[CYOA] Space Australia: GAME. SET. MATCH.

Daxon

E - 2 We need to secure what we have and not let morale drop any lower.

Capfalcon

E - Research Industry [Secure Perimeter]
4 - Run a wider-scale lottery

We need to get rid of some population, and I really want a secure perimeter.

blahmcblah

E-4

Cayrus

E-4

Shiny New Toys

F3

Foomy

E - 2

Erlec

Long story + national anthems:

Spoiler:

After the annoncment of our lands as it's own nations, three humans each sit on their respective socialeconomical classes and think how to create a rousing song for our citizens.

1 - The rich machinist

"Cleary it must celebrate our discovery of the supercomputah!" yelles out this fifty year old man. Jailed for killing five immigrants back home, his defence was that he was trying to protect the national identity of his great country. After a feeling of loss from being deserted on this barren wasteland, he had new hope with the discovery of regal regency. "It must be supportive! It must be rousing! It must be.... must be.... PATRIOTIC!. With that he started to write:

Spoiler:

- Tune of Rule Brittania

When Australia first, from heaven's fall
Arose from out the dusty dunes;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian machines sang this strain:

"Rule, Australia! Australia rule the dunes:
"Britons ever ever ever shall be kings

The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to plebians fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and lordly,
The fear and envy of them all.

"Rule, Australia! Australia rule the dunes:
"Britons ever ever ever shall be kings ."

"Hah" the old man yelled out after writing the last chorus " these two verses out to be enough to convince these laggards to conform to the rule of our machine lords!". Running out of his modest living quarters he ran to the machine, to present his creation.

2 - The idealistic politican

Back on Earth she got jailed for "extreme protesting" she remembered. It was like they've never heard the reasonableness for blowing up the capital building just to show the public masses that the old regime must die. I mean come on, the old artistocrats were bound to kneel over from heart disease or whatever. Though they still lived even when they reached 142. Bit old for politicans she thought. Anyways this new national anthem. It must be for the people! Against this "machine overlord" everybody praised. One man/woman one vote! Anyways, words words words.... AHH!

Spoiler:

Tune of Advance Australia Fair

Australians all let us party,
For we are young and sexy;
We've golden dunes and mushrooms for joy;
Our home is a massive dune sea;
Our land abounds in sand and shrooms
Of beauty rich and cool;
In history's page, let every vote
Advance Sexy Australia.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Sexy Australia.

Yes!, This would surely win the vote! Reminding the youth about sex was always a clever way to introduce new reforms! Who knows how far this anthem can go! She smiled to herself as she got her copy to show off to her friends.

3 - The rover man

Man, this is a good day to be a rover. He thought to himself driving slowly across the dunes. The so called food he had in his rover was bobbing up and down, not fasten by anything due to none of the rovers being fast enough with the weight. The radiation was still here so he had to use his radiation suit. Some times though, he would wish he could just dump the food and try to do some jumps. All the other rover boys claimed they had done a jump, but none of them could get fast enough speed for it. Maybe if we had a song, we could get the other people to put money behind us he thought. Maybe if it went like...

Spoiler:

To the tune of America fuck yeah

Australia, FUCK YEAH!
Coming to conquer, the mother fucking planet yeah,
Australia, FUCK YEAH!
Riding rovers over dunes,
Jumping and doing maaad races dude!,
Australia, FUCK YEAH!
So choose to get rovers yeah!,
Australia, FUCK YEAH!

Yes! This song would surely impress everyone

So made three choices, thought a bit about them when not stressing over papers and whatnot. What do you guys think?

Captain Marcus

I am a fan of number 1. I'm sure the HRH Nexus would agree!

Also that is totally cool.

Virgil_Leads_You

The rover man's song brought a tear to my eye.

Elderlycrawfish

God bless you, Rover Man.

Capfalcon

There are opinions, and there are objective facts.

Saying that three is the best is one of the latter.

Tayrun

E 4

see317

So, I'm changing my vote for the good of the rover man, and wheelies everywhere.
F3

Somebody said Rover-man, and inspiration flowed.
With apologies to Billy Joel...

Spoiler:

It's dark in the corner of module 6 set aside as a bar (useful for maintaining morale and as a meeting hall, Sir Bruce said), a thick haze of locally produced smoke drifts through the air as well as a hint of earth grown tobacco from some hidden stash, a homemade still in the corner promises a brief release from the dreary passage of time on this bizarre world. The barkeep wipes a dirty glass with a filthy rag before putting it back on the counter behind him, then turns his attention to wiping the filthy rag across the reclaimed door that serves as a bar.
A young man is sitting in front of an odd contraption, a long, roughly triangular piece of hull salvaged from the wreckage of pod 8. One side of the triangle had been carefully cut into narrow strips almost all the way down. The triangular comb is fixed to a resonating box, also fashioned from salvaged material. The young man produces a small mallet and strikes one of the teeth, frowning at the note he pulls a pair of metal shears out of his pocket and trims a tiny sliver off. Striking again, he seems satisfied with his adjustment, though it's doubtful any of the bar's occupants would have been able to tell the difference. He glares at the overworked atmosphere unit briefly, it's barely able to maintain a breathable atmosphere for the crowded pod, and the variations in pressure are playing hell with his attempts to keep his instrument tuned.
Stowing the shears back in his pocket he pulls out a second mallet and begins playing a tune on the odd instrument.
Moments later, another convict joins in on his harmonica. No jerry rigged piece of tin, this, but an actual antique instrument from the old prisons on Earth. Passed down from old timer to new fish for generations. It's seen more time inside a cell then any ten convicts on the base. As the melancholy tune fills the air, most of the conversation in the bar quiets.

The young man sings quietly at first, though his voice has a resonance that fills the bar, cutting through the slurred ramblings of the few patrons still talking. After a few lines, the convicts and sparkies join in on the chorus...

It's four a.m. on a Saturday,
The Jackeroo crowd shuffles back
There's a Sparkie man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his moonshine and 'sack

He says, "Son, go an' pop me a wheelie
I'm not really sure how you do,
But it's cool and it's sweet and I know it completes
the missing part of my soul..."

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Chorus:
Pop us a wheelie, you're the rover man
Pop them up high tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a wheelie,
And you've got to pop it up right.

Now the Brute at the bar is a friend of mine
He makes the best shivs you'll see
But he's quick with his fists and he's made me his miss
and there's some place that he'd rather be
He says "Boy, this world is just killing me."
as his smile drained away with his glee,
"But, for a moment, I could be a free man
If I could just see a wheelie..."

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Now Jake was a political satirist
Who never held a joke in his life
And he's talkin' to Sir Bruce, who's getting a bit loose
And planning on using his knife.

And the wait-bot is turning in pirouettes,
While the guard-bot brutally gets beat
Yes they're both needing a bit of maintenance
But the sparks that they throw off are neat.

Chorus:
Pop us a wheelie, you're the rover man
Pop them up high tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a wheelie,
And you've got to pop it up right.

It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the Monarchy tubes seems to smile
Cause they know that it's me, they've been coming to see
to forget about their lives for a while.
In my head the rover growls like a carnivore
And the exhaust fumes smells like cheap brew
In my head it's so sweet, and makes me complete
But they say, "Man what are you gonna do?"

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Chorus:
Pop us a wheelie, you're the rover man
Pop them up high tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a wheelie,
And you've got to pop it up right.

Draeven

F-4
We need to weed out the weak and give our rover men some extended range.

NotoriusBEN

F-4

along with added rover coverage, maybe we can get these batteries tied into the weapons and have some fairly cool plasma knives. They wouldnt be like lightsabers, so no jedi fencing. Think of it more like an overcharged pig-sticker.

also, set them layabouts to work. A plynth will be erected from a solid piece of rock and have the names of the Fallen etched upon its smooth surface so that all will know the glory and sacrifice of their early forefathers to drill for Space Australia. (and keep the population in check for a couple more turns)

BobCesca

F 3

Anialos

see317 wrote:

So, I'm changing my vote for the good of the rover man, and wheelies everywhere.
F3

Somebody said Rover-man, and inspiration flowed.
With apologies to Billy Joel...

Spoiler:

It's dark in the corner of module 6 set aside as a bar (useful for maintaining morale and as a meeting hall, Sir Bruce said), a thick haze of locally produced smoke drifts through the air as well as a hint of earth grown tobacco from some hidden stash, a homemade still in the corner promises a brief release from the dreary passage of time on this bizarre world. The barkeep wipes a dirty glass with a filthy rag before putting it back on the counter behind him, then turns his attention to wiping the filthy rag across the reclaimed door that serves as a bar.
A young man is sitting in front of an odd contraption, a long, roughly triangular piece of hull salvaged from the wreckage of pod 8. One side of the triangle had been carefully cut into narrow strips almost all the way down. The triangular comb is fixed to a resonating box, also fashioned from salvaged material. The young man produces a small mallet and strikes one of the teeth, frowning at the note he pulls a pair of metal shears out of his pocket and trims a tiny sliver off. Striking again, he seems satisfied with his adjustment, though it's doubtful any of the bar's occupants would have been able to tell the difference. He glares at the overworked atmosphere unit briefly, it's barely able to maintain a breathable atmosphere for the crowded pod, and the variations in pressure are playing hell with his attempts to keep his instrument tuned.
Stowing the shears back in his pocket he pulls out a second mallet and begins playing a tune on the odd instrument.
Moments later, another convict joins in on his harmonica. No jerry rigged piece of tin, this, but an actual antique instrument from the old prisons on Earth. Passed down from old timer to new fish for generations. It's seen more time inside a cell then any ten convicts on the base. As the melancholy tune fills the air, most of the conversation in the bar quiets.

The young man sings quietly at first, though his voice has a resonance that fills the bar, cutting through the slurred ramblings of the few patrons still talking. After a few lines, the convicts and sparkies join in on the chorus...

It's four a.m. on a Saturday,
The Jackeroo crowd shuffles back
There's a Sparkie man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his moonshine and 'sack

He says, "Son, go an' pop me a wheelie
I'm not really sure how you do,
But it's cool and it's sweet and I know it completes
the missing part of my soul..."

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Chorus:
Pop us a wheelie, you're the rover man
Pop them up high tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a wheelie,
And you've got to pop it up right.

Now the Brute at the bar is a friend of mine
He makes the best shivs in town
But he's quick with his fists and he's made me his miss
and there's some place that he'd rather be
He says "Boy, this world is just killing me."
as his smile drained away with his glee,
"But, for a moment, I could be a free man
If I could just see a wheelie..."

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Now Jake was a political satirist
Who never held a joke in his life
And he's talkin' to Sir Bruce, who's getting a bit loose
And planning on using his knife.

And the wait-bot is turning in pirouettes,
While the guard-bot brutally gets beat
Yes they're both needing a bit of maintenance
But the sparks that they throw off are neat.

Chorus:
Pop us a wheelie, you're the rover man
Pop them up high tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a wheelie,
And you've got to pop it up right.

It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the Monarchy tubes seems to smile
Cause they know that it's me, they've been coming to see
to forget about their lives for a while.
In my head the rover growls like a carnivore
And the exhaust fumes smells like cheap brew
In my head it's so sweet, and makes me complete
But they say, "Man what are you gonna do?"

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Chorus:
Pop us a wheelie, you're the rover man
Pop them up high tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a wheelie,
And you've got to pop it up right.

Anyone who votes against this man is a heretic! F-3!

Mojo_Jojo

Oh shit, it's a tie between 3 and 4. E leads over F by one vote. Let me give it a second for any last minute stragglers to break this deadlock.

Otherwise, I'll flip a coin.

Also, Erlec, Australia FUCK YEAH, is incredible and captures the pioneer spirit.

Tmoiy

I'll switch to F-4 to break the tie. More rocks for the rock god, etc, etc.

Flarne

F-4 sounds fantastic.

Elderlycrawfish

Traitorous energy mongers! We coulda set up a nice perimeter to monitor/keep out the space ghosts, but nooooo, you need more batteries for your Gameboys and walkmans.

Going to go back to my bunk and find my toothbrush shiv to shank you fellas protect myself now that we have no perimeter.

Mojo_Jojo

Edit: that last vote would have made it a draw. Too slow old man! I counted a one vote win for E.

Turn 19

Decision: E4 - Research securing your lands and commence the death lottery!

Overview: Glorious Space Australia
Population: 2.6k [2.5k cap] [1.2k civilian employment, 0.1k military] OVERPOPULATION
Food: 2.3k [(+2.3k -2.6k)/turn]
Resources: 0.6k [+0.6k/turn]
Energy: 2/8
Morale:Unhappy [-2] [Drugs: +2 on morale checks]
Frozen Dead People : 0.2k [0.4k of food]
Infected: 0.5k

Pod Six Colony: New Botany Bay
Mechanised Xenofarm [+1k food per turn, -1 energy, 0.1k pop workers, Big]
Crashed Pod [2.5k Housing, no energy requirement]
Hydroponics Bay [+0.5k food per turn, needs 2 energy]
Enhanced Nuclear microreactor [+8 Energy]
HRH Hexus Supercomputer [needs 1 energy]

Hex 1 (Occupied)
Mechanised Solar Xeno(drug)farm [+0.8k food per turn, (0.2k of food space reserved for drugs) -1 energy (provided by solar panels), 0.1k pop workers, Big]

Hex 2 (Occupied)
Irradiated [No farming/housing here]
An interesting crater

Hex 3 (Occupied)
Poor soil [Half farming yield]
Mine [+0.3k* resources per turn, needs 2 energy, needs 0.4k* population, costs 1.5k resources, is Big]
*Overworking 0.6/0.6k for 0.3k bonus [Difficulty 8 check each turn to avoid an accident [0.1-0.3k deaths, and then a difficulty 11, 12 or 13 check to avoid dropping a morale notch temporarily]

Forces
NBB
Small gang of armed prisoners [Size1, Strength 1]
Horde of convicts and colonists with overcharged tools and big machine parts [Size20, Strength0.25]

Hex 1
Small gang of armed prisoners [Size1, Strength 1]
Small gathering of convicts and colonists with overcharged tools and big machine parts [Size1, Strength0.25]

Hex 2
None

Hex 3
Group of convicts and colonists with overcharged tools and big machine parts [Size4, Strength0.25]

Research
Planetology III: Basic Xenobotany [allows Xenofarm], Anti-fungal Design [Removes fungus problems on short trips], Elementary Xenonarcotics [allows basic medical and recreation drugs to be farmed]
Fundamental Science II: Basic Planet Electromagnetics [allows communication via targeted comm lasers], Radioactivity Safety Protocols [Removes problems of radioactivity for short exposures in small groups], Basic Solar Energy[Adapt existing solar cells to supply one farm, allow concentrated solar plants]
Industry IV: Basic Transportation [Allows rovers, double exploration yield], Basic Mining [allows mines], Mechanised Farming [Xenofarms now need 0.1k pop & produce 1k food/turn], Security Perimeter [Makes it harder to sneak into occupied hexes]
Military I: Improvised Weapons [Boosts colonist strength to 0.25]

Summary

The overcrowding combined with the fertility drugs ensures that the populace does not grow. The effects of overcrowding begin to manifest almost immediately, however. Within a closed system, any illness rapidly spreads. Coughs and colds were unavoidable and the symptoms easily treated (especially with the drugs produced from native plantlife). Still, with the air scrubbers working overtime, something more sinister appears to have mutated. For now, it's just a persistent cough, but it's very wide spread. Without labs to study the bacteria or virus responsible it's impossible to know whether the illness will continue beyond these mild symptoms.
[Population growth roll 1d6(-3) - 1d6. 2(-3) - 4. No growth]

Pod Eight is no more. The last of the structure and internal systems has been broken down and dragged back to New Botany Bay. While the land is still too irradiated to allow settlement, quite a few people are pointing at the crater which the secret pod crashed in (and deepened slightly). Although you don't have the technology or resources right now, it could be domed over to isolate the environment. Terraforming the interior would be much easier than the entire planet and it could provide a hell of a lot of housing, and maybe some better farming (for both xenospecies and earth-natives). A good deal of the people want to keep the site free of any large structures until they figure out how to start doing that. The other camp argues there will be other craters, and it coul take a long time before you're anywhere near ready to start that kind of thing.
[Roll versus 8. It's a 7(-2)=5. Failure, salvage ends. Salvage 1d4(-1). 2(-1) = 0.1k resources. Hex 2 is now cleared and open for construction]

The Iron Lottery is announced and the HRH Nexus draws the first batch of names. The citizens (the line between who was originally incarcerated and who was free having now blurred into irrelevance) take the news with grim humour. The first major accident may change that. Still, the boost in production is notably, with the mining facility churning out double the supply of resources it had been previously.
[Mine check versus 8. It's a 16(-2)=14. Success. No accident]

Even armed with their (slightly less) crude weapons, the people of Space Australia do not feel safe and so they begin construction of "The Wall". Wall was a bad term for the construction, but the name stuck. Every few hundred metres there was another ten-metre pylon, all the way around the areas held by the colony, steel cable was strung between them. It wouldn't stop a determined assault, but neither would the wind knock it down. The pylons were wired into the network grid, and each was fitted with an array of cameras. Anything that tried to enter Space Australian territory would be spotted. If something out there wanted a fight, then it wouldn't find any Space Australians with their pants down.
[-0.1k resources/hex to set up the perimeter. Total -0.4k]

Map



Decision Time
(Choose a letter & a number)

A - Explore a hex [see the map, give a direction]
B - Build More Housing [+0.5k population cap, needs 1 energy, costs 0.5k resources]
C - Build Labs [needs 4 energy, costs 3k resources] [You need this to try and repair the data-cores] NOT ENOUGH RESOURCES
D - Build Concentrated Solar Plant in 2 [+3 energy, needs 0.1k population, costs 2k resources, is Big] NOT ENOUGH RESOURCES
E - Build Mine in 2 [+0.3k resources per turn, needs 2 energy, needs 0.4k population*, costs 1.5k resources, is Big] NOT ENOUGH RESOURCES
F - Research Planetology [Radiation clean-up]
G - Research Industry [???] LABS REQUIRED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
H - Research Fundamental Science [Improved Energy Storage]
I - Research Military [Defensive traps]

1 - Ignore the illness, it's not actually causing any problems for the moment and it might go away
2 - Treat with heavy doses of broad spectrum antibiotics and anti-virals [0.5k resources for a difficulty 10 check to cure]
3 - Quarantine the infected [0.5k population unavailable to work. Might stop the spread]
4 - 2 & 3!

Edit2: Note that you've only got 0.6k resources, so you can't choose B with option 2 (or 4). As that would need a total of 1k.

Flarne

B4 is clearly the most fantastic option.

We should get exploring some more soon. We've only seen a tiny little bit of this place, there might be hidden treasures right around the corner!

Jam Warrior

F 2&3

Your local public health scientist says when given a choice of actions to potentially nip pandemic in the bud you take them all, and yesterday!

If I have to pick one of them then 2/. Drugs have a chance of stopping it entirely whereas Quarantine only buys time. It won't make the problem go away and eventually disease will seep free.

Snicketysnick

F-4 if we are allowed more than one response to the plague, I'd vote for additional quarantine.

Radiation cleanup seems useful, more humanitarian measures should be used in the face of disease, we don't want the extra morale hit after the Iron Lottery has commenced.

edited to add Quarantine.

BobCesca

B 4

More housing will help the overcrowding and quarantine will buy us some time.

Mojo_Jojo

Added an option to do both 2 & 3. It makes sense.

BobCesca

ok. I'll edit my post then.

Erlec

B-3

Building new housing is an excellent excuse to quarantine the folks and get rid of the "unqualifed people"

Daxon

B - 3

I assume something that is not "big" can be stacked with something that is big. Because otherwise we have nowhere to really build any additional housing and need to explore a bit first.

Mojo_Jojo

For simplicity anything not-big is just going in New Botany Bay. There may be exceptions, but I'll let you know.

Also, you don't have the resources to choose B 2/4 (0.5k for the houses, 0.5k for the drugs). I think it's best if we make sure that everything is available up front with this stuff. Otherwise it's going to cause me headaches (say the mine broke down and didn't produce anything this round for example).

Daxon

Oh okay, fair enough.

edit: we're running low on energy though, probably have to research improved battery storage next turn.

That Dave Fella

H - 4!

So we can explore further and find more cool shit.

Anialos

H-4!

Snicketysnick

I have a question now that we have our fence set up. If we claim a new hex by building in it or doing some other work there, is it the perimeter automatically extended to include that hex? Or do we have to make additional Build Fence actions?

NotoriusBEN

H-4

The death lottery will roll on until we suffer a couple sets of death. That solves the housing issue for the moment.
Improving rover tech will allow us to make a better go at exploration next turn. along with the possibility for plasma torch pig-stickers.

GrimmyTOA

Can we build more housing in one of our existing hexes, or are we going to need to explore again? Also, what Snicketysnick said.

H4

see317

H4
For the Rover man.

jakobagger

H4

When we've got the resources and energy I really think we should be building those labs. Science is pretty important! (Also go into the social engineering tab and allocate more energy to labs and less to psych and economy. And switch from Power to Knowledge. What do you mean this isn't that game. Shut up and let's launch planet busters at Miriam.)

Mojo_Jojo

Snicketysnick wrote:

I have a question now that we have our fence set up. If we claim a new hex by building in it or doing some other work there, is it the perimeter automatically extended to include that hex? Or do we have to make additional Build Fence actions?

I'll just extend it as you occupy hexes (so exploring won't cut it, but building something, even like the temporary pod eight salvage yard, will extend it).

Can we build more housing in one of our existing hexes, or are we going to need to explore again? Also, what Snicketysnick said.

You'll be able to build housing a few more times in New Botany Bay itself. Beyond that there will be other solutions which might require land.