Mission: Outpost 3

I don't think we need that much. Worst case scenario we will just have to stick one drilling machine run into the schedule to make a hole for the pipe.

Of course, that means getting at it from the outside, or forgoing the use of the exo-skeletons (they can't fit to the tight quarters of the starship's corridors).

Sufficient to have industrial production (ie. not a significant bottleneck at your industry), think something closer to these:




That's enough to get you the liquefied / solidified atmospheric compounds as a Resource - something that I don't bother keeping a track off and simply assume you have available for industrial scale projects as a non-depletable source.

We will wait with it until we get the life support running, wake up all the people, and can have a huge manpower action to do it.

Can Stig do it? Or do we need to add a drilling machine run or a few to dig the hole to the current (or a new) digging project?

February - March 2076 Earth Calendar

Expected arrival of Ark 3: January 2080 Earth Calendar.

Outpost Statistics:

Psychology Card: 'Hostile Environment Is A Threat' (lasts until September 2076)
++ Mining
- Manufacturing & Building
- Surface

Installations and projects:
Optronic Colony Central Computer
OS-AI bot and rover remote control (+5 to all relevant actions)
My First Factory-kit deployed
Mineral Exploration & Scout Rover Prototype (+1 Action Other: "Scout and Survey" at 1 manpower)
Underground Outpost, Stage 1
Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 26 of 150 complete.
Underground Outpost Stage 2, 225 of 400

Available Science and Engineering projects:
Eng:The Underground Complex, -20, 0 of 200
Eng: Eridani-IV Machine Adaptation, -20
Sci: Not-iron. -30

Inexhaustible Resources:
Iron Ore
Silicate compounds.
Carbon mono- and dioxide gas
Sulphuric gases
Argon gas
Xenon gas

Exhaustible Resources:
He-3 Fuel. (6.30 units) (3 units of fuel sufficient to run a normal system at 100% for 5 Earth years)
Basic Maintenance Supplies: 2.30 containers (Consume 0.2 units for a +10 at relevant maintenance, repair or manufacturing roll. Once per turn per action only)
Advanced Maintenance Supplies: 2.25 containers (Consume 0.2 units for a +10 at relevant maintenance, repair or manufacturing roll. Once per turn per action only)
Food. 2 containers (1 container enough for 10 persons, for 1 Earth year)
Ship cargo in cargo bays


Population: 8+1(hero) awake + 25 in cryo-sleep +1 insane in cryo-sleep +1 coma-patient in cryo-sleep
Manpower Abundance at 3+ free workers
Medical Care: Ship Only
Life Support Capacity: Ship Only
Food production capacity: Ship hydroponics only
Power Used / Power Produced: 39 MW /39 MW(reactor at 78%)

Hero Units:
Stig 'Nailer' Svensson

List of modifiers:
+30 to a single engineering action per turn (Optronic Colony Central Computer)
-10 to a single Manufacturing & Building Action (Psych Card)
-10 to all prolonged surface-based actions (Psych Card)
+20 to a single mining action. (Psych Card)
-5 to a random action (Hero Stig, Disorganized penalty)
+5 to all relevant actions. (OS-AI: bot & Rover remote control)

If we drove the rover by remote control would it negate the psych card penalty for prolonged surface actions?

Yes.

@Marduk: Since we can't wake up any other crew members until the underground base is sealed would you have any objections to postponing the gas harvester one turn to get the 2nd exo-skeleton repaired? It'll remove a -10 penalty from the sealing action every turn.

I was thinking of something like this:

Maintenance & Repair Actions (1 slot):
+1 Slot, Hero: Stig
[ ] Hero (+10): Repair the power cable and other dust storm damage.
[ ] Maintenance and Damage Control Bay (1 manpower): Constructor exo-skeleton repairs, 75 of 100

The gas harvester will boost factory production though. The question is how much. Maybye more than +10, and even if not a bonus, then by having more kinds of materials available. We can have the maintenance bay finish the exoskeleton next turn.

Action list *COMPLETE*

Manufacturing & Building Action (2 slots):
[ ] Exo-skeleton Constructors (1 manpower) (1/2 suit under repair): Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 26 of 150 complete. -10 missing exo-skeleton. +10 basic parts.
[ ] Factory (+20) (1 manpower): Type 2 Reduced Military Bunkhouse, 62 of 120 complete. -10 ore processing. -10 Psych card: Why aren't I mining?
[ ] [ ] Factory queue: Carpeting, furniture and extra ventilation for the above

Mining Action (2 slots):
[ ] D&D Vehicles (1 manpower, 1 damaged): Used
[ ] Mining Bot Team (+8) (1 manpower) (1/10 bot missing): Continue Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2, 255 of 400. +5 OS-AI, +20 Psych card: Need to be mining.
Continue, with both slots this time.

Engineering Actions (0 slots):
+1 Slot, Hero: Stig
[ ] Hero: Rig a system for the factory that would allow it to make use of atmospheric gasses from the surface. +30 central computer.

Maintenance & Repair Actions (1 slot):
[ ] Maintenance and Damage Control Bay (1 manpower): Repair the power cable and other dust storm damage, use basic parts for +10

Constructor exo-skeleton repairs, 75 of 100 (on hold)

Other Actions
[ ] Scout And Survey (1 manpower, using remote control) - survey the mining area with GPR, try to map out different rock\ore types. +5 OS-AI.
[ ] Care and habitation bay (1 manpower) - basic medical checkup of all awake crew. Check status of injured crew member in cryo.

Where did you get that idea? The factory itself can only produce stuff at certain pace. It's fast (for something its size), that's the +20 when it doesn't have to process raw materials (such as iron ore) into usable format (such as purified iron or steel), but can instead begin working right from fabrication and assembly.

Getting those compounds would give you more options beyond plain iron and glass as far as construction materials go. It does nothing at all to how fast the Factory itself can take those raw materials (once processed) and put them together into something useful.

Boost in possible product pool instead of speed then.

Check with Optronic Colony Central Computer about minerals likely to be found around volcanic vents. Would mining nearby volcanic vents provide an equivalent or wider range of materials than the gas harvester?

We will need to get the chemistry lab to analyze all the stuff to get good info on that. The computer doesn't have any decent info on this planet's geology, only on Earth's. Besides, mining these materials requires taking bots off complex building, while atmosphere essentially requires no extra effort for any amount of it.

Ok, we'll go with building the gas harvester then. Action list above is complete.

March 2076
Expected time until Ark 3 Arrives: 3 years 9 months

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3638065/

Manufacturing & Building Action (2 slots):
[ ] Exo-skeleton Constructors (1 manpower) (1/2 suit under repair): Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 26 of 150 complete. -10 missing exo-skeleton. +10 basic parts.
(0.2 units of basic parts consumed)

(96 Crit success, +10 -10)
+ Crit Success overwork (2d10): 7
= 103

Talk about performance improvement. Once the dust from the caverns had been mostly cleared off, and air-tight adhesives and insulators were brought out to fill the cracks with, this project took off flying. In fact, the construct unit has begun preparatory work for the installation of air-locks: 1 to the technical shaft, one to the main entrance / vehicle shaft, and one to the incomplete portions of the Stage 2 digging area.

Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 129 of 150

[ ] Factory (+20) (1 manpower): Type 2 Reduced Military Bunkhouse, 62 of 120 complete. -10 ore processing. -10 Psych card: Why aren't I mining?

(84+ 20 -10 -10 -20 (Severe resource shortfall: carbon) )

It appears the in-built expert system of the factory had decided to get the complex stuff out of the way first. Now it's just acting as a glorified ore processor, doing a little fabricating here and there for bolts to go through the steel girders or forming simple 90-degree angles. On the last days of the month, the factory presses out the few hundred kilos of low-quality steel sheets used as outer covering for the building, along with the extremely simple and limited lighting system from the minute amounts of spare surplus exotic minerals. In any case, the parts are all ready and waiting for the actual structure to be built from them. For a constructor exo-skeleton, this is a trivial task that takes a few days (may take other action that turn at -5)

Type 2 Reduced Military Bunkhouse, complete.

Mining Action (2 slots):
[ ] D&D Vehicles (1 manpower, 1 damaged): Continue Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2
[ ] Mining Bot Team (+5) (1 manpower) (3/10 bot missing or waiting repairs): Continue Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2, 255 of 400. +5 OS-AI, +20 Psych card: Need to be mining.

(61 + 22 +5 +5 +20 = 113)

With no not-iron in the way, the bots and vehicle manage good time. They even finish the last two of the medium chambers, with only the large chamber remaining incomplete – and even that has been started.

Having worked for so long underground now, and the airlocks starting to come online, the bot operator and crewman driving the vehicle get together one evening. Two hours later, they've put on paper a proposal to circumvent the time-consuming part of hauling the newly-created rubble out via the airlock systems, and then hauling those materials for the factory to use. They want to make a concentrated study of underground material transportation, and a plan of applying that into practice in the form of automated material flows and logistics deep underground. They expect it could really help in the underground mining efforts, for example, and help in expanding the industry of the colony.
Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2, 368 of 400.
New Engineering Project Available: Underground Material Flows And Logistics (-20)

Engineering Actions (0 slots):
+1 Slot, Hero: Stig
[ ] Hero: Rig a system for the factory that would allow it to make use of atmospheric gasses from the surface. +30 central computer.

(3), Critical fail
(+30 -5 Stig)
= 28

“Wha', you wan't me to dig through rock with my bare hands and magic up an atmospheric processor larger than the factory itself is? I'm not bloody MacGyver, I can't rework reality like that with a pair of pliers, 1.5V battery and a coat hanger! Give me something to work with.”

What you're asking from Stig is a fairly large task. Unless he blocks the main shaft with an air duct or makes the technical shaft impassable to humans due to very high wind speeds, you need a third shaft to aboveground. And expand the factory cavern a bit, to accommodate for the processing equipment. Stig plans it all out, even pointing out that you do not actually need to cover the shaft with anything or make it airtight. All you need is the ability to move large quantities of local atmosphere in and out irrespective of the upcoming main entrance airlock (which in turn will be big enough to accommodate vehicles).

The rest is just filters (for the dust), compressors and separators, fed air by several industrial scale fans. Of course, that's all going to eat power.

Stig gets to work in rigging up the basics, but says he'll need the factory for a month at some point, and the mining bots need to dig out the dedicated air shaft.
Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype, 28 of 200.

Maintenance & Repair Actions (1 slot):
[ ] Maintenance and Damage Control Bay (1 manpower): Repair the power cable and other dust storm damage, use basic parts for +10
(0.2 units of basic maintenance parts consumed)
(33+10 +10 (minor damage only) = 53), Success

With equipment and parts, fixing the damage was easy enough. Frankly, just opening the outer casing of the two bots helped a lot – brushing out the resulting 10 kg of dust and sand was another task entirely. A good oiling, replaced hydraulic pumps and liquid rubber patch on top of the power cable has everything broken by the storm running at optimal capacity.
2 mining bots back in action, power cable repaired

Other Actions
[ ] Scout And Survey (1 manpower, using remote control) - survey the mining area with GPR, try to map out different rock\ore types. +5 OS-AI.

(19 +5 = 24), fail

With your base already 30m below the surface of the ground, which in turn is made up of mostly ferrous ore, the GPR is hard pressed. You find out how the deposit of not-iron continues towards the surface for a bit before cutting off, but not much else. The rest looks fairly uniform old volcanic iron-rich rock, much like the stuff you've been digging out for months now and have piled outside into great heaps.


[ ] Care and habitation bay (1 manpower) - basic medical check-up of all awake crew. Check status of injured crew member in cryo.

You're a bit short on diagnostic equipment for a proper medical check-up – the bay was built for emergency care only. Some basics can be checked however, and nothing strange or alarming comes up.
The injured crewmember in the cryo though is a different story. Glass covering, deep sleep and frozen body make it impossible to run even most basic tests, and with a coma patient you can't deduce much from his drastically slowed heartbeat and respiration. Well, he's not dead yet, so that's something.

Can we wake people up more slowly than 1 month? It took 3 in the ship.

We got lucky this turn, we are close to waking up the rest of the gang.

I thought it took 3 days to wake someone up?

In emergencies, dangerous.

3 days is for emergency wakeup with unknown consequences on the subject. It takes us a month to revive someone safely.

*ACTION LIST INCOMPLETE*

Manufacturing & Building Action (2 slots):
[ ] Exo-skeleton Constructors (1 manpower) (1/2 suit under repair): Build Type 2 Reduced Military Bunkhouse in one of the unused medium caverns. Trivial task.
[ ] Exo-skeleton queue: Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 129 of 150 complete. -10 missing exo-skeleton. -5 combined action penalty.

[ ] Factory (+20) (1 manpower): Carpeting, furniture and extra ventilation for the bunkhouse. -10 ore processing. -10 Psych card: Why aren't I mining?
[ ] Factory queue: Assist the Atmospheric Exploitation Plant project

Mining Action (2 slots):
[ ] D&D Vehicles (1 manpower, 1 damaged): Used
[ ] Mining Bot Team (+8) (1 manpower) (1/10 bot missing): Continue Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2, 368 of 400. +5 OS-AI, +20 Psych card: Need to be mining.
Continue, with both slots this time.

[ ] Queue for both slots: Assist the Atmospheric Exploitation Plant project.

Engineering Actions (0 slots):
+1 Slot, Hero: Stig
[ ] Hero: Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype, 28 of 200. +30 central computer.

Maintenance & Repair Actions (1 slot):
[ ] Maintenance and Damage Control Bay (1 manpower): Constructor exo-skeleton repairs, 75 of 100.

Other Actions
[ ] Scout And Survey (1 manpower, using remote control if possible) - perform GPR survey from inside the underground complex, try to map out different rock\ore types. +5 OS-AI.

Possible changes:
* Leave out the bunkhouse carpeting due to carbon shortage?
* Alternative items for factory queue: Ore processor, engineer's office, backup power source capable of cold starting reactor, parts for medical bay upgrade.

Manufacturing & Building Action (2 slots):
[ ] Exo-skeleton Constructors (1 manpower) (1/2 suit under repair): Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 26 of 150 complete. -10 missing exo-skeleton. +10 basic parts.

Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 129 of 150
Continue. If time left, deploy Type 2 Reduced Military Bunkhouse, chemistry lab kit and bio sludge compressor in this order, in the medium sized caves.

[ ] Factory (+20) (1 manpower): -10 Psych card: Why aren't I mining?
Assist Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype.

Mining Action (2 slots):
[ ] D&D Vehicles (1 manpower, 1 damaged): Continue Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2
[ ] Mining Bot Team (+8) (1 manpower) (1/10 bot missing): Continue Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2, 368 of 400. +5 OS-AI, +20 Psych card: Need to be mining.

Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2, 368 of 400.
Continue.If spare time left, dig the shaft for Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype. If still time left, do general cleanup and reinforcement work around the complex.

Engineering Actions (0 slots):
+1 Slot, Hero: Stig
[ ] Hero: Rig a system for the factory that would allow it to make use of atmospheric gasses from the surface. +30 central computer.

Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype, 28 of 200.
Continue, +30 bonus from central computer and +15 bonus from factory assistance.

Maintenance & Repair Actions (1 slot):
[ ] Maintenance and Damage Control Bay (1 manpower):

Continue Constructor exo-skeleton repairs, 75 of 100
If time left, do maintenance on the other exoskeleton.

Other Actions
[ ] Scout And Survey (1 manpower, using remote control, +5 OS-AI) - go visit the glacier some times, take glacier and rock samples, do some GPR scanning around, and then start carrying back increasingly large amounts of ice to test it's payload\range curve.
[ ] Start atmospherizing the complex with it's life support as soon as sealed, test sealing and atmosphere (1 manpower, maybye OS-AI bonus)
[ ] Start waking up all cryosleepers except for the half dead and the crazy one. Slowly (1-2 months).

Mine has more overroll queue.

Forgot factory asistance +15 bonus.

Overroll queue. Should have one.

We have just done that.

We will fix it soon one way or another (life support carbon).

Stig needs the factory, let's not slow him down.
I would say office, then ore processor, then medbay, then power source (if we can make a decent one now at all).

As for power source... Any ideas, except for a battery? I would say that the only workable source we have fuel for now is another fusion reactor, helium or hydrogen one. And we will soon need more power anyway, so if we spend efforts on building a power source, let's make it a decent 50+ MW one, not some puny few MW.

Revised plan. For the survey rover I was thinking of scanning from inside the complex instead of the surface but collecting ice is more valuable at the moment. Power source was either some batteries or a hydrogen fuel cell. It only needs to be enough to startup the reactor if it suffers a breakdown, running life support is optional.

Manufacturing & Building Action (2 slots):
[ ] Exo-skeleton Constructors (1 manpower) (1/2 suit under repair): Underground Atmospheric Sealing, 129 of 150 complete. -10 missing exo-skeleton. +10 basic parts. -5 combined action (maybe).
[ ] Exo-skeleton queue: If time left, deploy Type 2 Reduced Military Bunkhouse, chemistry lab kit and bio sludge compressor in this order, in the medium sized caves.

[ ] Factory (+20) (1 manpower): Assist the Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype project. -10 Psych card: Why aren't I mining?

Mining Action (2 slots):
[ ] D&D Vehicles (1 manpower, 1 damaged): Used
[ ] Mining Bot Team (+8) (1 manpower) (1/10 bot missing): Continue Project Underground Outpost, Stage 2, 368 of 400. +5 OS-AI, +20 Psych card: Need to be mining.

Continue, with both slots this time. If spare time left, dig the shaft for Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype. If still time left, do general cleanup and reinforcement work around the complex.

Engineering Actions (0 slots):
+1 Slot, Hero: Stig
[ ] Hero: Atmospheric Exploitation Plant - Prototype, 28 of 200. +30 central computer. +15 factory assistance.

Maintenance & Repair Actions (1 slot):
[ ] Maintenance and Damage Control Bay (1 manpower): Constructor exo-skeleton repairs, 75 of 100.
[ ] Maintenance queue: Perform extra maintenance on critical ship systems.

Other Actions
[ ] Scout And Survey (1 manpower, using remote control, +5 OS-AI) - go visit the glacier some times, take glacier and rock samples, do some GPR scanning around, and then start carrying back increasingly large amounts of ice to test it's payload\range curve.
[ ] Start atmospherizing the complex with it's life support as soon as sealed, test sealing and atmosphere (1 manpower, maybye OS-AI bonus)

If we really need to cold start it, we can jury rig a rover's, bots or other vehicle's batteries to do it. Though you remind me that next reactor maintenance is due soon, we will do it after the exo is fixed. We will get another reactor in a 5-8 months, and then take down the ship's reactor out for a total overhaul, and then place it in the complex.

Should be sufficient. I'd postpone waking up anyone from cryo until the complex is ready and has a breathable atmosphere in case construction doesn't finish in time.

That's where my question comes in. If we could wake them up more slowly, we could wake them up soon if the complex is ready, or slow it down further if it doesn't. We were waking up people for 3 months on ship.