Bolthole or Recon Base?

[mmartin798]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

The more I sit here and plot, the more I like the idea of a dedicated Science Base, this would allow for state of the art dedicated labs with the mobile labs restricted to mobile teams, maybe one such base per region?

...

Thoughts?

From your comment, I will assume you mean this is a separate, dedicated base and not part of a regional base. I do think this idea has merit and can be explored. I am seeing something like the Wildfire facility from Andromeda Strain. The number would be small and they would be isolated from major population centers. Would their locations be widely known within the Project or only to Science teams, regional commands and Prime bases?

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by mmartin798

From your comment, I will assume you mean this is a separate, dedicated base and not part of a regional base. I do think this idea has merit and can be explored. I am seeing something like the Wildfire facility from Andromeda Strain. The number would be small and they would be isolated from major population centers. Would their locations be widely known within the Project or only to Science teams, regional commands and Prime bases?

I think I'm going to go with regional command and above only having access to location. Science Teams will have radio contact with "Wildfire" only.

Just thinking about a Science Base, and what they might have to research, than I can see them being separate from any other Morrow facility.

I'm going to have to reevaluate what goes into the various regions of the Project, I just keep coming up with facilities that need to be included in any reasonable attempt to rebuild after a TEOTWAWKI scenario.

[mmartin798]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

I think I'm going to go with regional command and above only having access to location. Science Teams will have radio contact with "Wildfire" only.

Just thinking about a Science Base, and what they might have to research, than I can see them being separate from any other Morrow facility.

I'm going to have to reevaluate what goes into the various regions of the Project, I just keep coming up with facilities that need to be included in any reasonable attempt to rebuild after a TEOTWAWKI scenario.

I think these science labs will mostly be dealing with diseases and finding treatments. Even if you go with Universal Antibody/Antidote. you will run out of doses quicker then the facility to make more can be brought online. With Atlanta and the CDC nuked out of existence, these bases become the source for vaccines and treatments for bioweapons and mutated pathogens. Assuming that, they would have source strains of various types in storage and we would have to assume Biosafety Level 4 labs and security measures to keep things in control. So they are basically Wildfire with some manufacturing ability to mass produce the vaccines and armed guards.

[ArmySGT.]

Science Teams have a Science One.....

I just nerf it. I remove almost all the weapons and add more scientific equipment. No missiles and other stuff.

That or an NBC vehicle. Either a V150 converted to NBC recon or M93 Fox.

I am just not into giving the PCs a base for a start. I will give them a base or let them keep one they build by mid Campaign..... Early campaign, I just make it to hazardous to build and occupy.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

Science Teams have a Science One.....

I just nerf it. I remove almost all the weapons and add more scientific equipment. No missiles and other stuff.

That or an NBC vehicle. Either a V150 converted to NBC recon or M93 Fox.

I am just not into giving the PCs a base for a start. I will give them a base or let them keep one they build by mid Campaign..... Early campaign, I just make it to hazardous to build and occupy.

I always run with very few MARS One/Science One vehicles, usually 2-3 supporting one of the national command bases. I do run decontamination teams that use the M-93.

As far as a "Wildfire" base, my thinking is changing to maybe one on either side of the Mississippi River and using as them as NPCs.

[cosmicfish]

On transforming boltholes into bases:

As has already been noted, boltholes lack a lot of amenities that a permanent base, including sanitary facilities, and are not designed to be particularly defensible. You could certainly build a base around a bolthole, using it as command room, but it would need a lot of supporting structure.

On Recon, MARS, and Science bases:

While all the branches certainly have need of substantial support and command facilities, I don't see that trickling down to the level of most teams. The problem is simply that the field teams are (to my understanding, at least) meant to be mobile. The average team is expected to be travelling over a large area providing services to TMP and the populace as needed. And given the post-war changes it would be extraordinarily hard to predict safe and appropriate places to situate said bases at the team level. Teams may establish bases down the road, but for the first year or two I would expect them to spend almost all their time travelling around their area of responsibility.

On SCIENCE ONE:

In an ideal world, scientific surveys would largely be performed in the field by technicians, not PhD's, and would primarily consist of collecting samples that would then be sent to permanent facilities for any analysis requiring machinery or electronics. TMP is not a perfect world. Transportation is slow and permanent facilities are vulnerable and hard to place. Something like the SCIENCE ONE would be a reasonable (for a game) compromise, shortening the chain between the source and the analysis and allowing strained resources to be repositioned as needed.

On the vehicle itself, I would imagine that the core vehicle would be mostly empty, with electric, plumbing, air, and network connections that would allow it to be configured either as a medical vehicle, biochemical lab, environmental lab, or more esoteric uses. The two halves of the vehicle would share the same propulsion system, none of this halftrack nonsense.