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[NUKE9.13]

Quillus Design Bureau

Core thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=168246.0

Welcome to Quillus. As yet, the culture of Quillus is indeterminate, so there isn't much by way of fluff that I can put here.

What I can tell you is the history of the colony. A long, long time ago, your people left Earth in a fleet of interstellar transports. For years you travelled through the void of space, frozen, before arriving at the Aljadid system you now call home. As the first colonists began defrosting, arguments broke out over all manner of topics, regarding how the future colony should be run. Notably, there was also disagreement about which planet to settle. The foolish Ertexites favoured a planet covered with 67% water. We Quillians chose the far more sensible planet, covered with 71% water.
Eventually, the arguments grew so heated that the only rational choice was to leave the fools behind, and settle the planet alone. We named it after our flagship, which was quickly dismantled to construct basic colonial infrastructure. Radio contact with the Ertexites revealed they had not grown any more sensible, and as our colonies grew, the gap between them widened. It has now been 95 years since we first landed on Quillus. We have planned an expedition to the planet designated 'D' on the centenary of our arrival, as our infrastructure finally approaches the point where interplanetary voyages are possible.
But... the Ertexites no doubt have similar plans. Perhaps it would be wise to prepare a strong military beforehand, to intimidate our foes- to prevent war, of course.

Spoiler: Starting tech (both sides) (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.
Cost: 2S


Equipment
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards before the war, the only real weapon both colonies have. 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


Other
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: 2G
Weight: 2TC

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.

Note that civilian technology is not listed here, but you can assume you have access to it, and can freely include elements that would be found in the colony's basic infrastructure- use your common sense to figure out what is available. If in doubt, feel free to ask.

Also, for a limited time, I will let you ask how difficult a hypothetical design is and why, to help calibrate your sense of difficulty.

Spoiler: Production (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 16
  16 points: Unassigned.

Ground Production Points: 16
  16 points: Unassigned
 
Units: 5
  All unassigned.

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
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
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: 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
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.

[NUKE9.13]

Links to start-of-turn posts.

SY95-99 not linked to.
SY100
SY101
SY102
SY103
SY104
SY105
SY106 (Note: There is no Start of SY106 post, so I've linked to the design result for SY106 instead)
SY107

[Talion]

I propose that we adopt a magitech style flavour. The Magi-Captains of Quillus earn their ships after intense study of the esoterica within the Towers of Wen. This is mainly to help give our designs some consistent theme, but there are certain techs that work well with this idea, such as augmented reality. We could have controls that lead to our people waving their hands around and chanting.

[Thanatos Russ]

joining

Torpedo Launchers MK1. This will be our first armament for space-ships. Each module will be 1 TC and will be placed onto former transport ships. We predict that they will not be very expensive, more of the 1S or even 2S number.

They are basically explosives propelled by rocket launched from tubes at the enemy ships, with some form of guidance system to hit the target. This guidance system will be a variant of the technology that our ships must have had to reach this star system in the first place so should be fairly easy, especially if the aiming system only goes for ships.

I vote strongly against magitech flavour. I would however be happy with a more water type theme so "Harpoons" for our torpedos.

Nuke, what difficulty would my invention be? if it would be easy then I would of course modify it to be medium or even hard. I don't want to fall into the Ameliorite war problem of not doing big enough steps. Great idea btw to make sure we had that feedback in this game.

[Shadowclaw777]

As a professional practitioner from the previous Space Arms game, I'd recommend we don't repeat the missile-overspecialization fiasco that happened last time. Oh we are going to make missiles for our transport crafts!, than micro-missiles!, and than everyone will be missiles missiles. Can't we go a different route like advanced ballistics in the form of Railguns and Coilguns? Or even laser and directed energy techs that we can outfit with our ships, missiles can be countered in the future once electric countermeasures and trophy Active Defense Systems, i.e point defense. Also as something as NUKE said in one of the previous posts, we are given at least a turn for pre-development which should be something we can improved upon, you know what we can improve a lot? Power, and we're going to skip nuclear tech and than into Fusion power, even if it becomes experimental at this stage, it can be expanded and developed upon, where as something like those missiles get easily be countered.

Also fusion power will allow us to become a MagiTech nation since it needs advanced power sources, @Talion.

Fusion Power Generator-Reactors Mk 1.0: Because of some theories and provoked research from a distant human colony in a faraday star. We have learned the importance and recognition of advanced power sources and the  inefficiencies of older nuclear technology that had weaknesses and a limit to the usage of its power. We have learned that even something mysterious as Cold Fusion is just too advanced at the current moment but won't be explored with our current endeavors.

This very large facility, even larger than our current-generation power faculties. The amount of energy through atomic fusion and its efficiencies and output of raw energy could be utilized to allow hyper-advanced technologies to be studied in the future. Knowledge and prioritization will be focused on making sure the technology is a possibility and can be further explored, to almost an experimental stage. Size, cost, and resources must be heavily expended to allow such a facility to be constructed. We also have preliminary research that a fusion power generator could create a mass magnetic or radioactive wave, known as a containment field we create. It will be made in a distant place from a urban environment to reduce non-personnel casualties. Confinement is a priority of this kind of technology.

Now how this device is performed through advanced studies of Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion will be the main priority as it is the most simplest and can be plausible done with even nuclear reactor technology. However if the other scientists and developer learn of methods of other forms of fusion, than research can be specialized their in the future. This device will use advanced methods of thermodynamics to make sure that the proper amount of heating and cooling is enacted, as nuclear energy has to be utilized at hyper-levels of heat can be performed. This will allow atoms to be connected and form into bonds, creating fusion energy for construction purposes.

An advanced machine device and facility must be constructed so that research into the proper of created energy for our future advanced designs could have the energy to be needed.

As question of the true method established this form of developing fusion power. The most simplest and already well-researched method from Old-Earth of the Tokamok test reactors have proven to reach the break-even zone, and even go past this. Where the heat needed and power being supplied through a stream turbine break even, and we plan to go past that. As a form of magnetic confinement of nuclear energy. This will be in the shape of a helical; and than through a toroid shaped design will be the shape of the magnets, a bunch of positively and negative charged ions in fusion plasma at very high temperature through the usage of lithium and deuterium plasma will create the thermodynamics to perform fusion power. With a lithium covering and with the combination through a heat water, it will allow the ions to combine together through magnetic entanglement and than creating magnetic containment for energy

I recommend we start with a design that can be expanded further upon as we are given the time to have such a long-term design, and a improved forms of energy creation is just that, we will wait the next turn for an improved primary weapon or improvements to our Transport Crafts. Also if we do anything besides guided missiles like last time... it will be much appreciated, even if they are simplistic and natural design for spacecraft combat.

[Thanatos Russ]

Fusion Power Generator-Reactors Mk 1.0: Because of some theories and provoked research from a distant human colony in a faraday star. We have learned the importance and recognition of advanced power sources and the  inefficiencies of older nuclear technology that had weaknesses and a limit to the usage of its power. We have learned that even something mysterious as Cold Fusion is just too advanced at the current moment but won't be explored with our current endeavors.

I will support this. I do agree that missiles are quite generic and counter-able. I never played that previous arms race so was just going after a weapon that I knew would be useful in a direct way.

[Talion]

Likewise, I support the pursuit of Fusion or some other technology we can build upon. I think - short of a botch - we should make an effort to limit the introduction of new experimental technologies until we have at least developed a working useful design from whatever experimental technology we are pursuing. We will still need designs with varied capabilities, of course, but if we keep those as more basic upgrades of our existing tech base, we can more easily justify focused research into experimental technologies. To maintain that focus we need to stay disciplined about achieving the breakthrough first before moving on.

In the interests of encouraging people to keep coming up with ideas so we have a wide base to make decisions from, I'll suggest:

Augmented Reality Visors
The people of Quillus make use of eye visors that enable them to interact with the world around them and each other via the use of augmented reality. The visors operate by the use of tiny lasers that beam light directly into the eyes in rapid pulses of light that trigger neuron response without impeding normal vision. This results in the appearance of additional virtual objects projected into the scene. Immediate access to instructive diagrams and signs, allows the simple operation of complex devices as well as making complicated tactics much easier to enact.

Further upgrades could work towards cyberware, with bionic eyes and other man-machine interfaces.

[NUKE9.13]

I propose that we adopt a magitech style flavour.

Literal magic is not something you can do. Though you can do sufficiently advanced technology to simulate magic, and perhaps with some research leading up to it things like psionics may be possible.

Torpedo Launchers MK1

Since you're putting it together out of tech you already have, and since the whole thing doesn't sound that complex, this would be an Easy design.
If you specified that they were a bit more competently put together, they would be Normal.
Similarly, if you wanted to make a new guidance system, they would be Normal.

Fusion Power Generator-Reactors Mk 1.0

Fusion power is no laughing matter. But it is a technology that is within reach even today, and you are specifically not trying to do anything but make a prototype*. As such, this would be a Hard design.
If you tried to immediately make a spaceship powerplant, you'd be looking at Very Hard, and it would be pretty big and clunky even on a success.
However, if you succeeded with this design, making that same powerplant would go from Very Hard to Normal, and probably have better results for the same "roll".

*Which is not to say the end result would be useless. A good roll might boost your industrial output as cheap power becomes available to factories, for example.

Augmented Reality Visors

So, on the one hand this is tech that exists today in a form available to consumers. On the other, you specified using tiny lasers rather than a more simple kind of tech. But since this  has no immediate military applications, I'd consider it a prototype like the reactor, and say this would be Normal.
If you were using tech from the early 21st century, this would be Trivial, albeit with a less effective end result.


I hope that helps calibrate your sense of difficulty. I'll answer a few more questions about difficulty later, if you have any.

[Thanatos Russ]

That is a very helpful analysis.

So given that we have a few turns before confrontation is expected, we should spend at least one turn making sure our industry is stronger before the inevitable Ship-to-Ship combat focus occurs. However we also need to nab up colonies quickly  and the troops will need to be armed well. We will need to have armour divisions, infantry, engineers, atmosphere craft and mobility on planet. However, if we get orbital superiority first, and keep it, all we would arguably need to take over the land would be basic troops and transports.

They could potentially have stealth inventions to sneak in troopers onto our planets, though that won't happen until they feel their core is safe, or if they are being tricksy.

We also need to bear in mind our resource production and the sizes of our ships and equipment. For now it appears that we only have accessibility to smallish ships if we want any real number of them. A single ship with a torpedo even just a low powered one with nice guidance systems can take down a big ship of whom doesn't have any armour.

I will put forth another invention idea that I also don't know how difficult it would be.

Shield Generator generates a protective shield according to the specifications of the generator settings that will hopefully stop whatever is used to attack our vessels. It is hoped to be about one unit in size.

[NUKE9.13]

Shield Generator

Generates a protective shield how? As it stands, the design is invalid. You may as well have written "Weapon: it destroys our enemies". Note that you don't need to explain in complete detail the exact physics of the device, but you gotta give me more to work with than that.

[Talion]

A shield generator does sound like fun, here is an idea.

Electromagnetic Matter Shield
Directed electromagnetic projectors are distributed around the hull of the craft to be protected. Each projector is capable of storing and redistributing large quantities of tiny metal 3d hexagons (Hexes) into a larger electromagnetic field that surrounds the entire vessel and serves to pull the Hexes towards the craft. Each projector manages a part of the Hex field keeping everything in position. Hexes naturally slot together forming a barrier which can be reinforced by the projectors. Clusters of projectors around important components can pull Hexes out of formation in order to create holes in the shield so that engines, sensors and weapon systems can still operate normally when needed.

[Strongpoint]

Rocket fighter Raptor
Dual purpose rocket powered one seat fighter designed to be operable both in space and in atmosphere. It is armed with missiles, an automatic chemical cannon and can carry good old fashioned bombs. It can operate on surface using runways, it can fire its missiles from higher atmosphere engaging targets on an orbit, it can be launched from Interplanetary Transport Craft to engage in space combat, it can make reentry into most atmospheres with only minor damage to its hull and have enough fuel to reach space when used on low G worlds, making it perfect to base on small moons.


It helps both in land combat and in space combat. It won't get obsolete in one (or both) of this roles for quite some time. Revising it by replacing engines\weapons should be quite easy in the future.

[Madman198237]

So, we might first start with the fusion generator plan. Magnetohydrodynamic (plasma) drives work well with fusion powerplants, and can be scaled reasonably well.

I'm thinking of doing a Tokamak-style fusion reactor immediately, followed, perhaps, by a more advanced version. Stellarator or something like that.


Eventually, we might want to look into antimatter devices. Actually, we might do a lot of industry-based stuff in the "pregame" so we can work with it later, i.e., deploying an antimatter collecting ship to go harvest antimatter.

[Strongpoint]

I am strongly against purely economic designs that don't impact battlefield in any way. Such long term things should be done when we have advantage, not when we are even. Also, we need designs to use production points on.

[Madman198237]

I am strongly against not allowing for types of thinking and planning that will have absolutely massive long-term benefits.