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Hospital Ship (1 point) Quen Noll (2 points) 1 New Cadre (1 point) B I would pick C because of the likely higher pay but it seems like a setup and getting shafted by our employer is an inauspicious start.
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# ? Aug 7, 2019 21:23 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 05:49 |
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Jetta Steel: 4 points. We've got to lawyer up early or else any lawyer we meet later on down the line will probably screw us. ???: 0 points. A suicidal merc with stealth skills and a chip on their shoulder is just what we need for a little added edge. B: Train Wars
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# ? Aug 7, 2019 22:32 |
Jetta Steel A Let's get some mecha sub action happening!
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# ? Aug 8, 2019 19:09 |
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Khamsin posted:Marian: An enigmatic engineer with great skill in electromagnetic and laser weaponry. They previously worked on the infamous Planet Cracker, a huge railgun that was created with the help of enslaved engineers and labourers. Marian has had difficulty finding work after this incident, even though she was enslaved. 3 points.
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# ? Aug 8, 2019 19:51 |
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quote:You kill for a living. Good. I am an artist of killing and require a home. I require nothing but space. Check your front pocket." Incredibly suspicious and weird, and when you checked your front pocket, it was a piece of paper. "If you want me, message me back." I wonder if we could reply to sender just by putting a note in our front shirt pocket, and our mysterious stranger retrieves it in their own time. If so, I hope lady space colonial fashion allows for pockets.
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# ? Aug 8, 2019 20:29 |
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Lux Animus posted:Jetta Steel: 4 points. We've got to lawyer up early or else any lawyer we meet later on down the line will probably screw us. This
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# ? Aug 8, 2019 21:23 |
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Right, sorry for the two day gap, life got pretty busy. We've decided that The Pain Train is coming, and we've also decided to hire that mysterious merc. And we have two competing plans: Hospital Quen 1 Cadre OR Jetta. I should have made the voting a bit less tie-prone. Should I just flip a coin or whatever next time to keep updates coming? Regardless, vote between hospital accountant and lawyer.
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# ? Aug 11, 2019 15:47 |
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Did we have to explicitly say we don't want to hire the weirdo? Only four of the eleven voters do want to hire them, imo even though only two people explicitly said don't the other five who didn't include the weirdo should also count as being against it, but it's your game. Also, hospital/accountant
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# ? Aug 11, 2019 16:40 |
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Crazycryodude posted:Did we have to explicitly say we don't want to hire the weirdo? Only four of the eleven voters do want to hire them, imo even though only two people explicitly said don't the other five who didn't include the weirdo should also count as being against it, but it's your game. Yeah I'll admit I'm being a bit sloppy with the voting. It should have been an explicit yes/no but was slipped into the shopping section. I'll fudge it this time but take it as a learning experience and put things in their proper place next time.
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# ? Aug 11, 2019 16:43 |
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Khamsin posted:I should have made the voting a bit less tie-prone. Should I just flip a coin or whatever next time to keep updates coming? Regardless, vote between hospital accountant and lawyer. Welcome Back! End of the day, it's your choice on how we proceed. So, tie breakers are decided by the GM? If you have a dog, maybe you can let it decide? That's what Yooper did in one of his threads.
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# ? Aug 11, 2019 21:10 |
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Coinflips are usually fine for breaking ties imo, unless they're wildly different courses of action and it's some kind of big contentious vote
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# ? Aug 11, 2019 21:19 |
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I always thought, for a tie breaker, that a second vote with only the two options should be issued.
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# ? Aug 11, 2019 21:49 |
Lawyer up
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# ? Aug 11, 2019 23:29 |
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Hospital Quen 1 Cadre Also I vote to shove the creepy serial killer out the airlock immediately and skip the inevitable unsolicited killing spree that we're legally liable for. Artist of death, my rear end.
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 07:35 |
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Since people are repeating their votes I suppose I should keep mine apparent:Lux Animus posted:Jetta Steel: 4 points. We've got to lawyer up early or else any lawyer we meet later on down the line will probably screw us.
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 07:44 |
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Is not a repeat. New voting on the two most popular options.Khamsin posted:I should have made the voting a bit less tie-prone. Should I just flip a coin or whatever next time to keep updates coming? Regardless, vote between hospital accountant and lawyer.
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 07:51 |
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I want lawyer more than hospital ship.
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 18:27 |
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CourValant posted:Vote: Reiterating my vote also.
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 18:28 |
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Not Alex posted:Also I vote to shove the creepy serial killer out the airlock immediately and skip the inevitable unsolicited killing spree that we're legally liable for. Artist of death, my rear end. That's a good point actually, I think we should make a commitment to never hire anybody who enjoys killing. We get paid incredibly large sums of money to kill a very specific set of people within a strict legal framework, our ideal recruit is one who has minimal qualms killing people as long as they get paid enough. We do not want the kind of psychos who enjoy the act for its own sake, because they are exactly the type of assholes who don't care about (or actively relish) calling in airstrikes on space mosques and playing knife games with prisoners. Not only is there an obvious moral duty to stay far far away from any association with these people, but when they're calling in airstrikes with our bombers and playing knife games with prisoners we've taken, we're now in incredibly deep poo poo on the legal front. Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Aug 12, 2019 |
# ? Aug 12, 2019 23:09 |
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We're here to kick rear end and chew gum *Cracks bubble * and I've got half a pack left
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 23:33 |
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Crazycryodude posted:That's a good point actually, I think we should make a commitment to never hire anybody who enjoys killing. We get paid incredibly large sums of money to kill a very specific set of people within a strict legal framework, our ideal recruit is one who has minimal qualms killing people as long as they get paid enough. We do not want the kind of psychos who enjoy the act for its own sake, because they are exactly the type of assholes who don't care about (or actively relish) calling in airstrikes on space mosques and playing knife games with prisoners. Not only is there an obvious moral duty to stay far far away from any association with these people, but when they're calling in airstrikes with our bombers and playing knife games with prisoners we've taken, we're now in incredibly deep poo poo on the legal front. See, this is why you hire the really good lawyer! Also, by hiring the lawyer the crazy guy is all we can afford.
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 23:36 |
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Not doing warcrimes in the first place is much cheaper than the top-tier lawyers you need to get away with warcrimes
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# ? Aug 12, 2019 23:37 |
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We need an accountant before we need a lawyer, no?
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 03:38 |
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You've gotten sick of signing your name by now. Forms for the ship. Forms to hire doctors. Forms for more and more. However, at the end of your shopping trip, it's finally all done. You take everything together, and go through it item by item. Of course, it would take a rather large effort to check all the financials for this. Luckily, you don't have to. Quen Noll has joined you. She's a skilled accountant, and peppy when she wants to be, but after about half an hour of conversation she's yawning and trying to take the work to do by herself. Looking over her work shows there's some quality skill on offer here, and her first act is to streamline your expenses for this next operation. The pay schedule for your operation has been increased! -44% Base Pay -22% for each facility destroyed -33% at end of contract She's already paying for herself! Your other acquired assets will take time to prove themselves, however. The James Barry class hospital ship is spacious and packed with beds, operating theaters and coffee makers. Your newly hired medical staff assure you that this is a VERY welcome feature. You're surprised at just how many beds there are most of all. Are there really going to be this many casualties? You saw your share of death, even as a farmer. Bandits got mowed down by the militia, criminals murdered in the night, and, obviously, it came time for every animal to be useful one way or another. But on a scale like this.... Your second Cadre is also completing their working up. They're a mix of veterans and rookies, just like your original cadre, and they should prove to be fine soldiers. However, something unusual happened. Well. It was your fault. Your curiosity got the better of you. You replied to the email and... agreed. You're not sure why. The respondent could be dangerous. A prankster. Or nobody. However, you would not be prepared for when they turned up. To be specific, when a 9 foot tall alien woke you up at the foot of your bed. It didn't take long before you were scared shitless, but that massive, imposing being just stared down at you. "You accepted my offer." He said. "Where shall I be bunking?" It took half a minute of silent staring before you came to realise what exactly was going on. Then, you sighed deeply. This all made perfect sense. You knew exactly what kind of alien he was. They defied a racial name, instead organising themselves into family-corporations (that became their group identifier). Emotional expression was deadpan, normally, but they only truly represented themselves through their art. Adolescents of the race were not so much raised as children but became apprentices in the family business. They were also famously literal and odd. The fact that he thought it was a good idea to surprise you like this is not out of the ordinary. Hannibal, as he liked to be called, was a rare kind of artist. A martial one. You knew he fully intended to use that sword in your service, so, you decided to keep him in reserve in case a plan needed him. Finally, it all came down to a couple of weeks-long cruise before your maiden voyage. It was time to look over your dossiers. The Situation You're headed to the chilly planet of New Shackle to help solve a labour dispute. Your employers, the New Miner's Union, broke off in violent clashes from the Outer Territories Mining Corporation. NMU now has 20% of the tonnage shipped of New Shackle, and seeks to destroy OTMC's operations. The mines are fed either by long railway lines or airships, and the railway lines are susceptible. Your orders are to make Line 1 and Line 2 of OTMC's network unusable until NMU reaches 75% tonnage shipped. Small actions and large actions can both have effects on the Tonnage Shipped. Success: NMU reaches 75% Tonnage Shipped. Failure: Campaign time runs out, CCU is destroyed/nonoperational. The Forces The NMU have friendly forces, but they're nowhere near Line 1 or 2. If it becomes possible or worthwhile to seize an enemy mine, it will be defended by the NMU, who are an eclectic mix of irregulars. The OTMC are the opponent for this operation. Their forces are organised as a security force. This means that they lack heavy equipment such as machine guns or other emplaced weapons, and mostly have small arms. However, they have a capable paramilitary branch, consisting of repurposed mining engineers with craftmade heavy weaponry. How effective they will be remains to be seen. In addition to foot soldiers, they possess capable and effective quick response forces, usually moving by helicopter or VTOL aircraft. That means that a small garrison could be quickly reinforced. The Location Each line has a number of stops. These stops represent locations of interest. Any insertion will have to be at one or the other end of the line- to allow orbitals to safely touch down, at least to begin with. Line 1 consists of: Ore Refinery->Security Base->Mine 1->Mine 2->Railway Depot->Rare Earths Extractor And line 2 consists of: Paramilitary Base->Artillery Firebase->Mine 3->Refinery Both lines can cover one another, but you will have more difficulty getting between the lines. The terrain is snowy and hilly, but not awfully so. It is mild enough that you will likely not need mountain nor extreme cold weather gear. The Prep First things first: Your soldiers need gear. Lots of it. Anything you don't provide will be provided by the locals, ie, a radio or a gun, but it's likely you could do a LOT better. So, it's time to use that spare time you've got to pump some stuff out. We're going to need 5 Designs to form the basis of your forces. When proposing designs, what 'slot' you're assigning is VERY important. Make sure to include what slot your design is going for. Votes will be counted per design- the most popular design per slot wins. 1st: Infantry Equipment Your infantry need standard kit that every man gets. This design will include things like armour, a basic weapon or two and any doodads you want. 2nd: Special Infantry Equipment This is something your infantry can use that's not something like a vehicle or battlesuit, but could be a heavy weapon, an orbital strike beacon, a special piece of acid resistant armour, etc... 3rd: Special Infantry Equipment As above. 4th: Free Design Use this to design whatever you want! 5th: Free Design Use this to design whatever you want! [spoiler]Wow, i finally got this goddamn update out. It took me days of bad luck, including one nearly finished post being wiped by an unfortunate backspace key. But it's finally ready![/spoiler.]
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 11:25 |
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Alright we're mostly fighting paramilitaries and air cavalry, so we don't need any super heavy weaponry but we're definitely gonna need MANPADS to keep the air cav off us. Special Infantry Equipment: "Broadhead" Missile System Man-portable shoulder-launched missile, intended primarily for use against airborne targets. I don't want to make any authoritative statements about its capabilities before whatever rolls in the background that determine quality are made, but the ideal design emphasizes a light, easy-to-carry design for ease of use by dismounted infantry, with a focus on accuracy/counter-countermeasures and range. If we roll really well, it would be nice to have different ammunition types, maybe an anti-tank or high-explosive option so it can be used as both an anti-air and anti-ground rocket, but the main priority is swatting enemy aircraft from as far away as possible.
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 18:19 |
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1: Standard Kit This is our first sortie so i figure we start small; lets give everyone the very most basic of rayguns. Sure, they heat up pretty quickly but the cold environment should provide suitable enough external cooling that it doesn't matter. Besides, they are incredibly cheap to make and easy to maintain! If we are allowed to add more than one item here, i'd like some decent augmented reality eyepieces for everyone as well, because the most important resource on the battlefield is information. 2: Special Gear Drones! Drones for everyone! These little guys will be the backbone for our augmented reality Battle Network, our eyes in the sky. 3: Special Gear Our intel says the enemy relies heavily on aircraft to get their limited units around quickly, so lets attempt to put a stop to that by giving every single soldier on our team a one-shot 'fire and forget' plasma launcher, allowing them to at least suppress reinforcements or with a lucky hit shoot them out of the sky. 4: Free Design They laughed at me when I told them the Shovel could be improved. Such a basic design, how could it ever be surpassed? I'll show them. I'll show them all! 5: Free Design A sand grenade. A ton of cover in an non-mechanized infantry portable solution! Probably illegal, quiet possibly very expensive, but our enemies will never see it coming.
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 18:35 |
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The other thing any modern army really needs are radios. A well-connected, well-informed group of soldiers can fight orders of magnitude more effectively than less coordinated troops. So, I propose that we make our premier piece of infantry equipment the: Tactical Suite Leverage our experience with electronics to give every soldier a networked comms suite built into their standard kit. Primary priorities beyond "lets everyone talk to each other wherever they are" would be security and stealth, we absolutely do not want it to get hacked into, and if it could be "quiet" enough in terms of how easy it is for a radio sniffer to detect (or the future equivalent) that we can still be sneaky with it, that'd be great. If the design comes out well, maybe add simple HUD elements like compass bearings displayed in the soldier's field of view. We don't want information overload or anything though. Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Aug 13, 2019 |
# ? Aug 13, 2019 18:49 |
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I really like the idea of a drone swarm as one of our pieces of special kit, Swedish. Giving every squad a swarm of recon drones to extend their awareness range sounds super useful. @ OP, I'm not sure how we're supposed to vote for things, will there be a voting round after people have had time to throw designs out there to decide what we actually put into production? If you're supposed to choose between voting for someone else's thing or proposing your own cool new thing for a slot, we're gonna get 95% of the people proposing their personal cool new thing idea with no actual consensus. Also, do you want us to set up a channel for this game on the CYOA Discord?
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 18:54 |
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Crazycryodude posted:I really like the idea of a drone swarm as one of our pieces of special kit, Swedish. Giving every squad a swarm of recon drones to extend their awareness range sounds super useful.
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 19:01 |
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Khamsin posted:Right, we're going to have a voting round about a day after the vote opens where each design will go head to head for its category. Also, I'd love a channel on the CYOA discord! Not sure where it is, though. https://discord.gg/CG8vxY Is there a general tech-level to aim for, here? What is the limit of stuff we could feasibly invent, especially this early?
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 19:02 |
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Here's an invite link to the Discord Also, cool, thanks for clearing that up re: voting, I'll write up a full slate of ideas and collate them into one post. E: beaten
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 19:03 |
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Standard Kit Comms Equipment with Augmented Reality headsets. Special Infantry Equipment 1. Electroshock Rifles, that can fry electronics as well as people. 2. Frost Grenades that use the ambient cold to put up spikes of ice, as well as make people... chill out. Free Design 1. Eye Spy, a spy drone shaped like a flying eye with stealth capabilities that can survey the battlefield and supply information. 2. Snow Shovel, so we can make camps or clear out areas of importance.
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 19:43 |
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Looking at the second round of votes, I'm not really sure how the accountant won out over the lawyer, but I'm not really in a position to complain. Here are my five Design votes: 1st: Standard Kit Commslink Armor with detailed battle compass display and threat detection radar 2nd: Special Infantry Equipment 1 Broadhead Shoulder-Mounted Missile System, for ground-to-air deterrance Magnaromp Electromagnetic Field Boots, for assaulting and staying firmly attached to rapidly-moving trains Deployable Shimmer-Shield, for creating defensible chokepoints for teammates along lengthy train corridors Armor-mounted Grapple Hook Launcher, for getting on and off the trains, vehicles, and helicopters in the first place Edit: Changed votes. See post with new votes below. Lux Anima fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Aug 13, 2019 |
# ? Aug 13, 2019 20:59 |
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Khamsin posted:The Prep You folks really seem to like the bullets portion of 'Bullets, Beans, and Bandages'. Even if its not popular, I want to give our troopers more than just guns and gun accessroies as they become 'space gang busters'. They're poor miners on a dirt ball, think we can do more to win hearts and minds here. Free Design Submission: Combat Rations (Self Contained, Menu Pattern 79) – a.k.a. ‘RaTy7’, or, ‘Sevens’ One of the fundamentals of warfare is that your troops will eat 3 times a day; either you supply them with food, or, they’ll take it from someone else. These combat rations, colloquially referred to by their menu patterns, are designed to sustain an individual engaged in heavy activity such as military training or during actual military operations when normal food service facilities are not available. Each menu pattern is unique to the individual designer’s food preferences and background, or in some cases, sense of humor. The combat ration is a totally self-contained operational meal consisting of a full meal packed in a flexible meal bag. The full bag is lightweight and fits easily into military field clothing pockets. Each meal bag contains an entrée and a variety of other components as listed on the menu pattern. ‘Sevens’ draw from a compliment of 36 different entrées (including pepperoni pizza, lemon pepper tuna, bacon with hash browns, and creamy spinach fettuccine) with allocations for vegan and vegetarian diets. Combat Life Saver First Aid Kit – a.k.a. ‘CLSFAK’, or, ‘FAKs’ Another fundamental of warfare is that your troops will suffer life threatening injuries every second they’re in the area of operations. The Combat Life Saver First Aid Kit, or ‘FAKs, is issued to every deployed solider so that they are able to, individually, address the two main causes for combat fatalities, that being blood loss, and airway obstruction. Specific kit components include hemostatic agents, trauma dressing, tourniquets, needles, combat gauze, chest seat packs, gloves, alcohol pads, duct tape, shears, rescue hook, casualty response card, eye shield, and resealable bags.
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 21:35 |
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So is the New Miner's Union like, an actual labor union, or is it just another private corporation with an interesting name?
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 22:16 |
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Based on some discussion in the Discord: Our best shot at completing this mission is to perform guerrilla tactic sabotage runs, to destroy the train tracks at various point until the opposing forces are spread too thin to properly defend their bases of operation. Here are my *refined* five Design votes: 1st: Standard Kit Commslink Armor with detailed battle compass display and threat detection radar 2nd: Special Infantry Equipment 1 Broadhead Shoulder-Mounted Missile System, for ground-to-air deterrence 3rd: Special Infantry Equipment 2 MagnaBolt Electromagnetic Rail-Splitters, for quickly and efficiently destroying the opfor's mag-rail tracks 4th: Free Design 1 Snow-Tread A.T.T.T. (All Terrain Troop Transport), or Snow-AT3, for quickly deploying and removing our cadres to and from the planned sabotage sites 5th: Free Design 2 Umbrella-Field Reactive Camo, creates a scan-spoofing illusion of a small hill covered in snow - used to hide our forces and vehicles when deployed in the field. Lux Anima fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Aug 14, 2019 |
# ? Aug 13, 2019 22:56 |
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Lux Animus posted:Based on some discussion in the Discord: For aesthetic reasons I'd really like it if we could have individual snowmobiles rather than APCs, so that we can have Western style train heist operations, but the fabricator time is probably better served producing fewer larger vehicles rather than more smaller ones. I'd add that our standard kit should probably contain short range weapons, something like semi-/full auto shotguns for clearing out train compartments in boarding actions, as well as some equivalent to flashbangs etc, basically focused on short range fighting in cramped spaces. Personally I think the general opening move should be to have our smaller cadre feign attacks on the trains, maybe split some rails to draw out the rapid response forces which are then ambushed by our larger cadre while in the air to thin out their numbers. Keep on the move to avoid artillery fire and focus on guerilla fighting to weaken the defences.
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# ? Aug 13, 2019 23:59 |
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Standard loadout: Bellringer Assault Rifles- I figure we want to start with a nice workhorse weapon and move up to more specialized stuff. I recommend a nice hefty slug thrower. Good old delta v is actually one of the harder things to negate. Lasers and other energy weapons can be rendered useless by stuff with super conductive properties. Explosives can be foiled by reactive armor and the like. But if you get enough mass going fast enough it'll have some effect on basically anything. Not saying our standard issue will be popping heavy armor but kinetics should be the hardest to gimmick overall. A good choice for a workhorse. Keep em purely mechanical and they're useful even in system infiltration and EMP heavy theaters. Whispernet Comgear- Inter-cadre communication gear should be fairly low profile. Last thing we want is any hunter-killer munitions riding our chatter down like targeting beacons. Yes the range suffers and it's more susceptible to jamming but it's important we have control of our EM emissions. For long range communications we've got point to point laser coms relayed from orbit. Hard to detect and hard to stop without total space superiority. Tac-suite "Highwire" Intelpack- Standard infoconsole, with AR integration, ballistic and directed energy trackback, basic thermal imaging, with hook-ins for ammo counts, medical module data, map packs and FOF tag schemes. Interface is heads-up visor with facial trodes and patented Tonguetek inputs, making the roof of one's mouth into a trackpad. Fully customizable UI to ensure you don't bog soldiers down with unneeded data. Flickerflak combat armor- It's always been harder to defend than to attack. With so many highly lethal weaponry options available it's easy to get bogged down with ever bulkier armors. At some point one has to prioritize. Flickerflak gear is designed to provide protection against some of the more lethal first strike weaponry under the assumption that a soldier's priority is getting out of the line of fire. Layered sections of metamaterial fiber and aersolizing refracting compounds make this gear very effective vs lasers. Initial burnthrough leeches heat away and produces scattering clouds. The metamaterial fibers are fairly sturdy and provide kevlar-like protection against ballistics and shrapnel as well but are not nearly as effective vs military grade ballistics. However the armor is light and allows for high mobility in a variety of environments. Ghostware memetic schema- Hiding is one thing. Ghostware takes the ancient art of camouflage to a more proactive level. Utilizing the latest anti-pattern recognition and fuzzy logic foiling designs this unconventional camo is designed to crash most neural net assisted surveillance into a confused pile of mixed signals and uncertain matches. Does nothing to hide one from the flesh and blood eyeball, but at least then the playing field is even. Also includes thermal baffles and EM screens. Smoke grenades- Doesn't really need to much explanation. Yes, they're fancier than you're grandpa's smoke poppers what with the IR scatter and refracting compounds but the concept is the same; big cloud of stuff that's hard to see through. Scuttlebunkers- These are neat. Dogsized hexapodal companion bot with a big angle carapace. They're designed as mobile cover and gear haulers. Tough as anything with multiple layers of specialized armor. Their power reserves provide back up juice for gear during long engagements. Theoretically can be fitted with a mortar or heavy weapon but lacks the combat AI or sensors to fire independently.
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# ? Aug 14, 2019 00:35 |
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Just giving up on actual eyeball defeating camo is a bold strategy but also tbh pretty smart, how many people rely on unassisted eyeballs these days anyways and even if they do spot you it's probably already too late and you're within shooting distance.
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# ? Aug 14, 2019 02:08 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 05:49 |
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I'm down for Lux's refined design votes. Lux Animus posted:Based on some discussion in the Discord: I feel the rail splitters are pretty key for this mission.
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# ? Aug 14, 2019 02:50 |