Anaximander wins the day, but with Green Corinth winning a hair under half the votes (two outright, three for after Anaximander) it'll be implemented after Anaximander.

We'll be farming our immediate area, floodplains first.

---------- Post automerged at 06:32 ---------- Previous post was at 05:20 ----------

We have begun recruitment of a second scouting party, as employees who's psych profiles show hardiness and adaptability are bumped to the top of the defrost list and what few mineral deposits we've found are forged into a scout rover.


January 2600: A resource pod was discovered to the south, containing luxury goods and media archives. While our colony did not have any fans of classic Ghanaian hiplife music, it does now.


February 2600: The Slavic Federation has become the first other faction to arrive. Considering their expertise with spaceflight, the only surprise is that they did not beat us here.



[screenshot is from a later turn because I forgot to take it at the time]

Their location is on our continent, but far to the northeast - and even if they had founded their capital on the coast, the northern icecap would have made sea trade with them impossible. Our second scouting party will start blazing a land route to them once they are recruited.


April 2600: A second resource pod has been discovered on the isthmus we hope to forge a canal through. This is likely to have been sent ahead from the PAC, as it contains the best wishes of Zhenzhou University, much of the output of the artists of the graduating class of 2214, and cryogenically frozen yellow river carp eggs. Once they arrive we'll be sure to trade some of them to the PAC - in the meantime, many of our employees are pooling (heh) their water ration to create a makeshift aquafarm, which will supply a very welcome bit of variety to our meals.


May 2600: Our food surpluses have reached the required levels, and our first wave of defrosted colonists are currently recovering. This skyrockets our conscious population to 6000. I'm sure you've noticed the celebrations.


June 2600: Our survey team has finished scouting the isthmus.



The canal-city would likely be extremely reliant on food imports, as the only medium-term food sources will be hunting the beetle creatures and farming the offshore reef. This will likely be an immediate concern, as OPERATION GREEN CORINTH has been a success beyond our most optimistic projections, fueled by the resource pods we discovered. The Sino-Ghanaian cultural bloc is already starting to split from the mainstream of our corporate culture, and they've already begun donating their time and effort to the construction of a colony-tank. Current projections predict that even without any other cultural windfalls, if we continue our encouragement they'll be ready to set out by the end of the year.

However, between the docks and the construction of a trade vessel, projections are currently placing completion of the trade infrastructure to feed the new colony from Aristos Achaion as no sooner than mid-2602. Therefore, our cultural manipulations of the populace will be modified to encourage them to want to 'put their house in order' before splitting off, in order for them to first construct the exosuits that would allow large-scale infrastructural projects around our capital. Mining the mineral-rich hills to the northeast would allow us to greatly accelerate construction of trade infrastructure, and modifying OPERATION GREEN CORINTH will push back the projected completion of the colony-tank to late 2601.


August 2600: The secondary survey team has left Aristos Achaion, and will be heading north in hopes of blazing a trail to the Slavs.


September 2600: Our primary survey team discovered a solar collector in a resouce pod, apparently of Slavic make. As it is likely it will exhaust it's propulsion and de-orbit before we are able to establish regular ties with the Slavic, I have deemed it an acceptable risk to neglect to inform them of it's discovery and use it to our own benefit instead. The increase in solar power this will give us will likely make us able to complete OPERATION ANAXIMANDER through outsourcing.


October 2600: Our secondary survey team has discovered yet another cultural cache sent from Earth, this time from the Papuan people of Polystralia. We were able to implement this into the modified OPERATION GREEN CORINTH, and already worker exosuits are heading out to the hills to the northeast, Papuan reggae blasting from their speakers.

However, our fueling of cultural separatism has had an unexpected side-effect, as our survey teams have begun having loud arguments over open channels, egged on by our populace. The primary survey team, while they discovered the cultural caches, left before they became integrated into our colonial culture, and thus large rifts have formed between them and the secondary team, which is made up heavily of people who have bought into the Sino-Ghanaian cultural identity we crafted to fuel OPERATION GREEN CORINTH. Their arguments have centered around glimpses they claim to have seen of native megafauna, and how much of a threat they could pose. The primary team, perhaps emboldened by their continued successes, are in favour of the capture and domestication of any megafauna, while the secondary team, some of whom suffered adverse effects to miasmic pollen in a fungal forest to the northeast, are espousing a policy of eradication. The argument has infected our populace, and the time has come for us to take an official stand.



While I am rather disquieted by the thought of huge insects, I cannot deny that the idea of adopting them as beasts of burden or even pets has some appeal to our citizens. I shall leave it to a vote: Decision: Eradication or Domestication? If Domestication: Will they be Pets or Beasts of Burden?

Additionally, if anyone wants to shelf or modify OPERATION GREEN CORINTH due to the relative harshness of the terrain there, now's the time to speak up - while it would be difficult feeding the colony, the importance of access to the oceans of this world it would provide our capital cannot be understated, and the basalt and silicon deposits nearby would allow it to fuel industry in our capital once it is established.

Author's notes: Early affinity decision. Eradication is Purity, Domestication-Beasts of Burden is Supremacy, Domestication-Pets is Harmony. Our capital has floatstone access, and the canal city will have a lot of floatstone and some firaxite, but we've found a bit of everything so far and still barely scratched the fog and who knows what we'll find over the next hill - so feel free to make this one based on principal rather than powergaming.

So far the only aliens I've seen are a glimpse of manticores wandering around to the south, so if we go eradication it could be tricky to find the fuckers to eradicate them.

Why are the cultural pods from unexpected places? I generated random GPS coordinates, then checked what that place was into. Hiplife is a blend of hip-hop and Ghana's native 'highlife' music, a blend of swing, jazz, rock, and ska. And Papua New Guinea really is into reggae.

 

Domestication: Beasts of Burden.

I've already noticed several private projects among the members of the xenobiology research labs along these lines. They seem... quite promising. However, if any of the department heads wish for a reversal of policy, I can arrange for several "accidents" involving said projects.

 

Eradication. I have neither the time nor the patience for a bunch of bleeding hearts who want to try and chain up a siege worm, either to a mill or in their backyard.

As for the Corinth project, I suppose I should have specified. Green Corinth is a massive waste of our cultural resources, especially considering how the price of the next cultural goal will inflate. Why waste a Culture point on something we can make ourselves? It's a novice trap. If we wish a new settlement, let us build it with the sweat off our backs.

Brown Corinth is the way to go. I retract and deny any notion that I ever supported Green. Even Golden Corinth would be a preferable alternative.

 

In light of the influx of cultural materials I believe it would be advisable to revise the previous proposals to better fit the emerging needs of the colony.

Now, given the discovery of the so called 'mega-fauna' I find myself intrigued by the philosophical discussions that have risen about them in recent weeks. I myself would champion the goal of co-existence with these creatures. One only needs to think back a small subjective time to remember the effects we had on our home planet. The mass extinction that we brought about and the climactic turbulence from our mistreatment of the environment should not be repeated.

I would vote that we domesticate these creatures as best we can with the eventual goal of turning those that best suit it into an alien equivalent to pets. One of the things I have most missed since journeying to this world is a loyal pet for companionship.

On a less sentimental note, I have inspected the proposals of the other members of this council and have determined that Operation Green Corinth is still the most viable option, though obviously with revised elements. I would propose that we continue our focus upon farming the lands surrounding the city. Our build priorities however should go into establishing a protection detail in case these mega-fauna prove to be hostile, as well as to protect the eventual colony tank from harm as it travels to its destination on the isthmus.

NOTE: I'm going with harmony this time since I've never tried it before and want to ride some alien cavalry. Also the harmony path in the tech tree is one of the best ones you can go for in regards to health/wonders.

 

Consulting the minutes of the first meeting of the Board on this planet, OPERATION GREEN CORINTH was backed by VanRopen and Aekiel as a primary goal, and Poytin, ChaosGuy and Coyote as a secondary goal. While your address, Lamora, was broadly in favour of the canal, it was not explicit enough in support of any variant of OPERATION CORINTH for it to be counted as a vote in favour of it.

While I agree that the opportunity cost of OPERATION GREEN CORINTH is high, should the other settling nations or any minor powers found cities or outposts on the coasts of this world, I believe the payout, while arguably lesser to that of another plan, will be high enough and early enough to make the operation worthwhile - especially combined with the advantage that the two cities working in concert would have had over a single city working alone. The basalt and silicon deposits near the proposed canal location will quickly allow the new city to outstrip our capital in industrial output.

And at this point, considering the cultural resources that have been expended on it, cancelling OPERATION GREEN CORINTH outright would be a disaster - however, diverting the project to settle a more hospitable location may be a wiser course. It depends largely on factors outside our influence and ability to predict, which was always going to be the downside of the trade-focused path we have embarked upon.

Our survey teams will be receiving orders to keep an eye out for suitable alternative targets for OPERATION GREEN CORINTH, and once the time comes should any have been found I will put the matter to the board for a vote.

 

Very well, I'll concede on Green Corinth. None of us are men of waste, after all.

However, if I will concede anything on the alien front, is that they are perhaps more useful alive than dead, but only if we can put them to work. To that end, I'll change my vote to Beasts of Burden.

NOTE: Aekiel, if you think you're going to become a Na'vi and sing with all the colors of the wind before I get Jaegers and a robot army, you've got another thing coming. Supremacy : because it's not arrogance if we really are better than you.

 

NOTE: Fuck that shit. I want my alien horse cavalry and bio-titans.

 

Fuck that Aek, I'm getting some fucking mechs. I'm voting Beasts of Burden.

 

Pets

Like Aekil I want those bio-titans.

 

Supremacy. Going for the mechs! In most games I am a Purist, so this will be interesting. to watch develop. As much as I like the idea of harnessing massive monsters to do my will- flying attacks through the air, melting face with acid, and defending ourselves from other monsters, I am feeling more like a mechanical response. If the aliens are to exist, it will be to serve. If a few wolf beetles are quietly domesticated to herd flocks rather than carry packs, that's up to the individual that trains them.

 

I vote we continue on our currently scheduled way to a colony. As for the aliens? I say the Domesticate them and put them to work.

We rose to prominence through our industry and being at the forefront of industry? It's just good business sense.

 

The Supremacy path of domestication has won handily. Sorry, Pocahontas.

Expect minor delays in updating as I shuffle around files to install a game where I hope to stab Robespierre right in his stupid French face.

 

Fuck y'all and your mech-fetish. I will ride my damn wolf beetle into battle if it's the last thing I do...

 

Lamora's volunteered to be the Head of Security, but we'll definitely need someone out in the field to command tactical operations. Once we deploy military units, Zombie will be rotated between them as needed.

Anyone else wishing to undertake additional roles, please make yourself known. Ares Macrotechnology operates under a scrupulously fair 'dibs' system.

 

I'm up for it.


inb4 getting Zombie killed and rezzed a Zombie.

 

We have tipped the scales of the xeno debate, and our populace at large are taking a much more utilitarian view of the possibility of alien megafauna on this planet. Once we construct facilities for further study of native life, the consequences of this course of action will reveal themselves.

December 2600: Twin findfalls were uncovered by our survey teams, consisting of an ARC-brand generator and scientific equipment from the Kavithans. It's now projected that we will complete OPERATION ANAXIMANDER by April of next year.

January 2601: The third wave of colonists has been unfrozen, and the population of Aristos Achaion now hovers around twenty thousand.

Our primary survey team has discovered some sort of ruined settlement. Preliminary scans show it's age as being thousands of years old, possibly more, which needless to say has vast implications. I am eager to see what discoveries they will stumble across.

February 2601: Our research into crossing the oceans of this world has been fruitful, and the other continents are now open to us.

Considering the options available to us, I have taken the liberty to instruct our science team to investigate the chemical makeup of the surrounding land and flora in the hopes of establishing a proper scientific laboratory and beginning rudimentary materials recovery.

April 2601: Brasilia has landed frustratingly inland on the other major continent. While they did give us a courtesy 'hello', I predict little to no contact with them for some time.



May 2601: Hot on Brasilia's heels, the Kavithans have made landfall - tantalizingly close to but not quite coastal, and very, very nearby to the Brasilians. I predict conflict between the two in the coming years.




The mine at Aristos Achaion has been built, shaving precious months off the construction of the docks and warehouses. Reassigning labour from the farms to the mines has slowed the stockpiling of excess food to a trickle, but as farms are constructed along the banks of the river (named the River Styx by some of our more mythologically savvy employees) the stockpile growth should recover to previous levels.

June 2601: Excavations of the ancient ruins have finished, and while little of what we recovered could be understood, some of the knowledge appeared to 'infect' one of our survey team - the new volunteer from the Board, VanRopen. It has rendered him unable to do anything but blather the data downloaded into his body. Careful recording and transcription has left us with vast swathes of data about celestial dynamics far beyond anything we can begin to grasp, let alone utilize - for now. VanRopen recovered soon after with little side-effects apart from a new-found fascination with astronomy, but he will spend the rest of his natural life having every word recorded for analysis. Don't worry, our lawyers assure me it's perfectly legit.

The primary survey team is returning to Aristos Achaion to restock and collect a huge amount of recording equipment for watching VanRopen.

July 2601: The discovery of further scientific equipment by our secondary survey team - this time of Slavic manufacture - has shaved months off our chemical research, and our booming economy has allowed us to outsource the recruitment of a tertiary survey team. At this point I'm inclined to label OPERATION ANAXIMANDER a rousing success.

Our trade infrastructure is finally complete, and already the greatly improved logistics are having a positive effect on our construction efforts. As per OPERATION GREEN CORINTH the construction of a cultural center has begun to better allow us to influence our employees.

September 2601: The first corporate schism has begun, as oligarchs that bought their way onto the Kavithan colony ship have left them and landed on our continent. They have claimed the land of the isthmus, including both possible canal locations.

We shall discuss this impediment come the next Board Meeting.

December 2601: As we approach the end of our second year on this planet, the African Union have made planetfall. Further competition for this continent is annoying, but they are a great deal closer to the Slavic Federation than to us.




OPERATION GREEN CORINTH has completed, and the crowdsourced colony-tank is finished.

As such, it is time for us to once again plot our course for the future. Please select one option from each of the following categories.

Colonization

OPERATION RED CORINTH: New Babylon's blatant land-grab is theft, pure and simple. We destroy them and take back our land and found the city where we originally intended. Also will delay the research slot - needless to say, war so early in our history would be an expensive prospect. It will also mean delaying the founding of our second city even further.



OPERATION RIVARINE: Our secondary survey team has revealed a promising settlement location to the north. With Xenomass-rich floodplains to the south and resource-rich tundral forests fed by a smaller river to the north - including a massive deposit of the Firaxite substance - a city placed here would likely become rich in both food and energy, especially once we unlock the secrets of Firaxite and Xenomass.



OPERATION DELTA: Placing a colony on the nearby peninsula by the outlet of the Styx would give us control over the entire fertile region to the northeast, as well as the Firaxite-rich island in the middle of our sea and coral reefs just offshore. Preliminary research shows the area is also likely to have exploitable oil deposits.



OPERATION HEDGE: A colony placed on the coast to the west would, as the tertiary survey team revealed, have access to vast swathes of incredibly fertile grassland and some very rich mineral deposits, as well as Xenomass and Floatstone. It would also make us able to access to the oceans of this world without having to rely on OPERATION RED CORINTH.



Research

In two months our investigation into chemistry will be complete. What path should we embark upon? [Note that the first two are time-sensitive, as they involve the construction of wonders.]

PROJECT BREADBASKET: We double down on the course we have set and become an agricultural juggernaut. With deep research into genetics and construction of some specialist facilities, we could revolutionize farming forever. [Genetics > Genetic Mapping > Genetic Design, construction of Gene Vault and Ectogenesis Pod]

PROJECT AL GORE: We shall reinvent the internet, and instead of allowing it to be 'just' a digital frontier, we will make it home to a new race of digital employees. [Engineering > Computing > Autonymous Systems > Artificial Intelligence, construction of Master Control and Markov Eclipse]

PROJECT SLATER: The industrial revolution needs to come to this planet. By constructing automated plants and a network of incredibly high-speed trains we could vastly increase our industrial output. [Engineering > Robotics > Fabrication]

PROJECT SAGAN: We are sitting on a lot of terrible real estate. There are things we could do to make it barely able to sustain human life, or even eke out a surplus if we go the path of PROJECT BREADBASKET, but we could instead make this planet our bitch. It would be hugely energy-expensive, but we could turn even the most pathetic patches of desert into fertile patches of Earth 2.0, giving us an enormous advantage in making the most of this overly-hot world.

Culture

OPERATION GREEN CORINTH was a rousing success, and proven the power of our cultural manipulations. What shall our new medium-term goal be?

PROSPERITY: We have already laid the groudwork for this path. Further investment of effort would improve the health of our people, increase the value of international trade (should we find ourselves able to actually embark upon any) and, should we engage in PROJECT SAGAN, make the resulting terrascapes even more valuable to us.

ENERGY: By increasing centralization and founding the first bank of this planet, we could greatly increase our energy income and actually start turning our money into more money.

INDUSTRY: We could also focus on making our people more industrious, especially for superprojects.

Decision: Do we trade with New Babylon until it comes time to destroy them, or hope they wither on their own? Note that there are already two possible trade partners for New Babylon apart from us, and at least one more is likely to arrive in the coming months.

 

Colonisation: Operation Hedge
Research: Project AL GORE
Culture: Industry
Decision: Trade with Babylon

Ahem, gentlemen.

Given the overwhelming success of our cultural program, I would today offer to you a new proposal that would provide a framework for the future growth of our colony.

I support Operation Hedge, which has become known as the Farmer's Bill amongst the workers of my department. If we were to colonise the highly fertile lands to the west, we could then rework the plan to turn Aristos Achaion into a barely sustainable growth city, instead allowing our second colony to take that burden. It would allow our capital to use the swathes of barren land around us for better things than small, unprofitable farms.

Our second colony would thus form the centrepiece of our expanding nation, growing a surplus of food to cover the deficit that Aristos Achaion would have. To do this, of course, requires us to build a depot to facilitate trade between the two cities and a military to protect the convoys from attacks. I have been informed that our sponsors, the government of Polystralia, have detailed plans for an enormous trading port here in the capital that would allow us to support a trade route with the new city and a multitude of other trading partners (though we do run the risk of losing convoys to alien attacks at this time).

Moving on from that, given the council's consensus that the supremacy of our species on this planet will be of paramount importance, I have compiled a list of research priorities that I believe would best allow us to pursue such a goal. While I disagree with the principle behind it, I am prepared to throw my all behind this venture. To that end, I present to your Project AL GORE, named for the creator of the internet and foreseer of the Great Mistake.

A colony wide communications network akin to the Old World internet would allow our scientists to share technical information with much more ease than they currently do. I am told that they have even started resorting to paper due to the lack of reliable data storage. Of course our technology has advanced a long way since the Times of Gore, and my liaison with the Research Department has mentioned the possibility of complete personality upload and, in the future, AI support.

Perhaps, with the combination of our cultural and technological prowess, I may be able to ride the bio-titan. Albeit digitally. On that note, my Department has undergone something of a schism as the workers argue over whether to push the colony in a different direction or to maintain the ideal of the 'Polystralian Dream'.

I myself favour something of a broad approach to the subject. Our short and mid-term options all lack a dedicated Industry sector, which we could boost through careful use of propaganda. However, I still believe that the continued Prosperity of the nation is paramount.

(NOTE: I say continue with Prosperity, but dabble in Industry a bit to give us the free Virtue and boost our production slightly.)

Finally we come to the question of New Babylon. It is my opinion that at this time it would be unwise to focus on a destroying them. It would mean a setback to my department's work for years as we deal with the shift from peaceful expansion to a militaristic mindset that would inevitably follow such a war.

To that end I suggest that we establish trade with them at the soonest opportunity. If we are lucky they may even be able to make up for the lack of production zones within workable range of our capital.