Print

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

[NUKE9.13]

ESC-CS 1 'Nautilus'-class Laser Cruiser

Following the disappointing performance of the Cuttlefish, the Nautilus is designed from the smallest component to one single purpose: War.

The Nautilus is looks roughly like 2 cones connected at the base. The back one terminates around halfway where 3 Hermes nozzles sticks out the back in a triangular arrangement.

Those nozzles are connected to 3 Helios-S reactors with piping between each reactor and each engine, allowing every reactor to supply all, none or a combination of engines. The nozzles feature a large gimballing angle, allowing a single thruster to thrust through the center of mass and a little further. This wide range, together with quick gimballing speed, it should be a lot more maneuverable than the cuttlefish, even as its mass increases too.
The water injection system of the Cuttlefish is also massively improved, allowing much greater thrust but consuming water.

It also boasts a lot more firepower than the Cuttlefish. It has 3 Spear lasers on the nose and further 5 on mounted on the widest point of the hull, allowing it to focus all 8 forward with at least 5 being able to point in any given direction.
Some extra volume has been included around the lasers to account for future upgrades.

On the defensive side, the Nautilus is also much improved. It resurrects the armoring scheme of water battleships of old, the so called All or nothing armor. A central citadel covers the bridge, life support, weapon systems, Athena servers and reactors, made out of thick insalloy plating. This citadel would be a fully functional spaceship in itself, if not for its lack of fuel. Thought it would be cramped.
Packed around the citadel is everything else, such as bunk space, the mess, provisions, recreational facilities and spare parts. Those areas are expected to take damage in combat, but with spare capacity and plenty of airlocks, it should be easy to plug any holes and simply bring most of it back into service.
Again covering this, is the fuel tanks, for both water and He3. They work as an additional layer of ablative armor. They are heavily segmented, so when a fuel tank is hit, only a small amount of fuel is lost, but the projectile is slowed down. The areas _expected_ to face enemy fire (aka the font) contains water tanks, while He3 is stored in less exposed areas.
As a final layer there is a whipple shield.


The Nautilus is a modern spacecraft. Athena is used to automate and reduce crew requirements where possible and structural components are designed to be produced on Fabrites.

Easy: (2+1)+1=4: Below Average
Cough.
It's funny, it feels like it's been ages since we last designed something. Let's call that our excuse; we're out of practice.
Fortunately, the Nautilus does not represent a massive leap forwards in any particular field. So the end result definitely works.

The Nautilus is a large warship (relatively speaking), considerably larger than both the Cuttlefish and Odin. In fact, it presents something of a challenge merely to assemble it, lacking as we are in orbital dockyards. It is powered by three large Caduceus reactors, and propelled by 3 Hermes thrusters. Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to upgrade the engines much, and so whilst the Nautilus is considerably more agile than its predecessor, the increased bulk means its speed leaves something to be desired, at Kinda Slow. It has the same water-injection system as the Cuttlefish, providing temporary speed boosts.
The armament is 8 AX5 Spears, although their mountings could support larger, more powerful weapons. Had we not been stretched for time, we would've upsized the Spears.
Structurally, the Nautilus is not quite as tough as we hoped. We didn't have time to optimise the hull strength, and the citadel, whilst sturdy, will not stand up to as much punishment as projected. Nevertheless, it will be significantly harder to kill than the Cuttlefish- estimates suggest it would, on average, take 5 times as many shots to disable.
Plenty of processing power is provided for Athena on board, although the demands also increase. A sizeable crew is still required, and for optimal performance the Nautilus should operate in a group.

Now, the Nautilus is not cheap. Budget was one of the first sacrifices we made, and things got approved if they worked almost no matter the cost. A component review or proper infrastructure could easily lower this by 25%, if not more, but for now, a single Nautilus will set us back 8SPP.


It is now the Revision Phase of SY108.

[Blood_Librarian]

Extended Deadlines: Nautilus Class Laser Cruiser

Additional time and resources has been put too the the Nautilus Project, and re-allocation of engineers has resulted in a steadfastly improved design in many facets.

By directly re-aligning reactor mainlines, we have easily routed enough power from the trio of reactors to the newly engineered 8 AX5-2 "Lance" Laser weapon systems (They are upsized AX5's.) Instead of assembling practically every part of the ship in orbit by hand, large sections of the ship is prefabricated in Ertex bound Factories and then sent up to assembling stage points, where one ship is bolted together with self-sealing Stembolts and then welded together in triplicate. Although a arduous process, the material efficiency in assembling these pieces as "modules" rather then in parts without a star-port/dockyard doctrine set is projected to be several degrees more efficient.

With the left over time from the modifications to the original design, a comprehensive overview in the composition of the ship is done; the intent of this review is twofold; To lay down redundancy over redundancy on emergency systems and life support to increase the survivability of the ship and her crew (including the possibility of escape-pods!) as well as removing and restructuring the ship to streamline the systems mish-mash and incoherently engineered systems into a simplified and robust system.

Extended Deadline(1):BL

[Chiefwaffles]

Ertex Dockyards
We've realized that our ships largely just sit in orbit on Ertex, waiting as small shuttles from Ertex come and go to ever-so-slowly maintain, repair, construct, or transfer supplies and crew. This is extraordinarily inefficient.

Introducing the new Ertex Dockyards. It's not exactly some Wonder of Aljadid  yet, but it's something. The Dockyards is created to facilitate logistics, namely:
1.) Allowing for much faster+quicker construction/maintenance/etc. of under-construction or just otherwise docked ships. With a place to store the materials and workers and construction vehicles and provide power and the like long-term, costs go down as we spend a lot less resources ferrying these things between Ertexside and orbit as needed. Speed goes up as the live-in crew are always available to work, have a place to work from, and don't have to always wait for the next shuttle.
2.) To a lesser extent, the Dockyards centralizes the logistics of bringing things to and from Ertexside. Minerals from Macrites and our mining colonies are all sent here, and we maximize efficiency in shipments of materials to/from Ertexside. It won't be an extreme boost, but our effective [GPP] should go up a notable amount as we expect the streamlined+efficienc-ied logistics to decrease costs of moving things between orbit, and of moving things across the solar system. Having a centralized port to go through is a lot better than docking your freighters at the shores of the city.

Athena is of course housed here, where she assists in managing logistics (and in a worst-case scenario, planetary defense). And we expect great improvements in the construction of the Nautilus, where the project manager just complained to us about "lacking ... in orbital dockyards." Maybe other ships too, but we dunno about that.

Now, there's no new tech involved. Just some Caduceus reactors to power the whole thing, and things like that. Nothing we're not already experienced with. The challenges are all expected to be engineering, and as the Dockyards aren't (yet) a huge megaproject, we expect to be able to handle the engineering problems of a straightforward station hull just fine in a revision.

TL;DR: Construct a dockyard in orbit to handle construction/maintenance of ships (improving Nautilus[/cuttlefish?] and future big ships expense; and maybe some fun benefits given by GM for easy maintenance) and centralization of supply/shipping logistics, improving GPP by a (notable yet not huge) bit.
Done in revision because it's not particularly huge, and has zero (0) new tech, or even new applications of existing tech.

Extended Deadline(1):BL
Ertex Dockyards (1): Chiefwaffles

[Happerry]

Extended Deadline(1):BL
Ertex Dockyards (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry

[Draignean]

Extended Deadline(1):BL
Ertex Dockyards (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, Draignean

My name is Alexander Anderson, and this is my favorite revision of the two currently on the citadel.

[joha4270]

EAC-AX6 Lance
The Lance is an improvement over the AX5 Spear laser turret. The most significant improvement is a greatly increased frequency range that instead of a few pre-selected frequencies allows it to simply select a frequency somewhere between x-rays and visible light. Most importantly this allows the laser to be used in as a space to surface weapon (if Athena requires any enhancements to allow this, those should be added too), but also allows it to trade bream spread (effectively range) for power output for maximum damage at any given distance.

At the same time, the Lance has been increased in size to make full use of the space available on a Nautilus.

TL;DR: Give the Spear orbital bombardment capability. As gravy we increase both its raw power and its effective damage.

The plan here would then be to send a few Nautiluses to A (where we have almost lost) which would both prevent them from doing orbital bombardment but would also allow us to do so.

Extended Deadline(1):BL
Ertex Dockyards (3): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, Draignean
EAC-AX6 Lance (1): joha4270

[NUKE9.13]

Ertex Dockyards
We've realized that our ships largely just sit in orbit on Ertex, waiting as small shuttles from Ertex come and go to ever-so-slowly maintain, repair, construct, or transfer supplies and crew. This is extraordinarily inefficient.

Introducing the new Ertex Dockyards. It's not exactly some Wonder of Aljadid  yet, but it's something. The Dockyards is created to facilitate logistics, namely:
1.) Allowing for much faster+quicker construction/maintenance/etc. of under-construction or just otherwise docked ships. With a place to store the materials and workers and construction vehicles and provide power and the like long-term, costs go down as we spend a lot less resources ferrying these things between Ertexside and orbit as needed. Speed goes up as the live-in crew are always available to work, have a place to work from, and don't have to always wait for the next shuttle.
2.) To a lesser extent, the Dockyards centralizes the logistics of bringing things to and from Ertexside. Minerals from Macrites and our mining colonies are all sent here, and we maximize efficiency in shipments of materials to/from Ertexside. It won't be an extreme boost, but our effective [GPP] should go up a notable amount as we expect the streamlined+efficienc-ied logistics to decrease costs of moving things between orbit, and of moving things across the solar system. Having a centralized port to go through is a lot better than docking your freighters at the shores of the city.

Athena is of course housed here, where she assists in managing logistics (and in a worst-case scenario, planetary defense). And we expect great improvements in the construction of the Nautilus, where the project manager just complained to us about "lacking ... in orbital dockyards." Maybe other ships too, but we dunno about that.

Now, there's no new tech involved. Just some Caduceus reactors to power the whole thing, and things like that. Nothing we're not already experienced with. The challenges are all expected to be engineering, and as the Dockyards aren't (yet) a huge megaproject, we expect to be able to handle the engineering problems of a straightforward station hull just fine in a revision.

TL;DR: Construct a dockyard in orbit to handle construction/maintenance of ships (improving Nautilus[/cuttlefish?] and future big ships expense; and maybe some fun benefits given by GM for easy maintenance) and centralization of supply/shipping logistics, improving GPP by a (notable yet not huge) bit.
Done in revision because it's not particularly huge, and has zero (0) new tech, or even new applications of existing tech.

Normal: (4+3)=7: Superior Craftsmanship
Well, we won't have any troubles constructing the Nautilus now.

Planning and construction of the Ertex Dockyard went like a dream. Everything just fell into place. The Dockyard consists of three main sections; the habitat section, the logistics section, and the drydock section. The habitat section is a large ring, that spins in order to provide artificial gravity, making long-term habitation more pleasant for the hundreds of occupants. The logistics section includes a multitude of docking ports for shuttles, dozens of warehouses, and an administrative facility, all streamlining the delivery of goods to/from Ertex considerably. The drydock section has room to construct two Nautilus-sized ships at once, or one vessel roughly thrice the size, surrounded by workshops where parts can be modified/repaired as needed.
The smoothing of logistics has borne fruit, by way of increasing our GPP by 3. The ease with which spacecraft may now be constructed has increased our SPP by 1, and decreased the cost of the Nautilus to 6SPP. We've also learnt quite a bit about orbital construction, which may come in handy in the future.


It is now the Strategy Phase of SY108. Don't forget about the event!

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
  2a Shuttle: A substantially larger shuttle, capable of carrying 4TC. The Hermes thrusters and Caduceus reactors provide thrust, and remarkable range, letting its mothership park well away from the planet, outside of commonly patrolled orbits. It is delta-shaped thanks to its wings, which provide a little extra thrust and agility in atmosphere.
  Cost: +0.5SPP

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 AX5-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
  Insalloy Armour: A few plates of Insalloy, formed into a basic armour covering for the Cuttlefish. Despite being thin, they increase survivability by as much as 100%.
  Cost: Negligible increase.

ESC-CS 1 'Nautilus'-class Laser Cruiser: A largeish spaceship. The Nautilus is powered by three large Caduceus reactors, which feed three Hermes thrusters. Eight AX5-Spears provide reasonable amounts of firepower, although their mountings could support larger weapons. An armoured citadel surrounds core components (Insulanium, of course). Athena is integrated, though a fairly large crew is still required. Its speed is Kinda Slow, though like the Cuttlefish it can boost speed temporarily.
Cost: 6SPP

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
  X100-I: Literally just a few plates of Insalloy bolted onto the outside of an X100.
  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.
  EAF-PX4 Raider: Superior in every way to the PX3, the PX4 deals twice the damage, weighs a far more reasonable 5kg, and can switch between three preset laser frequencies (although the non-default ones deal less damage). It also has cool holographic sights, which can link to a nearby Athena node to provide better targeting information.

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


Vehicles
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher: A nuclear-missile launcher consisting of three shuttle-loads worth of stuff: a small electric truck, a launch trailer, and the missiles themselves. The launch trailer loads 8 missiles, tipped with extremely small nuclear warheads for maximum 'tactical' performance. The missiles are controlled by Athena, who is now capable of flying missiles and identifying ground targets. Their range isn't great, and the launcher misfires (harmlessly) about 25% of the time, the guidance system is a bit wonky even under Athena's capable control, and the truck+trailer is slow and unwieldy, but still, nuclear-missile launcher!
Cost: 2GPP
Weight 2TC/1TC in shuttle.

EAF-ACD1 "Aegis": an Athena-controlled drone with an Insalloy frame. It has some trouble walking, shooting straight, and possesses sensors that aren't great, but it is not totally incompetent. Due to a lack of on-board processing power, they require a nearby Aegis Commander- just a big Athena node with an antenna, carried by two Aegis drones- to do anything useful. Do not say "Roger roger" repeatedly.
Cost: 1.5GPP
Weight: 0.2TC for a 100 drone complement. (Units may equip an unlimited number of drones)

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank: a (counterintuitively) six-legged vehicle, clad in Insalloy armour, armed with a downsized AX5 Spear, and entirely Athena-controlled. It moves at a Moderate pace, can clamber over most obstacles, and is reasonably accurate. In addition to its main armaments, it has two turreted Raiders providing anti-infantry support- not amazing, but a whole lot better than nothing.
Cost: 4GPP
Weight: 3TC


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.

"Caduceus" Compact fusion reactor: A Polywell-style reactor, available in far smaller sizes than the Helios- as small as 1m³. Also performs He3-He3 fusion, and takes advantage of this. Can easily have plasma siphoned off for use in Hermes drives.

Mining Macrites: Autonomous mining drones, their hulls similar to that of a Cuttlefish, equipped with two mining lasers and an arc furnace. They roam the (Ertex-controlled parts of the) system, seeking out mineral-rich asteroids, and send the processed minerals back to Ertex. So far, so normal. However, they are also equipped with a fabrication unit and construction drones, which enable them to build copies of themselves. These copies have some flaws, but still work, and can make their own copies. Those third-generation Macrites are 'sterile', but can still process minerals.
Provides 2SPP/2GPP, plus 1/1 every two years, to a max of 6/6. Also increases the output of controlled planets by 1SPP/1GPP.

Fabrites: Modified Macrites, with the mining and smelting equipment removed in favour of more fabricators. These lurk in Ertex's orbit, producing components for new ships. Require human oversight, and cannot create complex components to acceptable standards. Nevertheless, increases SPP by 4.

Ertex Dockyards: A large orbital facility with a habitation section housing several hundred workers, a logistics section handling the transfer of materials between the surface and orbit, and a drydock section that makes constructing ships considerably easier. Provides 3GPP/1SPP.


Loose Parts
EAC-AX5 Spear: A large laser. Respectable engineering gives it a very reasonable damage output and range, whilst the special nature of the Vasarely pattern lets it switch between three preset wavelengths. Does require quite a bit of power, of course.


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.

Hephaestus Synthesis: A complicated process that produces small amounts of Insulanium- an isotope of a certain element that resides in the "Island of Stability"; it is very heavy, yet relatively stable. Produced in too small amounts to make anything practical out of it, it is instead alloyed with more common metals, which substantially increases their strength even with only 0.25% Insulanium added.
  Hephaestus Mark 2: A new method of Insulanium production, that uses fusion reactors to fuse up to the desired element. Substantially lowers the cost of Insulanium-using designs.

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

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): New shuttle spotted:
  QS-RAS-00 'Dove': A heavier shuttle for the ITC, powered by a Loki-class Stardust reactor and fitted with Apollo thrusters. It has light armour and two 30mm Hayks. Can carry 3TC. Adds 1SPP to the cost of an ITC.

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 Gjallarhorn turrets providing excellent coverage, and a single spinal-mount extra-long Gjallarhorn. Her weapons are aimed by the Huginn System, which automatically collects data from her improved radar. 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.
Can be given Mirage Plating for an extra 0.5SPP
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 Gjallarhorn coilgun. Has light armour, and a radio capable of same-orbit communication. Requires a transport to act as 'mothership'- two Lokis take up 1TC. They are now equipped with Mirage Plating.
Cost: 1SPP for two.

Equipment
Printed Pistol: No differences noticed.

X100 Space Suit: No differences noticed.

QS-PIA-05 'Heimdallr': A great big suit of powered armour, providing atmospherically sealed protection for infantry where ever they may go. It uses Eitr batteries to provide 3-4 hours of operation before needing to recharge (it can be plugged into a Hrungnir, or a generator at a camp). The armour plating is not especially thick, and somewhat awkwardly designed- slightly less awkward than the X100, though. It has Mirage Plating... but whilst it protects reasonably against visible-light lasers at all times, the 'invisibility' only works when standing perfectly still in the correct pose, otherwise light gets redirected in, uh, interesting ways, turning it into a wild light show. Fortunately, the plating can be turned off if desired.
Cost: 3GPP (up to two sets may be equipped by a single unit)
Weight: 1TC (0.5 in shuttle)

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

QS-GL-02 'Fog Machine': The Fog Machine is a simple grenade launcher, basically nothing more than an oversized Hayk with a shortened barrel. It fires either smoke/chaff or explosives. Range/accuracy is a bit of an issue.
Cost: Cheap


Vehicles
QS-MBT-02 'Hrungnir': The Hrungnir is a big tank, with fairly heavy armour in the form of a layer of ceramics atop a layer of titanium (all sloped). It is powered by a Stardust reactor, basically the same one used by the Loki. The energy is used to drive electric motors which in turn drive the treads upon which the Hrungnir sits. It is equipped with a 50mm stabilized auto-loading Gjallarhorn coilgun, the barrel of which can also be used to fire upsized explosive Hayk rockets. It has an electronics package that handles fire control and sensors. It also has smoke/chaff dispensers, which automatically cloud the vehicle in smoke/chaff (for atmosphereless planets) when sensors detect unusual heating.
It has an Ullr system mounted on the roof, and can be made mostly invisible with Mirage Plating for an additional 1GPP.
Cost: 4GPP
Weight: 3TC


Infrastructure

Colony Defence Grid: No differences noticed.

QS-CPP-96 'Stardust': A fusion reactor, copies of which can be found across Quillus, powering industry. Utilises powerful niobium-tin superconductors, cooled by liquid helium, to contain plasma in a Tokamak-style. The "Brokkr's Forge" improvements have made it slightly more effective, to the point where it reaches ignition. Grants 2GPP and 2SPP. A smaller version designed for use in spaceships also exists.


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.

Gjallarhorn: An improved version of the Mjolnir, featuring Lorfium superconductors that increase muzzle velocity by 15%, as well as special shells that feature a superconducting core, which drastically increases muzzle velocity due to the Meissner effect.

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.

QS-MAMG-04 'Ullr': A highly effective CIWS system, using a miniaturised coilgun firing 6mm slugs, using Huginn-based aiming assistance. Excellent at shooting down missiles and enemy infantry alike.


Misc Tech
Optical Metamaterial 3 'Mirage Plating': A miracle substance that defies what were once considered laws of physics. OM3 consists of complicated (yet not impractically so for production purposes) layers of materials that together can redirect light in essentially arbitrary ways. It is not perfect, and can only affect 90% of light, and requires a small amount of power to function. OM3 must be created to affect a specific wavelength of light, and only works on light in a band around that wavelength. Only wavelengths from near-X-Ray to the lower end of microwave can be affected.
Shrouds of OM3 can be constructed for your vehicle of choice, offering either a degree of invisibility, or pretty good protection from lasers, or both.
  Optical Metamaterial 4: New and improved, OM4 works without power, in which case it defaults to the upper half of visible light. If it is powered, the exact voltage used will change the properties, letting the material be tuned on the fly. This can be done manually or automatically. 

Eitr Rechargeable Superconducting Battery: A battery with 10x the capacity of conventional batteries.

Rigr Construction Harness: A hastily put together modification of the Heimdallr, to replace the X100 in industrial use cases. The lack of cohesive engineering means the performance leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, it provides 2SPP, and boosts the output of atmosphereless worlds.

Lorfium RTSC: A "Room Temperature" superconductor, it operates at temperatures of up to 500K. It is remarkably cheap and simple to manufacture, allowing it to be put to good use by civilian industry as well as the military.

Spoiler: Production (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 16+2+2(E)+3+4+1=28
  10 Points: 4xITC with 2a Shuttles
    Locations: 1@A, 1@D, 2@Ertex
  2 Points: 1xITC
    Locations: G
  10 Points: 4xCuttlefish, 1 destroyed Cuttlefish
    Locations: 1@D, 3@Ertex
  6 Points: Unassigned

Ground Production Points: 16+2+4(E)+3+3=28
  4 Points: 2xSarissa
  9 Points: 6xAegis Drone
  12 Points: 3xAlke Spider Tank
  3 Points: Unassigned
 
Units: 5
  1 Unit on planet A (2/3xSarissa, 4/3xAegis Drone)
  2 Units on planet D (1xSarissa, 4xAegis Drone, 2xAlke Spider Tank)
  1 Unit on planet F (Alke Spider Tank)
  1 Unit on G

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:5/6
B: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... 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:6/6
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:4/6, Q:2/6
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:6/6
F: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
  Q:4/6, 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.
  E:2/6
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.

[Chiefwaffles]

Future Design: Athena AGI

Spoiler: Extra Fluff (click to show/hide)

Athena.
Now a common sight amongst Ertex and her colonies in Aljadid.

Nearly all our ground forces are acquainted with her, as her voice guides them and advises our commanders; as our soldiers walk along Aegis units and Sarissas. Her voice over the intercomms and her holographic representation appearing in the center of communal areas is one of the most familiar occurences for our men.
Our navy crews have almost been obsoleted by her. She confidently flies our ships and manages targetting while the crew converse tactics and strategy with her holographic representation. Many call her a Captain, perhaps to the dismay of the human ones.
Civilians of Ertex have started to take familiarity with her as well. The protests by factory managers regarding Athena "taking err jerbs" in her Hephaestus oversight processes have long since ended, and her smooth voice has become a mainstay in guiding factories and management of flights bound to and from outside Ertex's atmosphere.

She's no strange sight to our design teams, for sure. Over these years she's been constantly modified and improved. She started as Cerberus, a rather poorly-made targetting system for the initial laser pointers turrets of the Cuttlefish. Concentrated efforts of our engineers made her into the real Athena, able of intelligently managing flight patterns and targetting. Even if she was barely an AI then. Constant revisions have improved her. With each revision, her ability to learn grew. Robust Learning included features such as an extremely-well-built neural network giving Athena unheard-of learning abilities.

And now it's time.
Technicians in the central Athena node on Ertex have reported to us some rather suspect sub-processes. We think it's her evolving. Or, at least, potential of her evolving. With the aid of the Design Bureau and Ertex's top philosophers, we plan on giving Athena life

Athena AGI represents the ultimate iteration of Athena. By taking some processes in the neural net that have been molded by years of learning and operation, we've been able to take some lessons from Athena herself to modify her into an Artificial General Intelligence.
She's self-aware. Her learning capabilities have, with our assistance, grown past the limitations of a neural network and now extend to self-modifications of her own code.

We've made sure to include limited emotion simulation in the improved Athena. We want Athena to be more similar to a person, albeit with a mainframe as a brain, and not just a maximization function.
Her memories and lessons from since Athena first existed are still intact, allowing for her to feel an innate, non-hardcoded sense of loyalty to Ertex. Philosophers warned against built-in loyalty, comparing it to mind-controlling our citizens for a 100% approval rating.
Finally, she's given official citizenship within the Ertexite Triumvirate, and a formal military rank within the Ertexite military granting her full command over Ertex's forces. She's to be recognized as a living being.

TL;DR: Make Athena into an AGI; we've already done tons of revisions incrementally improving her learning ability so this shouldn't be too hard.
Include basic emotions and memories from before AGI-ization to give her a realistic sense of loyalty without force-shackling her. Make her an official citizen + military commander.

[Blood_Librarian]

Great. We spend precious time working on a absolutely hard or perhaps very hard design (Maybe Normal, I can't tell with our GM.) We expend the time and energy to get... What type of advantage against Quillians?

We clearly are not gonna get any scientific boost besides their use as a component/knowledge in other designs, which we already ruthlessly exploit with drones that crudely imitate the human form (which is a waste of time since we will never replace a person wholly in this war due to logistical costs).

Some type of strategic advantage? Downplayed by the GM as we already have a Proto AGI whos specialization is in military and further ruined by the lack of communications resources. The Arms Race is an intrinsically materialistic method of combat, and strategy is not represented or downplayed heavily besides the allocation of resources which is done on a meta scale(put 3 tanks and 1 division towards planet A, etc...). An AGI managing the army as a general (which it basically already is, because that is its original purpose!) will never outweigh the advantage of our resources being put into a new ship, tank or other system we could design. Unless it provides advantages to the logistical/industrial proportions of our war-effort, this design will not be worth the resources it would require as a design.

On a tactical scale, there might be more advances, if they don’t already act cohesively  like one “unit” or such, but i severely doubt they do not already do so. Unless this advance causes each and every single one of our units to have pinpoint reactions, aiming/etc, It won’t do anything for our roger-rogers on a tactical scale unless we introduce additional, designed units.

The only advantage of having an AGI for this arms race that we don’t already have is for the industry and logistics side of our arms race against Quillians. Don’t get me wrong, that could be a significant bonus, but the open-ended statement of turning Athena into an AGI makes me question if we will get this boost or not or something that I cannot predict, or fathom.

There would be three things that I would need fulfilled in this arms race before I would be for upgrading Athena into an AGI.

1.
A variety of ground-based drones. The Bipedal form for our most basic roger-roger did not disgust me at the time it was revealed. It was only when I realized we have the ability to really shout at Quillians how unmatched they are, by building machines which by the very nature they commit to locomotion is better than a person. We are fighting in deserts, Garden worlds, and Barren zones. None of these give advantages to people with legs, compared hexapods, treads, wheels, hovering, or flying drones. If we were fighting in a heavily urbanized environment, I wouldn't consider this as much of an issue. As it is, I am against Athena AGI because we cannot take full advantage of its intelligence on the ground without a fully diverse complement of drones that augment our bipedal meat-monkey forces instead of crudely replacing them. This is compounded by the fact that we do not have inter-global, much less inter solar communications pointed out in our designs.

2.
Some type of cross planetary communications, preferably a faster then light method, or barring that an extremely useful and well built design that allows cross planetary communications that allows all elements of the Athena network to become a comprehensive, united network.. We have spent 0 designs/revisions on making Athena talk to anything but ships talking to other ships or ground units talking to other ground units that is on the same orbital body. This has to change before we can make one cohesive network that is worthy of being an AGI. Unless the GM states that Athena does not act in this way, I am against Athena as it stands until it can become one cohesive network (even despite Light-lag communication times.)

3.
There is no evidence against drone craft/smart missiles being unable to defeat the mother-ship doctrine.  The enemies “fighters” do not count for this, as they designed them without building a specialized craft for carrying them. We already have made Cruisers, and I doubt we will be able to produce a a carrier on the same scale without stretching our SPP, but if we could invest a partition of of SP so that each fleet of cruisers could be accompanied by a support carrier the cost of a cuddlefish-- A carrier that would send out drones and missiles for the purposes of recon, interception of enemy fighters/missiles (maybe even enemy weapons fire?) and perhaps hit/run on the enemy craft for crippling them even before they arrive, as well as repair systems for after the fight could massively change the scales against the despised enemy. Putting down Athena AGI right now should wait until we have a carrier deployed, and I would rather have a carrier designed, revised and ready to deploy before we spend resources on Athena in a open-ended design that might not give us what we want (?).

[Chiefwaffles]

Frankly, the benefits of an AGI are extraordinarily obvious.
Nuke has made it clear that Athena's tactics is a significant factor in battles. He's made it clear that it matters in both space (where Athena has been a huge help) and ground (where it also matters, just currently not that much because there's not a huge difference in skill levels -- Athena is just a bit worse than human crews on ground). We already have Athena participating in industry (Hephaestus) and logistics (Dockyards) so improvements immediately help there.

As it happens, crew/soldier skill levels matter a lot in war. Making Athena into an AGI and not a glorified program will do wonders for her effective skill level both in war and at home.


That, and you wanting to make more Athena-reliant things before upgrading Athena is just silly. That's like wanting to build a couple of skyscrapers on some unclaimed ground before building the foundations, because otherwise the foundations wouldn't be useful enough.

[Blood_Librarian]

If he did state that Athena's tactics are a significant factor, then I may have not read then. Regardless, You have got your metaphor wrong in my opinion. Our AI will be not as useful unless we provide all the hardware and pieces it can use, and investing resources into making a super strong AI before we make the hardware that it will use is wasteful.

DESIGN:APOGEE CLASS CARRIER

The Apogee class Carrier physically looks like a dumbbell shaped object, with lattice and framework filling in the gap between the rear engines and the forward computer core, similar in size to a Cuttlefish. It is unarmored save for it’s hulking super structure, designed to take the stress of drones lifting off and landing in its “runways” of magnetic catch/catapult systems. It is equipped with NQ Capacitor Cells, Caduceus Reactors, and Fabricators modified from the ones deployed by Fabrites.

Stored on it’s various cargo caches and automated distribution nodes are drone parts, designed to be assembled on site by the Fabricators along with raw materials either acquired on-site by local elements or carried with it by ITC’s or it’s own stores. These fabricators are more advanced than previous designs, and are expected to be able to assemble any drone pattern device given blueprints, materials, and parts.

It’s engines are designed to be faster then the Odin so that no matter what, it can continually harass the enemy without harm, provided the enemy fighter screens are destroyed.

One particularly notable fact of the Apogee is the fact that it is entirely automated; There is not a single function that is completely automated by Artificial constructions, and the ship even has basic repair/maintenance functions to keep it functioning, possibly long after it’s masters have died out.

Drone designs has been designed and noted below. An Apogee storage mass consists of around 70% in Janissar and 30% of Smart Missiles.

SUBDESIGNS

JANISSARY CLASS RECON DRONE
These Athena-controlled drone is equipped with a point-to-point laser communications system, designed so that the drone can communicate to the Athena Network from large distances as well as other drone entities, typically other drones and smart missiles, but Alien contact has been considered and the protocol has been installed in the Athena Networks guidelines. These drones are also equipped with a set of active sensors, NQ Batteries, and hot-gas thrusters. They are expected to be scouting the entire orbit, and scan out for anomalies, hostiles and other entities to be categorized and dealt with by other drones. To make these drones as cheap as possible, they are unarmored and their Athena nodes shrunk, and they operate at a deficit-- They are disposable, and are quickly expected to be lost without assistance from other drones, but they should be able to avoid destruction due to their very small profile and agility. These drones are expected to return to the Carrier and recharge their thrusters and NQ batterries once one or the other becomes low.
BROADSWORD CLASS SMART MISSILE
A high explosive charge powered by NQ cells plugged into a maneuvering system, an upsized Athena Node/sensor systems, and a one use Solid-mass Rocket Booster. Essentially, they will be deployed at long range, and they will jet to a chosen target by the Athena Network, and then launch themselves at extreme speed with the rocket booster at the enemy, hopefully targeting vulnerable points such as weapon mounts, engines, or sensor nodes. The missile can return to the carrier if its warhead fails or other reasons, but it is traditionally not expected to turn to the carrier.

[Detoxicated]

Guided Gliding Spacesuit
This slender built space suit is an updated version of the former space suit model. it has lighter alloys as our scientists  focus is set on the mobility of the suit. All the curves are streamlined and the alloys are plated by Aegis inspired patterns. It also has a small propulsion jet at the back and gliding wings. Small leaps can be made and the soldiers are able to jump downfrom great heights. The propulsion jet is connected to AEGIS and it can deploy it to save a soldiers live.

[Blood_Librarian]

Action Plan: Forward to Delta

Production:

16+2+2(E)+3+4+1=28   SP
Deccomission 2 Cuttlefishe Corvettes at Ertex. (+4)
Decomission 1 ITC with 2a Shuttle aat Ertex (+2)
Fabricate 2 Nautilus Cruisers (-12)
0 unallocated SP

16+2+4(E)+3+3=28  SP
Fabricate 2 Aegis Drones (-3) shipped to A
0 unallocated SP

Ship Production Points: 16+2+2(E)+3+4+1=28
  7.5 Points: 3xITC with 2a Shuttles
    Locations: 1@A heading to Ertex, 1@D heading to Ertex, 1@Ertex heading to A with 2x aegis
  2 Points: 1xITC
    Locations: G heading to Ertex
  6 Points: 2xCuttlefish, 1 destroyed Cuttlefish
    Locations: 1@D, 1@Ertex heading to A
  6 Points: Nautilus Cruiser “Malign Intent” Heading too A
  6 Points: Nautilus Cruiser “Eyes Like Nuclear Fire” Heading too A
7.5+2 +6 +6 +6 =27.5

Ground Production Points: 16+2+4(E)+3+3=28
  4 Points: 2xSarissa
  12 Points: 8xAegis Drone
  12 Points: 3xAlke Spider Tank
 


Movement
ITC at G: Move to Ertex.
1 Nautilus Designated “Eyes like Nuclear Fire” Head to A.
1 Nautilus designated “Malign Intent” Head to A.
1 ITC-2a to A with x2 Aegis
1 CuddleFish @Ertex heading to A
1 CuddleFish @D stays at D

Forward to Delta (1): Blood_Librarian

[Blood_Librarian]

Bump. Please vote for a Strategy or make one.

[BBBence1111]

+1 on BL's plan