06-24-2013, 01:48 PM
"Uh, sir, we're picking up some highly unusual particle trails on the scatter-scan of Largo Leadball. Way more organics than expected, and some radio isotopes that are off the charts..." Tulane deftly manipulated the probe reports and assembled an array of pivots and charts for the captain's display screen.
Jenkins put down his martini glass and lazily thumbed up the display on the main bridge monitor to make it easier for his slightly-foggy eyes to skim through the data. The rest of the bridge crew ignored this -- it had been another run through of the new probe systems fired off by Corporate. As a courtesy, all resulting data from these probes was copied to all company flagship captains. Well, "both" of them anyway.
"Organics? That's nuthin but a hot airless rock out there. What organics are stable enough to form under that heat?" He looked at his ensign with a rapidly furrowing brow. "Radio isotopes, too? Those don't sound compatible with organics. This whole things is getting me more curious than a Louisiana judge. Two Lane, sound general quarters. We're gonna float out to high orbit and see if we can run a probe from our own ship and corroborate this stuff..."
"Yes captain." She worked with the efficiency of an employee who knew what was going to hit their bonus checks this quarter if the ship met escalated performance metrics.
* * *
"The Chairman is recognized by the Board, but be reminded that this meeting is already over schedule, and our decision is not likely to change."
Chairman Smithers rose from his cushioned throne-like chair and approached the lectern in the secretive meeting chambers of the Corporate board room complex. "Vice Presidents, Senior Executives, and Special Policy Consultants, I feed it is necessary to remind you how very important this time is in our history. We have only enjoyed a consolidated corporate homeworld for a score of quarters. We can't take the risks you have insisted we face. The implications for our planet, our people -- my god, think of the bottom line!"
A shadowed face from the other end of the dark table moved slightly. "Get to the point, Smithers."
Smithers' jowl tensed. "You would have us throw away the considerable surplus we have amassed on some.. some space adventure? This money needs to be paid out as dividends to our equity lords! THEY deserve the fruits of our labor, our capital consolidation, and our market manipulations. We can't throw this all away on a project that's based on phony starmaps..."
The shadow retorted quickly. "NOT phony. These probes have been repeated and re-analyzed for an entire quarter, Smithers. There is no doubt. Green is our main target -- that planet can clearly sustain life. Open farms, breathable cities, even dog-parks. The risk of letting this opportunity go is FAR greater..."
Smithers slammed his fist on the lectern. "Are you mad? How will the equity lords get a return on THAT next quarter? They are going to come down on ME if their next quarterly statements don't meet our marks! We have based our very civilization on these quarterly statements! We have dabbled with longer-scale investments here and there, funded mainly by our slush-funds, but never have we committed what amounts to all our corporate profits AND THEN SOME on ANY project! What will the lords do? How do you expect them to react? What if I get fired???"
The room fell deafeningly silent for a few moments. Smithers knew the board members were conferring, mainly by private text. He used the time to compose himself.
"We are entering a new era, Smithers. The quarterly profit model is not serving us well anymore. We used it to beat our competitors, but we can't beat our planetary ecology. There isn't much room left down here, and if we don't start moving people up soon, all your quarterly numbers are going to add up to jack squat. The equity lords will back the board on this. They will realize, we are confident, that our plan is the only game in town. Anything less will risk a total ultimate collapse in their share price -- a threat to our society that we cannot allow."
The shadow cleared its voice and continued. "As for your job, Smithers, you don't need to worry whether the Lords will fire you. We are going to fire you ourselves. Effective immediately."
* * *
Turn 2 is out, and wow! Three complete shockers, to me anyway. This was surprising, considering that I thought the first dozen turns at least would consist mainly of an orderly development of my imperial supply chain.
First, and most intriguingly, the results of our system probe showed an existing colony already in place on planet 1, named 'alien ruins' and controlled by 'aliens'. I have never come across this in the old EC games. It's a small colony -- somewhere around a million mass-units, as opposed to the five billion of my home colony -- but could be dangerous. I have no idea if it is truly abandoned, or perhaps populated by aliens or their robotic guards. In game terms, though, it promises at the very least to be a source of alien technologies. Every piece of advanced stuff I grab could be used for prototyping to accelerate my own tech program.
Second, another planet in my home system is habitable. These worlds are rare (compared to airless rocks, gas giants, and asteroids), they count toward final victory conditions, and this one in particular will provide an easy pressure release valve to get population off the homeworld. Again, I hadn't seen this in any other game.
Finally, the probe of all star systems within 10 light years showed a huge number of systems -- 44 or so. (Well, huge to me anyway.) Many of them are binary/multiple star systems, which multiplies the number of planetary orbits available. I even saw 2 systems with FIVE stars in them. I do remember my first position as a 'regent' ruler in EC-1 back in the 80s. I was given the governorship of "the quad" for my team -- a 4-star system very close to the homeworld. It had no habitability, but a LOT of mineral riches, and interesting military possibilities. So there are a LOT of stars out there, and some of them may hold a LOT of planets.
I came across one bug. The mining section of my turn results crashes the client tool. I had ordered some consolidation of my mining groups, and apparently this may have caused a fault in the data. I will alert the GMs.
This also revealed a user interface problem. (And it might just be my own confusion with the tool.) I can't seem to find a record of my turn-1 orders. Nor can I see a 'shapshot' of my empire on turn 1. I wanted to compare mineral totals between turns 1 and 2 to see if mining had taken place, but I can't see the turn 1 totals anymore -- just the current turn 2 totals. I will dig into the rules and help docs to see if it's just my mistake.
Jenkins put down his martini glass and lazily thumbed up the display on the main bridge monitor to make it easier for his slightly-foggy eyes to skim through the data. The rest of the bridge crew ignored this -- it had been another run through of the new probe systems fired off by Corporate. As a courtesy, all resulting data from these probes was copied to all company flagship captains. Well, "both" of them anyway.
"Organics? That's nuthin but a hot airless rock out there. What organics are stable enough to form under that heat?" He looked at his ensign with a rapidly furrowing brow. "Radio isotopes, too? Those don't sound compatible with organics. This whole things is getting me more curious than a Louisiana judge. Two Lane, sound general quarters. We're gonna float out to high orbit and see if we can run a probe from our own ship and corroborate this stuff..."
"Yes captain." She worked with the efficiency of an employee who knew what was going to hit their bonus checks this quarter if the ship met escalated performance metrics.
* * *
"The Chairman is recognized by the Board, but be reminded that this meeting is already over schedule, and our decision is not likely to change."
Chairman Smithers rose from his cushioned throne-like chair and approached the lectern in the secretive meeting chambers of the Corporate board room complex. "Vice Presidents, Senior Executives, and Special Policy Consultants, I feed it is necessary to remind you how very important this time is in our history. We have only enjoyed a consolidated corporate homeworld for a score of quarters. We can't take the risks you have insisted we face. The implications for our planet, our people -- my god, think of the bottom line!"
A shadowed face from the other end of the dark table moved slightly. "Get to the point, Smithers."
Smithers' jowl tensed. "You would have us throw away the considerable surplus we have amassed on some.. some space adventure? This money needs to be paid out as dividends to our equity lords! THEY deserve the fruits of our labor, our capital consolidation, and our market manipulations. We can't throw this all away on a project that's based on phony starmaps..."
The shadow retorted quickly. "NOT phony. These probes have been repeated and re-analyzed for an entire quarter, Smithers. There is no doubt. Green is our main target -- that planet can clearly sustain life. Open farms, breathable cities, even dog-parks. The risk of letting this opportunity go is FAR greater..."
Smithers slammed his fist on the lectern. "Are you mad? How will the equity lords get a return on THAT next quarter? They are going to come down on ME if their next quarterly statements don't meet our marks! We have based our very civilization on these quarterly statements! We have dabbled with longer-scale investments here and there, funded mainly by our slush-funds, but never have we committed what amounts to all our corporate profits AND THEN SOME on ANY project! What will the lords do? How do you expect them to react? What if I get fired???"
The room fell deafeningly silent for a few moments. Smithers knew the board members were conferring, mainly by private text. He used the time to compose himself.
"We are entering a new era, Smithers. The quarterly profit model is not serving us well anymore. We used it to beat our competitors, but we can't beat our planetary ecology. There isn't much room left down here, and if we don't start moving people up soon, all your quarterly numbers are going to add up to jack squat. The equity lords will back the board on this. They will realize, we are confident, that our plan is the only game in town. Anything less will risk a total ultimate collapse in their share price -- a threat to our society that we cannot allow."
The shadow cleared its voice and continued. "As for your job, Smithers, you don't need to worry whether the Lords will fire you. We are going to fire you ourselves. Effective immediately."
* * *
Turn 2 is out, and wow! Three complete shockers, to me anyway. This was surprising, considering that I thought the first dozen turns at least would consist mainly of an orderly development of my imperial supply chain.
First, and most intriguingly, the results of our system probe showed an existing colony already in place on planet 1, named 'alien ruins' and controlled by 'aliens'. I have never come across this in the old EC games. It's a small colony -- somewhere around a million mass-units, as opposed to the five billion of my home colony -- but could be dangerous. I have no idea if it is truly abandoned, or perhaps populated by aliens or their robotic guards. In game terms, though, it promises at the very least to be a source of alien technologies. Every piece of advanced stuff I grab could be used for prototyping to accelerate my own tech program.
Second, another planet in my home system is habitable. These worlds are rare (compared to airless rocks, gas giants, and asteroids), they count toward final victory conditions, and this one in particular will provide an easy pressure release valve to get population off the homeworld. Again, I hadn't seen this in any other game.
Finally, the probe of all star systems within 10 light years showed a huge number of systems -- 44 or so. (Well, huge to me anyway.) Many of them are binary/multiple star systems, which multiplies the number of planetary orbits available. I even saw 2 systems with FIVE stars in them. I do remember my first position as a 'regent' ruler in EC-1 back in the 80s. I was given the governorship of "the quad" for my team -- a 4-star system very close to the homeworld. It had no habitability, but a LOT of mineral riches, and interesting military possibilities. So there are a LOT of stars out there, and some of them may hold a LOT of planets.
I came across one bug. The mining section of my turn results crashes the client tool. I had ordered some consolidation of my mining groups, and apparently this may have caused a fault in the data. I will alert the GMs.
This also revealed a user interface problem. (And it might just be my own confusion with the tool.) I can't seem to find a record of my turn-1 orders. Nor can I see a 'shapshot' of my empire on turn 1. I wanted to compare mineral totals between turns 1 and 2 to see if mining had taken place, but I can't see the turn 1 totals anymore -- just the current turn 2 totals. I will dig into the rules and help docs to see if it's just my mistake.