The Lab

[Supercape]

Thanks for writing the fluff, Rav.

Personally, I am not too keen on twin towers it feels less integrated as whole. Not totally opposed however - and they do look magnificent.

I was thinking more Space Needle myself (albeit a "solid" one), with the labs and heavy equipment at the spine and the social / living / hub stuff at the top.

[Fox]

I am keen on the two towers thing if and only if they form a giant Jacob's Ladder.

A Space Needle design would have to be scaled up a bit to realistically fit these things in the spine. The saucer, proportionally, would get pretty large...but as a design it could work if people like it.

[Raveled]

Well, the other possibility I was looking at was the Gherkin. It's actually a very interesting design, even if it looks stupid.

[Supercape]

As a Londoner, I can confirm the Gherkin does actually look very cool in real life!

[Raveled]

The Braniac Brunch is a semi-formal grouping of Freedom City's brightest minds. Doktor Archeville preceded over several conventions of the city's most intelligent citizens, but in 2010 a variety of corporate and private investors created the Lab. Sited in Hanover, the building swiftly became a high-tech research and development station independent of any of the usual interests. With such freedom to work, it's not surprising that membership to the Braniac Bunch, and consequently access to the Lab, is coveted amongst the city's engineers and academics.

The Lab is a glass and steel egg, thirty stories tall. The main entrance to the building faces north, and behind it is a carefully landscaped park stretching the forty feet to the North River; rumors of a secret, underwater dock remain unconfirmed.

The first three stories of the Lab are open to the public, and feature lecture halls and displays of the Lab's various technical achievements. The next five levels contain private offices and labs for the members of the Braniac Bunch, as well as amenities like dormitories and cafes. The remainder of the building is dedicated to the laboratories and workshops that make the Lab so feted -- all but the top three levels, which are a complex hanger/landing pad for VTOL capable craft (and individuals).

The Lab is built down as much as up. The three uppermost sub-levels contain material storage, the building's dedicated power supply, and largely-automated manufactories. There's at least five more sub-levels, but they are all high-security and therefore shrouded in rumor and supposition. Hearsay would have them contain powerful nullification devices, teleporters to other planets and dimensions, rockets powerful enough to put the Lab in orbit, clones of mighty heroes and villains on ice, and more besides.

[Supercape]

Excellent stuff!

Liking the rumours (for possible expansion).

I'm going to refine what you did and do a floor level guide, with a few expansions!

Sublevels -5 to -9: High Security / Classified Operations. Holding Cells / Nullification devices, Dimensional scanner. All "high risk" operations.

Sublevel -4: A large circular high energy particle collider. This took some persuasion to build, as its safety is disputed. No accidents have happened, yet.

Sublevels -2 to -3: Fusion Reactor and Engineering for the Lab. This includes powering its "privacy" field, that can selectively close off areas of the Lab to sensors and remote viewing.

Sublevel -1: Underground Garage, parking and associated engineering and maintenance / research, with ramp leading up to ground level.

Access to the Sublevels is restricted.

Ground levels - Floor 3: Public Access and Expo. Ground level is an Expo type open gallery. Levels 1 and 2 are lecture halls, meeting rooms, which can either be rented or are utilised for liason type work with the public and other agencies. Small automated cafe for public.

Floor 4: Administration and Personnel. The Lab has a small retinue of cleaners, administrators, and maintenance workers who all operate on this semi secure level.

Floor 5: Reading Room and Library. Essentially a storage for all written material that has not been scanned, this has a distinctively antiquarian feel to the rest of the Lab, and partially serves as a place of quiet study and relaxation. It is entirely on one level with no separate rooms. It is semi-secure and sometimes accessed by the public.

Floors 6 and above are restricted.

Floor 6 - 10: Braniac Bunch private offices and living quarters (including facilities for several guest resident or visiting scientists).

Floor 11-12: Medical research and infirmary. Whilst small, this is a high tech facility. It is used just as much for biological research as treatment and diagnosis.

Floors 13-14: Mainframe Housing and Support. Mainly for engineering purposes rather than actually using the computer. For some reason, there have been several glitches in systems on Floor 13, so back ups are available on Floor 14. Includes communication systems.

Floor 15-16: Simulator Suites. Two separate levels that can simulate, by hologram and other machinery, a variety of different environments.

Floors 17-26: 10 floors of the Main research laboratories and workshops. These are highly varied and encompass most realms of science.

Floors 27-30 Are separate only in that they have different level walkways. This area is reserved for working on Air/Space vehicles. The top of the Lab can open up to accommodate these vehicles.

[Dr Archeville]

Nice 8-)

Also, Dok's made an IC suggestion for getting this started.

[Supercape]

Just a reminder: we have 5 PP comitted to the Lab now, and it looks ready to go from the Braniac Brunch thread.

If you could commit 1PP of your last months rewards that would be grand.

At some point, I will kick off a "Lab Introduction and Grand Opening" thread for us to enjoy our new facilities!

[Heritage]

Hi guys! Sorry I've been so darn quiet in this thread; partly it's been an internet access issue, and partly it's been concern over Gossamer's current relationship with ASTRO Labs. I've always thought of her as being very loyal to ASTRO, but I also love this project. Does anyone know from RL experience if it's common for a researcher to maintain both lab space and connections with two such organizations? if not, I might need to do something IC to show her changing jobs.

Like Fox, I find myself in the position of saying 'well done!' on the HQ design, while having done nothing but kick in a PP :(

[Dr Archeville]

One way is for Goss to treat her ASTRO Labs stuff as her 9-to-5 work, and The Lab as something she does as a side thing, in the afternoons and weekends.

(Is that realistic? Eh, as realistic as anything else we do here )

[Heritage]

One way is for Goss to treat her ASTRO Labs stuff as her 9-to-5 work, and The Lab as something she does as a side thing, in the afternoons and weekends.

(Is that realistic? Eh, as realistic as anything else we do here )

Fair enough! Yeah, that works for me.

[Supercape]

I have done a wiki link for the Lab, based largely on Rav's concept and my floor plan (and backed up, I hope, by the tacit agreement of everyone!)

As per Doc A's suggestion, it may be useful to link this to character reference sheets.

Thanks to everyone for chipping in a PP.

Of course, the Lab welcomes new members (providing they are at least 10% geek, and scientific types!) if you wish to chip in a PP. We always have plans for a few new facilities! :D

[Raveled]

So has everyone donated? Ironclad has!

[Supercape]

Everyone but Miss A has chipped in the PP on edits. Miss A will do so, once Electra plucks up the courage to edit her!

So its good to go.

[Shockwasp]

RISE, THREAD! RISE!

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!

Er, right. Anyways, Wasp would definitely be willing to pitch in, both financially and with a PP or two, once December rolls around.

[Supercape]

Sounds good, Shock!

I presume you have checked out the wikilink explaining the lab, which is basically this thread distilled.

At present, it is pretty much operational as a base and we only ask 1 PP/member, no need to chip in two.

Once you chip in December consider yourself a member - at which point we probably need a thread to welcome you in and for Lab modifications. Feel free to start threading or posting leading up to this, and of course (if you wish) visiting the Lab as a guest etc.

1 PP would give us 5 more HQ points to play with. We would of course welcome any fitting suggestions. We had a couple of ideas previously about what to use:

Dock (a secret tunnel to the River for our submarines and boats!)

Power: Concealment 3 (Hearing, Ultra Hearing X Ray) (for more privacy!)

Power: Communication 9 (Radio, Omni DIrectional PF: Selective, Subtle)

Power: Supermovement (Dimensions or Temporal)

None of the above are set in stone and are far from "required" as you can see, the Lab works pretty well as is. Any bonus PP from this point are just for extra special groovy stuff as above. Any thoughts or particular things you would want, feel free to chip in.

[Dr Archeville]

I've said before I'm not comfortable with the Lab having the ability to reliably make extradimensional portal (that's something I feel should be stunted off a Dramatically Malfunctioning experimental device), and that goes for time travel, too.

[Supercape]

Apologies Doc, I interpreted your previous post on the subject in a different light. I'm not entirely sure how it could be abused, but its not something we need, so we can drop it without any fuss.

[Supercape]

First lab thread now up!

here!

Primarily for Lab members, although I would imagine Dok A more than welcome!

[Raveled]

So next month, Ironclad is getting (among other things) Wealth II. She intends to funnel some of that extra money into the Lab, putting another 5 EP into it. Where, fellow Lab mates, shall we spend it?

[Supercape]

Personally im not sure we need much more! also, putting another PP in from one character seems a bit, well lopsided or unfair.

If you are set on it, then I think we had a few suggestions a few pages back. But to be honest, I think if you are throwing in an extra PP above and beyond, the choice should be yours (well, at least as long as there are no significant objections, such as if you wanted a "Zoo with banana throwing ninja monkeys" in it... )

[Raveled]

Off the top of my head...

... Masterwork Workshops. +2 to Crafting.

... Masterwork Library?

... That (semi-)concealed Dock we talked about before.

... Some more/better Defense systems/Security.

... Some outright TARDIS stuff, using Dual Size.

... Using Sealed to throw the Nullify cells into a pocket dimension, for some extra security.

[Dr Archeville]

Why Sealed on the Nullify cells? The Lab isn't Blackstone v.2, it's a research facility.

[Raveled]

Just a thought. Plenty of other stuff to spend the points on!

[Supercape]

THis is an off the wall idea, relating to some stuff that Protectron recently spoke about - a power grid in space or in the moon that reflected energy to earth.

Anyway, one possible thing to do is get an AP base, such as a space station or moon base.

I'm not set on this, just throwing it out.

Otherwise from your list, the dock seems a given, it was the one we nearly had iirc, only just chucking it out.