Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
There’s a new fad on Griffon, teeny tiny one person trikes that look like somebody took an egg, put some wheels on it in a reverse-trike arrangement, made the top half out of glass with a hinge at the back, and painted in crazy colors. They are technically bicycles, since they have pedals, but those are strictly optional for any enthusiasts who’d like to recharge the electric motors by pedaling, otherwise they are run off of a tiny fuel cell engine. They just barely meet all safety requirements for ‘motor assisted bicycles’ which they technically are, but are starting to really annoy everybody else on the road since they’re slow - they technically have a maximum speed of 100 kph making them legal on all roadways in the Empire, but take over a minute to reach that speed… downhill - , take up the same parking spaces as a full up motor vehicle, and tend to be driven by the most annoying sanctimonious smug bastards on the road.

Considering that you were in a motorcade that was stuck behind one of them while heading to the beach for your granddaughter’s birthday and it caused you and your granddaughter to be late for the party you’d arranged? You count yourself among those annoyed. The smug little bastard driving the Egg Solo? Well, you are newly appreciative of the versatility of LAMs as one of the LAM pilots attached to the Imperial Guard swooped down, picked the damn thing up, and flew off with it to the station house after the bastard refused to pull over for the police escort, asserting that he had the right to use whatever lane he wanted on the road. You do officially reprimand the pilot for crushing the vehicle like, well, an egg after the jackass had gotten out of it. A reprimand that consisted of you managing to keep a straight face while reading it, followed by punishing the pilot by requiring him to carry a six pack of his favorite beer all the way home and consume the same at his convenience.

Note that the jackass is being delusional here -- while a bike (motor assisted or otherwise) does count as a vehicle and has full road rights, slow traffic is required to stay in the right lane unless turning left, and *all* traffic is required to yield to emergency vehicles running lights-and-sirens.

This guy is basically arguing like sov cits saying that the police aren't allowed to pull them over because "That's emergency authority and I'm not doing anything wrong, therefore you can't emergency me."
 

Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Approve

Making them be more helpful and getting Naval Gauss and HAGs? Sounds good to me. Even if it'll likely result in NRR getting them.

[X] Plan: A new plan for a new year
-[X] Procurement [$ 383,963,894.73 ]
--[X] Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $101,861,970.00 ] (95)
---[X] 70 Trenton [95]

---[X] 10 Puller [95]
---[X] 20 Vandergrift [95]
---[X] 11 Majestic [95]

--[X] Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - $2,977,935.75 ] (75)
---[X] 4 Brig*
---[X] 6 Brig*
---[X] 10 Brig [75]

--[X] Lay down Warship [Warship Construction - $228,595,193.67 ] (80)
---[X] 2 Wolverine*
---[X] 18 Fletcher*
---[X] 3 Stilleto*
---[X] 5 Dart*

---[X] 14 Stiletto [80]
---[X] 6 Cleveland [80]

--[X] Purchase New Units [ $40,583,751.51 ] (90)
---[X] 26 Fighter Wing [auto]
---[X] 5 Attack Wing [90]
---[X] 4 Strike Wing [90]

---[X] 3 Raider Regiment [90]
---[X] 3 Armored Cavalry Regiment [90]
---[X] 8 Pathfinder Regiment [90]
---[X] 3 Standard Mech Regiment [90]
---[X] 5 Garrison Mech Regiment [90]

---[X] 3 Armored Regiment [90]

--[X] Increase Militia Rating of System [$ ] (85)
---[X] 20 Militia Regiments

-[X] General [$ 4,573,388,129.00 ]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Calliope Nadir* [90]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station New Eden Zenith* [90]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Griffon's Eye Zenith* [90]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station New Castor Zenith* [->2]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Okusawa Zenith* [->2]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower 2 Kuroisora* [->2]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower Okusawa* [->2]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower New Castor* [->2]

--[X] Construct Silver Tower Sukiashi* [90]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower New Phoenix* [90]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower New Eden* [90]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower 2 Griffons Roost* [90]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower 2 Nowy Gdansk* [90]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower 2 Griffon IV* [90]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower 2 Nowa Warzsawa* [90]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower 2 Calliope IV* [90]

--[X] Expand Civil Service [80]
(New general action! Need.)
--[X] Expand Special Branch [80]
--[X] Increase Parks & Recreation Budget [80]
--[X] Expand Imperial Grifftiger Mounted Police [80]
(Three forms of bad roll protection)
--[X] Cultural propaganda on Okusawa* [->8]
--[X] Basic Infrastructure Repair - Okusawa* [->7]
--[X] Implement Griffon legal code on Okusawa* [->7]
--[X] Set up framework for Okusawa system government* [->7]

--[X] Broadcast Propaganda to Nya Kopenhamn III* [~]
--[X] Broadcast Propaganda to Nya Kopenhamn IV* [~]
--[X] Targetted Assasination - Nya Kopenhamn III [85]
--[X] Rescue Dissidents - Nya Kopenhamn IV [85]
(I want our likely-to-quickly-jump-to-core system as soon as we can get it)
--[X] Upgrade Commercial Space Stations - ECP [->9]
(Commercial stations are already useful, making them even more useful can only help)
--[X] Major Cultural Venues [60]
(Boosts everyone, if slightly risky)
--[X] Build Light Warship Yard Calliope [75]
(More light warships are more useful than more escort warships)
--[X] Build HPG Station New Castor* [80]
--[X] Build HPG Station New Pollux [->1]
(We need good communications)

--[X] Upgrade All DHS Factories [75]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS Kuroisora [110]
(We need more DHS)
--[X] Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
--[X] Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
--[X] Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
--[X] Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
(We're 8 behind full commercial stations, this gets us halfway to being caught up. And each one helps)
--[X] Upgrade Refit & Repair Yard [100]
--[X] Expand Orbital Shipyards [100]

-[X] DoME [$ 3,905,000,000.00 ]
--[X] Construct O'Neill Cylinder Cluster in Griff's Leap* [->1]
--[X] DOME - Arcology Cluster Griffon* [90]
--[X] Edelsteine Arcology & Terraforming [->4]
(Affordable now. Makes the colony there actually useful)
--[X] Terraform Calliope II - Stage II [->9]
(Boosts our youngest core world)
--[X] DOME - Underwater City Griffon's Roost* [->6]
--[X] DOME - Pollution Scrubbing Towers* [->3]
--[X] DOME - Water Pollution Filtering* [->3]
--[X] DOME - Industrial Pollution Cleanup* [->3]
--[X] Terraform Calliope V - Stage II* [->3]
--[X] Continuing recovery work on Sukiashi* [->3]

-[X] Research [$ 2,055,000,000.00 ]
--[X] Lamellar Ferro-Carbide* [55]
--[X] Exotic Genetic Enhancement* [->3]
--[X] Kraken-T Capital Missile* [->1]
--[X] Improved Automation Lvl 7 [100]
(We just gave away our advantage, time to recover it. Also ensures our budget doesn't crash next turn if we get a poor tax rate roll)
--[X] Advanced Standard Core Theory III* [95]
--[X] Advanced Standard Core Design III* 95]
--[X] Advanced Standard Core Construction III* [95]
--[X] Advanced Compact Core Theory IV [->4]
--[X] Advanced Compact Core Design IV [->4]
--[X] Advanced Compact Core Construction IV [->4]
(Bigger warships = better. At least until they get too big to be used effectively, but we're nowhere near that yet)

-[X] Miscellaneous [$ 2,027,000,000.00 ]
--[X] Peacekeeping [2,000,000][->?]
--[X] People Purchase [25,000,000]
--[X] Banking [2,000,000,000]

$10b leftover, but given we had a 23% tax rate (vs last turn's 7%) a good bit leftover isn't a bad idea. Feel free tot akeand modify if there's something you'd like to change.
 
Turn 78 - So They Linked Their Hands And Danced

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 78 - So They Linked Their Hands And Danced

Meta Event17
Dynasty Luck14
Successes
Imperial Approval5
Approval Change0
Political Event-5
Successes
Imperial Economy2
Economic Event0
Research Event-2
GriffonEcon3
Health4
Event1
Nowa WarszawaEcon5
Health6
Event4
Calliope IVEcon5
Health6
Event0
TTPEcon2
Health6
Event1
New CapricornEcon0
Health4
Event0
Nowy ŚląskEcon0
Health0
Event2
EdelsteineEcon0
Health-2
Event1
Nowy WrocławEcon4
Health0
Event2
Griff's LeapEcon1
Health
Event2
New PhoenixEcon6
Health4
Event0
New EdenEcon1
Health0
Event0
New CastorEcon0
Health0
Event0
OkusawaEcon1
Health-5
Event1
New PolluxEcon1
Health2
Event1

Plan: A new plan for a new year
- Procurement [$ 383,963,894.73 ]
-- Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $101,861,970.00 ] (95)
--- 70 Trenton [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 65
Result - SUCCESS
--- 10 Puller [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 56
Result - SUCCESS
--- 20 Vandergrift [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 67
Result - SUCCESS
--- 11 Majestic [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 57
Result - SUCCESS
-- Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - $2,977,935.75 ] (75)
--- 10 Brig [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 86, Jarow reroll – 98, ShadowArxxy reroll - 50
Result - SUCCESS
-- Lay down Warship [Warship Construction - $228,595,193.67 ] (80)
--- 14 Stiletto [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 30
Result - SUCCESS
--- 6 Cleveland [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 8
Result - SUCCESS
-- Purchase New Units [ $40,583,751.51 ] (90)
--- 26 Fighter Wing [auto]
--- 5 Attack Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 50
Result - SUCCESS
--- 4 Strike Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 12
Result - SUCCESS
--- 3 Raider Regiment [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 32
Result - SUCCESS
--- 3 Armored Cavalry Regiment [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 83
Result - SUCCESS
--- 8 Pathfinder Regiment [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 83
Result - SUCCESS
--- 3 Standard Mech Regiment [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 53
Result - SUCCESS
--- 5 Garrison Mech Regiment [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 25
Result - SUCCESS
--- 3 Armored Regiment [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 44
Result - SUCCESS
-- Increase Militia Rating of System [$ ] (85)
--- 20 Militia Regiments
Target - 85
Roll – 50
Result - SUCCESS
- General [$ 4,573,388,129.00 ]
-- Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Calliope Nadir* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 93
Result -Bare FAILURE (auto success next turn)
-- Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station New Eden Zenith* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 90
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Griffon's Eye Zenith* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 69
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower Sukiashi* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 15
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower New Phoenix* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 83
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower New Eden* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 2
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower 2 Griffons Roost* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 86
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower 2 Nowy Gdansk* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 43
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower 2 Griffon IV* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 77
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower 2 Nowa Warzsawa* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 11
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Silver Tower 2 Calliope IV* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 24
Result - SUCCESS
-- Expand Civil Service [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 57
Result - SUCCESS
-- Expand Special Branch [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 44
Result - SUCCESS
-- Increase Parks & Recreation Budget [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 24
Result - SUCCESS
-- Expand Imperial Grifftiger Mounted Police [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 23
Result - SUCCESS
-- Broadcast Propaganda to Nya Kopenhamn III* [~]
-- Broadcast Propaganda to Nya Kopenhamn IV* [~]
-- Targetted Assasination - Nya Kopenhamn III [85]
Target -85
Roll – 80
Result - SUCCESS
-- Rescue Dissidents - Nya Kopenhamn IV [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 50
Result - SUCCESS
-- Major Cultural Venues [60]
Target - 60
Roll – 42
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Light Warship Yard Calliope [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 94, KnowledgeisPower reroll - 15
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build HPG Station New Castor* [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 65
Result - SUCCESS
-- Upgrade All DHS Factories [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 25
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Orbital Factory DHS Kuroisora [110]
Target - 110
Roll – 96
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 13
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 48
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 47
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build New Commercial Space Station [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 69
Result - SUCCESS
-- Upgrade Refit & Repair Yard [100]
Target - 100
Roll – 11
Result - SUCCESS
-- Expand Orbital Shipyards [100]
Target - 100
Roll – 37
Result - SUCCESS

- DoME [$ 3,905,000,000.00 ]
-- DOME - Arcology Cluster Griffon* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 16
Result - SUCCESS

- Research [$ 2,055,000,000.00 ]
-- Lamellar Ferro-Carbide* [55]
Target - 55
Roll – 43
Result - SUCCESS
-- Improved Automation Lvl 7 [100]
Target - 100
Roll – 98
Result - SUCCESS
-- Advanced Standard Core Theory III* [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 12
Result - SUCCESS
-- Advanced Standard Core Design III* 95]
Target - 95
Roll – 58
Result - SUCCESS
-- Advanced Standard Core Construction III* [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 40
Result - SUCCESS

-----

The delegations have now all gone home, treaties in hand with everything settled. The Alliance and tech sharing was now fully in effect. Your scientists are looking over the data given to them by the NRI and have in turn turned over the final R&D work on lamellar ferro-carbide armor. As part of the research an experimental foundry has been built in the Inner Asteroid Belt to produce the material. The reports from the engineers are highly positive.

You get a report a few days later from the shipyards, the new Cleveland-class vessels that were laid down a few days ago will be upgraded on the ways to the new armor type, Lee Aerospace and the Imperial Griffon Aerospace Werk having been involved in the engineering side of the foundry development and thus in possession of expected specifications and tolerances for the new material.

The situation with those damned Eggs is reaching a peak of mass annoyance. The manufacturer has managed to produce a vehicle that deftly skirts the regulatory line between a full up car and a motorized bicycle, taking the most advantageous bits of regulation from each and completely ignoring everything else. The vehicles have absolutely no safety equipment of any sort beyond a little sticker encouraging users to wear a bicycle helmet. The electronics on the vehicle are purely a tiny recharging port and wireless link to a set of speakers with no links to the automated traffic control systems that are mandatory for ‘real’ cars. The rear visibility is a tiny optional mirror in keeping with bicycle rules, and 90+% of all Eggs sold don’t have it. The tires are thin bicycle tires optimized for minimal rolling resistance. The brakes are little calipers and are also optional extras, with many Egg owners opting to skip them in favor of ‘lightness’ and ‘simplicity’.

The worst part, in many ways, is that the very flimsiness of the construction and the non-metallic materials used make them almost completely invisible to millimetric band radars and infrared sensors of the sort used in ordinary vehicle safety systems to detect potential crashes and avoid them. As a result there are a growing number of injuries and even fatalities from the Eggs, with the Egg owners enthusiastically suing people for ‘negligence’ in these cases.

Enough is enough. You decide that this has gone on long enough. You are the Emperor, you have the authority to deal with this situation yourself. So deal with it you do. Some of your advisors are concerned with the optics of such a response, but you respond that the judicious application of a heavy hand is sometimes precisely what is needed for people to have confidence in their Emperor.

So you order the Eggs banned from the streets by Imperial Decree, order that all existing Eggs are to either be retrofitted with full vehicular safety systems to meet the regulatory requirements for all other full road legal vehicles or are to be restricted to purely recreational off-road use on designated trails only. Any future production of these vehicles are mandated to possess full vehicular safety systems and pass all crash-test requirements for a full road legal vehicle.

The howls of protest from the manufacturer and the Egg enthusiasts are initially rather deafening, the roars of approval from literally everybody else makes those howls seem like pathetic little squeaks of a terrified little mouse. When the manufacturer tries to take your decree to court you send in the Special Branch to pay the corporate board a little visit and audit their books. Oh look at all these trivial and ordinarily inconsequential technical violations of various obscure regulations. Naturally they attempted to claim malicious prosecution and selective enforcement. You rather blandly state that it is, as you are showing them excessive mercy by not charging them with negligent homicide for every individual killed while operating their products. But if they insist, you will gladly correct this situation.

For some strange reason none of them take you up on that offer. Funny that.

You also get a message from the Black Pumpernickels in Edelsteine rather sheepishly requesting the use of one of your repair docks, evidently the fighting with the Black Steel Essex has damaged their jump core enough that they don’t trust it to make more than one or two more jumps with the repairs they’ve been able to do. After all, well, they know how to maintain the thing, but they’ve never tried to do major repairs to it and are actors, not engineers.

You know that all of your engineers and your dear little sister will all strangle you or subject you to endless repetitions of the Song That Doesn’t End if you say no, so you approve the request. A few weeks later you get confirmation that they’ve arrived at the Griffon repair docks and work has begun to properly inspect and, if needed, refurbish the jump core. Interestingly, she’s sitting in the next dock over from HMS Morristown. Seeing images of the two giants side by side is a nice sight, as it is something that perhaps in the future you will see far more often with your own ships.

You have refit plans now for the old Dart class ships as well as proposals for a refit to the new Fletcher class to replace the conventional armament with HAGs, replacing the sub-capital missiles with sub-capital lasers, upgrading the armor, and other minor improvements.

NameCostMaterialsHPA/DSpecials
Dart$13,127,260LFC, DHS27581778
  • Armored 63
  • Capital Ratings
    • 3/910
    • 4/710
  • Command 6
Fletcher$16,936,720LFC, DHS33952895
  • Armored 30
  • AMS 80
  • Missile 80
  • Capital Ratings
    • 2/1274
    • 3/455
    • 4/378
  • Capital AMS 44
  • Capital Missile 30
  • Command 3

Upgrade costs if you choose to cycle the ships through the refit yards would be as follows.
[]Dart$231,936
[]Fletcher$3,983,040
[]Both$4,214,976
[]NeitherNone

The Oasis II under construction in the Calliope system suffers a catastrophic failure of the energy storage batteries during a load test, resulting in severe damage to the entire station and pushing back completion until at least Q3 of next year. Engineers are investigating the incident.

The new units have completed training this year, forming a fresh Brigade Combat Team and a new sort of Pathfinder Division. The new ASF wings are also in service, manning all of the completed stations and carriers. Your logistics are improving, and the ease of rotating infantry from Okusawa is having a definite effect on morale.

Speaking of Okusawa, the news is covering multiple days of rioting and unrest in the system capital. Rioters are throwing molotovs and such at your security forces with agitators within the rioting crowd slipping about and taking pot shots with other weapons from within the crowds. Your troops are so far continuing to show admirable discipline, taking the molotovs on the riot shields that they’ve been provided. Thankfully nobody has any inferno gel, or at least hasn’t used any yet.

Special Forces teams are making ‘strikes’ into the crowds, targeting the agitators whenever they are identified. So far most of them have committed suicide when nabbed, but helmet footage clearly showing them biting down on suicide teeth is blunting any PR damage the howls of ‘murderous thugs’ is having.

Interrogation of those few who don’t manage to suicide has yielded intel on a number of caches, which have been raided with great success.

The civil service expansion goes extremely well, giving you a bit more flexibility to use the budget efficiently. Likewise both the Special Branch and the IGMP have been expanded giving you more options with law enforcement.

With the increased funding and focus a large number of new parks, greenspaces, and recreation areas are built throughout the Empire to generally positive reviews.

In the Griffon System the initiative to build major cultural centers results in a massive new Opera House in Griffsport proper. It is a grand and glorious building, done in a late Baroque architectural style and looking both imposing and graceful at the same time. In your opinion it’s just a tad overly fancy, but it appears to be very popular with the architectural press and the public, so there’s that. Other systems build projects more in line with their own local needs, and the results are a resounding success.

Both operations in the Nya Kopenhamn system go off smoothly. The religious fanatics are all nicely clustered around and, conveniently, the ‘heretics and traitors’ are being held off site at the time when you unleash naval PPC hell upon the lunatics. Meanwhile the security forces among the druggies and hedonists are caught completely off guard for the rescue mission, allowing you to pull out over a hundred victims of the crazed hippies and get them to safety (and adequate medical care for all the drugs in their systems).

The new Light Warship yard is online in the Calliope system, as is the new HPG in New Castor. Which reminds you, still no new leads on the land scammers in that system. Your security forces are on the lookout and if anybody tries anything similar again it’ll be caught.

The upgrades to the DHS foundries are quite successful and the new one in the Kuroisora system is online and operational. The additional commercial space stations are a welcome addition to your future economic growth.

You attend the opening ceremony to the new Arcology Cluster on the Phoenix continent. It’s cold and dry, like it usually is on that continent, but the new cluster will enable improved exploitation of the immense mineral resources up here in the frigid arctic.

R&D work on improved automation systems has been completed and the new software and hardware has been rolled out. There is some grumbling among white-collar workers as a few of the new systems negatively impact their own job prospects without retraining, but they’d profited in the past as blue-collar workers had to adapt to the upgrades, so your sympathy is strictly limited.

The new Galleon class Jumpship is now available for production as your engineers and scientists complete work on the penultimate size classification of standard jump cores. Able to carry 8 dropships at a time, the Galleon also boasts superior crew facilities and amenities for passengers on the dropships. Commercial firms are already planning civilian variants of the design, dropping the AMS systems for increased cargo capacity.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Both

As the designer, I can assure everyone that the refits offer a substantial (although not earthshaking) upgrade in performance over the originals.

Amusingly, if you're comparing to canon, the destroyer refit has a higher battle value than the McKenna class battleshhip.
 

Yacovo

Occasionally spouting nonsense
Your security forces are on the lookout and if anybody tries anything similar again it’ll be caught.
Paranoia about Banking act slightly lessens

Also nice to see no amount of lobbying and regulation skirting can help you when you tick off the monarch.

[X] Both
 

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