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[dgr11897]

Welcome to Europa, in the year 100 after the collapse, the day when the Daemon APOPHIS rose, causing the collapse of the old world. When the starsailers of our ancestors were ripped from the skies as weapons, or seized by foul pirates. When man was shattered among its remaining colonies. But this does not concern our fair arcology. For in the 100 years since the old world was destroyed, two factions have arisen in our colony, from the two heroes who saved the colony. The Legacy of Smith who stem from Smith, the person who stabilized the star engines and cut them off before APOPHIS could fully take control. And the Order of Mason, whose founder reprogrammed the spirit within the core of the arcology to create a wall of digital fire capable of repulsing APOPHIS’ attacks. But war is brewing between them, as both sides shift to opposite ends of the great arcology, and prepare for conflict. This war will decide the fate of the arcology, and quite possibly, the fate of all mankind.
Welcome to…

Power Armor Arms Race.

(Temp map courtesy of Taricus, being put here to catch attention as the first map submitted)

Spoiler: Combat zones (click to show/hide)

All lanes are listed going from the south end of the arcology to the north, with the last one linking into the home territory of a faction. The Order of Mason’s main base is in the north, while the Legacy of Smith is located in the south.

Order of Mason HQ:
One of the 3 surviving hab zones. This one was only a few months from completion before the collapse. When the destroyed habitat’s fusion reactor overloaded most of the survivors retreated here and the automated repair and construction systems managed to finish off the hab zone. It is a gleaming city in a desolate wasteland. The inhabitants scavenge from nearby ruins and mine enough ore to provide the materials for the war effort, while the advanced hab zone’s aquaponic farms provide organics for the batteries and explosives. 2 ore, 1 organics

Legacy of Smith HQ:
The Legacy of Smith is lead out of a hab zone which avoided overpopulation by rejecting the refugees from the fusion reactor incident, and has become a gleaming city similar to that of the Order of Mason, it’s location gives it access to metal and organics enough to fuel the war effort, but little else. 2 ore, 1 organics

Lane 1, the Subterranean Gambit

The sewers:
A network of waste management systems which run through the mountainside. Expect claustrophobic mixed combat with underwater and above water portions. Some impoverished individuals also make the area home, driven there by overpopulation.

Deep mines:
Deep active mines that go far under the mountain, has a mix of wide open quarried out areas, small tunnels, and high heat that make the area a super lethal zone. It’s abundant ore deposits make it valuable enough to risk it though. 1 ore

The Caves of Ice:
Cold, slightly exposed to the surface, and with a mixture of close combat and long range sniper fights between forces on opposite sides of the large chasms that run through this area. This place used to provide most of the revenue of the colony, extracting water ice for use as fuel by ships operating in the outer reaches of the solar system.

Lane 2, the Urban Path

Old Base:
An area composed of the oldest parts of the colonies, maze of various parts slapped together, filled with abandoned labs and hab modules, everything of value has long since been stripped. Combat in this region is going to be tough. Exacerbated by the fact that the science labs in some areas have released test subjects of a hostile nature.

The Slums:
A massive habitation zone built before the collapse, decades of unchecked overpopulation and societal collapse have left the area a massive slum the size of some earth cities. This area is full of shoddy improvised housing, door to door clearing actions, and natives willing to interfere with the conflict for a quick buck. However it has two things of value, 1, there are fabricators for advanced parts along with some areas where they can be scavenged but are not vital, making it a source of advanced circuits and parts the faction’s cannot normally manufacture on their own, and 2, it has people, the population in the slums far exceeds that of both the Order of Mason and the Legacy of Smith combined. 1 Advanced Components.

The Shattered City:
Destroyed decades ago when a fusion reactor overloaded and blew out a good chunk of the land beneath it and basically cracked the entire thing apart. The automated repair systems have bridged the gaps and reinstalled vital connections along with rebuilding the basic infrastructure in the area. It is however open to space, and overall is wide open, with a lot of bridges, long lines of sight, and plenty of cover for sniper battles. Expect vacuum combat superiority to be quite important here.

Lane 3, the outside

The Old Outpost:
A network of old underwater scientific outposts and sensor platforms for studying the oceans beneath Europa's ice, they’re connected by long walkways and trains, leading to a lot of underwater combat in this zone.

The Biosphere:
A massive genetically engineered seaweed forest full of fish, it’s given light by a network of Sunlamps positioned all around the zone. This area provides most of the food for the slums zone, and has an excess in the form of organics that could be taken for one’s own ends. 1 organics

The Blue
When the fusion reactor blew, it did more than just shatter a city, it also destroyed the land adjacent to it, poisoned it for generations to come. This area  is the result of that, shattered outposts stitching together a land covered in crevasses and caves. A lot of areas are still radioactive, either faintly, or strong enough to see a blue glow when looking into certain caves. Navigation is going to be hard, and while the auto repair and construct systems have made the area somewhat navigable, most of that was attained by reconnecting shattered outposts to the power grid and life support.

Surface/Vacuum combat, and miscellaneous info
All areas are connected by the arcology’s automated networks, providing power stations, oxygen, and transport all across the arcology. The AI has established some rules for this conflict which allow factions to claim territory, and declares certain areas as combat zones, which locks off access to the network. All areas have access to various surface airlocks, however, the network of life support and recharge stations doesn’t extend up there, meaning range is limited, and the AI makes it so you can’t enter any airlocks controlled by hostiles that aren’t near the front lines of the conflict. Think of this like air support.

Spoiler: Resources and Expense (click to show/hide)

There are two main resources available to both nations at the start:
Ore, which represents the cost of an item in common minerals and overall materials used.
Organics, which represent any organic compounds used, such as for propellant, certain polymers, or batteries.

Of particular note is that both sides utilize a type of battery manufactured using organics, these batteries have an incredible amount of energy storage and fast recharge times, but will break down after a year.

Each side is capable of developing new resources for particularly complex or ground-breaking work. Examples of unique resources include but are not limited to: metal alloys with special properties, chemicals with unique effects, and particularly rare or hazardous minerals such as uranium or crystals.

How much of a specific design is able to be wielded depends on how much of its component resources are available:

Abundant (All resource requirements met): This item can be easily fielded by all soldiers.
Expensive (2-3 resource deficit): This item can be fielded in limited numbers, or is restricted to officers.
Very Expensive (4-6 resource deficit): This item is rarely fielded, with no more than 1 out of 100 people having access to them.
National Effort (7-9 resource deficit): This item is so expensive to make that only one can be fielded at any one time.
Theoretical (10+ resource deficit): This item only exists in theory and will not be built until that changes.

Finally, certain complex or advanced designs will require Advanced Components, which can be obtained in a variety of ways. Neither nation starts with these components, and getting more may prove difficult

Side Note: There is no transport capacity to worry about. It is assumed that if you have it, you can use it.

Spoiler: The Phases (click to show/hide)

Each turn represents 2 months, and is made up of 4 phases.
The first phase of every turn is the design phase, where ideas are proposed and voted on. Only the design with the most votes at the end of a turn will be implemented, with ties decided on with a die roll. Results are based off of a 2d6 roll, modified depending on the difficulty of the design. The possible results are:

Complete Failure [2]: Nothing is learned besides the knowledge of how not to do it next time.
Failure [3]: The design functions, but only barely.
Poor [4]: The design can be trusted to work without seriously wounding the wielder, but not much more than that.
Below Average [5]: The design works, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Average [6-8]: The design is functional. Nothing is explicitly faulty, but there's nothing special about it either.
Above Average [9]: The design works, and much better than intended to boot!
Superior [10]: The design works, and much is learned in related fields of research as a result of development.
Exceptional [11]: This design is near-perfect in almost every way.
Masterwork [12]: The design is perfect. So perfect in fact that it gives an extra benefit to the side fielding it.

In addition, I will assign the design a difficulty, based on how much you know of the technology and how complex the design is. These range from -4 (Impossible) to +4 (Trivial).

Each player is allowed to vote for two different designs, with a first choice and a second choice.

The second phase is the revision phase, which is identical to the design phase except that sides will only be allowed to modify existing designs.

The third phase is the strategy phase. Each side will choose two lanes to attack down. And how they deploy any special goodies.

The final phase is the combat phase. This is where all the magic happens! Just sit back and see what goes down.

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

Expense Credit: Can be used to reduce a design's cost by one level for a single turn.
Espionage Credit: Allows a number of things such as theft or sabotage of a design or various other acts of subterfuge.
Research Credit: Allows an extra 2d6 roll on a design or revision, with the highest one used for the result.
Design/Revision Credit: Grants an extra Design/Revision.
Development Credit: Grants an extra Resource point to a territory, you can only use this on territories if the increase wouldn’t cause that territory to be worth more than 3 resources greater than the territory you own with the least resources. (All territories must stay within 3 resources of each other value wise)

Spoiler: Gear both sides possess. (click to show/hide)

LSF 1 life support survival suit:
This mildly hardened suit, capable of surviving both vacuum and extreme depths, is mass manufactured by the automated systems up to a quota of 1 suit per person. These suits have mounting points for an optional exo rig, which both sides have taken advantage of. Unfortunately for those using it in combat, it has a large bubble helmet with lights on it that is Exceptionally vulnerable to being shot.Consider this thing Cheap
Survival kit:
A small set of stuff that comes with every suit, includes a large knife, multitool, emergency battery, emergency suit patch kit, flaregun, and a flashlight. Mostly useful for the knife and other miscellaneous gear. The knife is of decent quality, though not meant for combat which means its a little awkward to use in melee. Also cheap

To start off with there will be three turns of preparation before the actual combat starts. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the lore and mechanics of the game.
Mason's thread
Smith's thread
I will accelerate the rollout of the two other threads upon request
Discord link

[dgr11897]

Faction threads posted

[TricMagic]

And so we Smith improvements. Down with the Masons, Secret lurkers in the dark.

[Screech9791]

joining the mason team because fuck it.jpeg

[Glass]

If I’m joining something, it’s the Masons. Although I may just be inactive and not do much.

[Man of Paper]

I will observe.

[dgr11897]

First contest

War is on the horizon, but before conflict can begin both sides must correct a major issue. Neither has a full visual map of the area they will be fighting in, and have agreed to pool their resources to make a map representing the areas the war will take place in. Thus both sides are holding a contest between various map designs to find the one that best represents the areas they are fighting in.
Each player may submit any number of map graphics/design, either alone or collaboratively with any other players, at the end of next turn I will select my favorite and put it in the OP of the core thread. The team of the player/s with the design that gets picked will get a bonus based on the quality and design of the chosen map. Each team may also vote for a map design to be put in the OP of their team's thread, for no real bonuses besides a feeling of accomplishment.

[Blood_Librarian]

Smith.

[dgr11897]

Votes locked

[dgr11897]

Design phase 1 complete

[Trent01]

Looking to join the Smiths.

[Scholar Knight]

PTW, and to join the Masonites.

[Vostok]

Post to watch, I'm with the Smiths.

[dgr11897]

Combat phase 1

Both sides have built up an armory, and prepared for this moment over the last 6 months. Tensions have steadily risen, until, finally, on this day in mid March, war finally erupts across the arcology. The Smiths and the Masons now march into conflict, armor donned, and weapons held high.
Underground
The deep mine is a bit of a mess due to the Smith's Fenrir and ridiculously large double barreled shotgun. The fenrir serves especially well in that region since it has some pretty beefy environmental control systems which let it safely move through areas which would cook other suits, and then their massive amounts of armor and incredibly deadly shotguns are incredibly effective in the enclosed confines of the underground
But, the masons have grenades.
Using them in the tunnels is dicy, but when they are used the tunnels they are quite effective at taking out Fenris suits. And the Fenris, being a walking tank, is really expensive. However, thanks to superior C3 equipment on the Smith's part they're able to field them to maximum effect, keeping them out of lethal fights and using them to break through strongpoints.
Smiths advance in the underground, gaining 3/4 control over the Deep mines.
Underwater
The same pairing of superior command and ultraheavy ultrastrong units is what turns the underwater region into a tie. The Mason's powerful Warrior armor no match for the Fenris in a straight up fight, they may have been able to kill them in mob tactics, but they utterly lack any sort of melee weapon that they could use that's strong enough to punch through.
Though the Masons will have advantage there next turn, since they did manage to inch forwards, and their warrior armor rendered the fights with normal LSF1 exos a bit of a joke.
Stalemate in the biodome.
Urban combat
Urban zone the masons have almost entirely. Because it's wide open enough for their superior range with their SMGs and rifles to come into play, along with allowing their grenades to have a chance of taking out enemy Fenris tank suits.
Their advance is also helped by their superior medical tech, which is able to rapidly heal the minor wounds inflicted by Smith shotguns at range. This same medical tech is also fielded in a humanitarian role, helping win popular support from the people of the slums.
All of this allows the masons to advance to 3/4 in the slums.
As neither side has fielded a dedicated or generally superior vacuum combat unit. Perhaps something with flight capabilities might be potent in vacuum combat
MVPS snippet
A small squad of mason soldiers is setting up a tent with a red cross on it in a crossroads courtyard in the slums, major roads and alleyways snaking off from it like veins from an infected heart. The squalid stench of too many people in too little space fills the air as they unsling packs full of medical supplies, most notably contherinal biogel. "Worst injured first!" one soldier shouts shouts "Line up, orderly, there's only enough for the worst injured right now, but we'll be back with more later"
There are far too many people, even focusing solely on those who would die otherwise, and reducing the dosage for slower regen over a period of time, there still isn't enough biogel to treat everyone who needs it. The soldiers know this, the mob knows this. The hard lessons learned from the better part of week of doing this. So they prioritize, focusing on the young, the healthy, the influential, the well known, neglecting the elderly, the nobodies, those whose wounds merely crippled, all left to rot.
In a tower above the slums, a sniper waits, rifle at the ready, watching for any sign of smith activity.
This gathering of people hasn't gone unnoticed, however, as the smiths plot to break up this squad.
Suddenly, a scream goes up from one side of the courtyard, as a Fenris charges down the road. Legs pumping, and impressive mass knocking people away left and right. As the slum dwellers panic, the masons rush to grab their guns. Even as their sniper starts sending shot after shot into the Fenris, to no avail. BANGBANG The Fenris discharges its double barreled shotgun point blank into the face of one of the mason soldiers, going right through their armor through sheer amount of projectiles, causing red gore to fly into the air as nearby slum dwellers who were too slow or too injured to get away in time are blown to bits. The remainder of the squad begin trying to organize at this point, getting into a firing line with their rifle grenades, before launching a volley at the demon wolf that had turned this place into a nightmare of blood and death. Explosion after explosion rocks the Fenris, most of the grenades glancing off of it's armor, but one, one gets in a lucky hit, landing right by the legs of the massive beast of a machine, crippling it. Now down on one knee, the Fenris doesn't seem so tall. A brave, or foolish, mason soldier pulls open his pack, grabbing two rifle grenades and running towards the Fenris to forcefully place them next to the places where they could do the most damage. As he gets within throwing range the Fenris roars to life, lunging at him, seeking to crush the life out of the foolish soldier. And get in position to fire off the shotgun again. Splat, goes the soldier, BangBang, the shotgun fires again, dispatching yet another soldier. But the sacrifice wasn't in vain, as soon the sniper lights off the grenades that the other soldier had dropped by the Fenris, finally bringing down the beast. Silence falls upon the courtyard then, broken only by the moans of the dying, the cries of the mourning for those they lost, and the soft ambiance of dead suits cooling off, of bits of metal popping and hissing as blood makes contact with superheated alloy, of electrical circuits discharging what little power they had left, and of the occasional sharp CRACK of an unregulated organic battery dumping as much charge as it can to safe the device.

Spoiler: Mason Designs (click to show/hide)

Weapons
Mk1 Rifle
A .303 caliber bolt action rifle with an attached bayonet. Sturdy, reliable, and the bayonet won’t rust when exposed to water. As the propellant has its own oxidizer, allowing the weapon to fire in vacuum with little issue. Costs: 1 ore, 1 organics Cheap

• APA rifle grenade
  A simple rifle grenade with an impact fuse. Useful at hitting targets behind cover. Costs: 2 organics, 1 ore Expensive

Dirty gun
A crude SMG with a tendency to jam. The low caliber ammunition can’t penetrate anything except the faceplate area of the basic LSF1 suits, but with the number of bullets it sprays, that frequently doesn’t matter. Can shoot in space. Cost: 1 ore Cheap Obsolete

MK2 SMG
A vastly improved SMG model, with a better stock, and completely rebuilt mechanisms. The Mk2 has 5.7x28mm steel rounds that allow it to pierce through armor more effectively, along with higher accuracy, higher effective range, and far higher reliability. Cost: 2 ore Cheap

Suits

LSF1-Exo
A survival suit with a powered exoskeleton attached. It’s lightly armored, with a few simple plates being it’s main defense, but it can handle everything from underwater combat to the vacuum of space. The enhanced strength is also great as it allows for brutally effective melee combat. The attached exoskeleton grants a 1.25x boost in strength compared to the average human, and allows people to safely carry larger loads without killing themselves. The suit it’s based off of is manufactured en masse by the automatic systems aboard the arcology as a standard survival suit, said suit could be used as the basis for future power armor, as it provides a solid life supporting base we could strap further enhancements to. Cost: 1 ore, 1 organics Cheap

LSF 1 life support survival suit:
This mildly hardened suit, capable of surviving both vacuum and extreme depths, is mass manufactured by the automated systems up to a quota of 1 suit per person. These suits have mounting points for an optional exo rig, which both sides have taken advantage of. Unfortunately for those using it in combat, it has a large bubble helmet with lights on it that is Exceptionally vulnerable to being shot.Consider this thing Cheap

Warrior M1
A heavier, stronger exoskeleton. With Heavy armor, a new helmet design, and around double normal strength. Cost: 3 ore, 1 organics Cheap
Misc Gear

Survival kit:
A small set of stuff that comes with every suit, includes a large knife, multitool, emergency battery, emergency suit patch kit, flaregun, and a flashlight. Mostly useful for the knife and other miscellaneous gear. The knife is of decent quality, though not meant for combat which means its a little awkward to use in melee. Also cheap
- Now comes with a can and bottle opener.

Contherinal Biogel:
A Medical gel administered through a small handgun like apparatus. Heals gunshot wounds and seals up suits, but isn’t particularly useful in the field due to it not really being faster to grab and use than a suit patch. It does mildly improve survivability, but not by much. 1 Contherinal Expensive

Misc

Contherinal:
Contherinal is a miracle substance when it comes to growing or altering living tissue. Though its origins are mysterious and alien, the substance is what allowed Europa to be colonized at all. Contherinal acts as raw material for genetic enhancements, as it's a mass of cells which lack many of the defense mechanisms that prevent foreign DNA from being implanted into the cells, which allows researchers to plug in new strands of DNA with ease. This, combined with a viral component that spreads the change, allows Contherinal to be used to sculp life into myriad new forms. Unfortunately it hasn’t been produced or harvested in large quantities. Which creates some limitations when it comes to large scale use. We suspect contherinal to possess greater potential than it lets on.

Spoiler: Smith Designs (click to show/hide)

Weapons

Shotgun mk1
A large flaregun modified to be able to fire buckshot. Breach loading and able to fire ridiculously large shells, or flares. The buckshot will shred almost anything in a close range engagement, and is excellent at clearing corridors of hostiles. The flares meanwhile don’t really do any damage unless they hit someone in the faceplate at close range, but make excellent light sources or distractions. Unfortunately the barrel has a tendency to crack with prolonged use. The barrel cracking issue has been fixed. Cost: 2 ore, 1 organics Cheap
-Dual shotgun:
An upgraded shotgun, with 2 barrels. It's way bigger, and way stronger. 4 ore, 2 organics. Very expensive
Revolver
A simple but effective 6 shot revolver. Capable of getting lethal blows against light armor, and incredibly durable and reliable. Also really cheap and quite comfortable to use. Cost: 1 ore Cheap

SFS-Exodus
A piece of crap too heavy to carry and which explodes when we try to fire it. It's currently not fielded in any capacity.

Suits

LSS1-Exo
A survival suit with a powered exoskeleton attached. It’s lightly armored, with a few simple plates being it’s main defense, but it can handle everything from underwater combat to the vacuum of space. The enhanced strength is also great as it allows for brutally effective melee combat. The attached exoskeleton grants a 1.25x boost in strength compared to the average human, and allows people to safely carry larger loads without killing themselves. The suit it’s based off of is manufactured en masse by the automatic systems aboard the arcology as a standard survival suit, said suit could be used as the basis for future power armor, as it provides a solid life supporting base we could strap further enhancements to. Cost: 1 ore, 1 organics Cheap

LSF 1 life support survival suit:
This mildly hardened suit, capable of surviving both vacuum and extreme depths, is mass manufactured by the automated systems up to a quota of 1 suit per person. These suits have mounting points for an optional exo rig, which both sides have taken advantage of. Unfortunately for those using it in combat, it has a large bubble helmet with lights on it that is Exceptionally vulnerable to being shot. Consider this thing Cheap

HFO-2 "Fenris"
A walking tank with tons of armor, climate control, and the ability to use heavy weaponry like standard infantry weapons. It is incredibly strong, durable, and represents a move towards a heavy weapons doctrine. Cost: 5 ore, 1 advanced components, 2 organics Very Expensive

Misc Gear

SSC&C "Magnificent Gaze
A network of Radio relays and communications infrastructure that allows our troops superior coordination in the field. It can transmit real time audio messages, and small video or decently sized text files to various locations. Cost: 2 Ore, 1 Advanced components Cheap (Marginal knowledge of this was gained by the masons through study of captured relays.)

Survival kit:
A small set of stuff that comes with every suit, includes a large knife, multitool, emergency battery, emergency suit patch kit, flaregun, and a flashlight. Mostly useful for the knife and other miscellaneous gear. The knife is of decent quality, though not meant for combat which means its a little awkward to use in melee. Also cheap

LSAC:
[REDACTED]

Resources
Alloy-M-32: An alloy that allows for monopole magnets that require electrical energy to maintain a magnetic field. Incredibly rare.