Community Plays; Star Traders 4X

[johndramey]

***INCOMING TRANSMISSION | GENERAL FLEET BAND***
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DECRYPTION PROTOCOL ALPHA ALPHA CHARLIE 1 INITIATED
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AUTHENTICATING
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AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE
STAND BY

Hail fellow captains, I hope this message meets you all in fortuitous conditions. The Council, in all of its wisdom, has completed its deliberations and reached agreement on our next course of action. As many of you know already, Clan Javat was given first pick and has successfully landed established Javat Prime. Let us all hold it near to our heart and defend it with honor!

I shall now lay out the primary actions that have been dictated by the council.

Regarding colonization rights, there was broad consensus among The Council that Epsilon Ring be given over to House Thulun while Traggath should be the ultimate location of the Steel Song Hive. Hives, set course for your final homes as soon as safely possible. You and your crews have accomplished much but your task is just beginning. Set up, build your cities, prepare for the Xeno.

Templar Fleet, you are to set off on a shallow scouting expedition with all due haste. Forgo any refueling, we will prepare water haulers to meet you in friendly space upon your return. Take care to not tarry in unknown space. We do not want to attract attention, simply gather intelligence regarding our sector of the quadrant.

Javat Prime, you must prioritize the construction of habitation modules. Special funds have been released to subsidize your construction project. Complete it in short time.

We have this sector of the quadrant, captains. If we do not take hold of it who will? That is all, to your tasks.

-Speaker of the Council, Year 0.4

***TRANSMISSION ENDS***

[johndramey]

Recon, Recon, Recon

So you want to know about fleet life, huh? Tell you what, go sit in a room for hours on end every day and stare at a display keeping track of random numbers. Now, mix in some people doing the same thing as you, only looking at different numbers. Lastly, toss in an officer who comes around once in a while to yell at you for things that may or may not be in your control. That’s fleet life if you’re lucky. Otherwise it’s a lot of shrapnel and explosive decompression.
-Interview of ensign in the Javatian officer corps

Well, we all knew this would happen when we got broken off from the rest of the fleet; long patrol time. Why are we being sent out here to watch over a bunch of empty space?! Sign up for the explorer corps, they said. You’ll get to see all kinds of new stellar bodies, they said. I’ll tell you what the explorer corps is; pure boredom. The captain came in to tell us that she’d received a transmission from the council of clowns. We’ve been ordered out of friendly space even though we’ve been running around scouting. Who cares about our ships or our fuel, we’re only the Templar detachment after all!

Oh well, maybe we’ll get to chart some new planets. Hell, might even get a chance to make first contact with the xeno that have been chasing us. Now wouldn’t that be interesting? I know the edicts make it seem like they are evil but…. it’s been such a long time. Maybe they are simply trying to reestablish contact with us in order to reunite us with the rest of the human race? There are rumors that the xeno aren’t something to be feared, rather something to be understood.

Time to report for duty, we depart in 3 hours. Until next time, log.

Thalius Reshind, Templar Scout Ensign, 3rd Class.

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So you spoke, and I listened. My goals for this rounds were simple and straightforward; Colonize Epsilon Rind with the Hive from House Thulun, colonize Traggath with the Hive from Steel Song, build habitation modules on Javat Prime and send out a scouting force into the surrounding sector of space.

So what all happened? Well, I’ll try to break it down on a house by house basis and follow that up with a military report.

Summary of actions

Research on Planetary Construction 1 was complete.

Clan Javat: Javat Prime completed construction of its habitation modules and I queued a mine. [/font][/u]The mine is currently 53% complete, due to finish in 4 turns[/u].

Steel Song: Colonized Traggath, it has been renamed Steel Prima in honor of the house. Steel Prima immediately subsidized (and completed) habitation modules and is currently constructing a mine. The mine is 26% complete and will finish in 6 turns.

House Thulun: Established Thulun Prime on Epsilon Ring and subsidized habitation modules. After they completed, I queued a mine. The mine is 80% completed and will finish in 1 turn.

Military Report

The fleet was dispatched, each ship taking a different cardinal direction. The scout was sent to the East, one templar cruiser was sent to the South and the other was sent to the Southeast. The idea was to have the Eastern and Southern ships hook in to meet the ship sent on the Southeastern course, filling in a large chunk of space.

We discovered 4 new planets and 4 new anomalies, all were charted and marked on the map which was submitted to the council and attached to this report.

Start of deployment:

Recall of the fleet:

Current status of the Empire

Javat Prime has increased its population to 3 and is constructing a mine.

Steel Prima has increased its population to 4 and is constructing a mine.

Thulun Prime has increased its population to 3 and is constructing a mine.

Overall

Unclaimed Planets and Anomalies

1 - Tennath Minerals 5-9 / Quality 11-29
2 - Salveria Minerals 2-8 / Quality 7-25
3 - Galantia Minerals 2-20 / Quality 6-24
4 - Chalicstine Minerals 2-20 / Quality 2-20
5 - Ogvidissio Minerals 7-17 / Quality 4-16
6 - Leiwin Minerals 4-12 / Quality 7-25

Unclaimed Anomalies = 4

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And that wraps up the latest update! What’s the plan now? There are a couple main questions I need answered.

1 - What should the next research project be?
2 - I’d like to have a construction priority list submitted for each planet, preferably containing at least 3 projects marked as high, medium, and low priority projects.
3 - Should the fleet be recalled for refueling?
4 - Anything else you’d like me to do?

Also, a small idea, we can actually rename planets. If it comes to colonizing new planets a faction can vote within itself on the name of new colonies. If no consensus is reached we can just stick with the default name.

Finally, when we start building navy ships, if each faction wants they can come up with some names for each ship. I’ll keep track of them and it could add to the narrative quality of the game.

So, anyways, have at it you hooligans! Hope you like the update!

[dragolord]

You seem to believe early on that our glorious Thulun homeworld shares its name with that Javat hovel-planet. Also, our next course of action should be building colony ships so the Tennath agreement may be honoured.

[johndramey]

Sept 27, 2014 2:21:01 GMT -5 dragolord said:

You seem to believe early on that our glorious Thulun homeworld shares its name with that Javat hovel-planet. Also, our next course of action should be building colony ships so the Tennath agreement may be honoured.

Doh! Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed it.

[En1gma]

A glorious home planet for Thulun. Our buildings will be tall, and our mines will run deep.

With these three colonizations, the prosperity of the quadrant is practically guaranteed. House Thulun will review the star maps and begin deliberating as soon as possible. It has been a long journey, and to have feet on terra firma once again does the soul good.

[Officer Genious]

johndramey, you did a beautiful job writing up that post- both the fiction and the report! Thank you very, very much!!

I will study this new information carefully.

[lixxx235]

Blanking vote until discussions occur.

Edit: vote is full support for xdesperado below. AFAIK this proposal has already been ratified by unanimous consent on our discussion thread.

[dragolord]

Sept 27, 2014 9:57:56 GMT -5 lixxx235 said:

Blanking vote until discussions occur.

We've just about reached a decision over on the Thulun thread. Come, away from here, with its prying eyes and invasive smells. Your views are wanted!

[xdesperado]

Great House Thulun has reached a Consensus

Research on Colony ships needs to be first priority, at present we are to vulnerable to enemy action should the xeno appear.

After we've regained the technology to build colony ships then we need to turn to the research of culture and industry so that we can build spice dens and trade exchanges. They will enhance our economic growth, aid in our political efforts and help keep the masses calm and focused on productivity.

Maintaining enough living space to house our growing population is vital, best we build extra hab units before we find people living on the streets and in alleys.
Once we have sufficient housing (say 1 more than currently needed by population) then let us turn to factories so we can ensure the productivity of all our citizens (again building to at least one more than current population can fully man).
Only after housing and factories should we consider adding more mine units.

Again we call for the immediate research of colony ships and once we have the tech pushing a couple to the head of our production queue.
With new colony ships we then claim Tennath and Leiwen. They both appear to have good quality allowing for our population and production to grow. Their location means we can readily produce fighters and other craft for the defense of humanity and have them in position to support any spot along the front lines.
We propose an offer for Javat to colonize the planets Galantia and Chalicstine for their support of this proposal on expansion. Gives them potentially better mineral resources for their mining operations and keeps them in a more central location where they are easier to protect.
That will leave Salveria and Ogvidissio for the Steel Song and their Mercenaries to build their fortifications on.

We urge you to consider recalling the Templar ships for refueling at this time. We are far from ready to face the Xeno so no reason to alert them to our presence at this juncture. Having the fleet close will reduce maintenance costs and improve combat readiness by ensuring they have the Water-Fuel needed for any engagement. Let the exploration ship refuel and research those anomalies and then it can begin to cautiously explore deeper into the quadrant.

Respectfully speaking for House Thulun
Marquis XDesperado,
Thulun Minister of War and Sentinal of Truth

[johndramey]

Love the vote there, xdesperado. Sufficiently RPish to satisfy even my, admittedly super nerdy, standards. Thanks for all the effort to organize, debate, and right up that post right there.

To the other houses (slayernz, Brutus Aurelius, squee, ncaoa, Officer Genious), deadline is fast approaching. I'll give to lunch time for me, which is approximately 6 hours from now, for you guys to get a vote in. If you miss the vote you'll be officially registered as an abstention and House Thulun will get what they want

[squee]

Steel Song is in accord with going for Salveria for our second colony. We are already at 4 population with out mine barely started, so we feel it will be much more effective use of our time to subsidize a factory and move it to the front of the queue, and build more hab units afterwards if necessary. Once we have enough extra population space (we do not want to bring down the entire federation from overpopulation) and maxed factories we can focus on mines and spice when available. As such, we will need to research factories and colony ships first. We can then focus on the planetary side of the research tree, unless my other Steel Song comrades have any other input.

I think it is wise to push forward with our Templar scouts, as fuel penalties will not be a big problem because they have such low maintenance. We need to find better colonies for Song defensive positions as well as Javat mining colonies. The explorer needs to keep refueling and explore the anomalies though.

[Brutus Aurelius]

The Javat agree with the Song in regards to exploration. We need more mining outposts to kickstart the economy. In terms of our construction queues, we say this is what we want:
Factory
Mine
Hab
Then Mines and Housing/Spice as needed until the Exchange 2 is researched. Then build that.

As to research, we say get Starship 1, then go for Politics 3, FDF 1, Colonization 1, then Mine 2.

We will agree with the colonization of Salveria if we are promised Galantia and all Red Giants discovered.

[Officer Genious]

I have conferred with my comrades, and we all pretty much agree on the following:

1: On Steel Prima, we'd like subsidized factories to be placed before mines.

2: For research, we'd like colony ships and then looking into spice dens soon after.
3: Honestly, I'd prefer to simply note anomalies and save them for serious situations, but I'm flexible on that issue.
4: We'd also like Salveria.

[slayernz]

Apologies for my absence from this forum over the past few days. I had matters of state that I had to attend to in order to ensure that this alliance continues smoothly.

Potential Colonies
xdesperado, thank you for your recommendation. In terms of colonization, I agree we MUST get some colony ships researched and built so we can expand and strengthen our foothold in this dangerous quadrant. In terms of planets, I respectfully disagree with the proposed allocation.

Planet	Suggested	Javat Preference	Reason
1 - Tennath Minerals 5-9 / Quality 11-29	Thulun	Thulun	Promised
2 - Salveria Minerals 2-8 / Quality 7-25	Steel Song	Steel Song	Promised
3 - Galantia Minerals 2-20 / Quality 6-24	Javat	Javat
4 - Chalicstine Minerals 2-20 / Quality 2-20	Thulun	Thulun
5 - Ogvidissio Minerals 7-17 / Quality 4-16	Steel Song	Javat	High minerals = great for mining
6 - Leiwin Minerals 4-12 / Quality 7-25	Javat	Steel Song	High Quality planet, low minerals

Javat believes that Steel Song should take Leiwin because the higher quality planet will allow Steel Song to focus on building great ships for the protection of our colonists.

Javat should instead take Ogvidissio because of the higher potential mineral deposits.  With luck, the planet quality will support Javat exploiting the mineral wealth efficiently.

Research
Javat wholeheartedly agrees that we must research Starships Construction 1 so we can create colony ships.
Immediately after that, however, Javat believes that we must begin research toward Planetary Mining 1, which means we need to research to Planetary Construction 5

Javat knows that this is a massive commitment, especially so early in our alliance, but the benefits of pursuing Planetary Construction 5 are significant. We get Factories, Spice Dens, a Palace defense, Trade Summit, larger hab 2 units to take in all of the fleet, and a second level Spice Den 2 to help our burgeoning citizens.

Javat understands that this does sacrifice military preparedness, but is confident that research to Planetary Mining 1 will ensure that we will have the funding to build the large fleets we will need.

Scouting
Javat understands the critical importance of understanding the space that surrounds our small seed of life, but also accepts that the ships cannot work effectively without being refueled.  Further, Javat accepts we are ill prepared to deal with any encounters, so agrees to retrieve the fleet to refuel.  Once refueled, the fleet should conduct regular patrols within our sphere of influence.

There are some changes from the approach Ambassador xdesperado has proposed.  Please consider the changes with the honor in which they were proposed.

[slayernz]

Sept 28, 2014 17:35:24 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

I have conferred with my comrades, and we all pretty much agree on the following:

1: On Steel Prima, we'd like subsidized factories to be placed before mines.

2: For research, we'd like colony ships and then looking into spice dens soon after.

Ambassador Officer Genious, Javat agrees that on Steel Prima, your faction should have full control over the order of your construction, so Javat would not dream of suggesting you do anything other than what you wish.

On research, by heading towards Planetary Mining 1, we gain the advantage of getting Factories, two levels of spice dens, larger hab units, and palatial defense structures, so Javat hopes that you would back the Javat proposal as described in the previous post