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Topic: X-COM Monday Nights Campaign (Read 4469 times) |
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chiz
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Jim had headed down to the medical area to look at the medkit assembly process. After using the medkits during their Night of the Living Dead Australian lab adventure, he had noticed the neutrophil granulocyte lines looked like they were a bitch to thread through the alien-inspired integrin "supercharger". Unless one of the tech's had figured out a better way to do this, Jim was going to suggest a controlled-release approach to "supercharging" the integrin, which hopefully would speed up the assembly process. If anything, his idea might speed up the accelerated chemotaxis even more, which could allow for even faster healing of injuries.
Once he got down to the lab, he wasn't surprised to see Stan working on the medkit assembly with the other techs. "Hey, guys, those med-kits were literally a life saver in Australia. Now, I had an idea for simplifying the assembly process that I wanted to run by you..."
ooc: I'll take a "craft pharma" check to see if I can accelerate either medkit production or quality, LB. As of tonights game, raw Craft Pharma skill is 11 (also got medical expert feat for +2 on CP), Knowledge Earth and Life is 9, and Profession (doctor) is 7.
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 3, 2008, 2:28AM » |
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TheBaldMan
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Buzz was impressed at how they had managed in Australia. As gruesome as their task had been they had finally started to acted as a team. In fact he was even more encouraged at how well the ladies seemed to be...the thought gave him a sudden pause! Now that the ladies seemed to becoming more relaxed around each other, he was sure they would have a coordinated front in bossing about the men.
Buzz sighed deeply. Well, he thought, if two beautiful women wanted to give him a "honey do" list he, for one, could think of worse dire straights to fall into. He looked from one to the other and continued his thoughts. Plus, since they had the skill to snuff him out it would be tricky indeed to contemplate saying "no". For some reason the thought amused him. He had grown to trust the group more than he had anyone before and felt no threat while in their presence.
Now if he could get that ever so distracting thought of Cat swinging on a pole out of his mind!
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Boomer
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Log 459
Subject- Jane Swift
Session Two
Doctor Baron and Jane are both seated.
Jane begins, “In the past few missions, I’ve had different sensations… more than merely seeing or hearing, I believe… I actually had the sensation sometimes through walls that I couldn’t possibly have seen or heard of Sectoids on several occasions and a couple of zombies at one point. I’ve hinted at it in the past; but, not said it this blatantly until now.” She sat back and looked at Doctor Baron like a great burden had been lifted from her… being able to speak of this, “Am I losing my mind?”
Doctor Baron scribbles a couple of notes. "Have you ever had this sensation before you joined Alpha team? In missions of extreme stress?" asked Baron.
Jane thought for a bit before answering, "Maybe? But, it’s more pronounced now. Before, it was like wondering if something was about to happen. Now, it’s like some sort of awareness of what’s around me... it’s odd."
Baron tapped his pencil on his paper pad. "Perhaps we could put this ’sensation’ to the test. On our next mission where we have to enter a room, I’ll ask you how many people do you think will be inside it. If you turn out to be incorrect, I think it’s safe to say that you are just suffering some paranoid feelings," said Doctor Baron, "If you are correct... well it won’t be the first strange situation we ran into."
Jane thought for a bit, "Well, I suppose some degree of testing is in order even if it’s not the most controlled of circumstances or degrees of measures. It certainly is worth investigating. Who knows what we might discover even if the results are partially inconclusive? They might yield something interesting."
End Log
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Lazybones
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Dr. Wagner's weekly e-mail.
FROM: DR. KIMBERLY WAGNER, X-COM RESEARCH LEAD
TO: MEMBERS, ALPHA TEAM
CC: MICHAEL GARRET, GRACE THELON BELUCA
RE: New Research/Manufacturing Priorities
Multiple breakthroughs!
Research Lab 1 reports that work on the Alien Alloys is complete. Once we figured out that an electrical current makes the material malleable, we were able to advance our analysis of the substance.
Research Lab 2 has produced a working Laser Rifle prototype. These weapons may now be manufactured in our Workshops.
Workshop 2 is coming online. We are still recruiting new engineers, and the shop will not be fully operational for another week, but you may wish to institute priorities now, so that they can hit the ground running.
To summarize, here our the current priorities:
Research Priorities (20 points available)
- Laser Weapons: Research complete. Laser pistols may be constructed.
- Laser Rifle: Research complete.
- Laser Cannon: a ship-portable cannon, with superior range and firepower. This technology will allow our interceptors to go toe-to-toe with the larger alien craft. Also, if HWPs are researched, this will allow us to construct a Laser Tank that can accompany X-COM teams in the field. Successful research of the Laser Cannon will allow us to research Laser Defense.
- Motion Scanner: Research complete.
- Heavy Weapons Platforms (2): Dr. Sandesh has expressed his disappointment that this project is not being given priority. He says that his plans for a prototype are nearly ready, and that he only needs lab time and staff support to make this project a reality.
- Alien Medicine: Research complete. Dr. White's lab will produce a regular supply of the new medikits each week. He reports that when the lab is involved in research projects, such as alien autopsies, the rate of production will slow. Dr. Allen has introduced new production techniques that have increased the rate of output of these vital kits.
- Sectoid Autopsy: Research complete.
- Alien Alloys: Research complete. Personal Armor is now available for manufacture.
- Alien Handgun: We've retained two pistols for research purposes. Until we capture some of the alien power source, research in this area will yield limited results.
- Sectoid Prisoner: the information recovered from the Australia base increases the likelihood that we can learn useful information from our prisoner. Resources will have to be directed in this area to yield results, however.
- Alien Navigation: A study of the control systems in the captured UFO may provide us with a better understanding of how the alien ships function.
- Alien Power Supply: The ship you captured on the Shasta mission had an intact reactor, but the fuel supply was lost. Preliminary study indicates that they use a unique power source which is kept on board their ships in a magnetic containment system. We believe that this is the same material that the aliens use (in much smaller quantities) to power their personal weapons. Capture of some of this material should be a high priority.
Manufacturing Priorities (20* points)
- Research Capacity: Research Lab 2 is fully operational. We can expand our research capacity still further, but this will require drilling out new room space.
- Medical Capacity: Dr. White has requested that we separate the sickbay from the research center, and create a separate lab for his team. This would require a significant investment of resources.
- Manufacturing Capacity: Workshop 2 is finished, and will become fully operational as new engineering staff are brought online.
- Base Defense: Missile Defense has been completed. Chief Thelon has noted the technical feasibility of creating a laser defense system, once our research into laser weapons technology is sufficiently advanced.
- Laser Pistol: Two units have been constructed.
- Laser Rifle: The most powerful portable laser weapon, with a built-in sighting system.
- Motion Sensor: Production models may be constructed.
- Personal Armor: Armor based on the Alien Alloys may be constructed.
- Medikit: Doctor White's medical lab can construct a number of these kits each week without compromising our manufacturing capacity. If you wish to dedicate additional resources to the project, the kits can be produced at a faster rate.
* When Workshop 2 is fully online. |
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Your current allocations are listed in parens above.
* * * * *
Alpha team contribution notes:
Jane Swift assisted in the final work on Workshop 2. Craft(Mechanical) result: 12+3=15; counts as +1 engineer for the following week.
James Allen developed new techniques for the manufacture of medikits. Craft(Pharmaceutical) result: 14+11=25; weekly production of medikits permanently improved by +1
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Jenniza
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FROM: Jane Swift, X-COM Alpha Team Field Agent
TO: Dr. Kimberly Wagner, X-COM Research Lead
CC: Members, Alpha Team
RE: Project Update
Great work on the breakthroughs.
With the following research general categories complete: Alien Alloys, Laser Weapons, Laser Pistols, Laser Rifles, Motion Scanners, Alien Medicine, and Sectoid Autopsies; I’d like us to consider the following:
- 1) Laser Cannon
- 2) Heavy Weapons Platform
- 3) Alien Containment Field – Alien Power Supply & Alien Handgun
- 4) Alien Language – Sectoid Prisoner & Alien Navigation
With the second manufacturing lab almost complete, we’ll have two research labs (covering as medical space still), and if the others are okay with this, perhaps something like this for the near future:
- Start work on Manufacturing Lab 3
- Make 2 more Laser Pistols
The idea is that after that, perhaps:
- Continue work on Manufacturing Lab 3
- Make 1-2 armor suits
After that, we can talk about:
- Separate off the Medical Lab that Dr. White has been requesting all along.
- Make 1-2 laser rifles
- Make another 1-2 armor suits
Perhaps after that:
- Start Manufacturing Lab 4 or finish the Medical Lab
- Make some more weapons or start work on the Laser Defense System
- 1-2 more armor suits
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 4, 2008, 12:26AM » |
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Jenniza
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Jane tries to seek out an appointment with Dr. Sandesh. Assuming she can get a few minutes with him...
Jane explains, "Dr. Sandesh, thank you for your time. I understand you are a very busy man. I'm not a very skilled mechanic; but, I can fetch you some tools and any other supplies or errands if that will improve your efficiency in your work. Hopefully now you will receive the extra researchers you need to complete your work." When she speaks to him, she is respectful and even-toned, in a somewhat quiet tone of voice. Her uniform is well-kept and covers her completely, and she wears she hat as usual, with her hair pulled back. No make-up. This is how she presents herself normally; but, will make sure of this when around him, because of his culture. She's served overseas in Middle-East cultures before.
ooc: one of the side reasons i picked the quiet leader voice set was to have a voice like this for situations like this
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 4, 2008, 1:47AM » |
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Jenniza
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FROM: Jane Swift, X-COM Field Agent
TO: Michael Garret, X-COM UN Liaison
RE: Mission Report – Phoenix, Arizona
The Sectoids raided the urban city of Phoenix, Arizona. Several scenarios were suggested for their motives, including: revenge, testing defenses, testing rapid deployment, mass hysteria, etc. My personal theory is that they are trying to locate X-COM’s headquarters and likely embedded each Sectoid with something like a transmitter, if not merely their large number of life signs in the base is a dead giveaway. I recommend we move them off the base before we have too many of them on the base to be detected from afar and we become a sitting target. Small amounts of their technology and their alien bodies is one thing; but, too many and we’ll become a homing beacon.
On to the mission itself. We arrived in the condoned off area, with F-22’s buzzing overhead, Law Enforcement circling the area, and the Army coming soon. Our job was typical, clean up duty, minimal civilian casualties. We got off the Skyranger in the middle of the thick of it…. All of SWAT was down pretty much by the time we were there. Two flying discs in the streets saw to that. We took them out with some damage to our team. There was a lot of property damage in the streets. We did a shop to shop, alley to alley search. Each place we went into had one of several things: light resistance from Sectoids in a bit of a shootout, civilians that we hurried onto the Skyranger and sedated, and one hostage situation that went bad. The hostage situation was nearly instantaneous and very little could have been done without trying to second guess ourselves to death. She appeared to be a psychiatrist by the looks of her office. One civilian ran to the winds, shall we say; I believe she made it to the police barricades from the direction I saw her running. I tried going after her; but, she looked like she was going to be safe. The rest of the civilians Dr. White sedated and we took them to a nearby hospital for treatment.
We returned to base after that.
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vanya mia
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Reading through the emails thoughtfully Catalina gave a snorting laugh. "We've researched more things to build than we're ever going to get around to here. Myself I say we keep going on the laser technology for now, with a little for the platform, but plough the capacity of one full lab into working on the information from Oz." She shook her head with a grin. "We won't be able to build anything after it's finished, but at the least someone may be able to get some important intelligence out of it. Maybe it will open up some more information that will help improve on the technology we have anyway."
"As for what to build? I don't totally disagree, but I am wondering whether we should sacrifice one of the laser pistols we could get for building motion sensors." Catalina looked around the faces of those present. "Keep the original workshop on beginning to build yet another manufacturing workshop, but put half the use of the new one into laser pistols and half into motion sensors. I did some checking and the good folks down in the workshop told me they could probably rustle up one or two with half the capacity of a lab. They'll last longer than the prototype too, so we won't have to make them very often hopefully."
"Of course there's no point in doing that unless you wait for the results of the scan when it's used before charging in." She tilted her head to one side and grinned ruefully. "Outside that garage it told me precisely how many there were, and exactly where they were, of course that information was wasted as you went in without waiting for me to interpret the signals. We did okay there, but more by luck than judgment. We might not be so lucky in future."
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 4, 2008, 10:39PM » |
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Jenniza
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Jane was fine with the idea, "That's fine. It wasn't clear to me that we needed a new motion scanner."
EDIT: Jane writes an email to Dr. Wagner to that effect, assuming Catalina confirms it and no one else objects and waits before sending it.
ooc: I only do that quickly because of the number of days involved in production rates... anyone is free to interject and cancel this.
ooc post rewritten to reflect Smart Alec's post below
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 5, 2008, 12:08AM » |
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Smart Alec
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Vasily holds up his hand a moment. "Wait. Let think about this."
He continues: "If we stuck with long backlog of build then research of laser not helping us really. We not get around to building anything new for weeks yet. Is just one more thing to throw on pile." He shook his head, characteristically stern. "What we lack is simple: know-ledge. We know very little. Knowing enemy is just as important as having right weapons. I say, let labs look into alien information from Ostralia, but look into alien navigate tech, too. Let us know more about alien ships as well. Maybe we find something that help us sooner than we think."
"Besides," he adds, "Is possible we put even further behind than we think. Beta Team will want stuff too, have no doubt," he finishes darkly.
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 4, 2008, 11:17PM » |
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Jenniza
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Jane holds off the email.
Jane replies to Vasily, "First, it's a given that we are behind on producing the 'cool tech' and we'll use up the expendables almost as fast as we make them in the beginning days. We're off to a slow start with manufacturing rates and we're researching our ass off. That means anyone from Alpha Team that can lift an arc-welder, serve coffee, use a slide-rule, a computer, a microscope or a centrifuge needs to help out. Even if it's only in a small way. We need to pick up the production rates and help out any way possible.
Second, the ships we found in Mexico, Canada & California each provide some amazing tech for the engineers to study. The navigation tech we found in the Canadian Rockies ship allowed us to find the Shasta County, California ship. If shifting priorities to studying the Alien Language and Alien Navigation System is what you're both suggesting, you sold me on the idea. That was in the email to Dr. Wagner. That and one laser pistol with two motion scanners."
Jane shows the jist of the email:
Please change this weeks Research Priorities to:
- 1) Laser Cannons
- 2) Alien Language - Alien Navigation & Sectoid Prisoners
- 3) Heavy Weapons Platform
- Alien Containment Field - Alien Power Supply & Alien Handguns
And the current Manufacturing Priorities (after Lab 2 is finished) :
- 1) Start work on Manufacturing Lab 3
- 2a) Make only 1 Laser Pistol
- 2b) Make 1-2 Motion Scanners
Jane asks the others to review the email again.
Jane explains, "The Laser Technology is leading up to the Base having Laser Defense."
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 5, 2008, 12:14AM » |
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Lazybones
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Doctor Sandesh seems a bit reluctant at first, but Jane's reserved demeanor wins him over, and soon he is regaling her with in-depth details about AI programming, ablative armor, and high-intensity sensor arrays. He is meticulous in his work and clearly brilliant, although sometimes his personality quirks cause challenges in dealing with his colleagues. Work on the HWP project continues.
ooc
So what I am hearing is:
Research (20 points)
Lab 1: Laser Cannon (5), HWP (5)
Lab 2: Sectoid Prisoner (5), Alien Navigation (5)
You can further subdivide Lab 2 to include the Alien Power Supply and Alien Handgun but you're probably better off waiting until you recover some of the alien fuel.
Manufacturing:
Workshop 1: Laser Pistol (5), Motion Scanner (5)
Workshop 2 (coming online): New Construction, Workshop 3 (10 once fully staffed)
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 5, 2008, 12:32AM » |
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Smart Alec
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OOC: Just to check:
- Alien Navigation and Alien Language are two seperate research subjects, am I right?
and
- I'm assuming that outfitting our Interceptors with laser cannons will still require manufacturing space, to build the cannons if not to fit them?
That's the meat of Vas's argument - that we're well ahead on research, rather behind on manufacturing, and can spend some time concentrating on alien knowledge rather than splitting our efforts on tech as well. If I'm wrong in my assumptions, might have to modify my thinking a little. 
EDIT: And, an edit...
Because we could do with the knowledge of our alien foes sooner rather than later, and that the research on the cannon and the HWP is slowing us up considering that we're not going to be able to put that research to any practical use any time soon, I was thinking of this:
Research 1 - Alien Navigation (10)
Research 2 - Alien Language/Australian Data (10)
... though Dr. Sandesh's plucky stubbornness in sticking to his pet project makes me think that we should give him 2 points out of one of those. Bless him.
Edit Edit: Hang on- does it matter how early in the week that we come to these decisions? 
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 5, 2008, 12:53AM » |
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Lazybones
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on Jun 5, 2008, 12:35 AM, Smart Alec wrote:OOC: Just to check:
- Alien Navigation and Alien Language are two separate research subjects, am I right?
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The "official" list is the one from Dr. Wagner's e-mail. Technically Alien Language isn't a separate project, it's subsumed under the Sectoid Prisoner project.
| - I'm assuming that outfitting our Interceptors with laser cannons will still require manufacturing space, to build the cannons if not to fit them? |
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Yes, that's true. Although given that the cannons don't benefit you directly (as in it's not something you can take with you into the field), I may give you a free prototype to fit to an interceptor once the research is finished (as I have done with a few other techs that have come down the pipe, like the motion sensor and the medikit).
Everything that you do involves trade-offs, that's part of the fun of the strategic game.
Just an interesting aside from the original game: in X-COM, Laser Cannons were the most profitable item to manufacture and sell on the global market. I may try to fit that into the story somehow. 
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Lazybones
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on Jun 5, 2008, 1:01 AM, Jenniza wrote:| ooc: it's why I keep listing HWP as #3, implying we give him 2 points, plus Jane as coffee handler and arc-welder |
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Okay, so HWP at 2, Navigation and Prisoner at 9 each (assuming Alec's argument is acceptable), unless you wish to keep something in the Laser Cannon. I'm heading out of town for a few days on business tomorrow, but I'll check the forum tomorrow morning before I go to see what you guys come up with.
By the way, player character contributions aren't counted in the number totals I post, you're an added bonus. I'll assume Jane is still rolling a +3 on the Mechanical support.
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 5, 2008, 1:06AM » |
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Smart Alec
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on Jun 5, 2008, 1:01 AM, Jenniza wrote:ooc: it's why I keep listing HWP as #3, implying we give him 2 points, plus Jane as coffee handler and arc-welder
the Alien launguage is a separate research topic from the Australian zombie reanimation medical research topic FYI |
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To quote the list:
"Sectoid Prisoner: the information recovered from the Australia base increases the likelihood that we can learn useful information from our prisoner."
When I mentioned the Australian data, I meant this part, rather than the zombie part. Though creating an army of zombies to fight the aliens... all we'd need would be some monkeys, pirates and ninjas. 
Other thing is, best not to make a habit of participating in research/construction if our skills are low Vas's Craft Mechanical is 4, and though I was tempted to help out, I was frightened that the risk of rolling a 1 outweighed the potential benefits. I may be wrong, of course. What do others think?
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| « Last Edit: on: Jun 5, 2008, 1:13AM » |
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Jenniza
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on Jun 5, 2008, 12:31 AM, Lazybones wrote:Doctor Sandesh seems a bit reluctant at first, but Jane's reserved demeanor wins him over, and soon he is regaling her with in-depth details about AI programming, ablative armor, and high-intensity sensor arrays. He is meticulous in his work and clearly brilliant, although sometimes his personality quirks cause challenges in dealing with his colleagues. Work on the HWP project continues.
ooc
So what I am hearing is:
Research (20 points)
Lab 1: Laser Cannon (5), HWP (5)
Lab 2: Sectoid Prisoner (5), Alien Navigation (5)
You can further subdivide Lab 2 to include the Alien Power Supply and Alien Handgun but you're probably better off waiting until you recover some of the alien fuel.
Manufacturing:
Workshop 1: Laser Pistol (5), Motion Scanner (5)
Workshop 2 (coming online): New Construction, Workshop 3 (10 once fully staffed) |
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I'm okay with the above, if the others are. Since we have to choose the "official topics".
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