The Guns of August

[altasilvapuer]

Preface:
I wasn't 100% clear on whether the description/narrative in this post had to match the official 1-page description. In my head, I imagine the logs below being something you'd find scattered around the settlement as it levels up. If I ever release this on its own after the contest, I'd probably create text-only holotapes in the mod that are treated like audio transcripts of the logs.

Just in case, though, the official 1-page synopsis is at the bottom of the fourth and final post.

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<Level 0>

First Officer's Log: October 24th, 2287.
The August has reached land, at last. Scouts had reported an island perfect for our foothold into this new world, but it seemed some damn fools had taken up residence here, first, and made to rebuff our rightful claim. Thankfully, the guns of August have...persuaded them otherwise. Most of their outlying structures have been severely damaged or outright demolished, and even now our advance squad is on-shore securing the area. The island should be ours within the hour.


First Officer's Log: Supplemental.
The lads are ashore and the island has been taken. Jensen took a bullet to the leg, but the medic expects him to make a full recovery. Sadly, the island seems not to have fared so well. It seems August's bombardment was more effective than first anticipated. The structures of the hapless natives were so ramshackle it's a wonder they could withstand a stiff breeze. Damn fool Wastelanders. Armistice is due in three weeks, with the rest of the fleet. Repair efforts are underway posthaste, but the time-table will be tight. What I wouldn't give for a proper cup of tea...



First Officer's Log: October 26th.
Great Luck! It seems this island was to be home to a small airstrip before The War. The hangar still stands (well, mostly, anyway...) and the beginnings of the airstrip were already being constructed. The admiral will be most pleased to regain superiority in the skies. The loss of the Kestral was a blow to more than just fleet morale. More to it, there is even an intact pad for vertibird landings. The Captain has ordered the men begin immediate construction on a control tower and additional vertibird pads. We've also begun excavation of a bunker beneath the central hill.



First Officer's Log: October 30th.
One of the damn natives went rogue, today. They had some strange contraption of a loudspeaker strapped to a shack in the center of the settlement. The damn bloody fool slipped his guard and killed power to the speakers before being caught. Right in the middle of the bloody execution these... things crawled out from the seas and began attacking the men. They were like giant, mutated crustaceans of some kind. It would seem the New World was spared no more than we were by The War.

We dispatched the mongrels in short order, only for wave after wave of them to rise from the seas. It would be hours before Montgomery realized the connection to the loudspeakers. The bloody idiots actually managed to set up a high-frequency sonic deterrent and powered it by a half-destroyed generator in one of the wrecked tugs. How they had the slightest intelligence to manage it, I haven't the foggiest. Monty and his boys had the speakers back up and running in short order, however, and I've doubled the guard on the prisoners. It would be much easier to execute the lot of them, but for now we need the manpower.

 

[altasilvapuer]

<Level 1>

First Officer's Log: November 6th.
Construction of the Control Tower progresses at an impressive rate. These Wastelanders may be mongrels, but they're certainly hard-working. Hard-working under point of gun, to be sure, but hard-working all the same. Those ramshackle, haphazard shacks of theirs have proved shockingly sturdy. What's more, Jensen's boys discovered an aging fusion plant on the nearby mainland that Monty has managed to recondition into fine working order. He says it won't even explode. Still, I'll keep my distance from the infernal thing. We already did the world in once, playing with that particular fire...





First Officer's Log: November 11th.
We received a message from Armistice over the wireless, today. The pacification campaign has proved more difficult than was anticipated, and the fleet expects to be delayed another month. The Captain seems disappointed, but I'm thankful for the extra preparation. This decrepit pile of scrap needs a great deal more work to be fit to receive the Admiral.

On a lighter note, however, the bunker was completed yesterday and the Captain granted everyone leave for the afternoon today, in celebration of Armistice Day. It still strikes me odd to celebrate the end of a war that ended so long ago while we scrape a living from what's left of the last one. Despite my better judgement, I find myself more impressed by the Wastelanders daily. Their dogged persistence knows no bounds. Then again, that's likely just the whiskey talking. Work is to resume tomorrow on the airstrip and the defences.

 

[altasilvapuer]

<Level 2>

First Officer's Log: November 25th.
[Extended cursing and incoherent shouting, followed by a heavy sigh]. We had to hang one of the Wastelanders today. He stole a pair of boots from one of the crews' quarters. The Captain was stone-faced with fury when he gave the order.

...I'm going to have to redouble the guards. Again. ...Damn.



First Officer's Log: December 1st.
Despite last week's misfortune, progress on the airfield has been swift and impressive. Monty has taken to calling the Wastelanders his grunts. I'm leery of his fraternisation, but if he continues to produce these results, I may be convinced otherwise. Jensen's boys have continued scouting and raiding the mainland, as well. On the last raid, they even managed to steal a functioning, intact vertibird! We were so shocked that we nearly shot the bloody thing down on approach. The Wastelanders seem afraid of some Brotherhood or other, but Jensen didn't seem to know what they meant, either.


First Officer's Log: December 7th.
We have met the Brotherhood and they are truly fearsome. They have well-earned the Wastelander's awe, and we likely would have fallen to their onslaught, were it not for the arrival of our sister-ship, the Peremptor and the gunboat Defiant. Between the surprise of their arrival and Peremptor's newer guns and reinforced armor, we withstood the brigands' assault long enough for them to retreat. During the raid, they managed to cause significant damage to the vertibird and much of our defences. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them and have ordered the work schedules on the island's defences be tripled. All scouting raids have also been halted, temporarily, much to Jensen's frustration.






First Officer's Log: December 19th.
There has been no sign of the Brotherhood since that initial attack and the silence has begun to gnaw at the men almost as much as the cold. Monty and his Wastelanders have cobbled together an impressive feat of ingenuity in an anti-aircraft gun. He's taken to calling it Tinuvia, though I haven't the foggiest who or what a Tinuvia is, anyway. Whether it will shoot or implode is anybody's guess, but I'd wager good money on Monty's madness any day. We've also completed work on a new machine shop and Monty is leading efforts to get the vertibird flight-worthy again as fast as possible.

View attachment 7067

 

[altasilvapuer]

<Level 3>

First Officer's Log: January 6th.
For weeks, we have had seemingly endless skirmishes with the Brotherhood. They bring forth a seemingly inexhaustible tide of men and materiel. With the state of these Wastelanders when we arrived, I wouldn't have thought these mainlanders capable of withstanding such attrition. Still, we have given as good as we've got, and we've even managed to capture a second vertibird. Monty's Tinuvia gun has been worth its weight in gold, and I've charged him with constructing more as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the Wastelanders have jury-rigged all manner of weapons into makeshift defense turrets and scattered them around the base. They may not be the Admiral's regulars, but backed into a corner, they fight with the ferocity of a rabid wolf.

With our position better-solidified, the Captain has authorized Jensen's squad to resume their scouting raids on the mainland. He has even begun to bring one of Monty's Wastelanders with him as a sort of native guide. With the cargo capacity of the vertibirds, they have hauled back an impressive array of technology and equipment - something that seems to have only continued to enrage the Brotherhood further.




First Officer's Log: January 17th.
The Armistice has arrived! Now we'll show that bloody Brotherhood the meaning of peace! She still bears some damage to her hull along the waterline, but her main battery is as ship-shape as ever. Armistice even managed to salvage a damaged Stingray from the Kestral after she went down. With the help of Monty and his Wastelanders, we've had it removed from Armistice's hold and moved to the airstrip. Monty thinks it may have only a lone sortie left in it, but with the right mission, that's all we should need.



First Officer's Log: January 31st.
The arrival of the Armistice has tempered the aggression of the Brotherhood and we find ourselves in an uneasy, but quiet Cold War. The Admiral has decided to put the Stingray mission on hold while we consolidate our forces. In recognition of his instrumental role in the defense of the island, Monty has been promoted to Chief Engineer on the Armistice. I'm sorry to see my friend go, but I'm truly happy for his success and wish him only the best. The Admiral is ordering August and Defiant northwards along the coast to a nearby lighthouse. Word has reached us of a powerful trading fleet that has similarly crossed the ocean and made landfall, there. With any luck, we may be able to enlist their aid in ending the threat of this Brotherhood once and for all and bringing Armistice's peace to this wasteland.

While it began as a simple foothold base for the Admiral's expansion into the New World, the settlement on the island has grown into a thriving young metropolis. The once-savage Wastelanders have now fully integrated into the Fleet and bolstered our small force. They tell us of other groups of variable influence in the region, like the Minutemen and Gunners. Some even fearfully whisper of a hidden Institute, whatever danger a hapless bunch of scientists could pose. Perhaps if we can make contact with some of these forces, we can truly unite this Wasteland under a single banner. For those who do not come willingly to the Armistice's Peace, they shall bear the the full weight and persuasion of the might of the Fleet. For Peace!



Designer's Note: This settlement also has a player home with a basement intended for use as a Conqueror home base. The War Planner's desk in this screen shot has been replaced by the bare desk in the actual plans, but players are encouraged to place their own War Planner's desk in its place.


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I also wasn't 100% clear on whether the description/narrative in this post had to match the official 1-page description. In my head, I imagine the logs above being something you'd find scattered around the settlement as it levels up. If I ever release this on its own after the contest, I'd probably create text-only holotapes in the mod that are treated like audio transcripts of the above logs.

Just in case, though, the official synopsis is below:

The Guns of August
Spectacle Island Forward Operating Base

When the first ships of the Armistice Fleet scouted the Commonwealth for their expansion into the area, Spectacle Island was quickly identified as a prime candidate for the fleet’s Forward Operating Base. Sending one of their light destroyers, the August, as an advance scout, the Wastelanders currently settled on the island were quickly pacified and conscripted into service of the fleet.

Construction efforts were quickly begun on restoring the damage caused to the settlement by August’s initial bombardment and on possibly the greatest strategic importance of the island: Its partially-constructed air strip. Begun in the waning days before The Great War, the airfield held naught more than a small hangar, a single helipad, and a partially-completed runway. Centuries of wind, waves, and a nuclear onslaught had destroyed much of the runway and left the hangar ramshackle and threadbare. With the loss of the fleet’s only carrier, the Kestral, only months prior, the potential for renewed air superiority offered by the island was impossible to ignore.

While construction on the island continued apace, sporadic scouting raids to the mainland produced advanced technological salvage and contact with one of the fleet’s strongest foes in the Commonwealth. Stealing a damaged vertibird from a Brotherhood of Steel scouting party, Fleet forces awoke a sleeping dragon in the region and ignited a conflict that would test the very mettle of the Fleet’s scattered forces. Only by the timely arrival of reinforcements in the form of August’s newer sister-ship, the Peremptor and the light gunboat Defiant were Fleet forces able to repel the Brotherhood’s advance.

Conflict soon settled into an uneasy détente and then to Cold War with the arrival of Armistice, herself, and her main battery. While the remainder of the Fleet’s resources remain stretched across the Atlantic, leadership is confident that the remainder of the Commonwealth will come under the Fleet’s protectorate in short order.


At Level 3, Spectacle Island FOB posseses a total of 20 Residential plots, 4 Agricultural, 2 Commercial, 6 Industrial, 4 Advanced Industrial, 1 Martial, and 3 Recreational Plots. In addition, multiple turrets and assignable defense posts are scattered around the settlement. Spectacle Island FOB is a settlement best meant for advanced and/or hands-on players, however, as plot choices were dictated more strongly by theme than by function. While it is fully self-sufficient by level 3, much of the earlier levels may require periodic assistance or coaxing on the part of the player. In addition, it is ideally meant for a Conqueror player and for use as a main base for controlling the Commonwealth.

A furnished player home may be found in the Southwest corner of the settlement, along the walls. The basement/bottom floor is designed as a war room and occasional tinkerer’s room. Players are highly encouraged to replace the empty wooden desk with the corresponding War Planner’s desk from the Conqueror expansion. The second/main floor features a bedroom with ample storage spaces and a small balcony gardening spot, while the top floor present in later levels eventually features a decorated lounge space for entertaining guests.

-asp

 

[altasilvapuer]

GARGH! Ironically, I routinely run 300-400 mods semi-haphazardly merged down below the plugin limit and have never had a corrupted save. I've also only rarely dealt with infinite load screens, though I get a decent amount of CTDs.

Building this settlement on my stripped-down city plan load order, I managed to somehow corrupt a save, not notice, and pass that corruption on to the next 4-5 saves. (The thumbnail is static/noise, and trying to load it causes a CTD. Trying to mouse over it in MO2 throws an error about unexpected file ends, or somesuch.) The most recent non-corrupted-looking save seems to be experiencing infinite load screens. I have yet to find a working one, but I think I may have lost about a day's worth of work, at least.

UGH. Okay, venting over. On the bright side, I'm mostly in final decorating mode for L3 and soon to begin regressing, so today's work wasn't as extensive as it might otherwise have been. Or at least, it's not as extensively difficult to replicate.

-asp

 

[Ausplat]

Boaty McSettlementface :O

 

[altasilvapuer]

"Something, something, 'diplomacy'"


-asp

 

[Sirlach]

"Something, something, 'diplomacy'"
View attachment 6797

-asp

Approved use of Tank!

 

[uituit]

Don't forget to have your entry done by the 12th.

 

[Myrmarachne]

"Something, something, 'diplomacy'"
View attachment 6797

-asp

Best gunboat on show! Great pic!

 

[altasilvapuer]

Best gunboat on show! Great pic!

Thanks! I have to give a bunch of credit to @uituit for the gunboat in Flotsam & Jetsam, because that was a strong inspiration, here.

Coincidentally, this is the one I'm seriously considering making into a plot. I've actually got two different skins laid out, so far, but the boats aren't at all pathable, yet. Gotta redesign and/or learn some more for that.

-asp

 

[altasilvapuer]

Ugh. Finish Line-itis is for the BIRDS! See you all on the other side. I'm going to be mainlining caffeine after work for a few days.

So help me, I will bring peace to the Commonwealth! OR ELSE!



-asp

 

[PunkPrincess]

Finish Line-itis is for the BIRDS!

Lol yeah I'm struggling too. Gotta PUSH THROUGH!

 

[Sirlach]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q4MTyrGw2Xocuvct5

 

[altasilvapuer]

Oh man, this is going to be so close. I work all day tomorrow and have a conflict for a few hours in the evening, so it's pretty much tonight or bust.

The hardest part, so far, has been figuring out how I'm going to regress to the lowest level or two - there's just too much built up by Level 3. I'm seriously thinking about a settlement that's already partially built and taken over by the builders at Level 0. I think that's the only way it's going to happen, and it might fit thematically with the rough idea in my head.

Wish me luck, everyone! I'm about to go take a shower & inhale some Redbull.

-asp

 

[Sirlach]

May the force be with you!

 

[NDCowdy]

Good luck, sending positive caffeine laced waves in your direction.

 

[altasilvapuer]

C'est finit!!

...Mostly, anyway. There are a couple bug-fixes I still need to hit like some missing walls or platforms and floating supports from getting a little scrap-happy. Hopefully I'll be able to correct them tomorrow evening and still get my saves uploaded in time between my event and close of the contest. For now, I'm going to go faceplant, because I have to open at work in just over 4 hours and have a long day after that.

I've edited the opening posts with the forum-facing side of my entry, though.

Author's notes:

• Getting a proper overview shot of the settlement was surprisingly difficult. Even as compact & wiry as it is, it's massive. Especially if you include the eye candy ships.
• The balance of this settlement leans pretty heavily towards defense and is a bit light on food, so you may want to supplement it with trade routes for faster leveling, especially at first.
• Final Build Limit:
  Triangles: 2,207,634 / 10,00,000
  Draws: 3,368 / 10,000
  
• Final Plot Counts: 20 Residential, 4 Agricultural, 6 Industrial, 4 Advanced Industrial, 3 Recreational, 2 Commercial, and 1 Martial.
• The settlement also has a fully-decorated player home with a thematically appropriate place for a conqueror's desk. In fact, it actually has one in the saves, right now, but replacing it with the rules-kosher empty desk is one of the things I have to do before submitting.
• @Tinuvia, I love the AA gun on top of Messy Death's second level. It just happened to end up in one of my screenshots, and when I was writing the story, it fit perfectly! I hope you don't mind my having the engineer "name" it after you. It seemed the best in-character way of crediting you, and seemed cheeky & fun.

-asp

 

[altasilvapuer]

Oh, and here's another glamour shot of Armistice, because I'm a little bit unreasonably proud of her. I considered using this one in the official posts, above, but decided the shot over the minigun was more effective. Just...uh... pay no attention to the dolphin in the foreground.

 

[uituit]

cool
Don't forget to send Sirlach and myself your archive of your saves ,screenshots and story.