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There is pretty broad consensus among the current Lunar population that they want an autonomous local government and the Lunar flag has already been adopted as an unofficial local cultural symbol, but what specifically that should look like and how exactly they want to fit into the Comintern's political structure remains a contentious issue, and the debates can get heated. The Lunar delegation to this year's Congress is majority pro-independence. For what it's worth the Comintern explicitly aspires in its charter to dissolve national boundaries and unite humanity under a single banner, although there's still argument about what exactly that means. Right now it's a loose confederation of mostly-sovereign polities. Part of membership involves accepting the People's Congress as supreme legislative authority which is how you're able to pass things like 'a massive worldwide industrialization campaign'. In that respect the Comintern is a world government, but there's a long way to go before people really believe in it as one. Many people still see themselves as citizens of their own nation first and the Comintern second. How will Luna effect that? I don't know, make a decision and then play to find out!
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Oct 28, 2020 00:45
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Voting is closed! We had a lot of stuff to vote on and a lot of votes, which is awesome! Final results are as follows: The Status of Luna:: although I provided for an instant runoff via ranked list, it was barely necessary, as Option B won exactly half of all first-preference votes. Once second-preference votes were counted B won handily. The Lunar Socialist Republic will be recognized as a provisional member of the Comintern. They will be permitted to organize their local government as they see fit, within the restrictions laid out in the membership requirements of the Comintern's Charter (so, no monarchies, no capitalism, etc.). That local government will be granted voting representation in the People's Congress effective immediately. A 100-member Lunar Planning Committee or Lunplan will be established, staffed 51% by representatives chosen by the Lunar government (using whatever method they see fit) and 49% by representatives selected by the Comintern, with the responsibility of overseeing the development of the Lunar Socialist Republic, integrating it into the Comintern's political, economic, and social system, and ensuring the functionality and stability of its political system. Lunplan will annually assess the state of Luna and issue a report on the viability of the LSR, with the sole mandate of preparing Luna for full Comintern membership and the explicit goal of dissolving itself once its mission is complete. If and when Lunplan deems the LSR to be ready for full membership, or ten years after the passage of this resolution, whichever is sooner, the Lunar government will hold a referendum on full Comintern membership. Should that referendum pass with a simple majority, Lunplan will be dissolved and the Lunar Socialist Republic will effective immediately be a full member nation of the Comintern, with all rights and responsibilities of the same. Should it fail, a second referendum will be held in five years' time, and should that fail, a third in five more years' time. If all three referenda fail, Lunplan will be dissolved and the Lunar Socialist Republic will be incorporated as an autonomous territory of the Comintern. Until that point, the LSR will retain no standing military forces (the LSDF will be organized as a branch of the People's Army), will conclude no treaties or engage in any other formal diplomacy with non-Comintern states, and will agree to abide by the development plans laid out by Lunplan. Lunplan will not interfere in the domestic affairs of the Lunar Socialist Republic, will exercise no veto power or other authority on local legislative decisions, and will take a neutral position on all internal elections, referenda, and other decision-making processes within the Lunar Socialist Republic. Should the LSR violate the founding principles of the Comintern by promoting reaction, capitalism, fascism, other counterrevolutionary ideologies, or attempting to undermine the integrity of the Comintern, their autonomy may be withdrawn by an emergency vote of the People's Congress. This plan may be modified by later legislation if there are parts of it not to your satisfaction, with the caveat that anything that reduces the Moon's autonomy after giving it to them will almost certainly result in heavy pushback. The Gladio Investigation: in this case no second-preference vote counting was needed, as Option B won an outright majority in the first round. Comintern internal security agencies will be tasked with conducting inquiries and investigations into this 'Gladio', and minor adjustments will be made to military and security deployments in order to increase protection around some key facilities and people, as quietly as possible. Survey Ships: The Foxfire Proposal wins, and an intensive research and development program for space technology will be initiated, scheduled to take about four months. When completed, a design competition will be held, and four of the winning design will be commissioned. Survey Priorities: No option won a majority in the first round. After second-round votes are counted, Option B wins due to every single C voter listing B as their second preference. Our surveyors will be first tasked with thoroughly surveying the inner solar system. S-17: passes almost unanimously, and the radiation cleanup project will be queued up. F-18: passes extremely narrowly, and offworld settlements that meet or exceed a permanent population of 1 million will be permitted to begin the process of seeking autonomy. JR-20: passes by one vote. The Ministry of Outer Space Affairs is officially classified as a civilian organization, and its mission statement clarified to emphasize peaceful exploration of space above all. Ministry armed vessels will, in first contact scenarios, not fire unless fired upon, and will always prioritize peaceful and diplomatic conduct in future interactions. The development or construction of warships is banned, with the exception of those strictly necessary to ensure the defense of humanity. In game terms, this means that any armed spacecraft larger than 1000 tons must have either a deployment time of less than three months (to allow for defensive and short-ranged patrol vessels), an explicit and specific scientific or exploratory role for which its weapons are necessary (subject to the interpretation of the People's Congress), or one of the following: a Diplomacy Module, Geosurvey or Gravsurvey Sensors, large passive sensors, or a missile magazine that is kept loaded at least 50% with sensor drones/buoys or survey drones/buoys during peacetime. CIWS do not count as weapons for the purposes of this restriction, and this restriction is immediately voided should the Comintern ever find itself in a state of war with another spacefaring power or civilization. A-21: passes handily. An armed defense force, drawn from local volunteers and staffed with local NCOs recruited from Great Revolutionary War veterans, will be raised on Luna. They will not only be used to defend Luna from possible threats, they will also be used as a laboratory to test suit, weapon, and equipment designs, tactics, training methods, and survival techniques for future deep space operations, in a relatively safe environment. The original proposal did not necessarily specify that a new training facility had to be built. As such, in order to address one of the few objections to this resolution, rather than building one, the facilities of the existing People's Army Training Command will instead be relocated to hab complexes on the Moon. S-22: passes, and four more freighters will be designed and built. The design competition will begin in four months, in order to take advantage of the new technology provided by the Foxfire plan. Y-23: passes, and a committee will be struck with the responsibility of examining the potential viability of a 'Universal Second Language' for the Comintern. No official changes will be made to Comintern policy at this time, but the committee is granted a budget and mandate to conduct extensive studies and experimentation. Normally I would follow this up immediately with a story update, but I had a very long day at work, so the next proper update will come tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who proposed something, voted, or participated in the discussion!
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Oct 28, 2020 06:13
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Alright, lots of good stuff happening. I was a bit surprised that my "no first shot" suggestion got interpreted to also include "no warships" since that wasn't my intent, but doing a space-coastguard model rather than a full navy is fine by me so no complaints there. For whoever it was that asked how it would be upheld, I imagine it'd be drilled into all officers trained for warships, and upon reviewing logs from combat encounters if it was determined we shot first it'd cause an immediate military tribunal. I can imagine circumstances where it would be necessary to shoot first in order to save civillian lives or something (f.ex. from a pirate attack, are there/will there be space pirates?) so it's not automatically a warcrime, but unless no one in the admiralty and civilian oversight comittee could find fault with the captain's actions it would be something like an immediate honorable discharge with the offer to take up a teaching position or something.
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Oct 28, 2020 07:28
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space piracy is not explicitly modeled as a game mechanic but that doesn't mean it can't happen. also the ban on warships was actually suggested by Fivemarks; I combined your resolution and theirs into a single joint resolution since they were so similar in form and intent. Whenever a resolution is named 'JR-##' it's short for 'Joint Resolution' and is two or more posters' proposals combined into a single one because they are either identical or very similar to each other. In retrospect 'no warships' is a big enough deal that I probably shouldn't have done that and should have had those two on the ballot separately, but oh well, you can always amend it later if people find it odious in practice.
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Oct 28, 2020 07:37
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Nah, was a bit surprised but as mentioned as long as we maintain some kind of fighting force it's sufficiently close to my intentions that it's fine. In any case, here, have some medal suggestions (open to revisions on the text, I'm no author): Exemplary Service Medal, 10 years Awarded for exemplary service to ComIntern over a 10 year period. Auto-awarded to all after 10 years, 10 points.  Exemplary Service Medal, 20 years Awarded for exemplary service to ComIntern over a 20 year period. Auto-awarded to all after 20 years, 25 points.  Exemplary Service Medal, 30 years Awarded for exemplary service to ComIntern over a 30 year period. Auto-awarded to all after 30 years, 50 points.  Exceptional Service Medal Awarded for exceptional service to ComIntern. Generic "good job" medal awarded by vote, 100 points.
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Oct 28, 2020 08:10
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I'm telling you all, going "gently gently" with fascist holdouts is just going to give them room to grow and fester. You'll be sorry for not listening to my genius some day. Time to get a crew assignment to one of the new survey vessels so I can go "I told you so" from the orbit of Saturn when Mussolini Prime emerges from the ashes of Detroit and incinerates a peacekeeping platoon with its laser eyes.
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Oct 28, 2020 11:46
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The people of the Lunar Socialist Republic thank you all for your affirmation of their rights to sovereignty and self-organisation. This may be one small step, but it is one giant leap for mankind.
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Oct 28, 2020 13:42
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is there any reason why we haven't just sort of inserted ourselves into de facto stateless areas?
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Oct 28, 2020 14:12
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I believe we sort of have, with humanitarian missions and such, we just haven't sent in troops and gone "you all belong to the comintern now" (possibly aside from spots that still see active combat, like with the contras)?
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Oct 28, 2020 14:42
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PurpleXVI posted:I'm telling you all, going "gently gently" with fascist holdouts is just going to give them room to grow and fester. You'll be sorry for not listening to my genius some day. A full-blown military crackdown at this juncture would be using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. We've had only two recorded relatively small incidents of terrorism, and while one is too many, an international crackdown would be seen as excessive by many onlookers and as vindication by the conspirators. The subtle approach is what's needed here, both in investigation and our defences.
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Oct 28, 2020 15:51
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Yvonmukluk posted:A full-blown military crackdown at this juncture would be using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. We've had only two recorded relatively small incidents of terrorism, and while one is too many, an international crackdown would be seen as excessive by many onlookers and as vindication by the conspirators. The subtle approach is what's needed here, both in investigation and our defences. Well, who cares if the conspirators feel vindicated? They're allowed to feel good for a minute before being put in front of the firing squad.
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Oct 28, 2020 16:17
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PurpleXVI posted:Well, who cares if the conspirators feel vindicated? They're allowed to feel good for a minute before being put in front of the firing squad. Yeah, we're just gonna magically find the conspirators and not make any sort of mess or mistakes or anything, and they'll definitely be the ringleaders of the whole operation and not just some low-level flunkies operating on a need-to-know basis.
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Oct 28, 2020 16:30
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We should improve our internal security situation while also being careful of going too far. We are being pulled in many directions at once, but the Lower Georgia United Workers' Front believes that the best way to combat the forces of reaction is to ensure that everything we do is done with the goal of raising up the workers of the world. Of course, the next best method of fighting reactionaries is .30-06 rounds and surplus hand grenades.
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Oct 28, 2020 16:41
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PurpleXVI posted:I'm telling you all, going "gently gently" with fascist holdouts is just going to give them room to grow and fester. You'll be sorry for not listening to my genius some day. Military actions are extremely bad at catching terrorists, usually they just give them fodder. My suggested course of action is careful investigation on the specific attacks and improving the lives of people living under the wings of the Commintern, specially the most vulnerable and marginalized like the Naciremas. The second suggested course of action, for death cult fascists, is the firing squad
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Oct 28, 2020 19:15
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Mister Bates posted:space piracy is not explicitly modeled as a game mechanic but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Those warship restrictions are also very loophole-able, so that will be fun for designing if we decide to stick to letter of the rule instead of spirit.
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Oct 28, 2020 19:44
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As far as I see, the joint resolution forbids the construction of warships, but designing them and having blueprints ready for production is ok, right?
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Oct 28, 2020 20:44
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Nothing wrong with making an Enterprise either, just the biggest and meanest ship possible with a survey module or something jammed in there.
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Oct 28, 2020 20:50
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Antilles posted:Nothing wrong with making an Enterprise either, just the biggest and meanest ship possible with a survey module or something jammed in there. Ships like that mostly don't work because of how Aurora does fuel. You can only have one kind of engine on a ship and get no efficiency bonus for going at less than max speed, so anything with a military power engine will guzzle fuel even when its cruising. Warship engines will have orders of magnitude better power:weight ratios and orders of magnitude worse fuel:power ratios than the sort of things you put on survey ships.
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Oct 28, 2020 21:11
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Also, the bigger the ship, the greater the percentage of space you have to devote to engineering in order to keep a respectable deployment time. A capital ship like the Enterprise or Voyager that's designed to be out where no man has gone before for years at a time is going to lose a lot of tonnage to keeping it running. I actually usually play with maintenance off because of it, especially now that survey ships are automatically military (in the old version you could at least do geo surveys with civilian ships, IIRC, but both types of survey sensors are military equipment now).
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Oct 28, 2020 21:20
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is there any sort of intra-faction fighting modeled into the game? can we get rebels or space pirates or stuff like that naturally? if not, and we're just waiting to make contact with aliens, which seems like a ways off, then we know that at least we haven't hurt ourselves for rp purposes
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Oct 28, 2020 21:25
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The game won't passively generate rebels and such within the mechanics but it's entirely within the abilities of the GM to manually edit in an enemy faction set up as rebels/a civil war/whatever if the narrative calls for it
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Oct 28, 2020 21:32
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And within the story, there's already a shot-down alien bomber that crashed in Roswell, so I wouldn't bet on no aliens 
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Oct 28, 2020 21:36
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well i didn't say no aliens. i said first contact seems a ways off. our current engines aren't ftl capable, so unless they're hiding in our solar system i don't see us getting to them any time soon. and if they come to us, that's pretty much doomsday if they're hostile, right? disclaimer: i know nothing about aurora, just what's come up in this lp so far
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Oct 28, 2020 21:49
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Foxfire_ posted:Ships like that mostly don't work because of how Aurora does fuel. You can only have one kind of engine on a ship and get no efficiency bonus for going at less than max speed, so anything with a military power engine will guzzle fuel even when its cruising. Warship engines will have orders of magnitude better power:weight ratios and orders of magnitude worse fuel:power ratios than the sort of things you put on survey ships. I dunno anything about shipbuilding in this game, I just figured if we're stuck with warships 1/3 to 1/4 max size it would probably be a good tradeoff to stick a survey module in there to be able to build a max size "war"ship?
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Oct 28, 2020 22:06
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Realistically we aren't going to be ready for military shipbuilding until we solve some technical issues. Given that the "no warships" clause was added to the "no firing first" motion there is no reason we can't repeal it the moment we feel there is a need. Also, needing to fill half our missile magazines with sensor probes in peacetime will fulfill the requirements of the clause, so if we are building missile craft it will hardly restrict us at all.
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Oct 29, 2020 00:48
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Signed up on the spreadsheet, glory to the Comintern.
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Oct 29, 2020 02:55
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Mandatory listening for this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOJB2CWG4I December 20, 1979  As deliberations continue, news of votes and decisions goes out around the world. On Luna, the radio broadcast of the results of the autonomy vote is met with enthusiasm, and raucous parties, a couple of which result in brawls in cramped habs, but most of which go just fine. Another, more covert, radio broadcast is picked up by the appropriate authorities on Luna and the KGB goes to work. On the same day, the Matveyev Design Bureau makes a momentous announcement. The one-year industrial development program has been completed. They present the world with a slate of new industrial machinery and processes for applying them. Though ultimately evolutionary rather than revolutionary, a development on the early Trans-Newtonian industrial machines the Comintern is already using, they represent a shift from transitional tech to a new generation of equipment designed and built from the ground up specifically to work with Trans-Newtonian materials. The net effect will be a significant increase in factory output. Knock-on effects are expected to ripple out through the global economy - in particular, the Socialist Aid Program and the global industrial development program should both see benefits from this almost immediately.  Matveyev's teams are immediately retasked to aerospace research, with the end goal being to develop a Duranium-hulled spacecraft, inspired by the Roswell object. Before they can do that, they'll need to develop foundational technologies, and for now they'll be working with conventional materials. December 21, 1979 The People's Congress adjourns for the year and the delegates begin returning home for Christmas. The Tranquility identifies itself to space traffic control on Ascension Island as 'carrying the delegation from the Lunar Socialist Republic' as it departs Earth orbit. December 24, 1979 President Taraki of Afghanistan greets newly-arriving Comintern military and technical advisors at Kabul Airport. As most of them are from the USSR, some jokers refer to this deployment as the 'Soviet invasion of Afghanistan', although they are unarmed. January 1, 1980  The Ministry of Outer Space Affairs and the International People's Army begin their first joint operation, the relocation of the Siberian army training complex to the Moon. This will be an extremely complex operation involving weeks of work and dozens of round trips to the Moon and back, and just the process of relocating the facility will be a valuable learning experience. January 6, 1980 Half a dozen masked gunmen make an attempt on the life of the President of Sicily, Piersanti Mattarella, a former Christian Democracy political leader whose drift to the Communist Party in the years since the Revolution were known to have made him many enemies. He is critically wounded, but members of the increased security detail he had just been assigned drive off the gunmen before they manage to finish the job. Two of the gunmen are killed, and identified as known members of the Sicilian Mafia. US M-16 assault rifles, spare magazines, hand grenades, and an encrypted two-way radio are recovered from the bodies. The remaining gunmen escape. In a phone call to the local news radio station, a heavily distorted voice claims responsibility for the attack, identifying themselves as Colonel Vinciguerra of Gladio, and adding that the 'traitor' Mattarella would be 'brought to justice' soon. The call is suppressed by Italian state security forces, and the attack is added to the ongoing investigation. January 11,1980 Fifty Sicilian Mafia associates and made men are arrested in a series of raids. All disclaim any knowledge of the attack or the two men killed. Nothing of value is learned from them after weeks of interrogation and investigation; the conclusion of the Italian intelligence services is that, while the Mafia would not be sad to see Mattarella killed, the leadership of the local crime families legitimately had no idea about the assassination plan. January 19, 1980 Matveyev's research team delivers the first of the three incremental armor technologies they are tasked with developing, and immediately begin work on the second. January 20, 1980 The first Super Bowl in six years is held. The Pittsburgh Steelers have to cross multiple national borders to reach the stadium in Pasadena, People's Republic of California, and neither team is playing in top form, but the game is still a thrilling affair. The Steelers beat the Rams 34-31 in overtime. The game is an enormous media event throughout North America, and the 'commercials' showcasing the benefits of socialism and the prosperity the Comintern can bring are seen in millions of households. In particular, there is an exceptional 90-second segment showcasing a Socialist Aid Program housing block and the refugee families who now live in it. February 13, 1980 The Winter Spartakiade, the People's Olympiad, opens in the Bolivian Andes (it's technically summer down there, but in the high mountains it hardly matters). The two-week-long athletic event is considered a successor to the Olympic Games, which have not been held in many years. February 18, 1980 A sniper attack on a group of German Army soldiers on a training exercise in the Black Forest leaves two wounded. The sniper is not identified or captured. March 1, 1980  As of today, nearly 350 factory complexes have been fully modernized to Trans-Newtonian standards. The newest factory has come online in Atlanta, and takes full advantage of TN technologies. The complex is sleek, futuristic, largely automated, and fully equipped to shape Trans-Newtonian materials into all sorts of useful forms on a large scale. It is put to work producing Socialist Aid Program residential prefabs. March 4, 1980 Dr. Matveyev reports another breakthrough, and begins work on the final stage of the project, a stable duranium-aluminum alloy suitable for spacecraft hull construction. March 8, 1980 The first rock music show in Soviet history. It is simulcast live throughout the Union. March 11, 1980 South Africa, the last holdout of colonialism on the continent, falls to a joint Angolan-Namibian-Cuban-Zimbabwean-ANC force. Though mop-up operations will take weeks and the task of securing the new state from white supremacist guerrilla holdouts will likely take years, this ends major combat operations on the African continent. Fidel Castro personally leads the victorious Cuban army on parade through the streets of Johannesburg, and embraces Nelson Mandela in front of the TV cameras. The new government immediately announces an intention to join the Comintern. March 19, 1980 Unionist paramilitaries attempting to assault and destroy a major power plant in the north of Ireland are successfully ambushed by government forces. All fourteen militants are killed, as are three IRA soldiers. The attack is uncharacteristically bold, and had security forces not been detailed to guard this site on Comintern instructions, would have probably succeeded. Two of the attackers died by suicide. The group is well-armed and were carrying a Stinger anti-aircraft missile launcher in addition to small arms and explosives. March 27, 1980  The relocation of People's Army training operations to the Moon is complete. It has taken many months and the work of thousands of people, and the fledgling nation of Lunagrad has devoted much labor and resources to the project. It's more than just a training camp - light industrial facilities to produce needed equipment and parts on-site had to be established, labs and testing facilities in which designs can be workshopped, maintenance facilities to keep everything operational, and of course service industries to support all the people it will bring in. All told, the facility and the associated industry is going to occupy the labor of every single formerly-unemployed worker on Luna, and could easily expand to accommodate more. Having just been granted autonomy, the inhabitants of Luna are also given a purpose - learn how to thrive on an alien world. Teach others. Develop and apply new methods, new tactics, new survival strategies and educational methodologies. Prepare future expeditions. And, if need be, ensure they're capable of defending themselves. Many on Luna aspire to see the world develop into an industrial powerhouse one day; they envision factories producing everything humanity could possibly need, up here with no atmosphere to pollute and no biosphere to defile. One day they may see it - but, for now, there is other work to be done. that worker shortage slows the facility's work but does not prevent it from working  Volunteers for the new security force are easy to find. For now, they will be equipped with very lightly armored space suits little different from civilian models, and their 'weapons' will be crude, simple things, mostly melee weapons at first (conventional firearms actually do work in vacuum, but not well, and not for very long). Their job will be as much about learning how to be soldiers in space as it will be about actually being soldiers. The small amount of Vendarite required to build this unit was transported from Earth by the Luna. April 3, 1980 Comintern peacekeepers and local allied forces successfully convince the 2nd Tennessee Volunteers, nominally an Army unit loyal to the US Government-in-Exile in Tokyo but in practice a large and organized bandit gang, to surrender peacefully after weeks of skirmishing. The half-starved, ragged fighters are disarmed and given food. The rump federal government in DC, who views the 'government in exile' as traitors (the feeling is mutual), issues an amnesty for any former members of the 2nd Tennessee who defect to Federal-aligned forces, though it's unlikely any of them will take the offer at this point. April 8, 1980 KGB investigators on Luna identify 83 people who appear on passenger manifests of flights to the Moon, but are unaccounted for in a survey of the Lunar population, living or dead, nor have they appeared on any flights leading back from the Moon. On a hunch, they begin exhaustively going over cargo manifests of every one of the hundreds upon hundreds of cargo flights since the settlement was founded, looking for further discrepancies. April 22, 1980 A newly-erected Socialist Aid Program housing block in Chicago is burned in an apparent arson. Though the interior is gutted, the structure, made out of sturdy TNE-based alloys, is essentially undamaged, and the building can and will be restored to full livability. Graffiti reading 'Don't be a SAP!' is sprayed on the pavement outside, with a crude rendition of an American flag and a stylized image of a short sword. April 30, 1980  The Matveyev Design Bureau presents a formula for a stable duranium-aluminum alloy. The dull grey metal is unbelievably strong, durable, light, and resistant to heat, stress, and corrosion. It is also almost impossible to form or shape with conventional tools - fortunately, fewer and fewer industries use conventional tools anymore. Working with pure TNEs on such a large scale is beyond our current capabilities, though Matveyev issues a proposal for further development in hull material technologies that will change that. For now, though, this will do. SHIP DESIGN CONTEST  For all later contests, what I intend to do is create a clean Aurora database file that has every single technology you've researched, including weapons, engines, sensors, etc., and let you design and test designs in that. For now the list of techs is extremely short, so I'll just post the full list and let you add them in yourself.  This is the state of the shipyards. It should go without saying that your design must be buildable in our current yards. You'll need a copy of C# Aurora updated to the latest version. The following ships need to be designed: - A geological survey vessel. It must carry geological survey sensors. Strongly recommended, but not necessarily required, are a long deployment time, a long maintenance life, and a long range. - A freighter. It must be a civilian vessel. - A cryo-equipped colony ship. It must be a civilian vessel. You may submit one or any of these designs. Submit it in the following format, using the [ code ] tags: code:Submissions are now open and will remain open for at least 24 hours! our next mechanics post will, fittingly, be about military ship design Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Oct 29, 2020 |
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Oct 29, 2020 07:17
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Mister Bates posted:March 19, 1990 Wow, a glimpse into the world of the future!
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Oct 29, 2020 08:12
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code: code: A geosensor attached to the only commercial engine we have the tech to design. These are intended to be semi-disposable; expectation is that a pair will be built, their 3-year service life is enough to survey essentially all of Sol, then they'd be scrapped since their engines are likely to be very obsolete by that point. A sensor-heavier design is slightly better for surveying the inner system, but significantly worse at the Oort cloud and each sensor costs more than the rest of the ship combined. The 100 MSP max repair is the sensor. In the unlikely event of a sensor failure, they must return to Earth for repair. Engine repair is 16 MSP, so that can be field-repaired many times over.
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Oct 29, 2020 09:06
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On the nature and formation of the United Australasian Worker's Republics, Part 2. John Gorton's reaction to the establishment of the French Commune was one of growing paranoia. Fearing that events in Europe would embolden the hardline elements of Labor, elements in the Liberal-National leadership contacted ASIO to embark on what was later codified as the Anti-Infiltration Initiative, or AII, a series of covert programs devoted to breaking any possible communist uprising before it began. At the time of it's establishment, such an idea was less than likely. Perhaps it would have remained so were it not for two factors: first was their methods would only nurture increasing radicalism when exposed, second is that ASIO was already infiltrated by the KGB. Through the next year, ASIO would wiretap union leaders and Labor politicians, sabotage strike actions and covertly leak sensitive documents to the press. At the same time, Gorton's Fortress Australia policy was set to massively accelerate. Shiploads of American arms were brought in to fuel a standing military and citizen's reserve to be expanded no less than fourfold. In march 1969, the first Australian nuclear plant finished construction. This plant would have a secret purpose: to achieve Gorton's dream of an independent nuclear deterrence for Australia. Documents salvaged indicate that this plant was heavily backed by the US government of the time, as was the nuclear program. It was part of what the Agnew cabinet referred to as "Project Atlas," an attempt to drastically amplify MAD doctrine by establishing independent nuclear arsenals in every remaining NATO state, with the goal of bringing socialist states to détente. It is unclear, however, if they ever succeeded. Before the situation broke down, Gorton's nuclear policy only resulted in six low-yield nuclear devices and no ballistic missile capability. Combined, these two factors set the stage for civil collapse. When Nixon was assassinated in December 1968, KGB elements used it as a trigger point to start leaking evidence of the AII to socialist elements. This lead to immediate escalation. Labor party leader Jim Cairns denounced Gorton as a "tyrannical dictator" in parliament, while labour unions started mass protests. Through the following months, AII operations found themselves victims of internal sabotage while protests became strikes and strikes became violent clashes with the police. At the same time, his extremely unpopular military expansion galvanized the anti-war movement. While the peace movement had before found itself becoming increasingly disconnected from socialist organizations, momentum now swung sharply in the opposite direction. The Commonwealth of Australia lacked any defined emergency powers on a national level. Instead Gorton's centralization of power and persecution of socialist elements had to take a more piecemeal approach. Controlled state governments were used to pass legislation attacking state-level organizations. Federal control of military matters was used to force through infrastructure built over sites of environment and cultural heritage in the name of defence. Still, despite everything, the Gorton government was incredibly unpopular and already on it's last legs. That is, until Communal troops in France launched the Amiens offensive. Reaction to that was surprisingly muted, it was a world away, after all. However, things came to a head when M15 deposed Harold Wilson. Gorton had long been a sceptic when it came to the relationship of Australia to the United Kingdom, but over the last year his paranoia and anti-communist leanings had grown greatly. He moved forwards motions to ban communist groups, including elements of the labour party. Over the following months, he rapidly centralized powers under the claims of a wartime emergency, with the growing clash between socialist groups and the government spilling over into high level civil unrest. Conscription was raised, shot down and then implemented anyway. Armouries were broken into or stolen from by sympathetic soldiers and guns flowed into the hands of socialist agitators. Riots became street-level battles in the major cities, mirroring the civil war of their mother country. Reports indicate that the Liberal-National leadership almost attempted to ban the Labor party before cooler heads prevailed. Still, things accelerated to a fever pitch, unions in rural areas turned to militias as the unrest lead to rural areas vanishing off the grid entirely, a collapse of federal to state level authority that was hidden behind frantic and desperate flailing in the halls of power. This is what lead to that fateful day of August 12th, where during a televised debate in parliament John Gorton attempted to pass a motion for the recognition of the Mountbatten government. This never came to be, as parliament exploded into a flurry of angry accusations and counter-accusations, ending with Gorton publicly declaring Jim Cairns a "Soviet-loving Communist traitor." Moments afterwards, everything went white as the city of Canberra vanished in nuclear fire, decapitating the entire federal government at a stroke. While the fact that this detonation was due to one of the six devices Gorton was able to produce is well known, until recently it was unknown who was responsible for the detonation or why. While right-wing elements have often tried to pin the blame on the KGB agents within ASIO, the communal governments have often blamed Gorton's ballooning military and it's increasing anti-communist lean, both sides seeing the detonation as the result of a half-baked coup attempt. However, recently recovered documents, including maintenance logs and transportation chits have revealed that this was, in actuality, a "broken arrow" scenario. The bomb was to be transported to a recently constructed strategic fortification in Sydney, however, it had been built improperly, with unshielded arming mechanisms. Due to the accelerated timetable on military asset deployments caused by the May offensive, however, this log was lost before it could be read. Instead the bomb was transported and during the transport, would have crossed a length of track that had gone unfixed due to extended striking against the Gorton governments' militaristic stance. All due to an accident, the stage became set for a burning, terrible war. NewMars fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Feb 22, 2021 |
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Oct 29, 2020 09:31
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There really isn't much point to a design competition at this point, since all the designs are probably going to end up being fairly similar. I'd go with something like Foxfire's design, but with some added maintenance storage, which doesn't take up much space and means the ship won't have to return to earth to repair its sensors if they break.
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Oct 29, 2020 10:01
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Is there something Earth can do to stop the growing overcrowing penalty on Lunagrad? If Infrastructure is the culprit can you build and ship it, like you did the facility?
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Oct 29, 2020 11:10
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As Neptune has an Orbital Radius of, on average, 4.5 B kms, the following design is submitted for a current generation longhaul freighter. Since it can cross the planetary system and have fuel to return. She is made for reliability and endurance. Like the workers of our grand endeavour! code:Oh, and the engines code:
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Oct 29, 2020 11:52
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Antilles posted:Is there something Earth can do to stop the growing overcrowing penalty on Lunagrad? If Infrastructure is the culprit can you build and ship it, like you did the facility? That's what the 2-4 cargo ships are for.
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Oct 29, 2020 12:55
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What's fundamentally the more effective strategy? Building up a single powerful center of industry and using it to jumpstart others one at a time, or focusing on seeding dozens of smaller colonies and letting them grow with minimal support from a home base mostly focused on just pumping out seed operations?
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Oct 29, 2020 13:22
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I'm guessing industries have pop minimums like the training centre, which alone technically requires more pop than the moon currently has. It looks like plonking an industrial centre down asap might not be the best play...
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Oct 29, 2020 13:47
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Boksi posted:There really isn't much point to a design competition at this point, since all the designs are probably going to end up being fairly similar. I'd go with something like Foxfire's design, but with some added maintenance storage, which doesn't take up much space and means the ship won't have to return to earth to repair its sensors if they break. If there's a consensus on this, or there's only one submission, I'll skip the vote to save time, adopt the first designs posted, and keep things moving
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Oct 29, 2020 13:50
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Mister Bates posted:If there's a consensus on this, or there's only one submission, I'll skip the vote to save time, adopt the first designs posted, and keep things moving It seems like the base designs would be the same, and any disagreements would be quibbling over specific numbers, so I'm fine with going for the first sensible design suggestion. We can always iterate with a mk. 2 later.
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Oct 29, 2020 13:55
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Actually, now that I think about it, there is one alternative geosurvey design we could build. I don't actually support it, since I think designing a single commercial engine that can also be used by freighters is a better idea, but we can also do something like this:code:That said, while I don't support building geosurvey fighters, I do think investing in the development of fightercraft is a good idea.
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Oct 29, 2020 13:59
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Boksi posted:Actually, now that I think about it, there is one alternative geosurvey design we could build. I don't actually support it, since I think designing a single commercial engine that can also be used by freighters is a better idea, but we can also do something like this: What’s the range on those fighters? Could they zip to the belt and back in a reasonable time? Would they cover the Inner solar system at least?
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Oct 29, 2020 17:22
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