Options and Arguments:
Military x1
[] Project Byzantium: active (3 turns)
[1] Improved System Defense & Forward Operation Base:
I know I keep harping about this, but pretty please with sugar on top? Also, I feel I need to point out that we'll likely will at best get little bonuses here (+5 to all military R&D,
maybe +5 to space weapon development), so there's at best even odds of success.
[2] Extended Anti-Piracy Patrols:
We might do this, given the small failure we had with
Tortuga Down. The advantages are sizeable. Doing this concurrently with
FTL Raytan though… well, one of the arguments for FTL Raytan development is the ease of deployment in industrially insufficient systems to protect against pirates. Thus extending Anti-Piracy Patrols might be redundant, if we go with a purely "protect mine" approach. That said, the VNs will enable local production, if we get the local's permission. On the other hand, doing this option will effectively establish us a powerful enough polity, able to protect and project that protection past its own systems and instead into a more diffuse claimed volume of space. So I guess I support this option.
[3] Project Black Light:
Again, below even odds of success, but we might get +5 or +10 bonuses, evening it out a bit. If we get a useable prototype, I expect we'll get new actions for ground combat equipment.
[4] Project Cerulean Hammock:
Still not sure if failure and success here translate to choosing a developmental/technological path that may not be unchosen for a certain amount of years.
DSSIN
Here I'm not terribly vested in either option.
[] HumInt: (5 turns)
[] Network Extension: (3 turns)
[1] DSSIN Survey Squadron:
Well, this is a rather easy choice. I'm practically
always for getting more bonuses. Though I doubt the bonuses we get here will be applicable for
Green Granite, but at the same time I'm fairly sure they'll apply for
Network Extension.
[2] Operation Green Granite:
This is also very sensible, since we seem to be on the early path to becoming information brokers (seeding surveillance wherever we go, privacy is a thing of the past, …).
Economy x2
[2] Heavy Combat Space Craft:
[5] Industrial Export: ANZAC
[3] Build the Weapons:
[4] Build the Technology:
[6] New Settlement Initiative
[1] Mining Town
So, if we want to export Jump Trader, and get a leg up on JumpShip production, we need germanium, and thus
mining town; it's the difference between providing the IS with a trickle or a flood of new jump ships. We keep dragging
Heavy Combat Space Craft with us like a mill stone, so that's also pretty much necessary. Incidentally, we may want to provide the first contracts to our backwater neighbour ANZAC, since their polity will make good use of these and relies on the jump ships. If I remember correctly, they only had jump ships with the primitive jump drives equipped, so they may very well welcome this offer with open arms, and if they're hesitant then that's because of other reasons, not because they don't have a need for new jump ships. Especially civilian grade jump ships.
As usual I want to settle systems, and new systems tend to grow exponentially, at least until they hit capacity or obstacles, so in a way we should want to settle early on (think video game Civ again, where spamming settler early on is a viable and necessary tactic to expand quickly until you stumble over your neighbours).
Build the Tech/Weapons makes sense, at least in the regard of not just shipping empty jump ships into the IS, but stacking their cargo with mechs and weapons and selling them along the way.
@Warringer, incidentally, how the heck are we going to be paid? Precious stones? It's not like we have a currency exchange or something established. Heck, it might make sense to be paid in raw material that we could refine further, if it wasn't so damn inefficient to transport compared to manufactured products.
Science x2
[2] Project Heavy Mysterious Mustard:
[4] HFEG Jump:
[5] Hyperwave Reflection Research:
[1] Hyperwave Local Area Mesh Network:
[3] Compact Hyperwave Transceiver:
[2] Project Heavy Mysterious Mustard:
We keep putting this off. I kinda want better Jump Drives. Especially if we can hopefully integrate these into the jump trader as another sale argument.
[4] HFEG Jump:
The long shot option. I
kinda want to give this a shot, but the 30% overall chance of success… it doesn't look good.
[5] Hyperwave Reflection Research:
If this is the hyperspace fracture that's been bandied about, that
may extend the jump rage by a factor of 10 or more, then that's very interesting. But not pressing.
[1] Hyperwave Local Area Mesh Network:
This looks delicious. It could for practical purposes replace local ansible networks; the 100,000c transmission speed translates to a ping of ~5 ms within a .25 light second bubble.
[3] Compact Hyperwave Transceiver:
This looks like something that's nice to have, and with a lot of technological knock-on effects, but not too urgent.
————
Economy
[X] Mining Town
[X] Build the Technology:
Military
[X] Improved System Defense & Forward Operation Base:
Science
[X] Hyperwave Local Area Mesh Network:
[X] Project Heavy Mysterious Mustard:
DSSINOO
[X] DSSIN Survey Squadron:
PS: Blade4 raised a made a good point for foregoing Heavy Combat Space Craft until Belisarius is done.