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[Strongpoint]

This was a good turn for a long term investment but best long term investments are  ones that give at least some immediate impact. We are sitting on 2SPP that are quite unusable.

On other hand we can totally revise this stuff later OR directly use it in the next design advancing technology that way.

Revise Cheaper ITC
A lot of effort was made to optimize ITCs for their current role. Entire sections of the ship are removed as there no colonists with families that need long term support. Old Fission reactor(s) on board are replaced with smaller, lighter and cheaper Stardust(s). The end result is a smaller, cheaper, lighter craft with the same set of engines. But not only ITC is changed. Production methods are changed, too. More 3d printing on mostly automated factories is introduced to speed up ITC production 
Goals: Reduce cost of ITC to 1SSP, reducing total TC to 3 is fine. Secondary goal is to increase speed.

If we roll anything acceptable than we'll ne able to build an ITC with dove and send tanks to A immediately. Or Build ITC and 2 Lokis attached to it. It is an important tactical thing.  Else we have 2SPP doing nothing.

Optical Metamaterials 2: (3) Madman, Thanatos, Jilladilla
Revise Cheaper ITC (1) strongpoint

[Maximum Spin]

Optical Metamaterials 2: (4) Madman, Thanatos, Jilladilla, Maximum Spin
Revise Cheaper ITC (1) strongpoint

[NUKE9.13]

Optical Metamaterials 2: Electric Completely Not Reliant On Anything To Let The Laws Of Physics Work
Following the debacle that was "powered" metamaterials, we've started another research effort, directed at making metamaterials practical for combat applications. Starting by reworking the metamaterials' structure to be mass-producible, then proceeding to fix, well, everything else, but with priority on the percentage of light redirected and the wavelengths that it redirects.

Optical Metamaterials 2 (Hard): (2+3)-1=4: Below Average
We more or less scrapped all our progress and started over. Which has paid off, sort of.
We focused on mass-producibility, and were rather successful. By changing up the materials used to create the nanoscopic structures of the metamaterial, and using a three-stage production process that separates the formerly daunting task of assembling various layers of intricate structures into processes that can easily be handled by modern chemical manufacturing devices, the cost of OM2 is now merely kinda expensive, as opposed to impractically exorbitant.
Our other fixes were not equally effective, but neither were they failures. The power requirement, though not eliminated, has been reduced substantially. It now redirects 89% of light, which should be good enough for most purposes, surely? And we've increased the width of the band of wavelengths that any one material can redirect slightly, though we didn't get round to substantially increasing the range of wavelengths we can influence (it remains near-IR to near-UV).

We did not have time to create a deployable prototype of OM2, but future designs should be able to incorporate it just like any other material (at a slight cost).


It is now the Tactics Phase of SY103.

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
  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 Mjolnir turrets providing excellent coverage, and a single spinal-mount extra-long Mjolnir. 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.
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: 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

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 Ertex.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 2TC

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 Mjolnir 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.
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.

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.

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.


Misc Tech

QS-PMP-96 'Auto-Forge': A 3D-printer that prints using metal. Not astonishingly accurate, but QC weeds out any pieces that aren't of acceptable standards.

Optical Metamaterial 2: A miracle substance that defies what were once considered laws of physics. OM2 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 89% of light, and requires a small amount of power to function. OM2 must be created to affect a specific wavelength of light, and only works on light in a narrow-ish band around that wavelength. So far only near-IR to near-UV is possible.

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

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

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 laser 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
  Island-Alloy Armour: A few plates of Island-Alloy, formed into a basic armour covering for the Cuttlefish. Despite being thin, they increase survivability by as much as 100%.
  Cost: +1SPP


Equipment
Printed Pistol: No differences noticed.

X100 Space Suit: No differences noticed.

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: No differences noticed.


Infrastructure
Colony Defence Grid: No differences noticed.

"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
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.

Spoiler: Production (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 16+2+2(C)
  6 points: 3xITC
  9 points: 2xOdin (Heavily Damaged), 1xOdin
  2 points: 2xLoki (Destroyed), 2xLoki
  1 point: 1xDove
  2 points: -

Ground Production Points: 16+2+4(C)
  5 points: 1xHrungnir
  17 points: -
 
Units: 5
  2 Units on planet A (No extra equipment)
  1 Unit on planet C (No extra equipment)
  1 Unit on planet D (Hrungnir MBT, Fog Machines)
  1 Unit on planet F (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:1/6, Q:1/6
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: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: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
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.

[SamSpeeds]

OK fellas, I think we should bring the ITC with doves back to base so it can pick up a new batch of Hrungnirs! ((I forget if we can then redeploy it in the same turn, if so we should bring Hrungnirs to A. Maybe even just bringing MORE to D would be a boon, but I'm sure theyve tried to design some sort of counter to them (or some naval thing) and will try to bring it to D soon. As for naval combat (sorry I'm a tad foggy on the mechanics) if we can't repair and deploy those two Odins in one turn, we should send them back to base and send the shipshape one to escort the ITC carrying Hrungnirs.

[NUKE9.13]

Ships may only move once a turn.
Also, delivering more Hrungnirs to D (without also delivering another unit to crew them) wouldn't do anything; they already have enough tanks. If you had two sorts of tanks, you could do it, but they wouldn't field more tanks, just a variety based on what they think they need.

[Strongpoint]

That transport on C forces us to make a bad choice - either gamble that they won't move unit from A to C or.. do nothing. Transport over Quillus would allow us to equip it with dove and send tanks to A, but no...

We also have 2 spare SSP that have zero uses. I think it is a long blunder doing nothing to get some use of it. Long term investments are fine and everything, but this turn does one big huge nothing for frontline.

I think we should pull both transports from D along with damaged Lokis home and consider upgrading Loki's and developing new ground unit next turn. I also think that even damaged Odins should stay on orbit of D to prevent enemy from bringing anything they may want to. Moving C from D is what will get voted but I am very unsure about that. It is too easy for them to understand why we moved transport to C.

[Madman198237]

We have a transport above C and a unit sitting on C that has nothing more to do. They get shipped out to D this turn or next turn to even out the numbers disadvantage.

Alternatively, we can send the spare unit to A along with the Loki-equipped transport, and send our own fleet back home to get repaired (And hopefully next turn get some stealth upgrades), while the Dove transport moves back to Quillus as well.

We'd start taking lots of ground on A (We'd outnumber them) and also be prepared for the next massive fleet battle, whenever that happens. That will happen, most likely, on the second turn from now (This turn, then the battle in next turn's BR).

Group 1:
Retreat all Odins and the Dove transport, which will take the other ITC's Lokis as well, hopefully to upgrade them next turn. (Officially named Matilda now, since I'm not going to bother tracking the vessel through the BRs/plans), back to Quillus.

Group 2
ITC at C to collect the unit there and move to A. (That ITC is now named Marge)

Group 3
Formerly Loki-equipped ITC at D to move to F. (ITC named Greta)

If we leave the Odins out there, we MIGHT win if the enemy stays for a fight without upgrading the Cuddlyfishes, but I'd be surprised if we came back with any more than the Odin itself still standing, even with the reduced effectiveness of an Athena system on only three Clay Space Pigeons. Remember, both of the damaged ones are running on almost no armor, if not no armor at all.

This plan is going to be revised based on NUKE's responses in the Discord (i.e., the Lokis will hopefully be able to catch a ride on the Dove transport), but the general idea is "Move the fleet home for repairs [and upgrades next turn] while dropping everything on A". The Dove transport is going to get prepped to take additional tanks back to D next turn, while the other transport is going to set up to bring another unit to D. We'll basically just drown them in numbers on A, and tanks on D.

[Strongpoint]

If we leave the Odins out there, we MIGHT win if the enemy stays for a fight without upgrading the Cuddlyfishes, but I'd be surprised if we came back with any more than the Odin itself still standing, even with the reduced effectiveness of an Athena system on only three Clay Space Pigeons. Remember, both of the damaged ones are running on almost no armor, if not no armor at all.

You leave D defenseless against reinforcements of any kind. We can't keep hoping that they designed nothing for ground forces.  In any case pulling back intact Odin just out of fear that it may be damaged\lost is very suboptimal. Space fleets are there for disrupting enemy actions. What the point of the last turn victory if we gain nothing from the turn when they can't reuse their SPP?

I like the idea of moving troops from C to A, because it partly negates their possible move from A to C forcing them into 3 vs 1 kind of fight should they do that.

[Madman198237]

My plan is very much optimal: If we lose those ships and their SPP then we lose the next big battle by default, because we won't have ships for it. If we don't retreat and upgrade those Odins now, we WILL lose the next battle. They won't risk their fleet or their transports, not when the ending is a foregone conclusion (Their ships getting destroyed completely and us holding the orbit).

If they design a tank themselves, it has to be just as capable as ours, and it probably won't, because of the issues inherent in their techs (i.e., lasers are still going to get fouled by the smoke dischargers, and if they don't include a sensor system like ours, they'll lose sight of our tanks every time they shoot us).

Oh, and THEY don't (probably) have a miniaturized reactor like ours, which is an instant +1 to difficulty, I suspect.

Plan Sneaky Hobbitses: (1) Madman

[Maximum Spin]

Finally, something I can vote on

Plan Sneaky Hobbitses: (2) Madman, Maximum

[SamSpeeds]

Plan Sneaky Hobbitses: (3) Madman, Maximum, SamSpeeds

[Strongpoint]

My plan is very much optimal: If we lose those ships and their SPP then we lose the next big battle by default, because we won't have ships for it. If we don't retreat and upgrade those Odins now, we WILL lose the next battle. They won't risk their fleet or their transports, not when the ending is a foregone conclusion (Their ships getting destroyed completely and us holding the orbit).

If is a big key word here. I fail to see how the enemy can do that much damage to our Odins. Maybe we'll lose one. As for the next battle, we'll have

Oh, and THEY don't (probably) have a miniaturized reactor like ours, which is an instant +1 to difficulty, I suspect.

They need no miniaturized reactor. They have very efficient energy cells. Also they can go light vehicles or airforce or artillery or battle robots or even bluewater navy (Especially if they consider attacking C). Why do you even think that they have to go tank? I fail to see how you can be that sure short of reading their thread.

Plan use our navy
1)Move a single unit from C to D
2)Leave all three Odins to guard D's orbit.
3)Pull both transports and Lokis back to Quillus

We need transports to deliver tanks to A and\or deliver new equipment to D. We need that more than striping F garrison for excessive concentration of forces with no useful equipment on board. We need to blockade D

Plan Sneaky Hobbitses: (3) Madman, Maximum, SamSpeeds
Plan use our navy (1)strongpoint

[Madman198237]

Two of our Odins were Heavily Damaged by the enemy. They can kill us. They haven't succeeded yet, but if we fight them again we're going to take losses (Unless Athena loses processing power really fast).

Now, I strongly suspect the enemy has had similar thoughts to mine, and will be falling back. Do recall, their fleet consists of three damaged ships now. The problem with even leaving the Odin to hold the orbit is that the enemy will upgrade their ships, and come back after a turn. We can "hold" the orbits, or we can upgrade our ships.

We need to upgrade the Loki vessels soon, so that they can do the orbit-holding and transport escorting for us. For now, though, we need to keep pace with the upgrades. At least until our vessels are basically invisible, that is.

[Strongpoint]

I am not so sure that Odin + 2 damaged Odins + whatever reinforce we'll send to them will autolose to enemy upgraded navy next. But even if they will... So what? We'll lose one turn of using navy. By pulling away we are losing one turn of using navy anyway.

It is guaranteed turn with no navy vs possible turn with no navy. The choice is simple.

[Madman198237]

Why yes, yes it is:
Take the guaranteed turn with no navy when having no navy won't hurt us. As in, when they repair and upgrade, WE repair and upgrade. As we take planets from under their noses we'll slowly, but surely, acquire the ability to produce enough warships that we'll WIN fleet battles in decisive form, and advance ground troops to the next planets in the chain. Right now it's more important to gain tech advantages that it is to "hold" space around a planet. There will be a time for keeping on the pressure, that time is not now.