Internal Affairs Office

[Voltaire]

To whom do I make an inquiry about possibly designing a Penetrator Colony Pod (i.e. needlejet with colony module)? I believe it would provide us with an effective, efficient, and quick means of colonizing both the northern portion of the continent we occupy, but also in establishing our presence on other landmasses.

[GeneralTacticus]

Is it actually possible to put a CP on a needlejet?

[Voltaire]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
Is it actually possible to put a CP on a needlejet?

Yes, I’m surprised that not many people actually do this in their SMAC/X games. The only downside would be that the air colony pod can only construct land bases for some odd reason, nevertheless it cuts down on travel time considerably.

[GeneralTacticus]

How much does it cost?

[Cedayon]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
Is it actually possible to put a CP on a needlejet?

To my knowledge (see edit) there are no restrictions on special "weapon" packages to certain chassis (except planet busters which act as their own chassis in a way). CP jets can be a lot of fun (if expensive), its like "bombing" your enemies with colonies... particularly fun if you can immediately drop in some garrisons and/or attack troops Probe jets, I imagine, could also be quite useful if you could reach the target in time. Former jets, on the other hand, tend to be less feasible
... Former grav-ships, on the third hand... *rambles on for hours*

edit- having checked I've discovered that neither formers nor probes can be stuck on needlejet chassis.

[Voltaire]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
How much does it cost?

Cost=126
Prototype=189

Just to give you an estimate on build time, our industrial centers (i.e. Tactius Academy, New Suez, and New Aployton) could construct the prototype in around 7 turns.

[GeneralTacticus]

How many turns would be saved on travel time, given that if we built a normal one, we could probably do it in 1-2 turns?

EDIT: And would the saving in travel time really be worth the extra cost in minerals? 6-7 turns would be enough to complete a Fusion Lab, or get quite close to building a Hybrid Forest. Would founding a new base a few turns early really be worth it?

[Voltaire]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
How many turns would be saved on travel time, given that if we built a normal one, we could probably do it in 1-2 turns?

I would say that given the fact that the outer lying regions of the faction are undeveloped lacking roadways or another infrastructure; an air colony pod after its construction would be able to reach its destination in the north in one or two turns. Considerably less time than it would take for a regular colony pod to reach the same destination. Granted the fact that the cost for the construction of air colony pods is steep this offsets the speed advantage, also not all of our bases could build air colony pods due to the high cost associated with them. I will run exact comparisons later when I have more time.

I think the main advantage to air colony pods would be the fact that we could establish a base on the Hiverian continent as well as elsewhere remote and inaccessible to us by any other means than sea. New landmasses which before were a considerable distance away could now be reached solving our growing demand for space.

[Voltaire]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
And would the saving in travel time really be worth the extra cost in minerals? 6-7 turns would be enough to complete a Fusion Lab, or get quite close to building a Hybrid Forest. Would founding a new base a few turns early really be worth it?

Yes if that base is on a different landmass and inaccessible to us by any other more efficient means.

[Cedayon]

I think it depends on where you're building the base... a few squares off our road network, for instance, would be far from worth it... but hitting the square in the dead center of the ruins without wading through all that fungus could be worth the price tag.

[GeneralTacticus]

Yeah, I agree. I was thinking you meant just to help extend our borders further north - no need to spend so much on it, when we have bases that can easily produce enough CPs and get them there at a reasonable pace.

[Maniac]

Is it cheaper when we use fusion reactors in our colonization planes?

I was looking for volunteer bases but none have being forthcoming

I had no idea we had to volunteer building military units. I do remember asking me last session for more military units in Jedinica, so I already ordered the construction of two before you even asked them.
Also personally I think it's a waste of minerals to start building lots of military units before we have researched fusion power. With the exception of a tactical in Centralis and AAA infantry in Jedinica, I propose we wait with a further military build-up until the next session.

[Maniac]

Hi TKG, a little problem became apparent to me while I was making the missing orders for the previous turnchat. No one has been appointed governor of Circular Quay afaik. So could you please assign the base to some region?

[Method]

eenie, meenie, myenie, moe uh, i'll poll it

[Maniac]

I just had a deeper look in the governor orders already given up until now. And as there was some discussion about those, I'd like to mention governor TKG of Aurillion Province has put a few genejack factories in his build queues. Unless there are objections, I'll of course put them in the queues. But just in the case Cedayon, our DIA, would like to organize a public gen-ethic debate about those, I'm mentioning it here.