Not going to make input to the production phase, but Taricus plan seems fine
Unto next round design phase, I was thinking that steel and iron are useless in this area or setting and that research or some kind of design for aluminum or titanium composites and alloys. Titanium is too ridiculous and high-techy to me it would be some kind of late game thing, aluminum is a great conductor but I don't know if that would be great ship plating? So how about Stainless Steel, we would just need the ability to produce steel from iron and carbon (combined with some other metals) and especially chromium, a better version of metal that we are utilizing would be great help with not just armor and material, but all those fiddly gears and bits for advanced rifles and such. Titanium just seems really far-fetched it seems quite ridiculous that a better version of metal would result in an ridiculous advanced metal (I goofed up this one, what I mean to state is that yes titanium is strong and light but it's a ridiculous advanced technology to research, I don't know if we could actually research something as powerful in this technology stage and era). Of course aluminum is very abundant and especially conductive, but don't know about its capability as a material or armor
Second someone proposed another ranged weapon that would serve the same role as the WitchHunter, we already have a infantry weapon that serves as a long-ranged weapon, that was why I was proposing something like a revolver, easy-to-handle and high rate of fire plus good stopping power. If the need arrives for another infantry, I was thinking we could utilize our current technology of aether gauntless, have a splicing crystal to cross the aether beams, and provide a "spread-shot" or shotgun gauntlet. I don't know I heard shotguns are pretty good at close range. Also it would shore us up on our weakness at close range.
Proposed Design Later: Osiris-SpreadShot Aether Gauntlet: A vast improvement over the current aether gauntlet, its key feature is that it replaces the current crystal that performs range fire and utilizes glass, lenses, and mirrors on a crystal to make a splicing crystal; to make the aether or directed plasma energy scatter into a cone style of fire, it would serve the same purpose as theoretical buckshot and the capability to spread its fire would be very effective at close range. The proposed designs also replaces light bronze platting on the gauntlet as well as the conductive copper, but through a heavy ergonomics check it makes the soft plating not overheat and burn the users hands, also replaced the leather with studded leather for it to resist overheating easier.
Question @Draignean, does the Ore provided by the Spires include some Chromium, since that goes back to the idea to create stainless steel. And ya got to have it.