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Ok then...Everyone gets 1 merit for speaking to Admiral Anderson, except Tauros and Arit.(and anyone who wasn't in the session) Researchers: Mask: 2 Techs Mather: 8 Techs +3 merits Retech: 5 Techs + 2 merits Ico: 3 Techs + 1 merit Answers are: 1) Sons raise meat/Suns rays meet 2)A lip tickle 3) Man-Kind 4) OX (A score is 20, half of 20 is 10, 10 is X in roman numerals)(Alternatively, a score is XX, half XX is X) 5) 10 years and 278 days 6) Astronomers 7) Is there life on Mars? 8) Mary had a little lamb 9) The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning 10) Peregrinations 11) oRTHoDoX oXFoRD DoNS DoNT KNoW oLD PoRT FRoM LoG WooD. 12) 10% profit or 13.2 Current events: Arit and Tauros were given news that no further action was to be taken regarding their incident in arrivals. Arit has been barred from working in an Orphanage again after the person she left guarding the children turned out to be a convict. This destroyed her case against the former Orphanage leader (The guy you arrested) who has reassumed control. The Japanese have found themselves dealing with a public relations nightmare after Japanese Unity Officer Jen Sonla was photographed in the nude...in Admiral Dusty's office. Japan has retorted that Jen had been forced to strip under threats by Admiral Dusty, and these signs were photoshopped out. Further, independent, investigation found some evidence of 'airbrushed' to make Jen seem more attractive, but her expression, posture and all other factors had been left unchanged. Under this duress the Terran Federation admitted that it had improved on the photos, but insisted that they had not fabricated them. The United Nations has issued harsh sanctions against Japan for 'Alternate Channels of Diplomacy'. (+2 upgrade costs for the next two sessions, for weapons) Captain Anderson has retired on the grounds of ill health. The Captain admitted to suffering with chronic bowel cancer for some years, and chose to retire after cracking a slaver operation, operating out of Fuller Station. Over 50 people were arrested in relation to the criminals. Captain Anderson chose to personally thank Agent Earth, of the Unity Crew, for bringing the information to his attention. Earth recieves 5 merits. Captain Anderson's retirement, at a time of potential war has not helped the dispute, and without his tireless work the stability of the area will probably be lower than it had been. The trade dispute and Cheddar Knights situation remains unchanged, and will pick up from where we left off next session. New puzzles will be posted in the morning/afternoon.

I did the job of getting antagonised by Mather.

The Martian Question: The Terran and Russian bases on Mars have always been a source of major friction between the two powers, and the situation is continuing to escalate, edging close to open war. Pro: Military hardware is plentiful in this area, resulting in a number of military upgrades being avalible that would not otherwise be accessible. Con: The area is not exactly stable, and failing missions could result in losing your starting location, and even open warfare. -Primary Mission: The current problem revolves around a trade dispute. Two Chedder Knights have been sent in to calm the situation, but now they are missing. Season 1: 'The fragile Terran Alliance, the peace that has existed since 2045, is in turmoil. The taxation of trade routes to colonies is in dispute. Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Terran Federation has stopped all shipping to the Russian Colony on Mars. While the Security Council endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the United Nations dispatches two Cheddar Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the Sol System, to settle the conflict... 'But now the Cheddar Knights have disappeared, and the Terran Federation stands ready to launch a full scale invasion. The Russians have promised retaliation, and the only thing stopping the war from progressing is a second emergency intervention by the United Nations...The crew of the Unity, the Symbol of Humanities innate ability to work together, have been sent to the Terran Flagship, TFS Germanicus, commanded by Admiral Dusty.' You watch the low defination screen giving the new summery for the eighteenth time this morning, laying on your wire frame beds, straining to hear over the cry of babies, laughter of children and the chopping of the huge fans overhead. This is how the rest of the World travel through space, huge open plan halls, with 3 cubic meters per person, living space and cargo. Its been like this for three endless weeks. You have spent the time sleeping fitfully, queuing for the toliet and playing 'I Spy' with the children in the next bed. Now, as you finally head into the docking bay of Fuller Station, there is an uneasy silence...The Battleships of the Terran and Russian Empires stand brisling, ready to unleash atomic death on the order of their captains. This ship...The Station...Both would be destroyed in an instance if the shooting started. Mission Summery: Primary Objectives: Report to Admiral Anderson on Fuller Station. (1 Merit) Depart Fuller Station for the TFS Germanicus. (1 Merit) Attempt to negotiate the trade dispute to a peaceful conclusion. (3 Merits) Discover what happened to the Cheddar Knights. (2 Merits) See that the Cheddar Knights safely make it back to Fuller Station. (2 Merits) Destroy any/all hostiles. (5 Merits) Secondary Objectives: Prepare adequately for the trade negotiations. Charter a ship for transport. Make contact with Command. Failure Critera: Dying during the mission. (Multiple, -1 Merit) 10 Civilians die. (Multiple, -1 Merit) Fuller Station is destroyed. (-4 Merits) War Breaks out. (-2 Merits) Taking the Cheddar Knight's Weapons. (-2 Merits)

=P Well, Wyvern is voting for the Martian Question, so I am gonna rapidly script that. Session starts in an hour and a bit: /join #space3 tavern You are welcome to sit in the channel until then.

Digital Fortress = Ultimate Firewall Firewalls are entirely useless at defending against something already in the network. Would also like to point out that you are not you, you are a character.

Probably best if we just write it off. (By game logic your character perma died) So no, you aren't.

Well, since hardly anyone has voted(or voted usefully, we have 2 useful ones), currently just planning to do a Earth Bound one...

They used to be the most honest devs...Now they are just as money grubbing as all the others. Introducing buyable expansions that are actually patches in the worst case, mods in the best. And making it neigh impossible for people to make semi-decent mods, or play a game for more than a few months without releasing some new game of a similar type but just different enough to require people to buy it.... Normally time era change...And yet they won't spend half a month building a working converter to change between games...Wouldn't suprise me that five years from now, when they have milked the franchise dry, they release the EU Total Experiance, allowing you to play from the prehistoric era, in some sort of race generator scenario thing, right into the future, using their Supreme Ruler 2020 as a baseline. Yes, they make a good game...But they aren't the people they started as.

Cause people do idiotic things when they feel like they have no alternative.

Maybe Ico just wanted some time out...but didn't want to go through saying 'Hey, I am having a rough time, can we call it a day' because, unsuprisingly, he, like everyone else, is trying to impress you, master of Europa Uniwateveritis.

Depends on the person.

I think there should be some balance between 'I have a massive army, I win everything' and 'I tried social stuff'. Hegemony always feels like you are building a house of cards in a room of other card builders and people who open windows. Makes the game fairly hard to play as anything but a window opener...though if everyone plays that, then you just get a lot of wind.

Ok, I am gonna start the session in 20 minutes.

Coolie, I am watching the X-Men trilogy (Saw the new one few days ago, extremely good film...not overactiony at all =)) Anyway, I am ready to start as soon as Spork is back.

Ok. Out of interest, some of my saves develop faults, so do you have a copy of the save?

Cool. I am ready to start whenever.

Errr....Just gonna point this out....The temperature is uniform because of global warming, and the distance from the Sun... If you reduced global warming then the temperature would not be uniform, and increases the distance from the Sun would be tricky.

Mmmm, Venus is a good idea, as it is essentially Earth, minus the Carbonatous Rock (aka Chalk and others). As such the Carbon is in the atomsphere, as CO2, rather than in the ground as CaCO3 Of course, reversing global warming is no mean feat.

In which case...I call Britain/Switzerland. I plan to abandon Earth in favour of Europa so I want to know if there are any decisions I can take to give me cores on Europa, in exchange for cores on Earth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggXmKPMaHMo

Kent County Council is a Government. :mellow: And we just call it procurement, so...

I can say, with some certainity, that Kent County Council use Outsourcing Procurement for building their bridges, their buildings and even their monuments. OP is used a lot.

In real life there is a system known as procurement outsourcing, and it is commonly used in Govenment and large bussiness...because most of the time you don't want to spend...lets say you have a department of investigations...30 people in the department, for a country, £25,000 a year per person, plus medical, plus rent, electricity, ect ect..... you are talking about a million a year per county, and 98 counties in Britain...so almost 100 Million Pounds a year. Thats kinda hard to justify as a money saving group. (The jury is out on whether it is actually worth it, as, if Britain spends 2.2 trillion a year then they would only need to save 0.5% to break even.) So they use Procurement Outsourcing. Which means that the Government has sat down [Anything up to 25] years ago and said 'All of our bridges will be built by company X.' And then, for the next 25 years, all bridges are built by company X. Why is this? Well, quite simply...Efficency. If I have a factory making ironware I need people to make and design pots, to make and design collinders, to make and design buttons...All very costly. My five competitor businesses also need people to make and design pots, collinders and buttons. As a result, none of us are very good at making any specific product. If the Government, and some businesses go 'Ok, we are going to buy all of our pots from Company X, all of our collinders from Company Y and all of our Buttons from Company Z', then I can reduce the staff in my Collinder and Button making divisions, buy bulk orders of pot making equiptment, hirer the designers and what not from Company Y and Z, and pass those savings onto the Government and/or businesses. Why? Because I know that for the next 25 years I am going to get orders for those items, and reduced orders on the other two products. Or at least that is the theory. In another theory what happens is the Government gives a deal to someone, they invest in that, kill off all the competition, and then they sit back on their laurals because they have formed a monopoly. The truth is somewhere inbetween...Because, while competition is good for keeping on the cutting edge, and for keeping the price of goods low, though makes for delays when making bulk purchases...There is some truth to the argument that a monopoly is also good for keeping near the cutting edge, and keeping the price of goods relatively low, but also producing bulk orders. A good comparison is thus: You buy a laptop, you can either buy an extended warrenty (Procurement outsourcing...You making a long term agreement that you will come to these people and only these people) or not (Requests by Tender...If there is a problem you shop around and find the best price for the repair) (There is also the argument that you could get out there and do it yourself. However it doesn't fit the metaphor (The Government can't go and build bridges themselves.)

Mather: Why do you experts always think youre right? Archi: Why do you players think that the more inexpert you are, the more likely YOU are to be right?

Yes... Going from 'This costs this' to 'This costs this, or this or this' 'I choose this, does it do that' 'It does that but not that' 'Well I want this' 'That doesn't do that either' 'Does anything do this?' 'Yes, this does that' 'Ok, I do that' 'But it doesn't do that.' But hey, if anyone wants to use it...