital drydock.Seems like it'd be way more expensive than two factories. No?
>>6144532>>2 Additional Strike Craft Factories
You know what we should do next? With our new kinetics and inertia dampeners, we should make some sort of fancy workhorse frigate to send to that show. Something so impressive that star systems will start ordering them in bulk, or even asking for production licenses.Which reminds me, we *really* need to get some encryption to prevent people from stealing our shit
Yeah, we should improve some old designs too, like putting a new gun with a far smaller caliber but higher projectile velocity in the thunderbird, to reduce the space needed to store ammo as for the Excelisis we can just cram in inertial dampeners
>>6144839Oh shite, you have a point! We just got Advanced Kinetics. If we used it to make a gun of at *least* similar power while decreasing ammo space, the Thunderbird would be a literal Space A-10. If we ever get Neural Links, we can make an MK-II version, too.In fact, the ship description says piloting the ship is a huge problem too - but with Inertia Dampeners and a hull that isnt 80% ammo storage, it should be way easier! We could get a genuine elite ship right here. That should be our next project, no two ways about it - replace the kinetics with Advanced Kinetics, use the now free space to make the ship into less of a deathtrap, slap inertia dampeners, and generally update all tech we've improved on since then. I call it...Project Warbird.We can make it, and sell it to Galactic Gear. Just remember to add DRM first. We do have DRM tech, right? If not, get ChadGPT on the case ASAP. I think this could be out big breakout product.
>>6144568Neato. Family helps family etc
>>6144568How much would a blorg pay for that kind of service? We may even get to break even on the space whale package
>>6144622>but where else can you get Lady Shirin herself to step on Jack Horner?Don't underestimate Jack, anon, he may be in a slump, but you leave him in an room alone with Shirin, i'll bet you he could get her to step on him for free.>>6144851And speaking of entirely unrelated matters, QM, do gunships like the thunderbird require frigates or strike craft factories? I'll definitely switch to them if it's the the latter...
>>6144891The gunship is a frigate design, it's made in a frigate berth
>>6144909In that case...>>6144532Changing >>6144809to>2 Additional Frigate berthsWith the goal of being able to produce a lot of these "Warbirds" should we make them. I see a lot of potential - if the rudimentary Thunderbird alone could shred through frigates, imagine what an squadron of the improved versions would be able to do.
>>6144568We've been doing 1 turn per 3 months and rolling 12 dice. 12x3.5=42. So at 4 dice a turn block, 4x3.5=14. 60/14 = 4.286. So about 4.25 time units of research +/-. We've been rolling about 60 on 12 dice though. >Get Labor Transfer and House Stipend. Subscribe to the local newspapers and have Chad let us know what our sister seems to need. I'm ok with helping Bro out too, if he wants to buy ships.
>>6144920Why would we need more work crews? Don't we already have like 5?
>>6144921To replace the blorg ones
>>6144929Fair enough; though i'd hold off until we got a job lined up, we pretty much ran out of every currency other than the RZ and might need it to buy stuff for the next project.
>>6144920>>6144921>>6144568True. I retract my request to hire the work crews at this time. We need the liquid capital to build the ships first. Just pay for the materials and that newspaper subscription.
>>6144581I don't know how currency exchange rates are calculated IRL. Right now if an exchange is needed I do it via buying and selling matter.>>6144623>I hope Inertial Dampener as well?Yeah you got it, forgot to write it down.>>6144675To really make money on starfighters you need to sell them in bulk, they are also easier to sell as impulse buys. (You aren't getting much of those because your selection currently sucks.)Attempting to sell strikecraft with capital ships as a combo deal is a good idea which has worked out for you occasionally, but once again: you need to design better strike craft.>>6144891>do gunships like the thunderbird require frigates or strike craft factories?As said by other anons the current Thunderbird is a Frigate class vessel. You can design corvette sized vessels which are build-able in factories. With the your current tech its possible to miniaturize the thunderbird as corvette design. (It will be less of a threat to capital ships but still make for a good anti-frigate vessel.)
>>6144951>(It will be less of a threat to capital ships but still make for a good anti-frigate vessel.)Well that's weird; the original thunderbird gunship didn't even have a kinetics tech. Wouldn't Advanced Kinetics be enough to open a good quantity of room without sacrificing power?
>>6144953In fact, and i forgot to add, not only do we have advanced kinetics, we also have the advanced alloys which are said to give our engineers more leeway.By all means, with our current tech, there's no reason why an updated Thunderbird should lose power; is there?
>>6144953>>6144956If you keep it frigate sized, then yeah it'll be a straight upgrade, but if you shrink it down there will be trade offs.Giant fuck off rotary cannons are impractical no matter how you slice it. Ammo storage will get you in the end and unless you're using some really exotic ammo, shrinking the bullet down and compensating with higher muzzle velocity will only get you so far.Now if you replaced it with larger bore slower firing cannon...
>>6144959Is there even any actual reason to shrink it down to a Corvette other than being able to produce it in a factory? It's not as though Corvettes have some sort of maneuverability bonus, maybe if It was a shrink from corvette to fighter size it might have made sense, but is there any reason to shrink from frigate to corvette other than not needing berths?I mean, I can't imagine a "Frigate fucker" corvette would be bad, but if there's no difference between that and just having an frigate that could hunt down battleships in packs beyond production speed I'd say the latter is definitely the best option we could choose right now.Fuck 900 second timers
>>6144964>Is there even any actual reason to shrink it down to a Corvette other than being able to produce it in a factory?Nope.
>>6144968In that case, I'll say we stick with the Frigate-sized Warbird. With all the new tech we have it should be ridiculously less dangerous than the original. We have no real research project after the construction of the Galatan ship, right? So let's do that next. Maybe if we find some sort of fancier weapon we'll make an corvette-sized thunderbird. Let's just remember to put DRM so it doesn't get copied. This could be a real moneymaker. Maybe we ought to hire Glassner again; he'd be a real good duo with ChadGPT: he makes the designs, Chad smooths them out.
>>6144969>Maybe we ought to hire Glassner again; he'd be a real good duo with ChadGPT: he makes the designs, Chad smooths them out.I agree with this 100%. We are a small independent shipyard, prease understand, so we need some based retard designs to stick out and claw our way to relevance.
Second Capital Drydock>6144536>6144556>6144618>6144681>6144809Frigate Berths>6144587>6144623>6144911Factories>6144650...was there ever any doubt?>Writing...
((I think most people can agree that taking the House Stipend is a good idea, but I’ll be holding back on buying the work crews. Time will not be advanced with this update so you won’t be losing the opportunity.))>Bought House Stipend for 10 Mil Zelas>Gain 1kT EMAfter Shirin contacted you, you received another message from the Empire stating that they found the Janus met their needs and wanted to licence the design. Jack might have hesitated, feeling sore about being used yet again by the Empress, but to you it was free money.>The Raihan Empire has signed a licensing deal with HPS for the Janus and accompanying squadrons of ZCS-01s. You will receive 5.5 Mil Zelas per ship built at no cost to yourself. 1d3 ships are produced every 3 time periods.As part of the payment for his new ship Starwind had called in a favour from an independent contractor to build new facilities at your shipyard. The contractor arrived in a large cylindrical ship with several industrial modules attached. The front of the cylinder opened and the ship started disgorging an enormous volume of gel into the surrounding space. Sitting on top of the gel was… a hard hat?You receive a comms message.“Greetings, we are a colony of symbiotic organisms, you may call us Blob. In gratitude for the actions of Galatan Starwind we shall perform a service for you on his behalf.”“Hi Blob,” said Jack, butting in on the channel. “So as you can see, there’s a partially deconstructed drydock on the other side of this station. Can you fix it?”“Yes we can.”You watch in amazement as “Blob” engulfed the mangled remains of the second drydock and started moving materials from its ship through its gelatinous mass to form new sections.—------------------While HPS’ fortunes were looking up, turbulent times were coming to the Raihan Empire. Everyone could see that war was inevitable. The NKH Pact were almost certainly funding privateers and the Lord Commander’s anti-piracy operation was a prelude to invasion. Your thoughts once again returned to your sister. Shima colony was on the border and would prove to be a strategic location. The Empire would prevail in the end, that was guaranteed, but if Shima colony became devastated by the war then House Shimada’s fate would be sealed.Then again… did it really matter to you? Now that HPS was taking off your fate was no longer tied to that of House Shimada. If you desired, you could make your fortune beyond the Empire. But if Shima weathered the storm, if you helped Shirin build it up stronger, then Shimada’s status as a Great House would be guaranteed. With Shimada ascendant you too would take your place as an exalted member of the Imperial Court.>The quest is moving towards the end game. Your next decisions will start contributing to a potential ending.
>>6145061You considered these possibilities as you planned your next moves. With EM prices still high, many clients were hesitant to buy FTL equipped ships and as a result it was hard to sell anything outside of Car’cass. At your behest R&D had designed a new utility vessel built around an advanced hyperspace core. With this vessel you could wake jump frigates without needing to mount FTL drives on them, opening up a market for monitor vessels.There had been much talk among the R&D staff over using recently acquired technologies to redesign the Excelsis and Thunderbird frigates. With the rough edges ironed out you could submit them to Galactic Gear and almost be guaranteed a positive review.On the other hand Shirin needed ships: 4 Milspec Herons to be precise. At least she was willing to pay full price this time. With war on the horizon Shima needed more light warships to cover the trade routes and respond to incursions. The looming war also presented you with an opportunity; you had a plan to win favour with the Throne. You would design and build a successor to the Ryu class command cruiser and then present it as a gift. At the same time you would insinuate that you knew all about the Empress' dealings with the former JHIS. They could take your gift and divert more resources to house Shimada, or you could give the ship to your sister instead and declare to the Empire that it had outsourced it’s best ship designs to common merchants and declare that House Shimada now possessed an even more powerful warship than the Empress herself.>How to use your capital drydock?>Build a Charon with Hanger Module to open up new sales opportunities.>Begin work on the Ryu Kai>Do nothing, conserve your resources.>How to use your Frigate Berths?>Redesign the Excelsis and Thunderbird and submit them to Galactic Gear (you will get the ships back after the show.)>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons.>Do nothing, conserve your resources.Buy workers from the Shimada Store?>Buy>Don’t buy
>>6145062>Build a Charon with Hanger Module to open up new sales opportunities.>Redesign the Excelsis and Thunderbird and submit them to Galactic Gear (you will get the ships back after the show.)>buyRealistically what has our family done for us? Our brother is an incestuous freak and is Shirin really all that much better? Regardless with the current state of things I doubt our liege can spare anything to bring us in line
>>6145075>Our brother is an incestuous freak and is Shirin really all that much better?I think Maiyumi ceded the moral high ground when she debased herself for personal gain. Honestly, in terms of character, Shirin is most upstanding of the three.Also:>Player base votes for a Raihan Noble as MC.>Only ever does business with their own house when commanded to by their sister or encouraged by Jack.>Constantly asks what their sister has ever done for them, but willing to take a chance on a retarded Isekai Protag who has before that point, also done nothing for them. (If you had rolled badly for that reward, you would have gotten something far below the value of that ship.)>General disdain for the Raihan Empire, despite most of your capital being Raihan Money and you being a fucking Raihan.>Even after your sister offers you some decent deals you still don't wanna do shit for the homies.I really don't get you guys.
>>6145062>Build a Charon with Hanger Module to open up new sales opportunities.>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons.
>>6145087hmm... I suppose you do have a point, probably lingering feelings of spite from the last quest, changing my vote for the frigate berths to >Fulfill your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons. Though I still think we should put our overall focus on being a fully independent entity
>>6145062>>6145062>Build a Charon with Hanger Module to open up new sales opportunities.more orders is always good>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons.Milspec Herons? With drive cores? You want four of them? Full price? Yes please. Cognis can we get a number on frigate bay expansion costs?
>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons.>Begin work on the Ryu Kai>Buy
>>6145062>Build a Charon with Hanger Module to open up new sales opportunities.>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons.>BuyAlso ask Big Sis to have her public relations staff write glorious puff pieces extolling our superawesome ships as adcopy. >>6145087Having a sole large customer spells trouble. Ask any small supplier for Wal-Mart.>>6145094Yes agreed. Younger children of aristocratic houses are supposed to find their fortune far from home.
>>6145062>Build a Charon with Hanger Module to open up new sales opportunities.>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec HeronA decent deal AND it gives Sister exactly what she needs.>BuyWe need them
>>6145062>>Build a Charon with Hanger Module to open up new sales opportunities.>>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons.>>Buy
>>6145062>Begin work on the Ryu Kai>Redesign the Excelsis and Thunderbird and submit them to Galactic Gear (you will get the ships back after the show.)>BuyI realize i have little chance of actually winning this since i wasn't the first to vote, but don't you think the Empire would benefit a *lot* more from a souped up thunderbird than from a few herons? We can give the Ryu Kai to our sister to help her anyway. Just think of what the Raihans could do if they had a gunship that could fight off frigates, cruisers and battleships?>>6145087>I think Maiyumi ceded the moral high ground when she debased herself for personal gain.It's not my fault some players were so utterly retarded they genuinely thought that choice wasn't going to lead to that.
>>6145062Why is there s hangar module i though we could wake jump? And most of our small craft is thread 1 generics that are produced anywhere.Also is there an option to build a Janus and have it work for us as resource generation at some remote asteroid belt?Is there an option to build a capital ship and lease it to Kryska as an investment? Allows her to get bolder contracts with more power in her mercenary group and pay us back a portion of the contracts.Can we build improved police cruisers and establish a merc company as a subsidiary of our shipyard? Build ships, we can maintain them here, just hire mercenary crews to fulfill orders with our gear. >Build a Charon>Fulfil your sister's order for 4 Milspec Herons.
Ah, damnit. I'm telling you guys, we're missing a gigantic opportunity. We could make a ship that could genuinely change the war just so we can send our sister a few generic convoy protection ships. If we want to help house shimada we should be doing the super thunderbird.
