District Chief Scientist, Research and Forewarning -

The District Chief Scientist is responsible for deploying sensors on the Sensor Map in order to predict the location and intensity of the next crisis events within the city.

By attending the Sensor Map table in the Specialisation Phase the Chief Scientist for each District is able to use any budget that they have been allowed by their Councillors, in order to deploy ‘Sensor Balloons’ above the city which can sense the potential for any seismic events about to occur. Depending on their district’s funding and how much is allowed to each scientist in a turn, the radius of their sensors will be larger or shorter. The Scientist Players will receive their results in confidence from Control and can choose to share their data, in the form of a direction/baring from their balloon. With the help of their colleagues, they can cross-reference the locations where the sensors detect a disturbance and potentially forewarn the city of coming crisis points. The sensors are also capable of picking up on the magnitude of each potential crisis and by matching the waveforms detected, they may even determine whether the event is minor, major, or if in fact they are tracking the DeepEye digging platform itself.

Science Funding -

Science is, unfortunately, at the whim of the city’s purse strings, even in a crisis. Each District leverages it’s own taxation and there is no central mechanism for allocating funds in a District agnostic way. The Chief Scientist role must always make time to take their case to their District’s Councillor in order to secure funding. Though the other Specialities may seem more immediate, Science is where prevention can begin and with more funding, that prevention can become more targetted and accurate. Each turn, in the Specialisation Phase, each Scientist will get to place one ‘Sensor Balloon’ on the Sensor Map. By default all district scientists have a single point of funding called their ‘Grant.’ This Grant allows enough detail for each balloon to tell its operator whether there are signals to either side of the hex space that it is placed in on the Sensor Map. Each turn wind direction is important to note as the balloon will follow that line from its starting point across the city. Following one row of hex blocks on the map until exiting. By placing the balloon strategically the Scientists will be able to triangulate the location of the the various signals. Between each placement, the wind direction will be changed - making the order in which the balloons are released important as well. With additional funding the report from the Sensor Balloons can become more accurate; • With two funding, i.e. the Grant and one additional funding from a District Councillor; the balloon can report on the primary cardinal directions to any signal. North, South, East, and West. • With three funding, Grant inclusive, the Balloon can also report minor cardinal directions; NW, NE, SW, SE. • With four points of funding, Grant inclusive, a balloon can report the depth of the signal, in addition to the direction. • Finally, with five points of funding or more, a balloon may report; Direction, Depth, and Distance of a potential Crisis from the balloons trajectory.

Scientists will receive the results of their balloon’s sensor scans in private and can choose to collaborate, or not, with the other Chief Scientist Players in order to help triangulate the location of the next crises. Players may find that Districts allocate an uneven, yet still insufficient amount of funding in any one turn making collaboration more or less attractive to particular districts in a particular round. Players are advised to be cautious, while also not burning bridges. The safety of the entire city is in peril after all, not just each Player’s home Districts in isolation. Balloons can only be place, to begin their flight in a Scientist's own district without explicit permission from the Council.

In addition, altitude matters. There will be high buildings on the Sensor Map with a number showing how high the balloon must travel in order to fly over them. Every level that the balloon is above the standard '0,' will mean a less accurate reading on its sensors, aka; One funding level below the paid level that turn. If a balloon collides at the same level as a building it will stop its traversal of the map. Buildings may be removed by infrastructure damage, as the game progresses.

Signal Processing -

Once all signals have been triangulated, or narrowed down to the best of the Player’s ability, for the current round; Players will have the opportunity to attempt to diagnose the signature for each signal. Each detected signal will need to be identified if the Players want to learn what kind of signal it is rather than just its exact/approximate location. For each signal that they are aware of (that they have detected) Players can submit a ‘waveform,' trying to match the ‘frequency of each signal. Control will have a collection of these waveforms, one for each signal that is detected and the Chief Scientist Players must assign a magnitude to each section, of five, in order to fill in the correct signature.

Per signal, each Chief Scientist Player, who is aware of the signal, will have the amount of attempts/guesses, equating to their level of funding for that turn. Grant only will give one guess to a Player, per signal; Two funding will give two and so on. Because it is unlikely for the Chief Scientist Players to have perfect funding, and perfect guesses in every round, they are heavily encouraged to collaborate in order to increase the amount of guesses on each signal.

If a correct magnitude is guessed, by a Player, in the correct location of the waveform, Control will reveal this information to the guessers and any other Scientist Players who are aware on the same signal. If the guess is incorrect, the Player along with other Scientists aware of the signal in question, will be told how many times in the signal, that magnitude appears, if any.

The possible magnitudes are;

      ▪ +1, or Minor Positive,
      ▪ +2, or Major Positive,
      ▪ -1, or Minor Negative,
      ▪ -2, or Minor Negative,
      ▪ 0, or Flat

If the Scientist Players run out of guesses before they fill in the five spaces on each signal they will have to pass the incomplete information on at the end of Phase. When complete, a signal will show, either more minor or more major magnitudes, which will indicate to the Players whether the event is a major or minor one. This is essential information to be passed along to the Guard Captains, as they will use that information to help direct evacuations for the affected parts of the city.

The DeepEye, digging platform may also show up on the Science Team’s sensors but it will in affect look the same as a seismic event until identified. The magnitude signature of the DeepEye will remain the same throughout the game so Players will be able to learn to identify it quickly as they get more accustomed to the shape. This information is helpful for the Communications Team, as knowing where the digger is will help improve their communications for that turn.

The detected signals will not take effect until the following turn, to the one in which they are detected. This means that Communications and the Guards will be dealing with the Science team’s last report during the Specialisation Phase, while the Science team is running another sensor sweep. At the end of the Specialisation Phase the Scientist team must send at least one representative to the Council for the Debate Phase, in order to update them on the current situation. Other Scientists should go directly to the other Specialisations in order to share their results.

Players may either share their findings with only the other Specialities on their team, or share it more broadly to their group, depending on each District’s strategy.

Following their report to invested parties, the Scientist Players should make sure to visit their District Councillor before the next Specialisation Phase, in order to secure funding for the following turn.