mmgaballah
Well-known member
[X] Maximum safety is the highest priority and must never be compromised
[X] A wonderful idea, do it
[X] A wonderful idea, do it
Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
Val the Moofia Boss
Well-known member
[X] Commerce is the lifeblood of Empire, accept the risk
Turn 89 - Some Silicone Sister
Turn 89 - Some Silicone Sister
You could have gone your entire life without the latest bit of shenanigans from the… distinguished professors of the Department of Periphery Studies. Really. Them attempting to form a marching band was bad enough, them attempting to then march that band through Griffsport at rush hour was even worse, them doing so while enthusiastically playing the song that never ends? Unforgivable.
The fact that your youngest cousins decided to join in, marching around the palace with toy recorders tootling the exact same tune over and over and over and over and over and over and… you have a feeling that it would be quite cathartic to take advantage of the Memorial Window of Defenestration.
You settle for issuing the sort of high power water ‘pistols’ that you played with as a kid to the Guard and unleashing them on your cousins, joining in to enthusiastically squirt the little squirts every time they tootled their recorders.
Much fun was had by all, then you had the kids, along with yourself and your guardsmen, join in helping the palace cleaning staff deal with the mess left behind. Make it a family thing, and the fact that it gives you and your husband time to sneak off to the Imperial Suite rather than deal with Yet Another Meeting With Admiral Fisher To Present His Latest Brainstorm is a welcome bonus.
The bastard just rescheduled the meeting. Damnit.
You manage to put him off with the excuse that you need to deal with Parliamentary affairs in conjunction with the Eldest, who is quite understanding of the entire thing although the giant kitty does tease you about it all.
You appear to be getting a bit of a political honeymoon from the politicians, which will be nice as long as it lasts. Most of the business they are handling is completely routine, with only a few things that require more than pro forma review.
First is the Naval Staff Reform Act of 3019. In essence this would shuffle around the current administrative structure of the Navy to one more similar to the ancient Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. It’s almost completely administrative, with Admiral Fisher going from Chief of Naval Operations to First Space Lord. You’d normally consider this completely trivial and unworthy of excessive thought… but do you REALLY want to play to his ego like this? You are pretty certain that the asshole would become utterly insufferable.
Second is something far more consequential. The Environmental Protection Act of 3019 is a bit of a misnomer. Even though it would patch a number of loopholes that exist in current anti-pollution and environmental protection laws and regulations in a manner that both the industrial and environmental stakeholders agree on, it would also place a number of additional Imperial level mandates on the various systems in regards to zoning green spaces within residential, commercial, and industrial zones. Said mandates would be fully funded from the Imperial Treasury, increasing the percentages of parklands and green spaces within residential zones to a full third, in commercial zones to a quarter, and adding a mandate for 10% of total Industrial zone area to be landscaped and beautified. These mandates would be fulfillable with things like ‘green’ roofs incorporating rooftop garden spaces.
The greatest benefit of this would be in speeding the establishment of more congenial environments on marginal worlds by involving the population more in the actual terraforming efforts via the greenspace requirements. Moreover it would help beautify the various cities. You’d visited quite a few of the cities in the Peripheral worlds, especially the more industrialized ones, and they tend to strongly feature the color ‘gray’ rather than anything else and have very… stark and severe lines, with very little consideration for aesthetics. Over time aesthetic standards have evolved, of course, but you have a sense that people would be happier and healthier if they weren’t living in seas of gray, beige, and bland.
A further benefit would actually be a bit ironic. The legislation would tend to somewhat slow the superheated growth of various planets by forcing developers to divert resources to greenspaces and such, which seems counterintuitive as this reduces the velocity of overall economic growth. However, as New Pollux is showing, the sort of explosive economic growth that seems to happen in the Periphery can have highly detrimental overall effects on the Empire as a whole.
There would be downsides. The proposal would increase the current budget allocated to Parks & Recreation in order to fully fund this, increasing Imperial upkeep costs. In addition there would be a slight but measurable reduction in general economic growth, especially in cases of ‘boom town’ economies. This is inevitable, and very likely in the long term would contribute to greater financial health and stability within the Empire so is, at worst, a mixed drawback.
You aren’t able to completely put off meeting with Admiral Fisher any longer. He and Admiral Sims are shown into your office in the Palace with more new designs to show you. Fisher is just as much of a total ass as always, if he weren’t so damned good you’d probably be more offended by how he clearly regards you as a ‘mere’ Army officer who shouldn’t have any say whatsoever in whatever the Navy, clearly the superior service, is doing.
Puncturing that ego is quite satisfying.
“We have several things to show you.” he starts, then gives another grudging ‘Your Majesty’ at your eyebrow. “A properly designed corvette, not that abortion of the Dagger-class, a properly designed Light Cruiser, and proof that you can’t build a proper Heavy Cruiser on only a million tons.” He seems particularly sour about that last bit.
He glares at Admiral Sims, who simply hands out the briefing packets with her usual tranquility, then takes the briefing podium. “Your Majesty, the Lyr-class Corvette is first.” The image that is shown looks just as predatory as the Fubuki design you’d already seen, managing to look like it is traveling at absurd speeds while sitting still. Indeed, you get the sense that if it were in dock it would always look like it were straining to fly free. “The Lyr is an extremely agile and responsive vessel, although her nominal maximum thrust value is 3g compared to the Fubuki-class’s 4g of maximum thrust. She is less than half the tonnage, however, and mounts a truly ferocious armament optimized for the destruction of enemy dropship and ASF assets. The design is relatively fragile, however…”
She is interrupted by Admiral Fisher. “She’s a corvette, not a battleship. If we want a usable armament we have to accept that we cannot slather on as much armor as we may want. Regardless, the enhanced agility of the design must not be underestimated in regards to survivability, likewise the heavy armament permits it to obliterate those targets which can keep up with her.” He shoots another nasty glare at Sims, who smoothly changes the display.
“And this, Your Majesty, is the Dido-class Light Cruiser. One thing of note is that she carries a full wing of Aerospace Fighters, nominally one of the new Medium Fighter Wings that the Aerospace Force has been talking about recently. On paper she would appear to be inferior to our current light cruiser designs, until you take into account her mission and position within the overall fleet. While she carries a pair of Heavy Naval Gauss Rifles in the nose, her primary armament consists of banks of naval lasers and naval PPCs, with the heaviest subcapital laser battery yet fitted to an operational design providing unparalleled anti-missile and anti-fighter capability. She combines the extreme range focus of the Brooklyn class with the speed of the Atlanta class, while maintaining full flag facilities and,” she pauses for a split second, giving Fisher a bit of a phantom smirk before continuing, “maintaining the level of crew accommodations our spacers have come to expect.”
Fisher is looking quite surly, making it painfully obvious that he had not wanted to allow that ‘concession’ to ‘inefficiency’. “Get on with it.” he snaps.
“And finally, Your Majesty, a design study that will not go into production, Project Suffren.” Admiral Sims looks positively beatific, Admiral Fisher looks like he’s wanting to boil over in rage. “Ultimately, the Suffren shows that it is not possible to build an all-big-gun heavy cruiser on a million tons, as in every category the design failed to match the performance and capability of our existing Exeter-class, and further failed to fill any viable military role in the Fleet.” How she managed to say that without once giving even a hint of triumph is beyond you, but she managed it.
“Just too damned small, I need another quarter million tons to make it balance properly.” Fisher is grumbling, indeed you might say he’s pouting. If he wasn’t such an ass you’d find it endearing, as it is you merely find it amusing. He makes a highly irritated gesture, as if swatting a fly. “Doesn’t matter, I’ve got a battlecruiser I’m working on, upgrading the Kongo a bit, but it’s not ready yet. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can. And get me those quarter million tons for a proper heavy cruiser.” A pause, and a surly “Your Majesty” comes reluctantly from him just before the two naval officers depart.
You could have gone your entire life without the latest bit of shenanigans from the… distinguished professors of the Department of Periphery Studies. Really. Them attempting to form a marching band was bad enough, them attempting to then march that band through Griffsport at rush hour was even worse, them doing so while enthusiastically playing the song that never ends? Unforgivable.
The fact that your youngest cousins decided to join in, marching around the palace with toy recorders tootling the exact same tune over and over and over and over and over and over and… you have a feeling that it would be quite cathartic to take advantage of the Memorial Window of Defenestration.
You settle for issuing the sort of high power water ‘pistols’ that you played with as a kid to the Guard and unleashing them on your cousins, joining in to enthusiastically squirt the little squirts every time they tootled their recorders.
Much fun was had by all, then you had the kids, along with yourself and your guardsmen, join in helping the palace cleaning staff deal with the mess left behind. Make it a family thing, and the fact that it gives you and your husband time to sneak off to the Imperial Suite rather than deal with Yet Another Meeting With Admiral Fisher To Present His Latest Brainstorm is a welcome bonus.
The bastard just rescheduled the meeting. Damnit.
You manage to put him off with the excuse that you need to deal with Parliamentary affairs in conjunction with the Eldest, who is quite understanding of the entire thing although the giant kitty does tease you about it all.
You appear to be getting a bit of a political honeymoon from the politicians, which will be nice as long as it lasts. Most of the business they are handling is completely routine, with only a few things that require more than pro forma review.
First is the Naval Staff Reform Act of 3019. In essence this would shuffle around the current administrative structure of the Navy to one more similar to the ancient Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. It’s almost completely administrative, with Admiral Fisher going from Chief of Naval Operations to First Space Lord. You’d normally consider this completely trivial and unworthy of excessive thought… but do you REALLY want to play to his ego like this? You are pretty certain that the asshole would become utterly insufferable.
| [] | What harm could it do? |
| [] | GOD NO! |
Second is something far more consequential. The Environmental Protection Act of 3019 is a bit of a misnomer. Even though it would patch a number of loopholes that exist in current anti-pollution and environmental protection laws and regulations in a manner that both the industrial and environmental stakeholders agree on, it would also place a number of additional Imperial level mandates on the various systems in regards to zoning green spaces within residential, commercial, and industrial zones. Said mandates would be fully funded from the Imperial Treasury, increasing the percentages of parklands and green spaces within residential zones to a full third, in commercial zones to a quarter, and adding a mandate for 10% of total Industrial zone area to be landscaped and beautified. These mandates would be fulfillable with things like ‘green’ roofs incorporating rooftop garden spaces.
The greatest benefit of this would be in speeding the establishment of more congenial environments on marginal worlds by involving the population more in the actual terraforming efforts via the greenspace requirements. Moreover it would help beautify the various cities. You’d visited quite a few of the cities in the Peripheral worlds, especially the more industrialized ones, and they tend to strongly feature the color ‘gray’ rather than anything else and have very… stark and severe lines, with very little consideration for aesthetics. Over time aesthetic standards have evolved, of course, but you have a sense that people would be happier and healthier if they weren’t living in seas of gray, beige, and bland.
A further benefit would actually be a bit ironic. The legislation would tend to somewhat slow the superheated growth of various planets by forcing developers to divert resources to greenspaces and such, which seems counterintuitive as this reduces the velocity of overall economic growth. However, as New Pollux is showing, the sort of explosive economic growth that seems to happen in the Periphery can have highly detrimental overall effects on the Empire as a whole.
There would be downsides. The proposal would increase the current budget allocated to Parks & Recreation in order to fully fund this, increasing Imperial upkeep costs. In addition there would be a slight but measurable reduction in general economic growth, especially in cases of ‘boom town’ economies. This is inevitable, and very likely in the long term would contribute to greater financial health and stability within the Empire so is, at worst, a mixed drawback.
| [] | Action | Arguments for Action | Effects of Action |
| [] | Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019 | One of the best things about the Empire is that, unlike many nations in the past, we have from the beginning managed our economic growth and our respect for the environment in concert with each other, being wise stewards of the worlds under our care. This is nothing more than an extension of that tradition of stewardship and balance. The benefits are extensive, both in the long and short term. In the long term, the increased health and welfare of our citizenry will lead to happier, more productive citizens. The improvements in planetary environments via the increased green space will reduce the strains our population places on planets, reducing the need for terraforming. Finally the amelioration of the worst effects of the boomtown atmosphere we’ve been seeing will pay long term dividends across the board. The costs are also reasonable, thanks to the benefits of automation and our highly efficient civil service they are very affordable, and are significantly outweighed by the manifold benefits of this legislation. |
|
| [] | Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019 | This is utterly ridiculous, if anything we should be dismantling these obsolete and uneconomical laws restricting economic progress for such trivial concerns as the ‘environment’ and ‘public parks’. If poor people want parks, let them buy the land and build them themselves, or let some bleeding heart idiot pay for them. Industry is already saddled with excessive environmental regulations, and now this preposterous greenspace requirement will force us to waste time, money, and effort on things that do nothing to contribute to the bottom line. Since dismantling the absurd environmentalist lunacy is not on the table, opposing this is the least we can do to promote proper regard for the primacy of profit. If the poor dislike this, then they shouldn’t be poor. |
|
You aren’t able to completely put off meeting with Admiral Fisher any longer. He and Admiral Sims are shown into your office in the Palace with more new designs to show you. Fisher is just as much of a total ass as always, if he weren’t so damned good you’d probably be more offended by how he clearly regards you as a ‘mere’ Army officer who shouldn’t have any say whatsoever in whatever the Navy, clearly the superior service, is doing.
Puncturing that ego is quite satisfying.
“We have several things to show you.” he starts, then gives another grudging ‘Your Majesty’ at your eyebrow. “A properly designed corvette, not that abortion of the Dagger-class, a properly designed Light Cruiser, and proof that you can’t build a proper Heavy Cruiser on only a million tons.” He seems particularly sour about that last bit.
He glares at Admiral Sims, who simply hands out the briefing packets with her usual tranquility, then takes the briefing podium. “Your Majesty, the Lyr-class Corvette is first.” The image that is shown looks just as predatory as the Fubuki design you’d already seen, managing to look like it is traveling at absurd speeds while sitting still. Indeed, you get the sense that if it were in dock it would always look like it were straining to fly free. “The Lyr is an extremely agile and responsive vessel, although her nominal maximum thrust value is 3g compared to the Fubuki-class’s 4g of maximum thrust. She is less than half the tonnage, however, and mounts a truly ferocious armament optimized for the destruction of enemy dropship and ASF assets. The design is relatively fragile, however…”
She is interrupted by Admiral Fisher. “She’s a corvette, not a battleship. If we want a usable armament we have to accept that we cannot slather on as much armor as we may want. Regardless, the enhanced agility of the design must not be underestimated in regards to survivability, likewise the heavy armament permits it to obliterate those targets which can keep up with her.” He shoots another nasty glare at Sims, who smoothly changes the display.
“And this, Your Majesty, is the Dido-class Light Cruiser. One thing of note is that she carries a full wing of Aerospace Fighters, nominally one of the new Medium Fighter Wings that the Aerospace Force has been talking about recently. On paper she would appear to be inferior to our current light cruiser designs, until you take into account her mission and position within the overall fleet. While she carries a pair of Heavy Naval Gauss Rifles in the nose, her primary armament consists of banks of naval lasers and naval PPCs, with the heaviest subcapital laser battery yet fitted to an operational design providing unparalleled anti-missile and anti-fighter capability. She combines the extreme range focus of the Brooklyn class with the speed of the Atlanta class, while maintaining full flag facilities and,” she pauses for a split second, giving Fisher a bit of a phantom smirk before continuing, “maintaining the level of crew accommodations our spacers have come to expect.”
Fisher is looking quite surly, making it painfully obvious that he had not wanted to allow that ‘concession’ to ‘inefficiency’. “Get on with it.” he snaps.
“And finally, Your Majesty, a design study that will not go into production, Project Suffren.” Admiral Sims looks positively beatific, Admiral Fisher looks like he’s wanting to boil over in rage. “Ultimately, the Suffren shows that it is not possible to build an all-big-gun heavy cruiser on a million tons, as in every category the design failed to match the performance and capability of our existing Exeter-class, and further failed to fill any viable military role in the Fleet.” How she managed to say that without once giving even a hint of triumph is beyond you, but she managed it.
“Just too damned small, I need another quarter million tons to make it balance properly.” Fisher is grumbling, indeed you might say he’s pouting. If he wasn’t such an ass you’d find it endearing, as it is you merely find it amusing. He makes a highly irritated gesture, as if swatting a fly. “Doesn’t matter, I’ve got a battlecruiser I’m working on, upgrading the Kongo a bit, but it’s not ready yet. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can. And get me those quarter million tons for a proper heavy cruiser.” A pause, and a surly “Your Majesty” comes reluctantly from him just before the two naval officers depart.
| Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| Lyr-class Corvette | $6,148,120 | DHS, LFC | 4958 | 4658 |
|
| Dido-class Light Cruiser | $17,569,544 | DHS, LFC | 2704 | 1804 |
|
charclone
Well-known member
[X] GOD NO!
Really? This just seems to be playing to his ego.
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Edit: Discord convinced me, the Act would do more harm then good, for the periphery worlds. While the boomtowns won't last forever, crippling their growth now seems problematic.
Really? This just seems to be playing to his ego.
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Edit: Discord convinced me, the Act would do more harm then good, for the periphery worlds. While the boomtowns won't last forever, crippling their growth now seems problematic.
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Val the Moofia Boss
Well-known member
[X] What harm could it do?
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
We must maintain standards of beauty.
[X] Lyr-class Corvette
[X] Dido-class Light Cruiser
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
We must maintain standards of beauty.
[X] Lyr-class Corvette
[X] Dido-class Light Cruiser
[X] GOD NO!
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Trashman.exe
Well-known member
[X] GOD NO!
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
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AlphaOmega
Well-known member
[X] GOD NO!
Honestly all the titles the RN uses feel a bit grandiose to me. I prefer something simpler then a word soup as a job title.
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Honestly all the titles the RN uses feel a bit grandiose to me. I prefer something simpler then a word soup as a job title.
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] GOD NO!
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Winter_Wind45
Well-known member
[X] GOD NO!
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
[X] Support the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Yacovo
Occasionally spouting nonsense
[X] What harm could it do?
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Just checked the spreadsheets, and capping the GDP growth at 100% will have the current following effects excluding the following worlds changing from Periphery to Core world:
-10% GDP growth for two years at Edelsteine
-200% GDP growth the first year, then -100% GDP growth the second year at New Phoenix
-115% GDP growth on average for four years on New Castor
-60% GDP growth the first year and -10% GDP growth the next two years at Kainga
-100% GDP growth for three years at Bari
-any further GDP growth for the above worlds and a couple others that already have their GDP growth at 100% during these time periods and beyond.
Overall this Act will widen the gap between the core and the periphery worlds by greatly extending the time it takes the former to become the latter. We might have some political pushback once the periphery economists run the numbers. It may even widen the cultural divide with less core worlders migrating to Boom Colonies to cash in.
We can expect the budget still increase steadily, but no longer have the meteoric rises in budget we have seen like with the Boom of Port Royal or other Boom Colonies. Hopefully it will result in economic and population growth spreading more evenly across the Periphery than all being diverted to a few boom areas. However, the growth may also not materialize with no Boom phenomena to cause and direct it.
That said, there would be saner economic growth if only so our DOME teams are not busy all the time putting out stresses in planetary infrastructure from boom towns. The beauty would show we care about our periphery worlds, but rethinking it, probably not worth cutting all the economic growth off at the knees.
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
Just checked the spreadsheets, and capping the GDP growth at 100% will have the current following effects excluding the following worlds changing from Periphery to Core world:
-10% GDP growth for two years at Edelsteine
-200% GDP growth the first year, then -100% GDP growth the second year at New Phoenix
-115% GDP growth on average for four years on New Castor
-60% GDP growth the first year and -10% GDP growth the next two years at Kainga
-100% GDP growth for three years at Bari
-any further GDP growth for the above worlds and a couple others that already have their GDP growth at 100% during these time periods and beyond.
Overall this Act will widen the gap between the core and the periphery worlds by greatly extending the time it takes the former to become the latter. We might have some political pushback once the periphery economists run the numbers. It may even widen the cultural divide with less core worlders migrating to Boom Colonies to cash in.
We can expect the budget still increase steadily, but no longer have the meteoric rises in budget we have seen like with the Boom of Port Royal or other Boom Colonies. Hopefully it will result in economic and population growth spreading more evenly across the Periphery than all being diverted to a few boom areas. However, the growth may also not materialize with no Boom phenomena to cause and direct it.
That said, there would be saner economic growth if only so our DOME teams are not busy all the time putting out stresses in planetary infrastructure from boom towns. The beauty would show we care about our periphery worlds, but rethinking it, probably not worth cutting all the economic growth off at the knees.
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I think the italicized part is the problem with this bill. We DO NOT want to recreate what the Star League did to the Periphery. This is the one of the major steps towards repeating those mistakes. May sound nice, but we need a little bit of economic chaos to shake up the fatcat companies and let younger ones rise up to compete as well.
What we're doing is making it a lot easier for the present load of corporate winners to stay on top.
This goes against everything we stand for when it comes to business access and opportunity.
Solid NO on this one despite the bad will it may create. We have to stand for what's important, and the basic philosophy of our enterprise is more important than CONTROL.
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
[X] What harm could it do?
[X] Lyr-class Corvette
[X] Dido-class Light Cruiser
Jarow
Well-known member
Don't think I agree with the IC reasonings, but:
[X] GOD NO!
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
The only big benefit of the act is the +10 pop on some worlds. In exchange, we sacrifice a lot of our periphery's ability to grow and spend a lot more on parks and recreation. I don't really think it's worth it.
[X] GOD NO!
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
The only big benefit of the act is the +10 pop on some worlds. In exchange, we sacrifice a lot of our periphery's ability to grow and spend a lot more on parks and recreation. I don't really think it's worth it.
darkcloudt2
Well-known member
[X] GOD NO!
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019
[X] Oppose the Environmental Protection Act of 3019