Corporate Federation - Comments

[Garfunkel]

At exactly 1000 posts as well!

[Father Tim]

Ha!  Promotion to Vice Admiral!  At long last. 

Kurt

Two more ranks to go. And for the record, neither Steve nor I qualify for the final rank yet.

Five thousand and ten thousand posts?

[Kurt (OP)]

A merry and non-genocidal Christmas to all from the Unified Republics of Earth.

Kurt

[Garfunkel]

That is one wide-spread alien empire! So Dregluks were the NPR from game creation, right?

[Kurt (OP)]

That is one wide-spread alien empire! So Dregluks were the NPR from game creation, right?

Yes, probably.  They started out in a better position than the player race, and expanded faster.  Darned Dregluks.

Kurt

[Garfunkel]

That's definitely one of the upsides of having game creation NPR, seeing as the Dregluk are really far-flung. I'll have to try that in C#, though not sure if I want to do it with the multi-Earth start game or not. This cat-and-mouse game of scouting towards their homeworld is great.

[Kurt (OP)]

That's definitely one of the upsides of having game creation NPR, seeing as the Dregluk are really far-flung. I'll have to try that in C#, though not sure if I want to do it with the multi-Earth start game or not. This cat-and-mouse game of scouting towards their homeworld is great.

It was really kind of touch and go, as the Republic doesn't have grav survey ships yet, so the only way they can advance into Dregluk space is to follow their ships.  There are grav survey ships under construction, but they are taking a along time as they have special low-profile engines to reduce their thermal signature, and cloaking devices to reduce their cross section for active sensors.  Humanity lost too many survey ships to the Obscura and the Dregluk.  They are going to do everything they can to ensure that their survey ships are survivable, but all of that makes them way more expensive and difficult to construct. 

Kurt

[Karlito]

So the message is going to be something like "don't bother invading, just nuke them from orbit" right?

[Kurt (OP)]

So the message is going to be something like "don't bother invading, just nuke them from orbit" right?

Hmmm...I guess you are just going to have to wait for the next thrilling installment of "Those Darned Dregluks!"

[Kurt (OP)]

So the message is going to be something like "don't bother invading, just nuke them from orbit" right?

Hmmm...I guess you are just going to have to wait for the next thrilling installment of "Those Darned Dregluks!"

Okay, so I telegraphed this one. 

Kurt

[Garfunkel]

Yeah, not a massive surprise. You did write the latest update well, the argument is sound. Genocide is something nobody can undo.

[Karlito]

The suspenseful question was never "will they do it?" but "how far will they go?"

[HighTemplar]

I think the HPP could do much worse things than killing all of the Dregluks. They could use them as slave labour on inhospitable planets, for example say there is a lot of duranium on San Francisco V, however SF V is an ice world that is constantly at -200 degrees, now you could ship in automated mines however those are expensive so insteed what they do is dump a bunch of Dregluks along with some cheep mines on the planet (along with some troops to keep order), yes the Dregluks will die but not before mining a bunch of resources for humanity (now this will be done very inefficiently population wise however after capturing their homeworld there will be plenty of Dregluks for humanity to exploit)

edit: well I didn't expect the extra radiation missiles to be used, a great start to the Young administration rendering potential colonies uninhabitable for years if not decades

[TCD]

I'm surprised at how well your logistics is holding up operating a missile heavy campaign so far from Sol. How are you not running out of fuel?

[Kurt (OP)]

I'm surprised at how well your logistics is holding up operating a missile heavy campaign so far from Sol. How are you not running out of fuel?

That's a good question.  Logistics have been an issue from the start, especially as the earlier Republican designs are short ranged and don't have much endurance.  I've made it work by expanding slowly and building logistics bases as I go.  For example, I had to build a full-on base in the Washington system to secure that system because the Republic's designs were so short ranged.  By the time that was done I had more ships with better range and endurance, but I still had to build a fueling station mid-way between Bastion and the Houston system.  And, in the end, to prosecute the war into the Austin system I had to build up a fuel and maintenance base in the Houston system as well. 

To support all of these fleet operations and base building, I had to build up my support wing.  Currently, the Republic has three main support ship types, a fuel-carrying design capable of carrying 25,000,000 liters of fuel; an ammunition ship capable of carrying 1530 points of missiles, as well as ample fuel and maintenance supplies; and a Fleet Dock design capable of taking two frigates or five missile boats into its bays and reloading their missile boxes.  The Republic currently has five fueling ships, seven ammunition ships, and seven fleet docks, and they have been indispensable in keeping the fleet in action so far from Earth. 

As for fuel, that's another interesting situation.  The Federation accumulated a vast amount of fuel on Earth during its rule, as it was producing a lot and only using a little.  The Republic found itself forced to shut down the fuel refining industry on Earth due to lack of workers.  This was an easy decision to make because there was so much fuel available.  In addition, the Federation had built a group of refinery ships, which have been busily refining fuel in orbit over Uranus since before the fall of the Federation, and the Republic has added as many ships to the refinery fleet as it could.  Currently, there are 34 refinery ships in orbit over Uranus, with a combined refining capability of over 62 million liters per year.  Unfortunately, that is not enough to meet need and the Republic has been living off the stocks built up by the Federation.  Eventually the Republic is going to run out of fuel at the current rate of expenditure, although there are eight slipways over Ganymede devoted to building fuel refineries and they can each build about two per year.  There is increasing pressure on both the Consul and Admiral Wallace to end the war as soon as possible so that the Republic has time to deal with the upcoming shortage of fuel. 

The same thing goes for TN resources.  The Republic has been living off of a large surplus built up by the Federation.  While they haven't stopped mining, expenditures are way ahead of income.  Eventually the Republic is going to have to stop building ships and focus on getting more mines off of Earth, which has dwindling resources, and out to newly discovered deposits in the surrounding systems. 

All told the Republic is in a strong position, but it feels the ground eroding out from under it.  If the Republic isn't careful and can't end the campaign against the Dregluk soon then its economy is going to become a major issue. 

Kurt