Stun Batons : Yep, you can have those. No problem.
Retraining : Yes, you can use the retraining rules.
Ceres Rank : Ceres is now a Commander, unless I missed a bump.
Hig : Pretty much everyone in the Navy can handle Pilot/Gunnery/Astrogation. That's taught to everyone. Same with Engineering. Remember, Navy, especially space navy, is a big believer in cross-training. On ships as small as McTavish, everyone is expected to be able to switch duties as needed. Being chief engineer is more a 'concentrate on this' than it is 'you are only an engineer'. On larger ships, that's not true. But on small ones (under 50 crew) it's vital. Having Hig pulled off engines while in orbit to be gunner on the landing boat, or pilot, would not be unusual. Nor would be him hitting the gunnery console during combat if there was a need.
Beyond that though, I stuck you in Engineering because you needed a place to go. If you'd rather be pilot or gunner or something else, I have no objection to that either, and Ceres has authority to rearange the crew as she pleases, so moving you to some other position is perfectly fine as well, as long as you have the skills for it.
Ideally, I think it would be optimal if Holt and Hig had different stations on board so that you both have something that is *yours*.
Ceres is the Captain and gets to nod solemnly in her chair and say "put it on the main screen" and "make it happen"
Vathan is the Marine Commander and he gets to make most of the tactical calls when we are planetside. Additionally, he gets to cock his gun threateningly and go repel any pesky boarders. (does he want to be some sort of in-combat shotcaller for spaceborn battles too?)
And frankly, it would probably be best if you each decided which chair is yours via some discussion. Sounds reasonable ?
Also - yey stun-sticks! *plays with one then hits herself in the face* "Owww ..."
@Ceres - Well, as first mate I’m kind in your position, except when you’re off duty. But in an emergency, if Ceres wants to be Captain, then Holt doesn’t mind taking up another role. : )
Also, I’m not sure I’m proficient with a stun-stick, so I might just be re-enacting that scene of yours...
@all - my vote is that we send the ships back through the warp and explore with the McTavish.
As I noted, my understanding of your standard operating procedures was that McTavish goes first, and then sends a probe to have the other ship (with the second freighter on board now) come through.
Ah, I get what you're saying.
Then before, I meant to send a message back via probe. That way the rest of the 'fleet' knows what is going on.
I still suggest checking it out with the McTavish.
BTW - I'm going to try to have the NPCs interacting more with the players going forward. I know Vathan tried to do that earlier, but at the time, I was traveling (kuwait!) and trying to get that done was difficult.
Now that I"m back in the states and things are settling down (at least for now, I'll be traveling more from next month on, but I'll be able to post from the hotel in the evenings, so should be fine), I want to get more done with the NPCs and PCs.
My apologies for not pushing this harder sooner Vathan, hopefully this will meet what you were looking for earlier.
Yah, proficiency is a bugger - but perhaps the marines know how to use em : )
Also - we should totally build a probe launcher/cannon so that we can give our probes a bit of extra speed :P
Send a probe to tell the fleet to stand-by, fly close-ish then launch another probe?
Can we review the actual positions to summarize them for me?
Ceres is Captain
Holt is First Mate
Vathan is Security (ground and space)
Hig is Engineering
Am I missing anyone?
That is actually a pretty good split, if I have read all the posting right.
And you guys must operate on a different time zone than me! You all post when I am asleep!
Vathan is proficient in ship's guns, too.
And will play a role that fits best.
cheers
Yeah. There might and might not also be a diplomat. Not sure : )
I'm GMT +1 but with a slightly skewered sleeping schedule.
@mdt/retraining - is it okay if I disregard the time cost for the skill retraining? I'd like to think it was a natural part of her shifting duties :)
By the way - should I be posting everything inside spoilers? Is that the preferred method here? I notice that happens a lot, but it does tend to be with side bar sort of conversations.
Just let me know if I am being annoying with my style.
@Hig
I thought spoilers were for relatively private conversations.
I think we just started going spoiler heavy lately.
Welcome to the team
cheers
Yeah. When things happen around others in public, like on the bridge, no need to use spoilers :)
I am GMT-6 so that explains some of the posting thing. Plus my life happens on the early side because of work.
No worries either way.
"Can you describe the ruckus?"
Yep, spoilers are for things nobody else has knowledge about (Holt's spoilers are for a conversation she was having with the security girl back on the home planet during your R&R, so nobody else would be privy to it, for example).
And yeah, I tried to split people up. I'll get up a list of the rest of the crew (I'm off tomorrow, holiday) so I'll try to get that up tomorrow, it will help with making the crew more real.
I'm GMT -5, but usually can only post after 9-10 PM, unless I get some brief stints during work to sling something up.
Do we want the Resplendent Commerce to back us up when we approach the gas giant with life signs?
I am thinking we keep her back at the edge of her weapon range, but she does have a spinal mount particle accelerator - which is much better than a knife in a fight!
We do want her far enough off she won't get in trouble and she also won't help us if we dip into the atmo, but still....just a thought.
Let me be the first to say that last post was awesome with those pictures.
Second, is Annara with us to scan the planet and determine if any of those cool lifeforms are intelligent?
Cheers
I <3 the pictures. Very nice!
The question is - what do we do now?
Vathan's idea is a splendid first step, assuming Annara with us and in range.
Hig brought up the rest of the fleet - we should probably call them over. Unless the data-analysis/Annara's reading show something spectacularly dangerous of course - but I am willing to bet even if there are intelligence on the gas giant they are pretty much planet-bound.
And the main fleet also have some more probes we can use/waste.
How to people feel about us taking a dive?
We probably wouldn't want to go too deep - since we might get eaten. And I'm not sure what we would actually gain - it would be a purely scientific endeavour.
I would rather assume Annarra is back on the station working with the Mylthani. Frankly, while I like the player and the character, I need someone who doesn't vanish and reappear all the time. I should note that I've been in two games with them as a player and they do this a lot.
However, I have no objections to the Captain having requested another telepath to station on the ship, as it might have proven useful.
And I'm glad you liked the posts. :) I did look around rather hard to find the images for it.
A telepath, any telepath, is probably on the list of things we would like to bring! I mean, the ability to communicate with aliens without knowing their language? Really useful!
On that topic, did we manage to gain some knowledge about the Mylthani's wonderful translator - or did that one merely work based on the knowledge mined from Annara?
Edit: And A+ both for effort and presentation then :D
The translator worked because the Mylthani were acting as a distributed organic super computer that had telepathic contact with the alien they wanted to talk to. They think they could replicate the effect with non-mylthani computer programs, but they'd have to telepathically communicate with the creatures they wanted to translate in order to program it.
In other words, bring them an alien, they can likely communicate with it. Give them six months, and they can probably get a translation program up and running on standard systems. But a universal translator is a few decades off.
You could have gotten a telepath though assigned to the ship. You'd want to get into close (but likely not too close given the size of those leviathans!) orbit before doing so.
You'd want to get into close (but likely not too close given the size of those leviathans!) orbit before doing so.
Yah, figured that much :P
Let's see what we can get out of the scrambled readings (and get the rest of the fleet here, if they need to rescue us!) before we take the plunge :)
Ok, I finally got around to the crew roster. With pictures and links. See top of form.
Your resident telepath is Dr. MacVole, your resident ship's surgeon. She's a pretty quiet crewperson under normal circumstances, although she has a good bedside manner when dealing with patients. She does have a tendency to nag people about exercise, diet, bad habits, etc if she catches them doing things unhealthy.
Basically, about as opposite of Ziirkaa as you can get and stay in the same species.
Reviewing the crew roster made me ask who is the Second Officer. First through Fourth are specified but not the Second.
cheers
Whoops, thanks for the catch, typo.
Should have been second and third, not third and fourth.
Hmm list! Shiny!
So, try to analyse the scrambled film we got? Then make a fly-by when we have the others close : )
Then probably pick another warp-point and take a look
Woot! I made the list! I am somebody now!
I must say I am not sure what good the planet will be to us. However, perhaps we can leave something that can study / collect data? A small satellite to record EM? Review later for patterns? Or just broadcast what we know?
Could be a tourist attraction someday if nothing else.
You can certainly put one or more probes into orbit around the planet to record scan data. You'd probably need to install some additional memory into it for storage.
Is a probe to watch the planet worth it? I am sure we can cobble together the memory if we want to do it.
I assume we can command these probes from a distance? For example, if we pass back through this system we can order the probe to catch up with us between warp points? If so, we can recall it on the way home without too much trouble.
(by the way, have you read the Dread Empire's Fall series by Walter Jon Williams? The warp point nature of this game has the flavor of those books)
No, but I liked Hardwired.
Warp points are a staple of sci-fi. :)
As to the probe, you have 1187 left, so resources aren't a problem.
Yes, they can be remotely controlled. You can even request a datadump, which might be faster (depending on how long you leave it recording, it might be faster to go to it, given the McTavish's speed.
There was plenty of warp-point connecting to this system and the previous, so we kindof could leave the main fleet to study the planet while we check out the neighbourhood so to say
Sorry about being quiet. The ice knocked out my internet. -_-
Ok, awesome job with the crew list. I had been thinking about asking for one. : )
Also, great job with the write-up. A couple of those pictures look really familiar, but I can't place where I've seen them before.
I can agree with leaving the 'fleet' behind to take samples and watch the planet. That will let us look ahead and give them something to do other than sit around.
Just let the GM know what you want to do, and we'll go forward from there.
Lets see - we had 3 unexplored jump-points on this system and some more newfound back in the double-star system ?
I and Holt seem to feel that leaving the main fleet behind and probing/checking all the connecting jump-points should be what we want to do :P
Also see if we can't fix that video : )
Aye
I am good with leaving the main fleet behind and exploring further on our own. We can shoot probes back through every once in awhile with updates for the main fleet.
You've got 3 warp points in this system, and one off the Mylthani system, and that's it I think. This was the last one off the double star system.
I'm thinking that we jump into each node from this system (making a sweep with our better scanners), seed some probes and then jump back into this system and take the next node. After we finished all three we can go back and see if they found anything : )
That way, we will always be close to back-up and we can check all the closest systems to see if they contain anything funny !
BTW : While I am using the random system generation to generate these systems, I'm also using some common sense to override it. :) And, there is a pre-determined set of 'special systems' that will show up after a certain number of systems are scanned. So don't think it's going to be random exploration forever.
I think the plan is a good one. We keep exploring open warp points and stay somewhat near "known" space. Don't leave open warp points behind us.
At least, that's what I think the plan is!
I'm thinking that we jump into each node from this system (making a sweep with our better scanners), seed some probes and then jump back into this system and take the next node. After we finished all three we can go back and see if they found anything : )
That way, we will always be close to back-up and we can check all the closest systems to see if they contain anything funny !
+1
Results of probe launches now in gameplay thread.
I'm thinking that we jump into each node from this system (making a sweep with our better scanners), seed some probes and then jump back into this system and take the next node. After we finished all three we can go back and see if they found anything : )
That way, we will always be close to back-up and we can check all the closest systems to see if they contain anything funny !
Yes, agreed that this is a good plan, and maybe the one we do by default now that we have more probes available to us.
Will get a gameplay post in soon.
@Plot systems - Mkay, good to know :)
@Data - I updated the google drive sheet
I agree with this being a good plan.
Head for the F class star? Best chance (?) of a habitable planet?
Yah.
And binary stars have more nodes. And more stuff in general it seems : )
How is our fuel level? We might want to swoop past one of those gas giants and top off.
Depending on the current alignment, we might be able to get a closer look on the binary planet pair (and take some pictures & data. It seems like a curious phenomenon) or survey the asteroid belt.
edit: the 1000th discussion post! Woho!!
*Tries to sabre another bottle of champagne - glass scatters everywhere*
'Ehhhhhh...'