FTA3 Research & Development

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8. FTA3 Research & Development

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R&D Fundamentals

R&D in FTA3 is very different from FTA2, in the sense there are significantly fewer technologies, especially those that gradually introduce incremental improvements. R&D in FTA3 revolves around developing your military’s doctrine trees, reverse-engineering OPF relics and autofactories, and similar.

All R&D projects require the expenditure of an R&D token to undertake, and normally have some other cost associated with it-be it DI, cash, a posting requirement, whatever.

Technology Levels

• TL6 - High Federation technology. Smoother, sleeker, more capable.
• TL5 - Standard tech; "ubiquitous OPF”. The general state of the art on the Grid today, what polity navies are constructed to as a standard.
• TL4 - Partially adopted OPF; Advanced gear too difficult to operate has been replaced by simpler, more rugged, less capable parts. This is the Common tech level one finds PMCs, Rumpus states, and many corporations operating at. TL4 Escorts, Cruisers, and army units bought off Common Market sources automatically have the Deniable trait. For every two TL4 units of the same design you build, you get a 3rd for ‘free’*.
• TL3 - Antimatter power era. Rarely encountered these days as civilizations who develop to this point rapidly gain access to the basic package of OPF technology. TL3 units may be built with the Deniable trait. For every TL3 unit you build after the game starts, get another of the same design for ‘free’*.
• TL2 - "Mature FTL”; early reactionless drives, crude energy-deflective shields, Alcubierre Drives.
• TL1 - "Early FTL"; Fusion propulsion, crude warp drives, simple lasers and railguns.
• TL0 - Chemical propulsion. 21st century stuff. Pre-FTL.

Differing Technology Levels and Combat

As a conversational shorthand, a given Technology Level is twice as capable as the level below it. This is cumulative, so a TL6 warship engaging a TL4 warship is four times as effective. This represents a holistic combination of all factors; a TL5 megaparticle cannon isn't necessarily simply twice as powerful in raw output as one from TL4 but instead has superior targeting, a variable shield-piercing mode, etc etc - the effect is a combat modifier. This shouldn’t be considered ironclad by any means, but serves as a good guideline to follow, and explains how Polity escort divisions are able to routinely punk pirate frigates and light cruisers.

Unlocking a Relic

Unlocking an OPF relic costs 1 R&D Token and $1000, completing in one year. The Old Federation deliberately designed its technology to be understandable to a broad range of sophonts and generally didn’t make things too difficult to figure out. Relics have a huge variety of possible effects, and the moderation team will spell out what your Relic does when you unlock it (remember to post in your YiR) Once you’ve salvaged one of a type of relic, your people recognize further examples and you don’t have to pay to restore a second or further examples of the relic. Fold Drives are “free” salvage in this regard as everyone knows what they are.

Repairing an OPF Landmark

Getting an OPF facility or structure on-line, as a rule, costs 1 R&D token, $4000, and 15 DI, finishing in one year. This represents your military-industrial complex training up the crews needed to oversee the care and feeding of your new autofac, assembling the engineering knowledge to herd servitor-cats, or making sure your idols are all up to spec on their cultural warfare metrics. The Landmark must also be located in a system where you possess a Supply Point in OR a Forward Operating Base. Transsophants/Advancers who treat Landmarks as FOB's can begin repairs immediately.

New Ship Design

Designing a new ship for production costs 1 R&D token, $100, and 10 DI, representing the design, prototyping, and testing process required to undertake a new ship design. This R&D process is ‘instant’ in the sense you don’t have to complete it before you build ships of this class-it’s just an extra prototype fee, more or less. All your initial ship designs are assumed to have prototyping paid for already. Also, be sure to check the Ship Quirks section of the military rules, as new standard vessel designs will receive a roll on the quirk table after the initial production run completes.

Notes: To be clear this is the 'my ship has +2 guns, +2 goes fast, and is painted in adaptive camouflage paint' 'design' and not 'super corvette'- that's below.

New Specialty Hull

Developing the technical ability to produce a specialty hull, which require a fair bit more technical know-how than normal designs, requires 1 R&D token and $500. Like with a new design, this R&D process is “instant”.

Doctrine Trees

While the general technological base of the Open Palm Federation is well-understood by the various sophonts of 82000, many of the new Polities across the Grid have not yet developed a comprehensive operational doctrine for all or even most of their military gear. The OPFN that shattered the Dre’kari Incursion of 39403 or evacuated the world of Pandora before its sun entered an unprecedented flare period is long gone, and the Polities of the Grid are just starting to rebuild that operational experience.

Doctrine trees are a gradual way to improve your military assets. They require fairly significant investment each step of the way, and moreover they also force binary choices in most of the tiers. It is, in theory, possible to complete all of the Doctrine trees over time (it would be fairly expensive) but obviously the binary selection of doctrine traits means many of the unlocks would be unavailable.

Each tree has eight steps, with four either-or decisions, a stat increase at Tier 5, two more either-or decisions, and finally a special Trait unlock. Tiers 1-4 may be taken in any order, but all four must be taken to unlock Tier 5. Purchasing the Tier 5 upgrade unlocks Tier 6 and 7 which may be taken in either order. All previous tiers must be purchased to unlock the Tier 8 capstone.

Each Doctrine Tree unlock requires either an R&D token or a Military token, $500, and 1 year to unlock.

Roughly, each doctrine offensive choice gives you around +10% more bonus damage, and each defensive choice gives you about the same health amount bonus. 4 full doctrine ships should be able to fight around 7 non-doctrine ships. The escort doctrine currently have a + damage capstone, which improves the escorts from fighting 4 to 7 to 1 to 2. Either escort tree can remain pretty good, or alternate capstone can be come up with.

Escort Doctrines

Tier 1 (offensive 1)

• The Bigger They Are: +1 to pierce.
• Escort Sweep: Escorts gain the Fire Control Array as a slotless module.

Tier 2 (defensive 1)

• Improved Splinter Protection: Escorts gain +1 Protection.
• Improved Damage Control: Escorts Gain +10% of Base HP.

Tier 3 (utility 1)

• Baffle Them with Bullshit: As long as you have an escort in the battle, you receive +2 to positioning rolls if you lost last turn.
• Dazzle Them with Brilliance: +1 to Positioning rolls to a squadron with all escort and speed 3escort-speed ships.

Tier 4 (utility 2)

• 36th Strategem: Escorts inflict -2 penalty to opponent’s Pursuit rolls when disengaging.
• Gentlebeings, It Has Been An Honor: One of your escorts may cause any attempt to pursue one of your fleeing ships to automatically fail. The attacker rolls a D20, on a 2+ the escort is destroyed.

Core Stat Increase: Escorts gain 5 base HP and 1 base attack.
Tier 6 (offensive 2)

• Precision Fire: +1 to hit
• Just A Few Guns: if an escort doesn’t have any additional weapons modules, it gains a slotless one.

Tier 7 (defensive 2)

• Improved Electronic Warfare: Escorts gain +1 Protection.
• Shield Drones: Escorts gain 10% of Base HP.

Capstone Trait

• Mosquito Fleet: Escorts gain Standoff(4x4), they may make these attacks even if they do not have seeking weapons. (Damage fixed at 4 to match FAC standoff attacks, so they’d be easier to pool.)

Cruiser Doctrines

Tier 1

• More Dakka: Cruisers gain +1 base attack. Spinal mount ships instead get +10 Spinal damage.
• Specialist Tools: At design time, choose a slotless secondary battery or torpedo module. Spinal mount ships instead get +10 Spinal damage.

Tier 2 (defensive 1)

• Protected Cruisers: Cruisers gain +1 to the lower of Avoidance or Protection
• Tougher Bulkheads: +10% of Base HP

Tier 3 (utility 1)

• Fleet Logistics: All Cruisers gain Long Legs (1)
• Detached Duty: All cruisers deployed alone gain Expeditionary. If they already had expeditionary, cut supply usage in half.

Tier 4 (utility 2)

• Élan: Cruisers gain +1 Speed.
• Technical Solutions: At design time, choose a slotless STAG or slotless Point Defense Module

Core Stat Increase: Cruisers gain +10% of Base HP and one base attack. Ships with Spinal mounts get +10 to base damage instead of +1 attack.
Tier 6 (offensive 2)

• Missile Pods: Gain Standoff(4x6), they may make these attacks even if they do not have seeking weapons.
• Extra Heavy Shells: +1 to pierce

Tier 7 (defensive 2)

• Improved Damage Control: +10% of Base HP
• Armored Citadel: Cruisers gain +1 to the lower of Avoidance or Protection

Capstone Trait

• Multi-Mission Module: When assigning ships to a deployment, choose any module that is not (+ weapons, secondary battery, torpedo, fire control, + HP, +avoid, or +protection) and gain it as a slotless module until it next resupplies.

Capital Doctrines

Note: Capital doctrine also affects Star Bases.
Tier 1 (offensive 1)

• More Guns: gain +1 Attack.
• Gunnery School: +1 to hit.

Tier 2 (defensive 1)

• +10% of Base Hull HP.
• +1 Avoidance.

Tier 3 (utility 1)

• We must have this ship back in three days: The base repair time of capital ships is reduced to 2 quarters.
• Ghosts of Pearl: Capital Ships gain a slotless damage control module and get an additional +1 on the ‘ship killed’ resolution table.

Tier 4 (utility 2)

• Smite Button: Slotless Ortillery.
• Hotel Yamato: Slotless Landing Force.

Core Stat Increase: +20% of Base Hull HP, +2 damage
Tier 6 (offensive 2)

• More Guns: Gain +1 Attack.
• Gunnery School: +1 to hit.

Tier 7 (defensive 2)

• +10% of Base Hull HP.
• +1 Avoidance.

Capstone Trait
You gain both of the following:

• Long Range Bombardment: In the first round of battle, you may execute all your standard gun attacks as standoff attacks, with the normal resolution for standoff attacks (only roll to pierce, no bonuses to hit or pierce) in exchange for not firing during the regular shooting phase of the first round.
• San Shiki Shells: Between the Fighter Dogfight and the Fighter First Strike phase, you may forgo any number of your regular shooting attacks during the regular shooting phase to instead fire at any fighters not in dogfights. For every attack assigned to anti-fighter fire, roll a d20. On an 11+, mission-kill a fighter squadron.

Fighter/Carrier Doctrines

Tier 1

• Just a few more seconds: Fighters get -1 to ship attack rolls.
• I have you now: Fighters get +2 on dogfight rolls.

Tier 2

• Mobius One Reporting: In the first dogfight phase of a battle, your fighters get two dogfight rolls.
• Death and Glory: In the first round of anti-ship attacks your fighters make in a battle, each fighter may make two attack rolls. Fighter casualties aren’t counted until the end of phase, so fighters can’t be killed before making both attacks. If you are really unlucky and roll more casualties than were attacking a particular ship, then the maximum number of casualties is limited to those fighters. Yes this increases your chance of death, but you’ll live forever in glory.

Tier 3

• Improved SAR: FDC recovery roll improved to a 3+ on a d6.
• Replacement training system: You get free replacements for any fighters killed, at the start of the next year. So you never have to pay for replacement fighters again, unless you want to replace them in the same year that they are killed. This includes free replacements for hangars on non-carrier units.

Tier 4

• Experienced Carrier Design: At design time, your units with innate hangers can gain either a slotless Magnum Catapult or a slotless FDC.
• Fleet of Fog: Your units with innate hangar capacity gain the ability to launch fighters and remain under cloak.

Core Stat Increase: Your units with innate hangar capacity gain +10% of Base hull HP and 1 Hangar.
Tier 6

• VIP: Enemy ships paired with your units with innate hangar capacity are valid targets for the protect action, as if they were flanking.
• Integrated Point Defense: Your units with innate hangar capacity gain the Flak trait.

Tier 7

• Kido Butai: When your fighters are making an anti-shipping strike, you can choose to inflict an automatic hit on the attacked ship instead of rolling, in exchange for, mission killing the attacking fighter squadron. FDCs can attempt to reconstitute fighters killed in this manner as normal. Cannot be combined with the Death and Glory attack (see above).
• Sunday Punch: Magnum Catapults now allow for two first strike phase fighter attacks.

Capstone Trait

• Your fighters that survive the dogfight may make anti-shipping attacks in the regular fighter combat phase. In addition, you gain a round of FDC rolls after the dogfight and first strike phases, just before regular anti-shipping strikes. Any fighters reconstituted can make regular anti-shipping attacks.

Ground Forces Doctrines

Tier 1

• Army Guards - Ground unit quality increased by 1.
• Mass Army - Ground unit construction time reduced to 6 months.

Tier 2

• Wild Blue Yonder - Interface and Aerospace fighters count for 25% more weight for air superiority checks.
• Protect Sky and Home - Air Defense counters twice its weight in fighters.

Tier 3

• Just like home - your units fighting on world types you favor gain the appropriate terrain specialization.
• Le Boudin - The buff from specialization is increased to +2 and the terrain specialization trait can be swapped to another terrain specialization trait once per year.

Tier 4

• Crazy for Crayons: in a turn where units with the insertion trait did not drop from orbit, the insertion trait acts as the dig-in trait.
• What a Helluva Way to Die - Units with the Insertion trait only have to roll 3+ on their recovery save.

Core Stat Increase - Ground unit morale increased by 1.
Tier 6

• March of Steel and Torrent - All ground units gain +1 firepower.
• Lorraine Revanche - All ground units gain +1 mobility

Tier 7

• Essayons - Units can swap their inherent trait to the Dig In trait for the duration of a battle. Once swapped, it cannot be changed until the end of battle.
• Marshal’s Tankists - Units can swap their inherent trait to the Breakthrough trait for the duration of a battle. Once swapped, it cannot be changed until the end of battle.

Capstone Trait

• New Standard Army - Corps-size formations (equal to 3 divisions) are unlocked for all ground units with associated costs.

Support & Logistics Tree

Special: Tier 9 Core Stat Increase is unlocked with the purchase of any 3 of Tier 1-8, the Capstone decision is unlocked with the purchase of any 6 of tiers 1-9. NOTE: Weight may never be reduced below 50% of a ships base weight and all fractional Weights are rounded up.
Tier 1

• Mahanian Might - Capital class ships have their weight reduced by 4, Cruisers have their weight reduced by 2.
• La Jeune Ecole - All escorts gain Nimble (1) and and +1 to Damcon rolls, all Cruisers gain Forager.
• Great White Fleet - You may use non-hostile NPCs (and willing PCs) to supply your ships. You count your supply distance as if it was adjacent to a Supply base while in these (N)PC’s systems.

Tier 2

• UNREP 2525 - Support Ships can support a weight of 150 and gain Nimble (1).
• Clathrate Crones - Cruisers gain Long Legs (1), non-carrier Capital Ships have halved supply consumption if operating within one jump of any fixed support point (i.e. your own territory or a supply point landmark, or the same belonging to a formal ally, or the same belonging to anyone who has agreed to supply you, if you have the ‘Great White Fleet’ trait (see above).
• Cash and Carry - You may build Operations Safehouses; these have the same effect as a standard FOB but also cost an espionage token to construct. In return they are Deniable and difficult to uncover (generally via espionage actions). They may be upgraded to a Supply Base, though they lose any special protection in the process.

Tier 3

• Stasis Pods - Landing Force modules reduce the weight of the ship by 10% each. (20% for escorts).
• Overclocked Dilithium Cores - Ships LOSE Long Legs (1) but gain +1 strategic speed. Going into negative Long Legs inflicts Supply Hog. This is selectable by the player at the ship design stage, or at the unlock of this doctrine.
• Escort Slings - Cruisers and Capital ships may 'grant' Long Legs (1) to up to their weight in escorts as long as they operate as a cohesive Taskforce.

Tier 4

• Rapid Redeployment Strategies - You may pack up and move FOBs up to 5 jumps at no cost, though any year in which they move they do not provide the bonus to supply burn. (representing the period in which they are slowly moving across the stars)
• The Biggest Gang - Piracy & Commerce Protection missions increase their respective limits by 100.
• Boxguards and Sentry Guns - When constructed, FOBs spawn with $250 of ground forces.

Tier 5

• Instant Orbital Drop - All troops delivered from Landing Force modules gain the Insertion trait. If they already have it innately, they may reroll the dice. They may reroll when attempting landings on a Shell World.
• Multipurpose Prime Movers - Each Landing Force module may instead be used to provide supply as if it were a supply point. 5 points of supply per battalion, 10 per regiment and 25 per division-weight.
• Amazon Primaris - Any ground unit with Engineers also gains the Assault ability and +1 Morale.

Tier 6

• Ammunition Mishandling Practices - At order time, a ship may gain +1 to hit or +1 pierce, in exchange the ship suffers double damage on all piercing rolls of 19 or 20 on the piercing die for the duration of the deployment..
• Jutlander - Before battle, if your fleet is within 1 jump of a (supply base, own territory, territory of a formal ally), you may choose to have your ships gain +20% of base hull HP for the duration of the battle. The additional HP do not change the ships damage threshold numbers. However, your ships are unable to pursue fleeing enemy ships, nor detach to run down any killed enemy ships. In addition, the fleet must retire to the fixed supply point at best speed and spend at least a quarter there.
• Sprinter Drives - Additional Engine Modules provide Nimble (2) rather than (1), but inflict -1 Long Legs. Going into negative Long Legs inflicts Supply Hog. This is selectable by the player at the ship design stage, or at the unlock of this doctrine.

Tier 7

• USS Sulaco - Escorts gain either a slotless Boarding or Landing Force Module.
• Unleash the Kraken - Your Explorers or Strike Cruisers (choose one) gain Hangars (4) and act as a point of supply for up to 100 weight of other ships (as a Support Ship), though if fitted with a cloak they may not cloak while also operating as a supply point. If you have Escort Slings you may bring them through unstable tramlines.
• Battle Barges - Up to 3 Landing Force modules on your capital ships come with one Interface Fighter Wing each.

Tier 8

• Repair Scarabs - You may repair damaged ships at one level ‘less’ of the amenities required for the ‘normal level of repair’ (e.g. repair medium damage at a FOB, instead of a supply point).
• Working Joes - All your ships have their supply consumption reduced by 10%. Note that this is a reduction of the amount of supply actually consumed, it does not modify the effective ship weight. So, for example, when computing the limits of what a FOB or supply ship can support, the ‘normal’ ship weight is used.
• Optimally Manned - Annual Military Upkeep of naval units is reduced by 10%. If any of your ships are mission killed and successfully run down, they may be taken as prizes by ships without a boarding module.

Tier 9 - Core Stat Increase - Forward Operating Bases can now support 200 weight of ships.
Tier 10 - Capstone Decision

• FedOrdnance - All ships gain Long Legs (1). Any ship with Long Legs (5) or better gains Expeditionary.
• Multi Level Munitions - You gain a pool of supply weight equal to 10% of your annual supply production; you may assign ships to this pool which grants them the Expeditionary trait for the year.
• Uninterrupted Projectile Supply - Ships in the same system as a FOB are treated as if they are next to a supply point for supply cost/burn purposes.

Espionage Tree

Tier 1 - Operations

• Triple-O-7: Special Agents optionally provide a second reroll to an operation they are attached to, however, using it will generate loudness, as the agent pulls some outlandish stunt to give your operatives another chance.
• The Professional: Environmental traits (Urban Fighter, Jungle/Mountain Warrior, Void Jockey) counts as a Cloak for the purposes of calculating Loudness when deployed to the correct environment. Special Forces gain an additional +1 specialization bonus on assassination missions.

Tier 2 - Security

• Secret Service: Your ships and ground units can gain the Secured trait by spending a 50% income surcharge. You may spend an Espionage token to give the Secured trait to a single landmark, territory, asset or named character apiece.
• SWAT: Military Police and Special Forces units improve defensiveness against hostile intelligence operations in the same way that SF enhances offensive ones.

Tier 3 - Intelligence Gathering

• Counter Infiltration: When you get an early warning by having higher Intelligence Gathering than the opponent’s Operations, you always get a rough estimate of numbers and types of assets being deployed, even without having double the opponents score.
• Triple Agents: When an Agency you own is compromised you identify the specifics of all enemy Assets involved (names, types, owners, etc).

Tier 4 - Deniability

• Silent Running: Cloaked units never contribute to Planning Loudness, even if they have been to port since the operation planning began. Units with Deep Cloaks do not contribute to Outcome Loudness unless they were destroyed in combat or subject to boarding.
• Scorched Earth Protocols: You can torch your own records and liquidate compromised assets to add 2 turns to the deniability clock, this works even if you would otherwise be revealed immediately. This has less severe side effects to Burning the Agency, and will leave the agency open to further use, but will still leave disgruntled loose ends that need cleaning up, or could be exploited in the future by hostile actors.

Core Stat Increase: Your Agencies are not compromised upon any statistic reaching 0, but continue to be functional and secure until they hit [Espionage Doctrine level] negatives in a single stat or more than two statistics at 0.
Tier 6 - Mutability

• Flexible Agents: All assets that are expendable gain a second use before being discarded.
• Specialized Agents: You can embed a single Special Agent with any Ground Unit that has the Special Forces trait. For combat resolution purposes their TL is increased by 1 (to a maximum effective score of 7).

Tier 7 - Assets

• Deep State Funding: Every $ of income you spend to support Operations or fund Proxies counts double for the recipient.
• Aggressive Acquisition: When conducting asset operations can always Rush the result at no cost or increase in Loudness. By spending a surcharge of 1 Token, you can get a batch of 1d3+1 of any asset.

Capstone Trait

• Five Eyes: You can establish yourself as a spymaster for any number of PC or NPC allies. Provided that communication lines are maintained, all information (early warning, counterespionage results, OSINT, etc) are instantly traded between members. Additionally, there are two more benefits:

Whenever a player under your security arrangement spends an Espionage Token, gain 1 Statistic point to add to a single Agency of choice.

Whenever one of those players Burns an Agency (or uses Scorched Earth Protocols) or has one Compromised, you get an Espionage Token.