Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Detoxicated]

Ertex: The Enlightened Bureaucracy

Here at Ertex we’ve long since abandoned the more primitive ways of our relatives on Earth.

The enlightened bureaucracy, a way of referring to our new form of governance, is surprisingly not particularly bureaucratic. It’s simply a process in which we find the best individuals to operate our government. A process designed to ensure a smoothly running government best representing its citizens while being able to respond to any crisis. The process was first implemented SY 10, when the colonial charter's mandated leader "voluntarily" stepped down. After the very peaceful rebellion discussion, a stop-gap measure was put into place to choose a small group of people to lead Ertex. Little did they know that this method would be refined over the years to eventually become the pride of Ertex.

Ertex is essentially ruled by Consuls. The Consul of Military, the Consul of Civics, and the Consul of Innovation. Together, they rule Ertex in a fashion Quillus can’t hope to imitate.
Beneath the Consuls lie Magistrates. Individuals advised by the Consuls with significant control over different aspects of their branch. For example, the Magistrate of Fleet Operations under the Consul of Military handles the bulk of operations of Ertex’s fleet.
The populace actively participates via routine and extensive option polls securely and digitally delivered to every citizen. While the government isn’t required to heed these polls and is encouraged to take the path its leaders see as the best possible, it provides valuable data for how to best run the government and for the choosing of new officials. However, they only elect local and planetary governors, which have a relatively minor role in Ertexian governance.

Consuls aren’t elected or chosen. Complex procedures and systems decide the next Consul, based on their activity, personality, the current poll regarding public opinion (though this isn't the biggest factor), and more. Consuls are also selected to be compatible with each other while different enough to encourage more efficient and intelligent operation of the government - they'll be different enough to encourage debate and thought over different approaches, but ideally similar enough to allow for a cohesive single administration. Magistrates are selected in similar ways, though the current Consul that the magistrate would be under has a significant - not absolute - say in the process. Of course, there are many below the Magistrates and below those below the Magistrates - the same process applies but yields further to higher-up input as it goes down, eventually resulting in straightforward appointments at the lower levels. Governors of cities and other small areas are directly elected by the people (though the candidates are chosen by a less-intense form of the system choosing Consuls), and planetary governors are chosen through cooperation with the Consuls and local governors on the particular planet.
This ensures the Consuls represent public opinion, yet don’t succumb to the tyranny of the majority and are chosen for their ability to enact the public opinion. Though after a minor armed uprising intense public petition, it is possible for a very large majority of the population to force a new administration to be put into place via a very publicized and scheduled vote.


The Consuls rule from the Spire, a relatively recent project - construction on it had first started on the 50th anniversary of our landing on Ertex. The Spire actually only officially finished construction 10 years ago (though it was functional as the capitol of Ertex long before official completion) and is perhaps the largest single project undertaken by Ertex to this day. But it's been here long enough to become a symbol.
Typically, citizens use the term "Spire" to refer to the general overall administration at the time. The Spire is a large building in the center of the capital city. A tall, well, spire with many skywalks to other parts of the city at many levels, and a well-kept (small - it’s in a city) lawn decorated by the most well-known artists of Ertex commemorating events and persons in Ertex's history as well as fountains, amenities, pavement, and grass. The “lawn” is intended as a gathering place for the people of Ertex as well as a community center for the city. Just last year, for the centennial anniversary of Ertex's founding, a grand new sculpture was unveiled in a public ceremony.
The spire is gleaming white, covered with glass windows. As it rises and grows thinner, instead of simply sloping up, greenery dots the walls above larger levels, making the Spire appear lush and vibrant. The Consuls inhabit the ground floor, to represent their equality with the people. At night it seems to subtly shine, representing the everlasting brightness of Ertex. Every level is accessible to the people - no one is too lowly for society!
The majority of the government of Ertex is centralized at the Spire, with regional governors (other than those for the capital and Ertex) located in smaller capitals wherever they govern. Extensive computer systems and connections to the rest of Ertex allow for our government to be constantly informed and ready to act. The already well-known Design Bureau, largely responsible for the overseeing of civilian infrastructure prior to the war, is located in the Spire. Consuls largely govern from their office using the communications network to instantly communicate their decisions and policies with the rest of Ertex, and while they do make occasional public appearances, they largely leave PR and communications to subordinates; this ensures that they spend most of their time ensuring Ertex remains prosperous.

The national values are: wisdom, aesthetics and rational thought.

All basic needs like shelter food medicine energy and education are entirely free for all people. More complex goods are evaluated by the magistrates and depending on your profession or your atained skills at one of the many artisan academies for the interested you you can even get those goods more easily.
The academies of Ertex have a tradition to pursue a path of cooperation with one another. By valueing the traits of the other researching eyes the critical mass of intelligence increases exponentially. This is portrayed in their way of honoring succesful researching teams. These teams have to choose a name for their group and are regarded all together. Usually they are mixed up after so earning more of these badges will grant you individual honor. These Badges of Honor are important if you want to step up in the Innovation hierachy.
The ertexians love the natural world and name their gadgets after animals. Several major organizations hone the arts and music and thus artists are often used as inspirational sources for scientists. Due to their value of arts and sciemce the ancient greece and its myth are an often used trope in many design and naming processes. It goes as far that architects attempt to give the classical style of greece a modern face
Religion is a personal issue for Ertexians and it is more common to belong to a group of one of the dofferent morality codes than to belong to one of the several religion.
The ertexian does not like dogma, but instead passionate creativity. Thus its people assemble quickly and their style often changes and develops within few years.
Ertexian Military Standards are just like the rest of society, to climb the ladder of success in this particular field one must have the highest discipline and the ability to learn quickly and adapt to many situations. The ground soldiers are trimmed to react to all kinds of different scenarios and from there one can rise to the many ranks within the military.

But seriously though, i am starting to feel a little out of place here, because all my ideas are either pushed aside or reclaimed and changed. I mean not one word was said about my suggestion except that my anthem was off...

[joha4270]

ChiefWaffles island of stability strains my SoD. It would also be very heavy, meaning it needs to be very thin to be used by infantry.

Reversion: ESC-FS 1b 'Stonefish'
ESC-FS 1b 'Stonefish'
In order to improve the survivability of the cuttlefish, the stonefish upgrade is protected by much better armor. The new armor scheme consists of 3 layers with a little extra around critical components.
The innermost armor layer is a composite armor. It is made of sandwiched layers of very durable plastics and high strength, high temperature ceramics, both reinforced with ordinary nanomaterials, but also by controlling the nanoscale structure of the materials itself.

The middle layer is a series of stuffed whipple shields. The shields themselves are made of aluminum and are very thin, measured in millimeters. They break up incoming projectiles, making the individual shards easier to absorb. Between the whipple layers are about half a meter of silica areogel. This stuffing layer has several advantages. First it is strong enough to support the outer layers without any structural components, meaning no single point can fail and reduce structural integrity. Furthermore, its low thermal conductivity and medium heat capacity makes it useful as a laser armor layer. Not great, but usable.

The last layer is a coat of radar absorbing paint.


In thinner and fewer layers, the inner layer would also be usable as infantry armor, due its low (compared to steel) weight.



On the other hand, i really want a long range sensor. Since we have just gotten a new sensor platform, lets get a(n/ more) awesome one.
Reversion: Athena's spear
The spear upgrade focuses on giving the Athena system some long range capabilities.
For this, it uses a new IR camera to passively detect enemies at long and extreme ranges.
The most unusual part of the IR camera is its lenses. It is deliberately out of focus, meaning a heat source takes up multiple pixels on the camera, no matter how far away it is. From here, a computer analyses the contacts to find the actual direction to the target, with a precision much lower than a pixel.
The lenses come in different flavor, some with a wide field of view for scanning the entire sky, with other having smaller field of view to gather further details on a target.
Other than being very sensitive, the central sensor is cooled with a liquid helium system, allowing it to (with some difficulty) detect objects only slightly hotter than the cosmic background.

If further time remains, the threat analysis system should be upgraded to automatically pick up incoming fire and attempt neutralize it with any weapon configured for point defense.

Stonefish: (0):
Athena's spear (1): joha4270
Hephaestus Synthesis (3): ChiefWaffles, Pirate joke, Andrea
Emergency Maneuvering Thrusters (1): Blood Librarian

[3_14159]

What I believe would give us our best improvement is something which could use our 18 ground production points. What better than a good light utility vehicle? According to Nuke, this should fit within our ITV's 1 cargo capacity:

EAF-LUV-1 "Groundhog" Light Utility Vehicle

The groundhog is a combination of the ancient jeep and the concept of technicals: It is simply taking one of the many available civilian light off-road vehicles, and adding some things: The components are ruggedized, most of the rudimentary cabin can be folded down to more easily fit on a transport, and the colourful paint job has been replaced by a camouflage one.
From a military point of view, their only two advantages are speed and cheapness. Versatility, speed and cheapness. The open cabin with only a windscreen means personnel has to remain suited up on hostile places and doesn't protect from shots. It is, however, pretty easy to change - a single person can remove the three seats in the back, creating a rudimentary cargo area into which a stretcher can be mounted. Alternatively, a few NQ cells can be plugged in to extend the already-long range of the electric engine-powered vehicle. The NQ cells in their fixed installation also provide power to the single Raider which can be mounted on a rotating mount on top of the open cabin and which therefore becomes something of a support weapon - at least you don't have to reload to use it.

This should allow us to fairly mass our soldiers, giving us tactical superiority, provide a support weapon and transport supplies, wounded, people etc all around. It should hopefully be cheap enough that we can just equip all of our units with it. At the same time, while it doesn't provide much protection it should be quite fast to maybe even avoid some of their shots.

TL;DR: Ruggedized civilian jeeps, sitting up to four or five people, or two people plus cargo and which can be equipped with a plugged-in Raider.

Stonefish: (0):
Athena's spear (1): joha4270
Hephaestus Synthesis (3): ChiefWaffles, Pirate joke, Andrea
Emergency Maneuvering Thrusters (1): Blood Librarian
"Groundhog" Light Utility Vehicle (1): 3_14159

[Blood_Librarian]

Stonefish: (0):
Athena's spear (1): joha4270
Hephaestus Synthesis (3): ChiefWaffles, Pirate joke, Andrea
Emergency Maneuvering Thrusters (0):
"Groundhog" Light Utility Vehicle (2): 3_14159, Blood_Librarian

[3_14159]

All basic needs like shelter food medicine energy and education are entirely free for all people. More complex goods are evaluated by the magistrates and depending on your profession or your atained skills at one of the many artisan academies for the interested you you can even get those goods more easily.

I really do like the combination of yours and Chiefwaffle's culture. However, I'd add to the section above something like:

Basic needs - like medicine and health services, and education - has always been free, with several more - food, shelter, etc - provided at least at a basic level. To the first group, the almost-free energy from the Fusion Reactors has been added during the last few years, granting every private citizen sufficient energy to do almost whatever they'd like.

This'd mention the fusion reactors as a game changer.

[Chiefwaffles]

The national values are: wisdom, aesthetics and rational thought.

All basic needs like shelter food medicine energy and education are entirely free for all people. More complex goods are evaluated by the magistrates and depending on your profession or your atained skills at one of the many artisan academies for the interested you you can even get those goods more easily.
The academies of Ertex have a tradition to pursue a path of cooperation with one another. By valueing the traits of the other researching eyes the critical mass of intelligence increases exponentially. This is portrayed in their way of honoring succesful researching teams. These teams have to choose a name for their group and are regarded all together. Usually they are mixed up after so earning more of these badges will grant you individual honor. These Badges of Honor are important if you want to step up in the Innovation hierachy.
The ertexians love the natural world and name their gadgets after animals. Several major organizations hone the arts and music and thus artists are often used as inspirational sources for scientists. Due to their value of arts and sciemce the ancient greece and its myth are an often used trope in many design and naming processes. It goes as far that architects attempt to give the classical style of greece a modern face
Religion is a personal issue for Ertexians and it is more common to belong to a group of one of the dofferent morality codes than to belong to one of the several religion.
The ertexian does not like dogma, but instead passionate creativity. Thus its people assemble quickly and their style often changes and develops within few years.
Ertexian Military Standards are just like the rest of society, to climb the ladder of success in this particular field one must have the highest discipline and the ability to learn quickly and adapt to many situations. The ground soldiers are trimmed to react to all kinds of different scenarios and from there one can rise to the many ranks within the military.

I guess what I don't like about this is primarily the characterization of an entire nation of people.
Like, take modern-day United States. There are lots of people who love talking about the pioneering spirit and the determination of the american people. Sure, if you look at trends over the course of a nation's history, you may find some similarity in a nation's citizens, but I think it's pointless to generalize them. There are a lot of people in the U.S., and you couldn't easily use those words - like determined to just describe them in general. Because they're still people.
Another is the same problem I have with the idea of a "technocracy" - just that I find the idea of a government/society based on just "science" (or anything similar, really) overdone, cliché, and more. While Ertex could very well value science and the like more than current governments, there's a difference between "the government is continuously scientifically competitive with particularly good education funding" and "our government revolves around worshiping science." "Science" can be replaced with anything here - aesthetics, religion, anything

Ultimately though, it's the same thing as before. I really want to avoid that stereotypical technological utopia tone with Ertex. And a society of creative people who always work together while remaining individualistic and that value wisdom aesthetics and rational thoughts, appreciate the natural world, follow morality codes largely instead of religion, and more just seems - to me - like it's trying to go for that stereotypical utopia.

But seriously though, i am starting to feel a little out of place here, because all my ideas are either pushed aside or reclaimed and changed. I mean not one word was said about my suggestion except that my anthem was off...

This is the link to BFA's Discord. I recommend joining it if you happen to feel left out.


Here's a possibility:
The Economy of Ertex

Citizens of Ertex need not worry about the essentials. While our society is largely capitalistic, we do not leave the unfortunate behind. Education is free, though we do allow for enterprising and smart citizens to offer paid alternatives to our more higher areas of learning. Basic food, water, and shelter is all covered; though citizens tend to prefer the quality achieved by paying. Medicine and healthcare, under the Consul of Civics, is guaranteed to all citizens.


An important thing to note is that modern-day Ertex is descended from a colony. A colony where the collective group had to manage their matters as a whole. Over time, the group evolved into the Enlightened Bureaucracy, and citizens began feeling confident in the forming of their own corporations and private ventures. Yet the influences of the communal surviving are still present today. Recent reforms between the Consul of Civics and the Consul of Innovation have progressed this further.
Certain infrastructure is managed by government-controlled companies. These companies are more independent from the government and are usually always prevented from utilizing the government's power to stamp out competition. They're rare and only exist for important yet non-essential industries.

Perhaps Ertex's most unique aspect about its economies is the government interaction with the industries. All major companies receive a direct line to the Consul of Innovation via representatives. These representatives inspect and look over the company, ensure easy communication between them and Ertex - say for projects and contracts - encourages their direction and, impost importantly, provides them with a steady drip feed of technology deemed relevant by Innovation. This allows the industry to stay competitive and provide our citizens with the best service without stamping out entrepeneurship and independent research.


Also, since there's no kill like overkill...


It's a flag! If others like it, I can post it in the Core thread. Otherwise, I'll wait until NUKE does a flag challenge.

The dark blue represents the unknown space - and the threats and mystery lying beyond it. The orange circle represents Aljadid, the orange representing a certain volatility and passion. The three white bars represent the three Consuls, supporting and holding up Aljadid while protecting it from external threats - the dark blue - without preventing discovery and improvement.

[Blood_Librarian]

First draft of a similiar flag that Waffle helped me set up.

[Chiefwaffles]

Revision: Athena - Robust Learning

Athena can already "learn", so by expanding this ability we should be able to greatly improve her effectiveness. Through continuous and robust analysis of prior combat logs and comparison of these logs with current data, Athena will be able to - extremely quickly - analyze and compile data on any signature then utilize this data to the best of Athena's abilities.

More specifically, this allows for the locating of weak points in enemy armor and the detection/tracking of enemy projectiles - slugs from their COILguns. The usefulness of the weak points is easy - by looking at results from prior battle data, Athena can find these weak spots and maximize effectiveness against enemy ships by exploiting these weak spots when firing weapons. The detection and tracking of enemy projectiles is of less (read: zero) immediate usefulness, but if Athena was theoretically supplied a laser turret able to track these projectiles, she would be able to open fire on them and prevent them from ever hitting our ships.
This "learning" - basically pattern analysis - should hopefully manifest in other ways as well, and Athena is instructed to display any learned data to the tactical holomap (our best innovation, naturally) to aid decisionmaking. This should also greatly enhance her threat analysis, giving Athena the ability to choose targets better than most - if not all - crewmen.

TL;DR: Athena "learns" from previous battle logs in order to rapidly analyze all new signatures - meaning finding+exploiting learned weak spots in enemy armor and tracking enemy projectiles (though we can't do anything about them yet.) Should manfiest in other ways as well, and will display any learned information to the holomap. Better threat analysis too.
(e.g. Athena "realizes" that prior analysis of enemy armor suggests a weak spot in certain spot; Athena forwards this data to the holomap while she begins targeting weak spots. Athena "realizes" that a hostile ship doing something particular is a historically devastating move, and begins targeting said ship in effort to stop it. Athena "realizes" that Loki fighters should be eliminated with utmost priority if they're at a certain distance from our ships, etc. etc. etc. etc.)

Stonefish: (0):
Athena's spear (1): joha4270
Hephaestus Synthesis (3): ChiefWaffles, Pirate joke, Andrea
Emergency Maneuvering Thrusters (0):
"Groundhog" Light Utility Vehicle (2): 3_14159, Blood_Librarian
Athena - Robust Learning (1): Chiefwaffles

Duplivoting for this. The idea is that Hephaestus, while certainly realistically possible in a revision, is important enough and has enough potential to be done as our next Design instead.

Keep in mind that we have to bring our ships back to upgrade them anyways. So anything designed/revised next turn will also help in our orbital battles.

[andrea]

I agree on the idea of doing hephaestus next turn with proper care next turn.

Can't quite decide on which athena revision to support however and will be out all day so... i vote both i guess

Stonefish: (0):
Athena's spear (2): joha4270, andrea
Hephaestus Synthesis (2): ChiefWaffles, Pirate joke
Emergency Maneuvering Thrusters (0):
"Groundhog" Light Utility Vehicle (2): 3_14159, Blood_Librarian
Athena-robust learning (2): chiefwaffles, andrea

[Blood_Librarian]

Stonefish: (0):
Athena's spear (2): joha4270, andrea
Hephaestus Synthesis (2): ChiefWaffles, Pirate joke
Emergency Maneuvering Thrusters (0):
"Groundhog" Light Utility Vehicle (1): 3_14159,
Athena-robust learning (3): chiefwaffles, andrea, Blood_Librarian

[TheFantasticMsFox]

Stonefish: (0):
Athena's spear (2): joha4270, andrea
Hephaestus Synthesis (2): ChiefWaffles, Pirate joke
Emergency Maneuvering Thrusters (0):
"Groundhog" Light Utility Vehicle (1): 3_14159,
Athena-robust learning (4): chiefwaffles, andrea, Blood_Librarian, TFF

[NUKE9.13]

Revision: Athena - Robust Learning

Athena can already "learn", so by expanding this ability we should be able to greatly improve her effectiveness. Through continuous and robust analysis of prior combat logs and comparison of these logs with current data, Athena will be able to - extremely quickly - analyze and compile data on any signature then utilize this data to the best of Athena's abilities.

More specifically, this allows for the locating of weak points in enemy armor and the detection/tracking of enemy projectiles - slugs from their COILguns. The usefulness of the weak points is easy - by looking at results from prior battle data, Athena can find these weak spots and maximize effectiveness against enemy ships by exploiting these weak spots when firing weapons. The detection and tracking of enemy projectiles is of less (read: zero) immediate usefulness, but if Athena was theoretically supplied a laser turret able to track these projectiles, she would be able to open fire on them and prevent them from ever hitting our ships.
This "learning" - basically pattern analysis - should hopefully manifest in other ways as well, and Athena is instructed to display any learned data to the tactical holomap (our best innovation, naturally) to aid decisionmaking. This should also greatly enhance her threat analysis, giving Athena the ability to choose targets better than most - if not all - crewmen.

TL;DR: Athena "learns" from previous battle logs in order to rapidly analyze all new signatures - meaning finding+exploiting learned weak spots in enemy armor and tracking enemy projectiles (though we can't do anything about them yet.) Should manfiest in other ways as well, and will display any learned information to the holomap. Better threat analysis too.
(e.g. Athena "realizes" that prior analysis of enemy armor suggests a weak spot in certain spot; Athena forwards this data to the holomap while she begins targeting weak spots. Athena "realizes" that a hostile ship doing something particular is a historically devastating move, and begins targeting said ship in effort to stop it. Athena "realizes" that Loki fighters should be eliminated with utmost priority if they're at a certain distance from our ships, etc. etc. etc. etc.)

Athena - Robust Learning (Easy): (3+2)+1=6: Above Average
The already capable Athena is now an even more fearsome foe. The integration of a form of neural network has allowed for her to 'learn' on a far more advanced level. This hasn't had a massive effect on her accuracy against standard foes, but she can quickly identify evasive tactics and compensate for them. It has also improved her target-acquisition to the point where human intervention is not really necessary. Not only that, but by feeding her data on the Cuttlefish's movement, she has developed her own evasive manoeuvres. They aren't substantially better than human- but that's due to a lack of processing power on a single Cuttlefish. Put several Cuttlefish together, and Athena's 'intelligence' increases. The more ships in the fleet, the better she handles them.

Athena RL still costs nothing to install on a Cuttlefish, and still requires a refit at Ertex.


It is now the Tactics Phase of SY101. Remember to submit culture pieces in the core thread!

Spoiler: Tech List (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): The ships that carried colonists to your homeworld, now repurposed as military transports. They use rocket shuttles to ferry things to and from the surface. These shuttles have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC. It uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armour or armaments. It is Very Slow, and quite large.
Cost: 2SPP

ESC-FS 1 'Cuttlefish' laser corvette: A medium-sized spaceship. The Cuttlefish's hull vaguely resembles its namesake. The 'beak' is a "Hermes" variable-water-injected fusion thruster, which draws plasma from the Helios-S reactor. It has very light armour, and has three AX4-Spear turrets, which are automatically aimed by the Athena RL System, which also handles evasive manoeuvres. The more ships in the fleet, the better Athena performs, due to her distributed computing. Its speed is Moderate, though it can inject extra water into the thruster for a temporary speed boost.
Cost: 2SPP


Equipment
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards before the war, the only real weapon both colonies started with. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap

X100 Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmoured and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap

EAF-X1 "Ranger" Laser Rifle: A big, bulky firearm, weighing in at 15kg- just barely wieldable whilst standing. Works best against stationary targets. Can fire 30 shots in pulse mode before reloading, or 15 seconds in beam mode. Beam mode has pretty good armour penetration against conventional armour. Comes with basic scope and bipod. With the scope it is accurate at Long range.
Cost: Cheap
  EAF-PX3 Raider: A variant of the Ranger, using the new Picasso Pattern. Weighs a 'mere' 7.5kg. Fires shorter pulses, and deals more damage against moving targets. Does not have a beam mode.

Interplanetary Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets. Too big to fit on an ITC. Currently only useful for taunting Quillus.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 2TC


Infrastructure
Colony Defence Grid: The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to self defence the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

"Helios" Fusion Reactor: A large, Tokamak style reactor. Performs He3-He3 fusion, though it does not take full advantage of this. Provides 2SPP and 2GPP.
  Helios-S: A variety specifically designed for use in spaceships. A 'twisted' plasma flow allows for plasma to be siphoned off without disrupting the reaction.


Misc Tech
Nanoquantum Capacitor Cells, Escher Pattern Mk2: AKA NQ Cells. About 15 times better than chemical batteries. Palm-sized, weigh about a kilo each. Despite their apparent complexity, manufacture and usage is simple.

Libum-265K: A near-room temperature superconductor. Manufacture is complicated.

Spoiler: Observed enemy tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): No differences noticed.

QS-CA-99 'Odin': A heavily armoured medium-sized spaceship. Her hull is all slope, the front being a point, from which slopes lead up to the widest point, then slopes lead down at the same angle, before being cut off, leaving a large flat area in the back, where the main thrusters are. Aforementioned main thrusters are three Apollos. She has five smaller thrusters mounted pointing in other directions, providing excellent manoeuvrability. Her powerplant is a Stardust reactor. She is armed with four Mjolnir turrets providing excellent coverage, and a single spinal-mount extra-long Mjolnir. Her armour consists of a layer of Heavy titanium with faraday insulation, with a layer of Light ceramics mounted a full three meters away from the main hull. Despite her bulk, she moves at a Moderate pace.
Cost: 3SPP

QS-SF-00 'Loki': A small-ish fighter, capable of independent operation for a few days before needing to resupply. A substantially downsized Stardust reactor provides power to the Apollo thrusters, as well as the singular Mjolnir coilgun. Has light armour, and a radio capable of same-orbit communication. Requires a transport to act as 'mothership'- two Lokis take up 1TC
Cost: 1SPP for two.

Equipment
Printed Pistol: No differences noticed.

X100 Space Suit: No differences noticed.

Interplanetary Radio: No differences noticed.

QS-IRW-99 'Hayk': The Hayk is a micromissile-firing rifle. It is magazine fed, has a reasonable rate of fire, and is accurate at a surprising distance- theoretically out to Long range, although few are capable of such superhuman feats. There is an ammo variant which explodes on contact, though it is less accurate and in shorter supply.
Cost: Cheap


Infrastructure

Colony Defence Grid: No differences noticed.

QS-CPP-96 'Stardust': A fusion reactor. Utilises powerful niobium-tin superconductors, cooled by liquid helium, to contain plasma in a Tokamak-style. Two sizes have been observed, a medium-sized reactor seen in the Odin, and a smaller one which is 3m*3m*2m seen in the Loki.


Loose Parts
QS-MAC-97 'Mjolnir': A coilgun (and definitely not a railgun) capable of firing 150mm slugs at considerable speeds. Requires a substantial power supply. Ground installations cost 1GPP for four. Ship mountings cost 1SPP for  eight.

QS-MHD-98 'Apollo': A magneto-plasma-dynamic thruster of exceptional efficiency. Uses hydrogen plasma by default; heavier elements can be injected into the mix for a boost in thrust.

Spoiler: Production (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 16+2
  6 Points: 3xITC
  12 Points: 1xCuttlefish, 3xCuttlefish (Damaged), 1xCuttlefish (Heavily Damaged), 1xCuttlefish (Destroyed)

Ground Production Points: 16+2
  18 points: Unassigned
 
Units: 5
  2 Units on planet A (no extra equipment)
  2 Units on planet D (no extra equipment)
  1 Unit on planet E (no extra equipment)

Spoiler: The Map (click to show/hide)

Don't even worry about this looking nothing like a solar system. Its, uh, optimal transfers or something. Look, it's dumb, but what do you want from me?

Key:
A: A volcanic world. Constant eruptions and earthquakes result in a thoroughly unpleasant environment. 4SPP, 2GPP
  E:0/6, Q:1/6
B&F: Rocky worlds. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, these planets are... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
C: An ocean world. Covered in 94% water, with a breathable atmosphere, and a few inhabitable islands. Prepare for lots of island-hopping. 2SPP, 4GPP
  Q:2/6
D: An earthlike world. Covered in 69% water, with a breathable atmosphere, most of the surface being inhabitable. Terrain varies wildly, from open plains to thick jungles- and of course vast seas. 5SPP, 5GPP
  E:2/6, Q:0/6
E: A frozen world. Almost entirely covered in ice, with an atmosphere too thin to breathe. Ice sheets make for treacherous terrain, with snow-covered mountains being not much better. 2SPP, 4GPP
  E:2/6
G: A desert world. With a few salty 'seas' covering a mere 12% of the surface, the majority of this planet is dry as a bone. Vast sandscapes dominate, punctured by low, rocky hills, and the ocassional oasis. The atmosphere is breathable. 2SPP, 4GPP.
Ertex&Quillus: Earthlike worlds. Capturing the enemy homeworld results in victory. Yield no Production Points. I mean, they do, but those are already accounted for in your basic industry.

[andrea]

We have a lot of damaged ships in needs of refit. I believe it is time to bring them home to repair and install athena.

I am proposing bringing back the ITC as well, but if you have any other plan for our infantry, this may be the time.

Plan A 'Dockyard'
All cuttlefishes and ITC come back to Ertex to repair and refit

Plan A - dockyard (1) : Andrea

[Blood_Librarian]

In the discussions I've had in the discord, it came to attention that there are plans to emplace Athena into other theaters, such as ground forces, the industry, and perhaps other places, I propose a robust system to make sure that it would function in a manageable and efficient way.

The current system we have the entire network be one system.  Every individual piece of equipment assists by "donating" its processing power to the center, and works together with every other piece of equipment/node/etc to be smarter. The immediate group theoretically cannot communicate eight others, not in immediate range for more power intensive problems, but they could still operate independently, just not as powerfully. They also pool their supposed knowledge together, so the more they become, the more "skilled" they become.

This can be prone to several problems, although currently, they are all theoretical, I'll list them below, and I will add to the list as it comes by

• Potential conflict in how the system functions: if two networks separated for a period of time come together; The way they run could have changed drastically, specializing towards the systems that they run and nothing else, I don't list HOW they could change because I assume there are multiple ways of running a Futuristic AI network that can be better at certain tasks than others at the minimum of Structure ( Look up types of LAN Networks; Ring, Star Mesh). This is assuming that not only is it more efficient to run certain networks in different configurations, the systems themselves would be fundamentally specialized towards different tasks (the tasks they were designed to do as part of a collective). (One may act as a weapon platform, another may relay orders, while another processes Strategic level intelligence) which would require different networks based upon that system.
• System Drift: This goes back to the conflict in how a system functions. If a Network of systems is hypothetically separated, they may over time evolve into something fundamentally different than to what we have, which may cause incompatibility to our overarching network. We cannot assume that they will be compatible by default unless we force them together. This is assuming that the system is not currently designed to assimilate relatively exotic systems without any chance of malfunction, permanent knowledge loss or inefficiencies..
• Chain of Command: From what I gather, The system is not designed for "individuals" to exist. Not individuals in the sense of thinking beings, but systems "individualized" for a role. This means that there could be a potential conflict where information could be sent multiple times or relayed to the wrong systems. This is assuming that the System does not correct itself and is smarter then I am giving it credit, but I know for a fact that it is not a General AI, Yet. Please don't say "Its an AI" and throw the argument away, since I am assuming that just like a human mind, It is not able to multitask effectively enough to micromanage every single "node" to be an efficient system, because it has better things to do; It would be far better to just build an efficient protocol in the first place.
• Vulnerability: If the system experiences significant loss to the unit operation or even hostile attack in the form of info warfare, the entire network is at risk, with the potential of the entire network either failing or being subverted. It is also possible that with a distributed network losing a large portion of its units, critical knowledge may be lost on a large scale if certain units are lost. If it gets hacked by the foreign power(s), the entire network could be exposed to their ilk, even if it is an AI system.
• One-Path System:Simply put, the system does not appear to experiment with alternate or otherwise purposely commit to changed "personality" or operative procedure as well as it could do. This could be accomplished by allowing some systems or a subgroup of the entire network to temporarily experiment with a different layout than the rest of the system. As far as I can tell, this is impossible to commit under our current system since it is not designed to commit to such a task.

I propose that we commit to several changes to the Athena Network, namely to address the issues listed previously.
Revision/Design: Athena SubStructuring
This changes the Athena system by giving it three separate layers of structure, These are now fundamental to the system. The Composition of these structures, however, can be changed as is how connected they are to another Group/SubGroup/ Individual. This also consists of the proliferation the Athena Network onto every available system we have IF it is a design.

0. The Athena Network: The entire network is connected together, If deemed needed by the network, the groups/etc can be so interconnected that there might as well not be any significant distinction to them or only through the minimum of being able to request information from one another, but the ENTIRE broad network is a Meshed system. Every single Group is connected together, at least slightly.
1. Group Layer: The Athena Network is divided into distinct, whole groups of systems that run in the same Network Theatre. This means that groups of systems (Void Military, Void Logistics, Void Industry, Ground Military, Etc) will operate in the same overarching network, and will share group level information that everyone in the entire network needs, or work together for strategic level thinking and planning. This partially solves the Vulnerability problem, as it means another later of networking and security that a potential intruder has to access before they can acquire production secrets that allow us to produce our equipment. This also increases the efficiency of the system, as only relevant data will be stored in these groups. These groups will self-determine how each subgroup and slash or individual connects to one another, along with their priority in their messages and will also distribute "imprints" to other systems that can receive it. Imprints will be discussed in the Individual layer. Right now Athena, as it is in its current form, would fit in as a single group, With subgroups of fleet.
2.Sub Group: These subgroups are where information and processing power is shared on a more local level, or where critical information is stored behind additional security or other specialized roles that emplaced onto more than one "node". This also allows experimental organizational patterns, network structure, security/ "Software" tests can be fielded without risking the entire network, as its specifically designed to allow the system to self-innovate along with considerations in terms of long-term stability and structure. This allows anything from groups of Uranium Centrifuges to harmonize together, Laser Point defense systems on a starship to target the same place, and everything in between.  Subgroups require a MINIMUM of two units, otherwise, they are simply under the main group as an "autonomous" unit. One Unit can be under multiple groups (Scout, Infantry, Experimental, etc) If required, adding or removing groups is designed to be very fluid and easily done, limited by the information transfer of the necessary knowledge that the subgroup requires. There can be Subgroups within Subgroups
3.The Individual: Each individual is programmed with a very base level set of "preferences" in their day to day operations, with a slight range of preferences towards certain tasks and "Mental" processing. In the scale of the entire network, this acts as the overall "Personality" of the chosen Group/SubGroup. If a query to an entire subgroup/group where Personality based ont he Imprint gets to show is given, Each available Unit answers, and the answers of all machines are composited, and then outputted. This is how divergent thinking is both reigned in and able to be given to the systems, as it gives a chance for potential shifts in thoughts as the base units can learn from each other as well as other information. Imprints are basically the set of values that the unit in question has, and is often overridden periodically with superior imprints founded by hard won experience. Imprints are inherently different for different systems, A imprint for a theoretical spaceship will not fit on a tank or an industrial centrifuge. Worryingly, the Network can and will "weld" these values onto a different system for testing purposes. In one particular instance, this has resulted in a Laboratory Kitchen unit with the mental imprint of a starship astronavigation computer, which promptly self-terminated. Systems with more overall power in their processing or otherwise more access to equipment will have a stronger pull in what to do then a lesser machine in (sub)groups/networks.

How is this better than our current system?

It provides Security, Durability, and function while being more efficient with an increased ability of self-learning and innovation, and it is also distinctly similar to the system of our government if our system of government was less like a system of government and more a tactical smart network.

The Security is given two-fold. The most obvious fact is that there are multiple barriers between a theoretical subversion of one of our individuals and ALL our individual systems. There is a significantly increased amount of data checkpoints that could be placed than as one permeable layer. It's not likely that our AI could get subverted as a whole, but individual units could fail, and certainly, more could follow if they attempt it. It also provides "structural" security, in the event of large-scale casualties, as large-scale number loss poses less risk in lobotomizing the network (Violent network failure due to nodes failing to communicate resulting in a paralyzed system.) Because it is likely that only Subgroups would die in whole scale numbers, (A squad of 7 getting shelled, a daring fleet squadron getting destroyed, An industrial accident taking out all the alcohol fermenters, etc.) While the larger "Group" network will still be relatively whole.

The Athena system will also be more durable, largely because of the previously mentioned number loss issue. Where it really shines is that it becomes more of a smarter, tactical/strategic network then what it originally was. Without the gigantic task of having to mesh with any non-similar system at any time, the system will be less prone to issues relating to connection failures or exotic systems, because they will be connected at a "Higher" level, rather than from system to system. (Kind of like how multicellular life work.) It is also more readily able to handle exotically structured networks or other systems, as they can be neatly categorized and kept in their state in a subgroup or even their own group if required.

To note, Although this is sectionalizing and "dividing" the Athena network, The network will still have the exact same resources and intelligence that it would normally have, it just organized more sensibly. All the computers are still connected in some way shape or form, and the AI can change how it is connected together specifically. Every system in the network can still pool together to solve a gargantuan problem if they can, but inefficient systems and irrelevant data are either pruned and sent to the proper  Group or sent to the Archives back on the homeworld. Athena can still act as a single system, but its separate parts can act as well.

[Detoxicated]

I quite like it.
if we add other shiptypes with their own proper function this system can easily maneuver them to the most fruitful position.

so i am thinking we should create a heavy frigate type with a strong communication and long range sensors to a) give info to the overall network of ships and b) to have a backup ship to call to attack their fleet at the right moment.

Athena Substructuring (1): Detoxicated